We love the Frankie blog, and sadly our wishlist keeps growing because of it. For this reason we went big and bought the bumper Frankie issue - and boy is it worth it!
Frankie lovely big bumper issue - The awesome extras totally had us sold.
Frankie describe themselves as:
“... a national bi-monthly based in Australia, aimed at women (and men) looking for a magazine that’s as smart, funny, sarcastic, friendly, cute, rude, arty, curious and caring as they are. We cover design, art, photography, fashion, travel, music, craft, interiors and real-life stories – we aim to surprise and delight readers with every turn of our beautifully matte pages, and have a good old laugh while doing so.”
With postage costs we can't honestly remember how much it worked out to get it here from Australia, but as it's only a few dollars more than a regular issue it seemed a good place to start if you are thinking of subscribing. (Which we now are!)
Just as with Caboodle there are lots of lovely illustrations, and the awesome extras really are awesome - from postcards, to a poster you'd want to frame, to a pretty yet practical wall planner.
Poster sneak peek
Each artist and illustrator is showcased with a nice profile for you to find out more about your favourites. Winner!
So what were our favourite things in this issue?
Well we both loved the level of shiny showcasing of independent designers, a few we knew but many we didn't. Kirsty has always loved the ceramic work of Barruntando, and so to see this alongside Surya Sajnani's stacking cup and bowl (reminding Kirsty of Fred the flour guy and Mr Benn) totally had her sold.
... and that pillow is to die for too
Kirsty's favourite article was on the Future Library. Learning about Katie Paterson's project has broken her book block and now she's back into reading a book a week, but the thought of all these amazing manuscripts for the eyes of a future generation only, is both magical and frustrating.
Future libraries growing
Kirsty's last pick (although she's had a lot of picks!) are the quotes. Everyone spoke to her! Go buy it and you can read them all too - and see the beautiful illustrations that match.
Sneak Peek
Adrienne loved EVERYTHING about this magazine - on a basic design level, the typography, illustrations and colour palette throughout are delicious. The articles are often just one page long which means 1) loads of varied content and 2) it's a great magazine to dip in and out of (handy if your concentration span isn't at its best!)
NSFW! Probably!
She loved how the articles varied so much - her favourites covering (NSFW!) swearing as an environmental campaign strategy (Morrish & Shields are definitely no 'Earth mother' cliches!); and writer Caro Cooper exploring the topic of friends - more poignantly the struggle to create new friendship groups post-uni.
Martincic's suits
No bland makeup tutorials, few adverts (and interesting ones, not pages and pages of unattainable couture!) alongside articles on art, such as the translucent delicate bathing suits made by Kristen Martincic - all of these things in one beautiful paper edition makes Adrienne very happy indeed!