Pass the Port

Pass the Port -

I am a sucker for magazine launches (not too many of those around just now), and the hype surrounding this publication promised it to be intelligent, witty and stylish.

The double whammy was I had just taken possession of an iPad the same week, and so was able to flick through the physical magazine and also the free digital version!



I can’t help but compare Port to Intelligent Life (produced by the Economist – very first entry on this blog). You know – lovely stock, gold foil blocked masthead, no prices on the fashion pages. Certainly, editor Dan Crowe sums it up in his foreword: “this is a truly international affair, playing to our own tune”. With big names like Jon Snow, Daniel Day-Lewis and Will Self all contributing to the first issue, let’s hope they can keep it up.

To sum up the print version:

Love the illustrations on Secret City. Commentary is nice the way pieces run on to the middle of the pages and headings are understated. Bold in-yer-face white out of black openers to features (on the right). Bookending the coated with the uncoated stocks. Great typography. All that lovely white space. Thank you.



Ipad version:

Now let it be said that this was my first ever encounter with a magazine on an iPad – so I really was not too sure what to expect. At the very least I expected to be able to find my way from start to finish just like the printed counterpart. Our good friend Jeremy Leslie* (someone who knows his way around an iPad) over at magCulture was instrumental in helping to create this version, and it is truly simple and functions perfectly.

Those wobbed feature openers have words that burn in slowly while images present themselves on pages one by one. The commentary pages differ only in that there is no need to run the text on on the iPad, so each story gets its own space. If you get disoriented at any time then tapping the screen brings a navigation bar up at the bottom of the screen so you can get to where you want. Oh, and did I mention you can only view pages in portrait mode?

I even tried reading a feature right through to see if my eyes got tired at all, and I confess they didn’t, though the font did look a wee bit furry on the screen.

So it’s a big thumbs up to Port for now at least, and let’s hope they can maintain their high standards. Intelligent Life used to have foil blocking on their early covers, but no sign of that now…

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