Penrose, The Journal is a new publishing venture bringing together the best articles from the Penrose Annual to a contemporary audience of graphic designers. It is a quarterly journal with 48 pages in each issue. The articles chosen are the articles that I have either found most interesting myself or are on a subject I think a graphic designer in this modern age would find interesting and helpful. Although the articles are in date order throughout the journal they are selected out of annuals of different years making the journal appear random but the selection encompasses a wide range of subjects in each issue such as photography, printing methods and typography. The journal has is 75% general articles and 20% technical articles, divided by advertisements from a particular annual.
The Penrose Annual was made by printers, for printers meaning that the production and materials used were a big part in its originality and success. Penrose, The Journal, uses different paper stocks in its internal spreads to pay homage to the handmade element of the annual. This also adds interest to the audience as paper quality and choice is a big part of print and paper based design. The cover paper always stays the same to be consistent and so that all issues look like a set when they are together. The paper has a slight sparkle in it to reflect the journals hidden gem quality – the idea that we could miss the important design lessons if we don’t look back into our design history. The colour of the covers does change with each issue but they all stick to traditional printing colours to reflect its content and history.