Peppermint Magazine

Happenstance magazine

I like the look of issue two of Australian magazine, Happenstance, which supports local talent across the design and art community. In the latest issue, local artist and printmaker Del Lumanta invites them into her prizewinning bedroom, alongside sketchbook submissions from Luke Kopycinski, Jacob O. Rolfe, and Evan Shipard: ‘We’ve kept it all homegrown, yet expanded our minds a little. Most of our content is Sydney-sourced, but we’re keeping an eye out on a national scale’. Oh, and if you’ve pre-ordered a copy, chances are it’ll show up at your place on the back of a bike. Nice!

Wooden Toy Quarterly Magazine

The overprotected brain child of Australian designer Timba Smits, every issue of Wooden Toy Quarterly is lovingly themed and designed down to the typeface. The issues come off like unique works of art and seem oddly out of place on the magazine racks. Unfortunately the printing sizes are small, making them hard to get. But they are well worth the effort. Read more

Torpedo Issue 2

Our favourite fiction quarterly — the Australian produced Torpedo — is soon to release its second issue, which is jam packed with well-written, independent fiction. Read more

Oscar Diaz Ink Calendar

Oscar Diaz’s Ink Calendar has taken the month by storm — one ink blot at a time. After its initial display at the Diseño con alma de agua (Design of Water with a Soul) exhibition at Madrid’s Círculo de Bellas Artes, the Ink Calendar’s unusual technique of using capillary action to ‘stain’ each day of the month has reignited the design world’s senses. That humidity may render the ‘calendar’ inaccurate, but this should be ignored since it’s brilliant and utterly beautiful.

Sydney’s Pocket Bar

The allusions are endless. Sydney’s Pocket Bar is tiny, bursting at the seams with people wanting to get at the never-ending supply of stuff (namely the tasty nibbles and a raft of fine vino) and we’re pretty sure that they would have an offering of rubber bands and string if you asked politely. While these are indeed defining attributes in any establishment, we feel that what really makes this inner city Sydney café bar more than just another inner city Sydney café bar is the fact that it offers savoury crepes after 6, wine by the half bottle and National Geographic magazines. Now that’s my idea of heaven. [photo via Anik In The Pacific]

Finders Keepers Independent Design and Art Markets

Crochet, lamps and crockery. The Finders Keepers Independent Design and Art Markets sounds like a party for the geriatrics, but, in reality, it’s a place where all the cool cats of Sydney (and everywhere else) are this weekend. This little indie mish-mash of fresh young things is one of Sydney’s biggest design markets. Perspex lamps bespoke by lanky geeks sit on one stand, while corrugated cardboard bowls grace the stall of the next. Read more