Views on Very Elle

After I had seen a lot of pictures of pages taken from the current special issue of the biannual «Very Elle», I was very fond of the mag designed by the studio Non-Format. But because nearly the whole blogosphere was much faster than me, I didn't have any chance to get my hands on a copy before my feed reader, which popped up nearly every two minutes with a new article on this issue, took all the wind out of my sails. So I decided not to publish another review but to refer to articles I've read by doing a kind of a short press review instead.

Patrick of CR Blog concludes his detailed article about Very Elle with the following résumé:

The result is a really beautifully crafted magazine that absolutely succeeds in creating a distinct voice - this is, after all, a mass-market publication, not a niche arts title. … But for now, editorial pages like these offer a rare chance for typography to shine.

Editorial designer Mark Porter wrote in his «Notebook»:

I’m loving this special issue from French Elle designed by Non-Format.

But facing the conclusions drawn from a closer look Jeremy Leslie of magculture had at a printed copy of the issue, made Mark write a sceptical reflection on «print on the web». Although Jeremy couldn't wait to see the concrete object either, his judgement finally was:

Sadly, the real thing is not as exciting as the images shown online. Designers Non Format have applied a typically strong typographic treatment, but it bears little relationship or connection with the photographic content.

A view I can assent to. Even if my opinion is only based on the information published online, I also think that the images on several pages look as they were inserted afterwards. But pages like the one about Janis Joplin are definitly real highlights which are worth mentioning.