Designer Collector: Magazines

Adeleke Aladekoba RGD shares his collection of magazines.

What do you collect?

I collect magazines and, at last count, I have about 50 in my collection (after losing many others when I moved a few years ago).

Since when?

I started collecting magazines in 2009 for four reasons. One, to help hone my creative and design skills when it came to understanding layouts, font combinations and selecting and combining images, text and colours. Two, to improve my writing. Reading the articles helps me to improve my vocabulary, and grammar and introduces me to different writing styles. Third, to learn about different cultures and ways of life. Magazines are filled with stories about the way people live across the world — especially travel magazines (which I collect when I travel). Finally, the major project I was working on back then was a magazine design project so it just followed that having magazines around helped me better execute the project. 

How does it inspire you as a designer?

I love the diversity of ideas and trends that are always on showcase. Every designer is different and, through magazines, you get to see their way of thinking about design and, more importantly, how they execute their design. When it comes to being inspired by magazines, I look no further than the compilation of articles, adverts, pictures etc. that make up your typical magazine. There is always something that jumps out at me, that makes me want to either recreate it or adapt it.

I remember a particular issue of Architectural Digest that inspired me to frame my thoughts and layout theme for a Wedding magazine project. I went on to work for Wedding Planner magazine for 4 years!

The magazines were unrelated but looking at the style of the architectural magazine, helped me to understand how that style could be translated into the world of weddings. 

Through my career I have been able to secure repeat business and long-standing clients because they felt my work was, in their words, “looking like what you can put in an international magazine!”

Your favourites? 

I think my favourite magazine in the collection is Issue #226 of Computer Arts Magazine released in May 2014 (The Global Design Issue). It opened me up to an international perspective of design. It also helped me become aware that I can meet the design needs of people beyond my local community. That issue laid the foundation for me to become a Certified RGD today because, from the moment I received that magazine, everything about the way I design was motivated to serve an international community.

An item you aspire to have in your collection?

Although most magazines I love have gone digital and there is less in print, my dream collector item is a magazine that has me on the front cover and where, inside the magazine, I am interviewed about my journey in design. It will be a great way to come full circle and immortalize my journey as a designer — a legacy to share with emerging designers. This is still a ways off. There are still many things I feel I need to do and various design genres to explore as I progress in my career. Well, in a way, this article shows that I am on the right path to getting that ‘item'!