I am a sucker for magazine launches (not too many of those around just now), and the hype surrounding this publication promised it to be intelligent, witty and stylish.

The double whammy was I had just taken possession of an iPad the same week, and so was able to flick through the physical magazine and also the free digital version!

I can’t help but compare Port to Intelligent Life (produced by the Economist – very first entry on this blog). You know – lovely stock, gold foil blocked masthead, no prices on the fashion pages. Certainly, editor Dan Crowe sums it up in his foreword: “this is a truly international affair, playing to our own tune”. With big names like Jon Snow, Daniel Day-Lewis and Will Self all contributing to the first issue, let’s hope they can keep it up.

To sum up the print version:

Love the illustrations on Secret City. Commentary is nice the way pieces run on to the middle of the pages and headings are understated. Bold in-yer-face white out of black openers to features (on the right). Bookending the coated with the uncoated stocks. Great typography. All that lovely white space. Thank you.

Ipad version:

Now let it be said that this was my first ever encounter with a magazine on an iPad – so I really was not too sure what to expect. At the very least I expected to be able to find my way from start to finish just like the printed counterpart. Our good friend Jeremy Leslie  (someone who knows his way around an iPad) over at magCulture was instrumental in helping to create this version, and it is truly simple and functions perfectly.

Those wobbed feature openers have words that burn in slowly while images present themselves on pages one by one. The commentary pages differ only in that there is no need to run the text on on the iPad, so each story gets its own space. If you get disoriented at any time then tapping the screen brings a navigation bar up at the bottom of the screen so you can get to where you want. Oh, and did I mention you can only view pages in portrait mode?

I even tried reading a feature right through to see if my eyes got tired at all, and I confess they didn’t, though the font did look a wee bit furry on the screen.

So it’s a big thumbs up to Port for now at least, and let’s hope they can maintain their high standards. Intelligent Life used to have foil blocking on their early covers, but no sign of that now…

Speaking of themed issues, Vogue have come up with a cracker this December. Lovely gold foil blocking and a specially commissioned typeface from illustrator Jo Ratcliffe all combine to make this special superstar issue.

Harry Potter star Emma Watson is the cover girl, beautifully photographed by Mario Testino. There is a gorgeous star sign themed fashion shoot which is redolent of 1940s Vogue. The amazing staff have sourced star-studded handbags, star earrings, carpets in the shape of stars… in fact if there is a star theme to a product, then it is probably within the pages of this fantastic edition.

Coincides with their first issue on the iPad – which looks good too. I haven’t got one though. Christmas is coming…

Esquire dropped through the door the other day – and this Bond cover is so much better than the news stand version. Lovely use of type with foil blocking.

Here are some other foil blocked covers.

Probably the best I’ve seen. From December 2000, the whole cover is gold (think it is actually gold stock), then the image and masthead are printed on top – sort of the reverse from what you normally see. Not only that, this is Vogue, and when they do a Gold Issue, boy do they do it. Every news piece, feature, even some of the ads have a gold theme. A-ma-zing.

This copy of Marie Claire from 1998, is foil blocked in silver and looks pretty good too.

Now one of ours. We did this for the second anniversary issue of Caledonia magazine, when we printed up 5,000 foil blocked issues for subscribers and a further 80,000 in a cmyk version of gold for a free giveaway in The Herald newspaper back in 2001. I’d never done foil blocking before and as our printer owed us loads of favours we had it done for nothing – so it was great to experiment. The subscribers got a collector’s item too, which is always nice.