Real Review #3
The world order is gradually slowing down, and democracy is grinding to a deadlock. Global civilisation is sliding into stasis. But whereas this might have once led to outright World War, instead we are seeing high levels of universal domestic instability. From protest, unrest and insurgencies to proxy theatres and armed conflict, we have entered into a condition of global civil war.
Real Review #3 explores the general mood over the last few months that things were better the way they were before. There is a popular sense that blunders have been made and we should backtrack as quickly as possible. Exactly which past you are trying to recreate depends on your political persuasion. Disaffected with democracy, fed up with economic stagnation, even bored by new fashions and consumer electronics, ennui is pervasive. The search for something drastically different, a real alternative, has begun.
The ‘R’ marque is a revival from an alphabet created by Edward Wright, a British typographer and graphic designer, who was extensively involved in architectural lettering and signage in the mid 1950s, his letter forms becoming synonymous with the fabric of the built environment. The cover of each issue features an illustration by Nishant Choksi, an illustrator who’s work regularly appears in many of the leading current affairs publications.
Design of the magazine is handled by OK-RM. Their team member Seb McLaughlan also made the custom typeface named Gestalt. A riff on the contemporary Neo-Grotesk, it distinguishes itself by serving alternates that emulate the genre’s greats. For example, the uppercase R can be dressed with a tail in style of Arial, Helvetica, or Akzidenz-Grotesk.
