A magazine you have to scratch like a scratch-card
Forward is a magazine made by Forward Creatives, an Austrian strategy, storytelling, and event development company. This issue features Q&A interviews with artists including Annie Atkins, the graphic designer who creates all the props in Wes Anderson films, and Christoph Niemann, the renowned illustrator, graphic designer, and children’s book author.
What immediately caught our attention, though, was Forward’s front cover. It comes with a grey film all over it that you can literally scratch off, like a magazine-sized scratch-card.
Forward has been sitting in the Stack office for some time now and none of us have been able to bring ourselves to scratch this cover. We spend our working lives trying desperately not to accidentally crumple or otherwise damage magazines. The thought of damaging a magazine on purpose is a little daunting.
But today, we decided to take the plunge and find out what lies beneath.
Some initial scratching reveals a satisfyingly red cover and some strange squiggly pictures, that look like analogue emojis.
More emojis and the Facebook ‘like’ button (this is, after all Forward’s ‘Reconnect’ issue). Other discoveries include the fact that scratching an entire magazine clean really, really makes your arm hurt.
The verdict: a little bit traumatic but ultimately quite fun.
