While i was still in Berlin a few days ago, i visited the office of the publishers of OBJECTS – Journal for Applied Arts / Magazin für angewandte Künste, a rather sui generis magazine about trends and new approaches to crafts, including illustration (actually there’s a huge proportion of illustrations), graphic design, textile art, ceramics, glass and book art.

Each issue offers gorgeous photo spreads, reviews and most interestingly critical essays by both practioners and academicians, artists and experts in the various fields covered. That’s why i find the magazine so unique: these art & crafts disciplines had a face and the magazine now gives them a voice.

OBJECTS – Journal of Applied Arts should interest everyone curious about the ‘is it art or craft?’, ‘art or design?’ issues. As its title suggests, the magazine is interested in the individual artistic craftwork, the object. It discusses the importance of material and craft, taking into consideration the genres of art and design as well as their social relevance.

The authors invited to collaborate to the first issue with their essays are art critic Colleen Schindler-Lynch who discusses the growing popularity and critical recognition of illustration, artist Robert Revels who takes a look back at his career and explains the benefits of technical progress, designer Scott Ballum who writes about the delicate balance between quest for power and need to rebel, and finally ueber-talented creative director Gregori Saavedra debates the eternal money or art questions while offering personal insights.

OBJECTS, a bilingual (german and english) quarterly, was launched by Berlin curators Katja Kleiss and Pascal Johanssen from Illustrative.

Bonus: there is only 3 pages of advertising in OBJECTS!

The magazine is fairly well distributed in Germany, it has international distributors as well but you can also order it internationally through Illustrative’s online shop.

Photos courtesy Illustrative. Image on the homepage: Untitled, 12/2007 by Daniel Stolle, one of the illustrators i discovered in the magazine.