Hot off the press

Plump and Spry are thrilled to announce the completion of three new fashion and lifestyle magazines: Culture Magazine, Towers Style, and Robina Magazine. Some of our highlights are below...

Culture

Culture is a magazine we produce for Canberra Centre. 
2013 is a big year for Canberreans. This year the City is 100 years old, while Canberra Centre itself enjoys its 50th anniversary. To celebrate, this issue looks back in time...



The article above looks at how Canberra Centre came to be built and the changes that have taken place over the years. To illustrate this piece, our design team sourced vintage images from the National Archives, then matched the locations in present day. We commissioned a photographer to capture the current building from the same angle, combining the two images to create a striking montage for this feature.

Further channeling the theme of Canberra through the decades, the fashion explores 50 years of style, from retro suiting and feminine tailoring, to today's bold graphics and modern fabrics.

The mall appears as the backdrop for the nocturnal fashion shoot, while accessories were shot against black gloss with pink and blue lighting, linking in with neon street glows. 

Elsewhere we look at iconic home design defined by the decades and modern technology inspired by the past...

Towers Style 

This issue of Towers Style celebrates 'The Art of Fashion'. Talented fashion illustrator Angie Rehe was commissioned for the issue and has artwork featuring throughout. Watercolour paintings appear in each fashion shoot, while illustrated styling tips are dotted amongst the key trends. 

Elsewhere the 'Artistic' theme continues right through to Beauty features and the Culinary Arts of Bill Granger.

Robina

Further playing on the relationship between art and fashion, Robina Magazine presents a 'gallery' of this season's latest offerings. 

Having interviewed Leona Edminston, and Alex Perry in previous issues, this season we were lucky enough to catch up with the lovely Samantha Wills. The Aussie born jewellery designer (with fans including Rihanna and Drew Barrymore) discusses how she started, her love of social media and where she’s taking the business next.

WIN! Cover of The Year 2012 at Publishers Australia Excellence Awards

Paul Mansfield receives the prize from Adobe's Michael Stoddart

Plump and Spry has just scooped the top prize for Cover of the Year - B2B at Publishers Australia Annual Excellence Awards, held at Sydney’s Hilton on Friday.

the winning cover

The cover design for Mortgage Professionals Australia (MPA), is the second award the company has won this year for their work in the B2B space and their third award for MPA*. 
Judges said: “It’s a very effective cover that ‘becomes’ editorial. Illustration and cover lines well integrated. Clean strap heads and simple colour palette add impact.” 

Another of Plump and Spry’s designs for MPA is also a finalist in this month’s ‘The Maggies’ Awards. 

“We’re a relatively new company, so are extremely proud of our achievements in such a short period” said Director Paul Mansfield. “The B2B space is very competitive and it’s great that the value we can add to a title has been recognized by our peers”.

Plump & Spry are also making waves in the custom publishing space winning the Runner Up award in the category ‘Launch of the Year’ for their work on Canberra Centre’s magazine ‘Culture’in 2011.

*Previous MPA awards include Bronze Medal at the Tabbie Awards for Best B2B Magazine Cover Design (Jan 2012 issue) and 2011 finalist for Cover of the Year – B2B.

Coming soon... The Man Plan Book

"I was planning to study history's greatest minds in a quest to become a better man, but then I found this book, so I reckon I'm sorted now."

Wil Anderson, Comedian

We're a bit excited here in the studio, having just seen the first copy of a new book we recently produced. (Comedian Wil Anderson also enjoyed his preview copy!).

Plump and Spry collaborated on the book with the talented Mr James Kerley (him off the telly) to create a humorous self-help title aimed at guys. The Man Plan is a beautifully bound book with advice on everything from health to finance and sex. 

Kerley explains “I started writing this book as I approached 30. I got to a point where I started to wonder what it was all about more than ever. Some friends were in incredible physical shape yet their finances were a mess, somewere in financial fortresses yet lived in an ethical dumpster, some had amazing careers but horrible relationships, some joked their way through the everyday but ultimately were lonely with little true intimacy or connection to those around them. I knew I had to get my shit together on a few fronts”

Witty, provocative and stylish, we’re really pleased to finally see this in print after an intensive caffeine/pizza/beer fuelled production period.

(We will of course now be consulting the books health section to help burn off the beer and pizza...)

The book is available mid November in all good book stores and selected retailers including Surf Dive Ski, and Glue stores.

MPA Mag scoop Bronze!

Just in time for the Olympics, we're pleased to announce MPA magazine has just scooped a Bronze Medal at the 2012 Tabbies awards for Best B2B Magazine issue. 

The Tabbies are an international B2B publishing awards competition organised by the Trade, Association & Business Publications International. This year's awards featured nearly 500 entries, with nominations coming from the US, Canada, U.K, Australia, UAE, France, India, Singapore & South Africa.

Plump and Spry relaunched the title last year for Key Media and continue to design the title.

(which was also recently a finalist for B2B Cover of the Year at Publishers Australia).

The Tabbie Judges commented:  "MPA is a well-designed and thoughtful read... Its articles are targeted and presented in a fashion that makes them easy to read and follow."

'Brand owned titles - Money well spent' - NY Times

An interesting article from The New York Times, backing up what custom publishers have been saying for years... Brand-owned titles are a great way to communicate with audiences, while providing value for money.

“Why spend €40,000 a page to advertise in Vogue when, for the same amount of money, you can publish an entire magazine?” asked Alice Litscher, a professor in fashion communication.

The article profiles LVMH - owners of Louis Vuitton, who have created their own digital mag www.nowness.com (with 300,000 subscribers). Print wise, there's also Swedish brand Acne - producers of the uber cool Acne Paper (Pictured above).

Of course, magazines don't need to be huge scale productions. Check out OZ based independent, clothing store Incu who have produced their own, cute print title to influence and engage existing or potential shoppers.

Also closer to home, Plump and Spry's next collection of client created fashion mags will be released soon for Autumn-Winter. Watch this space...

Caffeine

When it's deadline time, a tea round makes the world go around!

Plump and Spry award (pt 2)

On top of our Award for Canberra Centre's magazine (story posted below), we also received a Finalist award for our work on MPA Magazine. The Award given was for one of the covers we produced.

The magazine has, and still is, going through a transformation to drive interest from both readers and advertisers.

What was once a very dry, corporate read has been given a more energetic tone of voice and new wardrobe of fonts and colours.

Shown above (top) is our cover for the first issue of the new year. A dramatic departure from where the magazine was previously sat (shown bottom). From a commercial point of view the new mag is now performing better.

Here's hoping to an ever better 2012!