Viva Brighton Issue #56 October 2017

BITS AND BOGS
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MAGAZINE OF THE MONTH: UPPERCASE
Last month, we reviewed a
food mag because we simply
couldn’t find a link to the Viva
theme of ‘electric’. This month
the theme is ‘feast’, but we
aren’t featuring two food mags
in a row. For us, feast means:
‘Something that is very enjoyable
to see, hear, experience,
etc’. (Thanks, Cambridge Dictionary.)
And that means that,
after nearly three years of writing
this column, we are able to
feature Uppercase magazine.
Uppercase is the result of the heroic work of Janine
Vangool, who lives in Alberta, Canada. It’s not quite
true to say that she produces the magazine singlehandedly,
because there are always lots of contributors,
but, wow, she very nearly does. And, amazingly,
Janine has developed and nursed Uppercase to Issue
34 without a single page of advertising.
Its tag line is ‘for the creative and curious’, and it
really delivers. In the current issue, the first sixteen
pages are a cornucopia of snippets of information,
cleverly designed objects to use and keep, a small
feature about globes, and an A-Z of exploration
from Appalachian Trail to Zeppelin.
And then, the magazine
really takes off.
Neatly divided into four sections
- Fine Print, Art and Design,
Craft+Style and Miscellaneous,
there’s way too much
to list in this short review, but
here’s a taster. A sketchbook
of India; the glory of maps;
the joy of semi-planned road
trips, Chris Fritton’s 47,000
mile journey to make prints in
as many different letterpress
shops as he could find; a review of some historical
postcards; and an interview with Jeanne Ledoux,
who started her shopwomanshopsworld.com
website to sell a whole array of gorgeous stuff; and
so much more.
What’s so delightful about Uppercase is that it’s a
visual feast as well as a feast of ideas and stimulation.
You can’t possibly read it in one go, and you’ll
be passing it on to friends and dipping into it
yourself six months from now. It’s no wonder it’s
so popular.
Martin Skelton, MagazineBrighton
TOILET GRAFFITO #33
Either this Brighton convenience serves as a
venue for a snogging match (we’ve checked with
the Urban Dictionary), or there’s a toilet tout
doing a nice line in the famous poulet de Bresse.
Neither possibility is easy to stomach.
But which - and where - is it?
Last month’s answer: Presuming Eds
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