Coupe Magazine
Coupe Magazine
Coupe’s ten year anniversary magazine begins with a poem. They flush out the poem in snippets throughout the rest of the magazine. Other than the poem and the imagery, there is no other content. In the first spread they have a suggested soundtrack. 10 songs that are suggested to be heard while viewing...not reading the magazine. What a brilliant idea. This issue, is unlike any other. It is not meant to be read—It’s meant to be absorbed. Engulfed. And the music only makes it better. (Listen to soundtrack here)
It’s like a movie but in print form. A collage of imagery and editorial innovativeness in which the words of the poem just skims your thoughts. The first time I opened it, before I realized, I asked, “is this it?” I looked again, still somewhat perplexed, but this time the imagery reminded me of my cottage and memories of summer came rushing back. I then viewed it a third time with the music and it all made sense.
On Coupe’s website, its states in the about section, ‘Coupe is a visual collision between the worlds of design, art, technology, and culture. It has received worldwide acclaim for it’s vangaurd design and editorial bravery and innovation.’
Designed by the Toronto based studio, The Bang, the word bravery truly is a word to sum it up. Coupe states in their own words about this issue,
“This is a quietly beautiful issue. Titled "In Canada . . . . A Poem" It consists of a single poem running through and repeating within while breaking down and altering amid the dense yet stark imagery of a particuler forest.”
In Canada............... Poem
Been Here so long.
I’ve been here
A long time
There is
Nothing in the machine.
The
Ghost
Is in the trees.
In the dirt.
Spit out what you’ve you’re choking on.
Spit out the
History
I’m choking on.
No one matters here.
Can you feel that.
It’s in the Air. The rot.
The breaking
Down
of it all.
The wonder
The fear is real here
Honest
And Instinctive.
I can live with this.
Out Here.
Things fall here.
I’m not afraid to fall here.
This is not
Labour
Day. Not any more
Old roads and
Bones blow away.
Here.
Only the lines in the
Sky remind me.
` — Coupe Magazine.
Thursday, May 7, 2009