Review of the Year 2011: Publications

In the year that we changed up our own magazine and unleashed it on the world in its new quarterly, redesigned format, we’re as hungry as ever to find the best publications around. It remains one of our true pleasures to have gorgeous, interesting things come through our letterbox every day (and Things has gone from strength to strength in 2011) but we also wanted to use this category to recognise more modern forms of publishing…

There was some heated debate around this topic, reflecting the difficulty of comparing some very different creations. Honourable mentions must go to This is Studio’s sumptuous catalogue for the fourth incarnation of The Museum of Everything, and Laurence King’s extraordinary book celebrating the life and works of the legendary Saul Bass. We were massive fans of former INT intern Barbara Ryan’s zines while we were fascinated to see the strides taken by Post on the Ipad. But ultimately there could be only three, and they are…

The Guardian Ipad App

2011 has seen traditional media continue to grapple with digital challenges and one of the places this has played out most interestingly has been on the Ipad, described by Rupert Murdoch as the saviour of newspapers. But The Guardian streaked ahead in the race to really harness the Ipad technology when it launched its new app in October. Designed by a team led by Mark Porter (responsible for the paper’s Berliner redesign) it’s a crisp, beautiful, easy-to-use creation that retains the design principles of the paper without appearing in any way anachronistic. Bravo indeed.
www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguardian

Let’s Make Some Great Art Marion Deuchars

We were tickled all kinds of pink when we received Marion Deuchars’ book, with its admirable aim to get kids creating through witty, charming exercises and accesible, lively artists’ profiles. It’s a thing of beauty before any youngster even gets their hands on it but really comes into its own when it comes into contact with someone’s imagination. One of the INT team recently bought his niece a copy as a present, and sat spellbound as she lost herself in Marion’s charming world. Superb.
www.itsnicethat.com/articles/marion-deuchars

Boat Magazine

Every few months London design studio Boat ups sticks and moves its entire operation to a new city to produce a sublime printed publication. This year has seen issues dedicated to Sarajevo and Detroit, combining considered graphics with erudite, engrossing content. It remains a source of immense frustration when we see fascinating things undermined by shoddy design, or gorgeous looking things which fail to ignite any spark in a reader – Boat proves that doing both is not just possible, it’s essential.
www.itsnicethat.com/boat-magazine