Flaneur explores the magic of Moscow in its biggest issue yet

Ricarda Messner, the founder of Flaneur, embodies the fanatical feeling of magazine enthusiasts. Her output of publications is insanely impressive, setting up her second magazine Sofa earlier this year, and consistently pushing boundaries of print through content and design. Returning to her original publication Flaneur, the magazine that presents one street per issue has taken on a wider scope for its sixth release. If you thought it couldn’t get any better – it can.

In their biggest issue yet, the Flaneur family which consists of long time collaborators Studio Yukiko, alongside editors-in-chief Grashina Gabelmann and Fabian Saul explored Russia, succumbing “to Moscow’s original blueprint: the city is made up of orbits”. By concentrating on a borough rather than a street, this issue investigates the Boulevard Ring, an area of districts in central Moscow. As a result this issue spans 190 pages of five chapters, each page full of endless stories of a city bursting with culture, history and conflict. Calling upon artists, authors, photographers and locals to share their inside knowledge, this issue increases the positives of previous Flaneur issues, without losing the original charm.

The features are broad in context but consistently represent the area in question. Whether it be Krill Savchenkov “exploring the cityscape as a training zone for future survival techniques” in Arbatskaya Square, or photographer Ksenia Golubovich “visiting her grandmother’s house in Germany, full of artefacts of her former life in native Moscow”. Studio Yukiko’s art direction and design for this issue envisages the otherworldly characteristics of Moscow and Russia as a whole, appropriating traditional typography against monochrome futuristic pages.