I first discovered Nest, a quirky quarterly interior design magazine in the Fall of 2000 at Border’s. The bright yellow exterior grabbed my attention and when I flipped through the issue (which was housed in a plastic zippered pouch), I was hooked. Instead of focusing on conventionally beautiful interiors, Nest zoomed in on the weird and outrageous. As Wikipedia notes, “During its run, Nest showed the room of a 40-year-old diaper lover, the lair of an Indonesian bird that decorates with colored stones and vomit, the final resting place of Napoleon’s penis, the quarters of Navy seamen and a barbed-wire-trimmed bed that doubled as a tank.”

I made a point to pick up an issue every time I spotted it on the newsstand until it abruptly ended its publishing run in 2004. One of my personal favorites was issue 11 which featured a cross burned through each page, cover to cover. Each issue of Nest had a completely unique theme that was always a welcome surprise.

Read more about Nest:

• A Truly Great Magazine Says Farewell
• Nest Magazine Closes
• A Champion Of the Quirky Writes Finis

While I was in Phoenix a few weeks ago, I made a stop at Barnes & Noble for some much needed editorial inspiration to fuel a few upcoming print projects. While perusing the magazine racks, I came across Monster Children, a beautifully designed Australian title with an emphasis on skateboarding, photography, surfing and music.

Though my lifestyle doesn’t necessarily align with the Monster Children demographic, the use of negative space on the cover immediately caught my attention. As I flipped through the issue, I was equally wowed by the sparse yet creative page layouts. The editorial design was so beautiful that I felt like I was flipping through a book.

As budgets for many periodicals continually shrink, a lot of magazines these days don’t put the effort into composing creative layouts like they used to but Monster Children is a huge exception. Even the page numbers look great! If you get a chance, pick up this magazine. After all, beauty is often in the details.

When it comes to offline inspiration, my primary source of design research relies heavily on magazines. By day, I do everything from branding to retail to web design but my personal, off-the-job passion is editorial design and fashion magazine layouts are what excite me most. Yesterday, as I was idly flipping through the October 2011 issue of GQ, this beautiful type treatment that accompanied an interview of rapper-of-the-moment Rick Ross totally blew my mind. Reminiscent of vintage maps and banknotes but thoroughly modernized with the text Simple Lessons For Bosses, Dons and Bitches, it’s the perfect merging of old and new. I love it.

I just discovered this eloquent and powerful type-driven design by Joachim Schmid and had to share. These are some definite words for thought and I hope this becomes a poster soon!

Do you ever drive past somewhere like Wendy’s and notice the typeface on their posters way before the grotesque greasy food that is being offered? Yeah? Me too. Well, if you’re completely type-obsessed, Fonts In Use is your new best friend.

Fonts In Use has been around for awhile now but I felt that it was so valuable that it deserved a special call-out. The site regularly highlights a particular project its authors find intriguing and at the beginning of the article, all the key font players are clearly called out. No more second-guessing! And the comments are always great too, usually covering any type specimen that may have been overlooked. I’ve made so many new type discoveries on this site and hopefully you will, too.

Sometimes when everything you’ve tried in a design feels like overkill, step back and simplify. You can never go wrong with black & white paired with a basic type treatment. I’ve collected these examples from a few fashion magazines to demonstrate just how fresh it can be. When in doubt, don’t over-think!

I just couldn’t keep this design discovery to myself! Shiro to Kuro is a website full of beautiful design in, you guessed it, only black and white. It’s the equivalent of an exquisitely curated gallery with only the best of the best in design, typography and photography. Enjoy!

Last week, I wrapped up my biggest editorial design job to date. Needless to say, magazine covers have been on my mind a lot lately. This is a compilation of some of my recent favorites. Want even more? Take a look back at my previous batch of favorites.

This year, W magazine underwent a major redesign and I’m loving the direction they’ve gone in with type and layouts. They’re using a lot more negative space and as a whole, the more recent issues I’ve received have a more elegant look.

Transformers is featured in the September 2011 issue. And, all of The Typofiles can be viewed here.

When it comes to mainstream fashion magazines, Elle is by far my favorite. Sure, the fashion is great but what really wins me over is their willingness to dedicate some serious energy to their type layouts. Magazines aren’t cheap to produce in this day and age. And yet, Elle will fill an an entire page with just type. This particular page (introducing Gwyneth Paltrow of all people) caught my attention in their September issue.

All of The Typofiles can be viewed here.