With all the talk about the end of print during this past year, let us make one observation: print is not dying, it’s simply shifting – in fact, independent magazines are flourishing. Look no further than Spain, with a recent flurry of excellent publications (curiously, all designed by the fantastic Folch Studio) such as Metal, Fanzine 137, Electric Youth and, most importantly, Apartamento. This extremely well-designed and clever biannual interiors magazine has set off quite a hype since its first issue, and it’s easy to see why: everyone likes design, everyone spends time and money on their living environment, but not everyone is particularly inspired by glitzy design glossies such as Elle Decoration. Enter Apartamento, with a fresh outlook on daily life – no luxury lofts, no superstars, no 6-figure budgets – instead, an unpretentious way of finding beauty in the daily clutter of our lives, of presenting personal perspectives, on eye level and unstaged. The magazine’s success is further proof how far removed from our reality commercial magazines have become – you really wonder why no one had thought of something like Apartamento before.
If you’d like to see more, then you’ll have the chance to meet the makers this Sunday in Berlin at the ever-refreshing Do You Read Me?! for a proper German Kaffeeklatsch with coffee and cake to launch the new issue; and you can even bring your kids to play with the children’s colouring supplement.
Kaffeeklatsch with Apartamento
Sunday 22 November 2009 / 13h00 – 17h00
Do You Read Me?!
Auguststrasse 28
10117 Berlin
