Art Bureau No 17

artbureau.org
artbureau.etsy.com

This is unfortunately the final issue of Art Bureau as a zine. Apparently after almost ten years the creators decided to put their effort into creating other publications, like actual books. I’d say that it was too bad that this happened, since Art Bureau is a really awesome art zine, but I guess it’s cool to see someone growing out of zines and into something else.

Printed using blue ink Art Bureau is a beautifully put together thing. The main attraction is clearly the art it contains, but it's nice to see thought put into the design as well. There are some text pieces by the artists, but the majority of the space is given over to reproducing the artists' work. There’s some really nice stuff in here by Hannah Stouffer, who also drew the cover, Christian Vargas who draws some awesome monsters (see below), and others.



There’s also a seemingly useful piece on how to make illustration your job. It’s kind of depressing in the mercenary way it suggests you act, but I guess that’s just how real life works.

I suppose there are bigger (and glossier) arts magazine out there where I could look at people's illustration and design work, but I liked the sort of DIY feel to this. Okay, it was probably printed by an actual printer, but the format makes it seem as though the people putting it together really love the subject matter and the project. I look forward to seeing more of their projcts in the world.