Make Shift magazine

If you follow me on Twitter, last weekend you would have been subjected to a series of slightly frazzled tweets, all tagged with #48hrmag. I was part of a project, pulled together by Stack Magazines, to produce a magazine in 48 hours as part of the Southbank Centre's Power and Production weekend. The paper was staffed by volunteer writers, illustrators, photographers and designers from a host of independent magazines. Heads down, obsessing over each of our individual tasks, it was hard to get an overall sense of the magazine. One week later, now all printed and fresh, here's the fruit of our labours: Make Shift magazine.

True to stereotype, here's the bit I was involved with - some facts about the South bank, drawn from the 60 years since the Festival of Britain. The designers, Isobel and Clarissa, did a brilliant job in condensing two maps showing the site as it looked then and as it does now. The piece was paired with a piece speculating on 60 years in the future, accompanied by a fantastic illustration by Zoe Barker.

Here's another 60 inspired feature, photographs of someone at every age from one to 60.

Here's the result of one of the luckier encounters of the weekend. We were working away in an open corner of the Royal Festival Hall. Up comes a man who asks us what we are doing. I compliment him on his Festival of Britain logo badge (made at the nearby 3D printer). "Yes" he says, "my father designed it". Turns out our visitor is the son of Abram Games, the designer of the original Festival of Britain logo. Needless to say, a writer and photographer quickly grabbed him for an interview. The photograph above shows the story in print.

It was great to meet and work with so many talented people from such a range of magazines. I finished the weekend exhausted but with a whole new list of independent magazines to investigate.