INQUE Magazine: in praise of slowness

The bond between publishing and design runs deep. Design lies at the root of every successful information or entertainment project. By harnessing graphics, diagrams, data, illustrations, images, maps and texts, a magazine is able to create different narrative levels to engage its readers. Content, thoughts, ideas, stories are harmoniously blended when design and functionality are well balanced. 

One such example is INQUE Magazine, an independent, annual periodical that addresses the contemporary world through design, literature and art thanks to a minutely curated project and identity – it would be no exaggeration to describe it as impeccable.  The project stems from an idea by Dan Crowe, former Literary Editor of AnOther Magazine and founder of Port and Avaunt Magazine, with the creative direction and graphic curation of Matt Willey, former art director of The New York Times Magazine and a partner at the Pentagram agency. 

The lifespan of INQUE Magazine has already been set in stone. It will remain resolutely non-digital, and its identity is strictly defined by a set beginning and end. A single issue will be published each year over a ten-year span, culminating in 2030. The magazine is strictly ad-free. Basically it is a large-format publication for lovers of the printed word, produced in a  limited edition. 

The second issue, of which we are publishing some excerpts, features a cover designed by Paula Scher, one of the most important and influential graphic designers in the world, to whom an entire episode of the famous Netflix TV series entitled Abstract: the art of design was dedicated. INQUE Magazine 2 came out a year later than planned, however, as the editor Dan Crowe comments in the opening editorial: "Have you noticed? Of course you've noticed. War, political unrest, the rising cost of paper, rising shipping costs and the ongoing carnage of Brexit... All of this made last year almost fatally complicated for INQUE." 

This 200-page issue contains articles by renowned contributors such as Stephen Fry, Nicholson Baker, Sheila Heti, John Edgar Wideman, Annie Ernaux, Will Self, Heidi Julavits, Natasha Brown, along with work by artists and photographers such as Paul Davis, Thomas Prior, Agnes Lloyd-Platt, Matt Dorfman and Lucinda Rogers.