Last updated on March 30th, 2021 at 10:37 am
I have a magazine fetish or something. There, I said it. The first step to dealing with a problem is admitting you have one, right? Okay. Magazines are my thing. Ever since I can remember, I’ve coveted them over a good book. The glossy feel, the bright colours, the layouts… all of it just really speaks to me for some reason.
Sure, that’s all fine and dandy. But over the years, it makes less and less sense to keep buying magazines using one of the following lines of thought:
- Oh man—that seems like an interesting article! Let me get a copy so I can check it out!
- Oh WOW. This magazine is laid out so well! I can totally take a copy of this for reference!
- Whoa. I can so learn from this! How to launch my own streetwear line?! Sweet!
- Hey look! Things about my city I never knew about! What a great reference guide!
- Ooh! Style guide? I feel outdated! Let me check this out!
…I think you get my drift. A lot of stupid purchases for stupid reasons. Well, perhaps not completely stupid—but definitely excessive if anything. Let’s observe the stack of magazines I got from the “collection” in my room today:
Okay. I can probably say that at a rough estimate, this makes up about 10% of said “collection”. Of the ones above, I can tell you that I probably skimmed a number of them a few times, but I don’t think I’ve gone through them and given them a solid read to see if there’s any reason why I should still have them. I have a year’s worth of Maxims at home that I got because the subscription was free; I seem to be magnetically drawn to Esquire, Complex, and select issues of Wired and Toronto Life; and if I see a cool design magazine from the UK like Computer arts projects or ImagineFX, God help me 😕
I’m getting a little better at this. I’ll go into the convenience or drug store and skim covers, but I’ll remind myself that I have literally about 100 magazines that I need to go home, check out and get rid of before moving on to anything else. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Wanna talk about the 5000-6000 comic books? Hundred of graphic novels? Numerous reference books and clippings? Yeah, it’s ridiculous. If you’re not getting now why I’m so adamant about trying to purge all of this stuff before I move in with Sarah after we get married, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. It’s going to be a long 2011, but I think it’ll definitely be worth it.
I wonder if there are any magazine book clubs out there so we can discuss all of this? Or a magazine 12-step program at the very least…
Even worse is that the reason I would often pay newsstand prices due to the fact that I believe that shipping labels detract from the aesthetic quality of the covers. WHAT. AM. I. SMOKING?!
So let me declare it here and now: 2011 is the year I put a stop to buying magazines on the newsstand needlessly; if I want a magazine so badly, I should subscribe and pay a far better rate. Though with that said, we could always get into the issue of US vs. Canadian subscription rates and how much we tend to get ripped off, but eh. I don’t control the industry.
The good news, however, is that a lot of the stuff I’ve seen in magazines will help to contribute toward the site redesigns I’m behind at the moment. That and all the books on design I’ve been reading lately. I’ve seen a lot of quality layout work done in the magazines I’ve read—even more so as the years pass—and I base the level of quality for the work I’m aiming to do around that. I hope you’ll be expecting some epic design work this year because I aim to deliver! (Hopefully a bit classier than my DMX’s B**ches pie chart last year February, but still getting the same amount of attention…)
So apparently I inspired my buddy Darren to get into the world of microblogging – he got himself a Tumblr! Make sure to go over and show him some love when you can!
I’m glad to see that I’m getting some response from the poll so far; from the responses I’m seeing so far,
- One of you wants more pictures—easily solved. In fact, I’d post one of me right now, but methinks I’m in dire need of a shave and haircut
- Some of you are shy on the Internet, don’t have anything to say, or have privacy concerns—to which I reply: “I don’t bite… hard”; “Even a ‘Nice Post!’ will do sometimes”; and “You don’t even need to sign in to anything 😕!!!”
But still, good response 😊 I think I’d eventually love to do some further styling with the blog later in the year, but if it’s working for now, then I’ll just roll with it until such a time arises where I can deal with it!
Right-o, so I didn’t really get to read any magazines tonight to get them out of the way; I did get my chores done and read a bunch of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design… and now it’s way past my bedtime. (Whatever that is.)
Have a good day everyone, and I’ll see you when I look at you!
Later,
17/365
