“Monocle” Through the Monocle

At first glance, both at Monocle’s website and it’s cover, I was left a bit unimpressed. It looks a bit dull, and on the cover of the first issue there was even an fl-ligature missing in the word fleet which is such a horrid mistake that I’m still a bit baffled as to how on earth that was allowed through the press…

But, aren’t we taught not to judge a book (or magazine) by its cover? Oh, yes we are — and in this case it’s most certainly good we don’t, because the inside of Monocle is truly terrific. The typography is good, and certainly of the best I've seen in magazines for a long while. (Old-style numerals and italic-style ampersands, yay!)

A few issues, still, though… Monocle does use true small-caps, but they are still a bit tightly kerned to my taste. It does nice use of Helvetica, but it’s screaming for air with the short leading provided for it (especially in tables). Nice italics, but you don’t have to set your parentheses in italics, folks! And I’m not sure I like the quotation marks used for thepull-quotes — though they are beginning to grow on me.

It is printed on nicely coated, though a very lightweight paper, making it very light and portable. The cover is in terms of paper quality, too, a disappointment . It scratches very easily, and the spine tears just by looking at it. For the causal reader, who troughs the mag in the bin after finishing reading, that may be perfectly OK, but I like keeping my mags in the bookcase for future reference…

As for the content — color me impressed! From reading the first issue, I now know heaps about the Japanese SDFs, and their links to the Imperial Navy, I had good fun reading the most thorough analysis of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s fashion style and I now crave a Comme des Garçons notepad.

The second issue isn’t on sale until next week in Norway, but I’m definitively picking up a copy or two. This is one of the most intelligent and beautiful magazines out today. If Monocle was a woman, I’d probably marry her. There are still some kinks in the maiden issue, but what could you possibly expect. Noone’s perfect, not even Tyler Brûlé.