Influx

Food magazines have traditionally followed a fairly predictable formula and target; lots of well-shot images, recipies and a few feature articles on a destination, all targeted and focused firmly and squarely at the female reader. David Chang is one of America’s most innovative chefs and...

The world of travel magazines has been pretty predictable- they either tell you how to save money and have a good time or invite you into the glossy/brochure world of familiar European destinations and Caribbean islands and “sell” an experience that often seems too good to be true....

Although newspapers have no trouble producing a physical object containing news almost every single day of the year, magazines have a tougher time, some are weekly, but most are monthly and take weeks to produce. As an interesting experiment, some writers, designers and artists got together to see...

Traditional magazine art directors seem to love the iPad because it respects the classic rules of the grid and pagination. When we see examples of future concepts for tablets, most of the time they reference the physical magazine and just build interactivity around it. This is because the tablet is...

While Apple's iPad has been the subject of a lot of attention ranging, from ridicule and mixed reviews. The spin suggested the iPad would usher in a new era for those in the publishing business by creating another medium for consumers to experience print. However, the promise suggested by Apple's...

Great work from BERG (a UK design consultancy) that investigates the potential future for magazines. I like the way they acknowledge an understanding of the two forms of "reading"; one that's more visual and the other that's true reading. Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.Posted by Ed Cotton

Interesting to see The Atlantic write such a flattering article about The Economist and the current state of the newsweekly business. The discussion revolves around the recent changes and re-designs at Time and Newsweek, who are both hoping to drag their publications to new found success in an...

Esquire is celebrating its 75th birthday this month and it has a tremendous issue to celebrate the feat. Of course, it wouldn't be complete without some "widget' that gets everyone talking, so they have an e-ink cover. It's basically a flashing display powered by masses of batteries that highlights...

A writer gets a cool opportunity to do a piece on legendary Hollywood screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and turns it into a chance for Wired to go transparent; blog, film it and invite people in.I guess the idea is to take a Kaufman-like approach to Kaufman. Here's the pitch video- it's a little low...

Although the television networks don't yet have the technology to bring "smell-o-rama" to our living rooms, they appear to be experimenting with it in their promo advertising campaigns. CBS is using flavor strips to promote a new Fall show called Cane that follows the exploits of a rum-making...

Ad agencies are always on the hunt to do more for their clients.  Often, the goal is to provide creative thinking that permeates the brand well beyond advertising. Walrus is one agency that's doing that with it's new client, Radar magazine and creating quite a stir doing it. I fired some...

News magazines are having a difficult time trying to imagine a future beyond the printed page. The Economist, is one news magazine,that despite bucking the trend with increases in circulation and ad pages, is still preparing itself for the future. To do this, it created Project Red Stripe;...

Doubleclick did an interesting piece of research last year, they asked consumers what forms of advertising (media) they thought worthwhile and what they would  eliminate. The results are somewhat suprising- despite living in a DVR world, only 7% would prefer to eliminate them, less than 2%...

A few months ago, Influx looked at RED, worried that it might be in danger of getting drowned by the growing attention being placed on the environment. We wondered if people were giving up on Africa and it was becoming a forgotten story.We wondered if the interest and awareness for RED that we saw...

Sometimes companies believe that the world is just out there waiting for their new product launch. All the effort and the years of planning goes to waste because the product idea is one-dimensional and the “packaging” around it lacks legs and layers. The world is not looking for another...