Met up for a natter with John Coe the creative director of bone-shaker magazine (lower case helvetica, before you correct my grammar Mick). Like myself he confessed to having had no design education, which I think shows - in a very positive way. Pure and uncluttered simplicity. #1 and #2 have already sold out, #3 is at the printers now. 'shaker is also produced by a micro team with zilch budget, day-jobs and kiddies to support, but the end product is as rounded as anything a big publishing house could manage. Because it isn't corporate or money driven - they dont even have any adverts, it feels very holistic. The matt paper is wholemeal but not too earthy, you feel healthy just looking at it. BPLong Live Kitchen Table Publishing!
Had to chuckle when I spotted someone in a photo story by Tom Simpson, wearing a Sideburn Tee.
And a great bicycle on the cover, as well. Crescent also manufactured motorcycles with engines from various manufacturers, mostly two-strokes. Best known were the 3-cylinder two-strokes used for boat racing, but also used in the (in)famous Rudi Kurth kneeler 500cc racer and painted blue and yellow (swedish flag) decorated in the Monark brand style, another bicycle (and motorcycle) manufacturer in Sweden, at the time thrown together in one conglomerate corporation, later with the pop-group ABBA as major shareholders. (To be filed under useless information, but the organge paint on that bicycle was great!!!)
ReplyDeleteJan Leek
Being Swedish, I had a Crescent exactly like the one on the cover - complete with the dreaded 3-speed Torpedo rear hub. It had a gear selector on the handlebars with a"neutral" gear between first and second which was supposed to make adjustment easier (I think). Problem was that if you were going up a hill, standing up, and inadvertently got the thing in neutral, you fell headlong onto the toptube – with predictable results... I can still taste the metallic smell of pain in my mouth.
ReplyDeleteNot only a comment from the great Jan Leek (I still rue the loss of my MZ Racers book - lent, foolishly, to a hopelessly unreliable friend), but also one of the quotes of the year: "I can still taste the metallic smell of pain in my mouth." Superb.
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