Clare moved to Cornwall seven years ago to pursue her dream of becoming a writer (and a surfer!). And not just any writer either, but an “original and exciting writer, editor and communications consultant with an eye for a good story” (Stranger Collective). I think many people would have considered that ‘good enough.’ Not Clare.

Keen to bring Cornwall’s writing talent to a wider audience and provide a platform for up-and-coming writers, she founded Telltales, “a monthly night for readers, writers and listeners”. Telltales brings together well-known writers and those just starting out, and includes everything from prose to poetry.

But she didn’t stop there either. Clare says, “I’ve always loved the look, feel and smell of the printed page so I wanted to build on Telltales by creating something that people could hold. The first issue of the Parabola Project happened because I was hearing so much great work at Telltales but the ephemeral nature of performance meant that the intricate beauty of some of our writers’ work wasn’t making the impression I knew it could if people could read the work themselves.”

The plan was that the first book would raise funds for a second volume (the whole enterprise is not-for-profit) and having sold 90% of Issue I they had enough in the pot to do just that. But remember what I said about people who are never satisfied with ‘good enough’…?

“That just didn’t feel like enough. We could see that we could create something even better. Through a successful Wefund campaign we raised a further £2,000 to put into the production pot, enabling us to print more pages, profile more writers and image-makers, reach further afield, offer more to readers; and inspire new creative communities.”

Clare worked with Zander Grinfeld and his studio Venn Creative to design both books; “He is a very intelligent designer who understands that design, words and images have to work together. Venn has a great network of image-makers that Zander could draw from to get the right illustrations and photography for each piece of writing; marrying the captivating words with equally captivating imagery was really important.”

Clare’s passion for the written word is utterly infectious. I asked her what the best part about pulling together Issue II was… ”Reading! I have read the content about 40 times now and every time I find new stuff that makes my hairs stand on end. At the moment, my absolute favourite line is from hugely talented Emma Timpany’s story, The Glasshouse Mountains – ‘if only that dead-looking dirt was time, she would pick a handful of it up and sprinkle it over these rocks, peel back the roads like liquorice…’ beautiful.”

She went on to say “I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed the visual aspect of pulling Parabola together. We won a design award last year and I think this issue is even better. Some of the illustrations like Edward Tuckwell’s and Millie Marotta’s are jawdroppingly good. I can’t believe we are lucky enough to publish them. They’re truly stunning. Molly Naylor’s poetry is amazing. She’s a real rising star on the literary scene so we’re super-happy to have her in there. I also think Emma Timpany is one to watch – her writing is so expansive, she paints landscape beautifully and has something of Ernest Hemingway and Doris Lessing about her. And Gareth May’s skill with comedy is impressive. They’re all great though; it’s a brilliant mix.”

The Parabola Project Issue II: Quickening is available online from www.parabolaproject.com and from independent bookshops nationwide. It costs just £6 – with all profits going back into the production pot for issue III.

The bold and beautiful publication is not only the sort of paper-perve eye candy that the quality paper and ink suggests, it’s a great read too including interviews with every contributing artist, in-depth articles and style guides.

For inspiration and a little bit of Christmas shopping check out their site and shop here; www.thewrappaper.com

We’re big fans of the bi-annual editorial feast of illustration and poetry that is Popshot Magazine – have been since it launched back in November 2009 in fact – so, when its founder Jacob Denno got in touch to tell us about his latest creative endeavour, the Popshot Magazine Print Shop, we were all aflutter. Needless to say, we got straight over there and were predictably impressed with what Jacob had to offer; a selection of his favourite illustrations from the magazine’s two year history as beautiful 550mm x 675mm giclée prints, each in strictly limited runs of 150. Eager to find out more, and of course to just catch up in general, we bothered Popshot’s head-honcho for a brief Q&A; here it is…

Devin McGrath

Jacob, it’s almost two years since we were first introduced to the brilliant Popshot, what’s been your personal highlight since launching the first issue?

The biggest highlight has been watching the magazine grow and evolve. I haven’t tried to push the magazine itself in any particular direction so whenever anything changes it’s because it feels like the magazine asked for it! Gaining international distribution a couple of issues ago was amazing and receiving emails from people who had picked up copies in Hawaii or Brazil or Singapore. The most recent personal highlight has been launching The Print Shop and knowing that those prints will be mounted on people’s walls.

Mydeadpony

You’ve worked with over 100 artists in the last two years, how did you go about choosing your favourites for the new print shop?

The criteria was that they had to be powerful, poignant and be able to tell a story without the aid of the poem they were created in response to. I think they work amazingly on their own and they start to take on their own story, especially when they’re blown up to the size that they are (675mm x 550mm). Some of the themes are more obvious than others but I like to think that all six images can stop and make you wonder what it’s all about for a little while.

City Abyss

How do you see the print shop progressing? Is it an add-on for fans of the publication, or could you see it evolving into something that could help promote the work of up and coming artists?

I would love it if it evolved into something that could help get beautiful work into people’s homes whilst supporting illustrators at the same time. At the moment we’re just thinking of it as an add-on that if successful could progress into something greater. There’s not a huge central hub for people to go and buy illustration prints from and the thought of becoming that hub has crossed our minds. I like to think we’re well qualified to do it but probably best to watch some sort of space…

Sam Green

The print shop covers the illustration side of things, how about the poetry? You’ve helped promote some events haven’t you? Can we expect your own events, podcasts, festivals?

We’ve sponsored/helped promote a few events in the last year or so and there’s a couple more in the pipeline. The Popshot blog is constantly keeping up with what we think are the most interesting things going on in poetry and obviously the magazine publishes what we think is beautiful written work. There are no immediate plans as yet to create any Popshot only events but we love being able to support events that we believe in. The most recent one was a live poetry & illustration event at Kings Place in London. It doesn’t get much more relevant than that!

Esra Røise

The Popshot Print Shop is live now, and the magazine’s S/S 2011 issue is also available here.

Not that Flipboard is perfect, in fact presently it’s pretty far from that, but it’s the first genuine insight into the future of publishing that we’ve seen – the reality that you can view your social media content in a traditional magazine format is, for us, a feeling of at last beginning to live in the future you dreamed of as a child. The overwhelming feeling of potential that washes over you as you flick through a magazine that has been compiled from your chosen social media outlets, and that updates instantly, is truly staggering.

Shared items on Facebook and Twitter are instantly transformed into elegantly designed magazine articles, images are automatically – and gracefully – pulled in and there’s a number of options to bookmark and interact. Annoying, cutesy ‘web app’ copywriters have for years been telling us about the “super web magicary” being performed by any given application, but – without wanting to offer superfluous praise – it really feels, when spending time with Flipboard, that this fabled “web magicary” does in fact exist, and that the Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s have unearthed said ‘magicary’ and set it to work at the companies Californian headquarters.

Our recent Virgin Heathrow Clubhouse post as seen through Flipboard

Along with the ability to add in your own Twitter and Facebook accounts, there’s a number of preset or recommended feeds and some particularly well curated collections, such as FlipPhotos, FlipCool, FlipMusic and FlipDesign. So, even if you and your friends aren’t interesting enough, at least there will always be inspiring content on hand – and well designed that content will be.

Typographically and layout wise, Flipboard is streets ahead of anything we’ve seen – whereas, to date, the big names in publishing have offered little more than glorified PDFs of their print versions, Flipboard presents your personalised content in a unique, and seemingly ever-changing way, offering alternate displays for landscape and portrait and brilliant variation through each of the pages – which are changed by a sophisticated ‘flip’ as opposed to the customary, and rather clumsy, turn. There’s even a brilliant, constantly changing front cover.

Of course, it’s not all rosy, high demand upon launch saw some difficulties in adding Facebook and Twitter accounts – although all seems fine now – there’s no option for multiple Twitter accounts, and through lack of being able to tweet directly, it’s unlikely to replace your current Twitter client in a hurry, but, then should it? This is a ‘social media magazine’ after all.

Our most notable gripe is that of the current restriction to 9 sections, but really, for a first release – add in the factor that this is a free app, yes, FREE – Flipboard is a revelation, and the first real opportunity for iPad owners to thrust it under the nose of naysayers and shout “look, this is what it’s all about, it’s the fucking future” – and for that Flipboard, we salute you…..

Via: MagCulture

Video demo and making of, right after the jump…..

These photos show the publication in it’s final stages before being printed, pre-order before April 3rd and bag yourself a limited edition poster along with the magazine delivered two days before it’s official release date, at £10 it’s a snip for what will doubtless be a worthwhile edition to our evergrowing list of must-have publications.

Shabby, grungey and infinitely cool, the interiors on show in Apartamento are real, spontaneous and beautifully photographed, showcasing authentic living spaces from inspired individuals who let their eccentric personalities shine through in their interior decoration. Lovingly designed by the uber-talented Albert Folch, this is a magazine to be treated as art and a real recession time antidote to the often sickeningly ostentatious interiors on show in the traditional international design magazines.