I have always had an obsession with magazines… it started when I was young and has never gotten better. I always enjoyed seeing what was the newest cover on the magazine stand. I drove my mom crazy by having her drive me around to different stores looking for the newest issues.

I collected the teen magazines, fashion, home decor, weeklies, scrapbooking, you name it. It really was where my love of design, photography, typography, and layouts comes from.

Then I started getting subscriptions…I would wait for the mail delivery person to come around and see what new issue I was getting that day… and being disappointed when I would get nothing!

I used to have a huge, I mean huge stash of my favorite issues of different publications. I have slowly started weeding through them, and parting with them. I can do this, mostly, because I know the next issue will surely be my favorite yet.

These past few years, I have tried to embrace the digital magazine era. Sometimes, it’s more successful than others. I will buy the niche magazines that are only online, but I often have to print them out, just because I have to hold the paper to really enjoy reading. I remember buying my iPad a couple years ago, and thinking this will help keep my magazine collecting a little more organized and corralled.

Well, as some digital issues are now becoming extinct too, I have really embraced collecting paper issues again. There is nothing like a small(-ish) stack of magazines to inspire you and to spark conversation.

Long live paper!!!

-JR