fantastic man

As soon as BUTT was starting to make money, Jonkers and van Bennekom decided to invest it in a new magazine for style-conscious men in their mid-thirties. From the outset, their publication began to present men in thoughtful lengthy profiles and positioned itself above the commercial fray with a singular tone and elegant design. With its formal layout and bookish Engravers Gothic font, Fantastic Man looks more like a foreign policy review than a glossy fashion publication. The fact that Fantastic Man has a worldwide circulation of 85,000 only reinforces its influence.

Cover of Fantastic Man, issue 24, autumn & winter 2016. Mr. Wolfgang Tillmans

Cover of Fantastic Man, issue 24, autumn & winter 2016.

Cover of Fantastic Man, issue 29, spring & summer 2019.

Cover of Fantastic Man, autumn & winter 2013.

Cover of Fantastic Man, spring & summer 2010.

Fantastic Man, issue 26, autumn & winter 2017. Pages 170–171. Image via compendiumstore.com.

 

Created with Sketch.

in the beginning we had this box, where we put everything, which seemed to make a clear reference to what we were doing. there were some odd examples, like a food magazine from thailand. then after a while we stopped doing that, because it got pretty boring. —gert jonkers

Page from Re-Magazine, issue 6, winter 2001. A Horrible Prada Nightmare

Page from Re-Magazine, issue 6, winter 2001.

wet dream for a graphic designer

The Happy Reader, a magazine devoted to the pleasures of reading, was launched by Jop and Gert in partnership with Penguin Press at the end of 2014. The idea behind it is to “reanimate classic literature,” turning it into something contemporary, compelling, and beautiful. It’s also what many would consider a dream project, and van Bennekom laughingly agrees in an interview with Aiga, “Of course it’s a wet dream for a graphic designer to work with Penguin.”

 

 

Cover of The Happy Reader, issue 1, winter 2014. Dan Stevens
Cover of The Happy Reader, issue 2, spring 2015. Kim Gordon
The Happy Reader, issue 1, winter 2014. Pages 8–9. Dan Stevens

Cover of The Happy Reader, issue 2, spring 2015.

Cover of The Happy Reader, issue 1, winter 2014.

The Happy Reader, issue 1, winter 2014. Pages 8–9.

 

design with Readymag

editor-in-chief
diana kasay

 

editor
zhdan philippov

 

layout designer and art director

stas aki

 

issue designer

tatiana egoshina

 

text author, photo editor

tsvetelina miteva

 

stories. jop van bennekom & gert jonkers

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17