Swim magazine gets ‘Found’
The last issue of Swim magazine was published in 2019 and it won a D&AD Pencil for its cover design, which took one, huge, spraypainted artwork, and sliced it up to create unique covers for each copy of the magazine. Six years later and the new issue of Swim has also just won one of the prestigious Pencils, this time for a scratchcard design that ties into the theme of ‘Found’. It’s clever and beautifully executed, though as you’ll see in the video above, there is absolutely no way I’m going to scratch those panels off to see what lies beneath.
This playful, thoughtful approach to publishing is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Swim over the years, and the scratchcard cover isn’t even my favourite little flourish in the issue. (Take a look at the video above to see the page numbers, captured from people’s bins, photographed during the lockdown.) It’s a beautifully unpretentious way of thinking about art, so I was sorry to read that this issue is going to be the last we’ll see of Swim magazine.
The pandemic helped to launch a lot of new magazines, as people suddenly found themselves with time on their hands and able to work on a creative project that they might have been considering for years. But the pandemic also spelled the end of many magazines, as sponsorship disappeared and distribution got even harder, and it sounds like Swim was one of those casualties. I’m really pleased that they managed to get the magazine out in the end, and they’re definitely going out on a high with this issue, so make sure you track down a copy before they’re gone for good.
