Selvedge #21

the best issue yet!

Mr greenolive and I had a design critique of the cover, read on...

Oh how I'm loving my Selvedge subscription!

Each time the envelope turns up in the post I feel smug: that I'm one of the design elite who read this publication ( I can see you itching to comment about that! But I write it with tongue firmly planted in cheek), and that my subscription means I get it at a reduced price and more quickly than if I bought it at a shop.

But most of all I feel blissfully transported to a world that I didn't know existed a mere six months ago. A world where very talented designers and craftspeople create exquisite, beautiful things. A world where people use fabric, colour, dye and stitching in the way I used to use stock, PMS colours, embossing and die-cuts. With the great skill and confidence that comes from formal study and years of practising one's craft. As I now navigate the path between one medium to another I take small steps, inching my way along the creative continuum. I'm doing the equivalent of a beginner's dance class when I want to salsa like a professional. Now.

Anyway, if you have your own copy of Selvedge I'm sure you understand...

Back to the design critique.

Selvedge #21 was lying on the bed, waiting to be devoured while I had a cup of tea. Mr greenolive spied it. After a two-second glance he exclaimed, that's well-designed isn't it? I agreed it was. Then I asked him why he thought so. As a designer I reacted instinctively to it, but I wondered what he saw, as a non-designer, that made it look well-designed. Hence the design critique.

His words: the crisp typography, the consistency of the colours, the integration between type and background....now you have to remember he's lived with a designer for 10 years. I had to agree with him, though perhaps my words would have been different. Then he ventured inside. Spread after spread was explored and critiqued. It was a strange and comforting experience where for a few brief minutes we both inhabited this new world of textile design.

Then he paid me the ultimate compliment, without even realising it: "Its's very much like your design isn't it? You could have done that."

I finished flicking though the pages feeling just as smug as I did when I opened the envelope. Bless his heart!

My favourite story from this issue, one on a collection of Pennsylvanian textiles that aptly demonstrate that form does follow function and that good design is about reducing something to its most basic elements. And, that great design looks effortless.

Comments

[Ali]

I like Selvedge, but I always feel rather unworthy to read it. Like a child trying to get to grips with an adult book.

[Sarah Jayne]

I'm a fellow subscriber who also only found this magazine a short while ago. It's such a great magazine - and you seem to see something different every time you pick it up. Even the adverts are great to look at.

[Aunty Shabby]

I have never had the pleasure of reading or even looking at, let alone critiquing, a copy of Selvedge! Maybe you need to bring a few copies with you next time you come over G? Ali - I know what you mean though! I feel like that with the mag Wallpaper. Maybe us non-art-trained heathens (ie me) just don't get it.

[Tiel]

I think I might have to subscribe too. I first discovered it in my local newsagency and have since bought 2 more issues. Even though I have asked them about it, they don't seem to be too reliable about getting in.

I looked just today. But no.

I received Inside Out mag in the mail today, and it is a nice feeling to get mailmag. I say to myself..." I will sit down today and read this" HA!!