'No muscles , no tattoos'

The following article 'No muscles , no tattoos' is written by Alice Twemlow . She is a phd candidate in history of design department at Royal College At Art , London ; her research examines the changing relationship of design criticism to the public in uk and us since 1950s . Although her work focuses on graphic design she is a writer , critic and educator as well .

She starts her article giving us the background or general information of Jop Van Bennekom's eccentric magazines , particular points of typefaces and talking about other people who were a part of Jop Bennekom's journey to success .

She talks about the design of the Butt magazine and style journal Fantastic Man which was established in 2001 at the time when Jop Bennekom was beginning to attract critical attentionfor Re -magazine a series of self-referential explorations of the marginalia of existence . The first 8 issues of Re - focused on the thermatic lens which focuses on daily experiences from the home , boredom , sex or re-connecting  with once past . But the 9 issue in 2002 changed its direction and since then each issue was focused on a single person . Andrew Blauvelt who is a design director at the Walker Art Center mentioned Re - magazine as an article and said it is very much tune in ideas about every day life and culture aesthetically and conceptually .

At the time when Re - magazine was forming a new identity , Bennekom's Butt had a defined format and distinctive language focusing on direct and honest editorial base . Re - magazine however was extremely focused on seemingly trival aspects of life and for Bennekom's Butt magazine for him it was important to provide space for imperfection . Bennekom wanted to use his newly honed typographic skills he din't wanted to do he magazine design a photography magazine or a fashion magazine . However Van Bennekom was intrigued by the fashion and art from a new Parisian fashion magazine called Purple and since than again the Re - magazine began to take shape .

Van Bennekom proposed Re as his thesis project and for this he wanted to interviw his friends in detail about their homes and things they are surrounded with . Once he saw the results he recognized that it was an exceptional project , a project which took a risk , and distinguished itself . A difficulty came from the fact that it treads a subtle line between seriousness and irony , reality and friction , celebration and cynicism , informality and artifice . Van Bennekom has not always designed for himself . He has also worked for range of cultural clients but that has left him unsatisfied .

Further we come to know how Van Bennekom developed guidelines : No muscles , No tattoos . The Re - magazine came as the tight , almost tense , relationship between playfulness and seriousness , good taste and bad taste , the spontaneous and the mediated , brands it as Re'-s progency and distinguishes Butt from the majority of magazines .

As soon as Butt started generated money in 2004 , Van Bennekom decided to invest in a new fashion magazine for stylish and style-conscious men in mid-thirties . While compiling references for fantastic man , Bennekom learned towards what he calls positive image , photo where men are actually smiling . In 1980s when Bennekom was going through the images of GQ he noticed a different kind of model from vogue today : older men rather than young boys .

In his personal project of Re he wanted to explore depression in a very particular way . Van Bennekom's relationship with media is complicated as it combines nerdish enthusiasm and cool detachment .

Van Bennekom's relationship to his publications is really complicated . He calls his magazines ' real players ' Magzines that demonstrates highly directed photo shoots and ultra controlled graphic design .