Slanted magazine #47, “Digital Tools”, examines the instruments that shape contemporary creative practice. This issue offers a diverse insight into the global creative scene and uses numerous examples to show how digital tools are used to create, question, and rethink design itself. The spectrum ranges from experimental open-source projects and custom scripts to indispensable utilities that shape creative digital and analog workflows, continuously expanding and redefining creative boundaries.

The issue covers disciplines such as graphic and type design, illustration, 3D, web, generative design, and creative coding. Designers, artists, and developers share their insights in interviews and articles, explaining how digital tools shape their aesthetics, imagination, and authorship. By introducing new workflows and technologies, Slanted magazine #47 inspires both experienced designers and beginners to explore the creative potential of digital design.

Alongside the magazine, a dedicated online platform has been launched, featuring an extended directory of digital tools. In addition to all tools included in the print issue, the website gathers further projects, discoveries, and resources identified during extensive research. Structured by category and continuously evolving, the platform invites exploration, experimentation, and a rethinking of the role of digital tools in creative practice.

The magazine was edited by Jacob Tessmann, Lars Harmsen (editor-in-chief), and Julia Kahl (managing editor). It has 224 pages measuring 16×24 cm. The interior was full color offset printed with spot colors by Stober Medien. The cover uses offset printing with spot colors and hot-foil embossing by Gallery Print. Papers used include Efalin 108 high white fine linen 280g/m² (cover), Zeta diamond extra smooth 120g/m², and Ibo Two 80g/m² (inside) manufactured by Reflex. The Swiss brochure with flaps and open thread stitching was made by Buchbinderei Spinner.

ISBN: 978-3-948440-96-1 / ISSN: 1867-6510

NN Colroy, Nouvelle Grotesk and Rekja (all by Nouvelle Noire) in use for the fifth issue of fortytwomagazine.

From Slanted:

The Interview Magazine for Those Who Wonder

Where does the universe begin, where does it end? Imagining these dimensions is no easy task. However, the fortytwomagazine #5 tries to figure that out, because the universe does not only offer place for speculations about extraterrestrial life or romantic dreams with the view into the starlit sky. Even if it feels far away, it has a direct influence on our lives. As in every issue, they also illuminate ten different disciplines and thus ten perspectives.

Among other things, the magazine deals with the problem of space debris, the role of government space agencies and the question of what it is like to live some 400 kilometers above the earth and to master everyday life in the International Space Station ISS in the most confined space. The works of the artist Protey Temen form an exciting interplay with the interesting interviews.

For this fifth issue, the fortytwo-team has not only ventured into space in terms of content, but has also broken new ground here on Earth: fortytwomagazine is now distributed by Slanted Publishers, an internationally oriented publishing house based in Germany, which is also responsible for the issue’s new design.

In Spring 2018 the Slanted editors took a close-up look at the contemporary design scene of Dubai. A city—when described by many people—that is all sickening shine and has no soul. But Dubai and the whole region, originally a piece of desert sparsely populated by bedouins, is now transforming itself rapidly into a center, if not the world’s greatest center, of trade, finance, and tourism—and moreover, something important happened in the last few years: Culture!

Damien Text is the primary typeface used for Yearbook of Type 3. This compilation published by Slanted “presents an independent selection of new typefaces created all over the world—from larger publishers to smaller, independent typographers and foundries.” The third edition (after 2013 and 2015) brings together recently released typefaces by no less than 91 foundries. The collection of typeface portraits is enriched by articles and essays by Boris Kochan, David Jonathan Ross, Ferdinand P. Ulrich, Laurence Penney, Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer, Stefan Hattenbach, and Viktor Nübel.

Damien is used for all text. Small caps from the bold weight were chosen for the rotated running heads. The contemporary serif typeface by the Revolver Type Foundry is paired with headings in Berlingske Sans Display. Damien adorns the book’s spine and back cover, too. The front cover shows a potpourri of other recent fonts, featuring the interlocking Gustan Display Forma, Fino Stencil (with OO ligature), Pilot, Italian Plate No2 Extra Condensed (on an escalating baseline), and Saol Display for the number. The publisher’s logo is in Suisse Int’l.

Creative Direction: Lars Harmsen
Art Direction: Julia Kahl
Graphic Design and Managing Editor: Clara Weinreich
Graphic Design Assistant: Nicole Lichtner
Volume: 440 pages
Format: 16,8×24 cm

See more images on Slanted.de.

Since 2014 Slanted magazine’s design team uses Suisse Int’l as part of their editorial identity (except n°23). Inside they also use other type families from the Suisse font collection, namely Suisse Works and Suisse Neue.