titulka
titulka
Praha, Česká republika
From the ashes of Dotyk, again with Jiří
Macek in control, arose this playful picture
magazine bearing the subtitle Design/
Reality/Style, exceptional mainly for its
handling of photography. While “reality”
was slowly disappearing from the content,
it had a heavy impact on the editorial staff.
In 2004, following the departure of Babeta
Ondrová and her pop design, Blok lost its
youthfulness and most of its information
value. In response to the businesslike
aggressiveness with which the place in
the market of snobbish magazines on
the ornamental clichés of today’s design,
fashion, and architecture was appropriated
by the visual trumpery of Dolce Vita*, Blok
was shaken up to maturity and relaxed
into a lyrical melodrama of self-satisfied
images. Nevertheless, they were always
combined into a harmonic whole worthy of
admiration. The graphic designer Martina
Černá processes material by leading
Czech photographers and designers and
edits it into a glossy equivalent of a video
by a pop singer-songwriter. Although the
editor stresses that, “it was never said
the magazine ceased publication”, the
three years since the last issue suggest,
that, unfortunately, Blok was allowed to
go under in-between other activities of
the publisher (Designblok, Czech Grand
Design).
Years: 2001 – yet
Number of issues: 17
Publisher: ProfilMedia
Editors-in-chief: Jiří Macek
Editors: Michaela Kádnerová, L. P. Fish, Jan Rosický, Maxim Velčovský, Hana Zárubová, Petr Bílek jr., Petra Rabová
Art director / design: Martina Černá, Babeta Ondrová, Anna Issa
Photos: Marek Novotný, Salim Issa, Štěpánka Stein, Radeq Brousil, Adam Holý, Václac Jirásek, Silvia Potočki, René+Radka, Jan Šilar, Filip Šlapal
last updated 22/3/11