This post comes from the heart. If you are at all interested in print, independent magazines or free bloody speech then you need to subscribe to this service; it has, quite frankly, changed my life.*

The concept of Stack is to promote independent press by sending subscribers one (or quite often several) independent rags a month. This can range from Eye (RRP £17!) to Little White Lies, Bad Idea, VNA, Anorak, the list is endless. If you’ve heard of these then you’ll know what a good deal this is, if you haven’t then you, child, are the most in need of it.

Strangely though, for me at least, it’s the other ‘free’ magazines you get with the featured title that make it all worthwhile. One example is Manzine, an outspoken reaction to mens magazines written by some of their editors. Reading-on-the-bus-kudos aside, it has helped to reinforce my confidence in the power of a print mag, however home-made - No-one else will own my copy of Manzine, I’ve spilt coffee on it and dog-eared the corners, it’s truly been a journey. I still pick it up months later and it’s as ball-splittingly hilarious as it was the day I got it.

I can’t recommend Stack enough, it’s a bundle of joy landing on your doormat every month, a constant in a world of wars, politics, doom, gloom and digital media. Plus they delivered issue one of our magazine last month, getting them a gold star in my book.

Jonny

*well maybe not changed my life but it’s definitely been the best £40 I’ve spent this year

Can it be true that I hold in my mortal hand an issue of purest AMMO?* With issue three, the cutest little inspiration mag in the planet brings us words and pics from Peskimo, Jam Factory and a favourite of ours Jessica Hische (cue glow of envy due to epic typo-crush) as well as loads of others. You can fit this baby in your back pocket but it’s jam-packed with artists that will make you quiver (ie. Pat Perry - never heard of him before but my is he good…) and is well worth picking up from the AMMO store.

*You’ll be pleased to know that our propensity to shoehorn content into barely-relevant quotes is as yet unabated.

£2.50 for 64 pages, an Eboy cover and fold-out poster, articles by creative types including Adrian Shaughnessy, Sanky, D&AD, Glug, Eboy etc. Want it? Buy it here.

Following from a raucous and thrilling set of creative face-offs at New Blood last year, in 2010 ShellsuitZombie is aiming to find the undisputed kings of the speed brief in the most extensive tournament of creative clashes EVER SEEN*. There will be prizes, internships on offer, real creative directors setting challenges and above all a chance to pit yourselves against whoever comes your way. Just think of the bragging rights.

If you would like to enter a team in advance, all you need to do is let us know. It’s completely free (duh!) but you need to ensure there will be at least two people from your university or team available to play at any point during the show (plus a spare person to watch your stand). A team name is encouraged and there will be bonus points awarded for team kit.

Just holler at rob (at) shellsuitzombie.co.uk with your team name and course name and let the games begin!

*by us.

Some of you may remember our post on the winner of last years Rooted exhibition, ‘Skeletor the Cutlery Skeleton’. Well now the guys that run the event have created their first publication (see above for the page featuring our plastic friend). We were honoured to be asked to judge the event and are even prouder (like leave-it-lying-around-so-people-see kind of proud) to be in the book too.

Along with Skeletor there are some fantastic pieces displayed within a sleek 70 page tome and they are selling out fast - at £10 (a snip) it’s well worth picking up this limited edition bit of ephemera, no doubt featuring the early work of some of the future masters of the design world.

In the most exciting event to hit Huddersfield since Leeds Utd. went to the dogs, the 29th of April sees ‘The Brilliant Design Lecture’ host names such as Nicolas Roope, Jason Bruges, Mr Bingo, Rob Chiu, Jason Fretwell and Matthew Grey, all sharing stories around three themes with ‘a unique presentation format fuelled by the energetic banter of a game show.’

Whatever that entails, we wish we could go too but this one is just for the lucky-bastard students of Huddersfield - what’s great to note though is that the guys who organised the whole thing (including this nifty bit of hand-made type) are themselves recent HUD grads. Giving something back. That’s what that is.

Make sure you have a look at the website which shows off the photography in all its glory, and you can follow them on twitter too.

The Revolution has begun. Rebel Radio - Originally a call-to-arms for Che Guevara’s Cuban Militia, now a beautiful A2 Poster available to you! Get it here and read the full post here.

Printed by Bob Eight Pop

Michael Willis is an illustrator with some really nice editorial work under his belt for several magazines that I haven’t heard of (cue self-flagellatory slap on the wrist) and a few that I definitely have (idN, Beautiful/Decay etc.). Bold use of clashing colours and geometric shapes mark Michael as a name to look out for in the future. Nice one bruv.

On the first of March a rowdy group of two-score Stockportians and four of SSZ met up in a pub in Kings Cross to start a revolution. An evening of beer, chat, strange celebrity endorsements, quickfire questions and yet more nob gags ensued.

The loose structure of the night meant that we didn’t finish until half 11, by which time most peoples eyes weren’t going in the same directions, but we managed to fit in an initial chat/ramble by us, a complex challenge involving celebrities and their endorsements and a final Q&A. We also gave everyone a dead nice screenprinted poster and managed to fill our ‘book of awesome’ with some strange scribblings.

Things we learned:

1. The students of Stockport college are an inventive lot.

2. James should never be allowed on stage after 4 pints.

3. Just because you call a book ‘The Book Of Awesome’, that doesn’t mean it will be treated with any more respect.

4. Bono could feasibly have a tie-in with Vagisil. (Ooh Bono, Aah Vagisil)

Thanks to all the students and Tutors who came along and made the night what it was, a reet laff. See all the photos on our facebook page and get your very own screenprinted A2 Radio Rebelde poster (see below) from our shop.

This post is about two things. The first is the photography above, by Kevin Bauman, two of a set of 100 photos of abandoned houses in Detroit, once the USA’s fourth largest city, which has seen a population decrease of  over 50% from its highest of 2 million. The second is a documentary that is currently sitting on iPlayer, ‘Requiem for Detroit?’, covering some of the reasons why (and set to a soundtrack of Eminem, you know cos he was from dere innit). Together they provide a bleak (but interesting) account of the collapse of the American automobile industry and ‘Motown’ and the hope for a better future in a city that was once the embodiment of the American Dream.

Mercy, a forward-thinking London/Scouse design and creative agency, has started a project this year to release an E-Zine every month along the theme of the classic 1957 film 12 Angry Men. Issue 2 (based on the central character McArdle, for those interested) features such heavyweights as illustrator Si Scott and Megapoet Luke Wright (read his contribution here) - definitely something to keep up-to-date with, especially if they keep pulling names like these out of the bag.

ps. on the subject of Mercy, keep eyes peeled for their other stuff and events.

Tis the season for “top ten” lists, falalalalala lala la la.  Brand New’s best and worst identies of 2009 is one such list which critiques some of the year’s most prominent rebrands.  A very subjective topic, perhaps what is most interesting about this article are the comments and discussion of each entry, often showing disagreement on different levels from colour and typography to imagery and symbolism.  It’s quite US-themed, so I’d be interested to see a review of more global or UK-based rebrands (please suggest links).

Via PSFK

Let’s be honest, for most of us every hour spent online looking at ‘inspirational work’ is matched by another spent dilly-dallying on a mixture of social networking sites, wandering around corners of the internet we will never visit again looking at stuff we will forget and for a few of us looking for/at porn.

Why then is it that the only part of that time we often value as culturally enhancing* is the design/illustration/advertising? Sod that, sites like b3ta, yayhooray et al have provided as much cultural reference for my fundamentally puerile giggling-schoolboy mind as anything more high-brow, and I’m not afraid to admit it.

If you spend more than ten minutes on ffffound** you start to feel like you’ve seen it all before, but it’s highly unlikely you’ll have set your eyes on things quite like this and this. Of course I’m not saying design blogs should have more gags, it’s great to have both options, but rather than sidelining these dawdling hours as fluff, maybe we should embrace tham as a valid source of inspiration. Some of the best ad ideas have come from web nonsense after all.

And who knows, it might just stop people writing something in helvetica oblique on a space picture and calling it design…

*obviously not including the porn, which is incredibly culturally enhancing.
**other image-bookmarking sites are available

Fascinating daily facts with lo-fi illustrations, from design consultancy Young.

Chris Jordan has recently been getting some press attention for his photos of albatross chicks full of plastic crap, but throughout his portfolio there’s an extraordinary subtle use of colour, apparent in this set of photos taken of a ravaged post-Katrina Louisiana. I really dislike overuse of complementary adjectives in blogs (more on that another time) but feel like hurling a whole load at this work (I won’t).

Theres loads more on his website as well as the previously mentioned albatross chicks.