Author: Lucinda McMeeken and Trudy Cockroft. Self Published (2/5)
When you choose such a name as The Good Book, you’re giving yourself awfully big shoes to fill and it doesn’t appear that Dunedin’s ‘fresh young designers’ have particularly large feet. Obvious typos, poor writing and great research aside, The Good Book appears to be aimed at a very small audience; the writers themselves.
The Good Book is a mish-mash of articles about things that McMeeken and Cockroft believe reveal an underground culture that we readers “probably didnt [sic] even know existed”. The article ‘A few places you should know – the ins and outs of Dunedin’ is close enough to the beginning of that magazine that you will realise how narrow the authors’ views of Dunedin really are before you invest too much time in taking the publication seriously.
The magazine claims to be ‘a design and culture magazine’ but, despite the tagline “Young Fresh Design from the Edge of the World”, it has a disappointing lack of design content. An interview with Charlotte McLachlan neglects to mention much about her work and the article about Semi-Permanent – a national design seminar – would be better entitled “Our school trip to Auckland where we got drunk and went to the $3 shop OMGLOLZ”. In lieu of meaningful content there are in-jokes a-go-go and blatant nepotism. The whole publication reeks of self-indulgence.
There are some gems in the work though, and without looking too closely it is definitely a good-looking magazine. The first thing you see is a rather nice photo of the Dunedin wharf courtesy of an editor (though why you would advertise the fact that you used a point-and-shoot camera to take it is beyond me), and the contents page is pretty cool.
Some beautiful photography by Emily Hlavac Green goes a long way in justifying the full colour throughout the magazine, colour which is presumably the reason for the large price tag.
Despite the blatant and widespread flaws that litter The Good Book, there is potential for future issues with a little more value for money once the two intrepid editors have left their nest in H block and seen a little more of the world. In the meantime, you can see what they’re up to on their blog: thegoodbookmag.wordpress.com. The Good Book can be purchased from their website or University Bookshop
The Good Book
