The Curation Club: Finding Your Unique
22nd September 2026
As you walk into our Mag Room, you’ll find hundreds of magazines covering everything from fashion and photography to art, music, travel, culture and independent publishing. For customers visiting us for the first time, having so many titles to choose from can sometimes feel a little overwhelming.
As more people began popping into the store this year, we noticed this more and more. We wanted to create a section that would help people discover something new, while looking beyond what’s trending, newly released or sitting on the bestseller list.
We wanted to discover the magazines that have genuinely inspired people throughout their creative careers.
That idea became The Most Inspiring Magazine Wall, a specially curated section of our Mag Room dedicated to publications that have sparked ideas, influenced creative direction and stayed with people long after they turned the final page.
How we created the wall
Rather than choosing all of the magazines ourselves, we wanted the wall to be shaped by the wider creative community around us.
Over the past year, we’ve been developing closer relationships with universities, independent publishers and creatives through our Mag Room, Mag Studio and podcast. So, we reached out to some of the people we’ve met and collaborated with along the way.
We asked local university lecturers, independent publishers, creatives and podcast guests one simple question:
Which magazines has been the most inspirational to you during your career, and why?
The only real rule was that the publication needed to still be in print.
We weren’t necessarily looking for magazines with the most recognisable cover. We wanted personal recommendations, publications that had influenced someone’s approach to design, photography, writing, publishing or creativity more broadly.
The responses gave us something much more interesting than a traditional magazine display.
They gave us stories.
More than a wall of magazines
Alongside each selected magazine, visitors to the Mag Room can discover who recommended it and why it mattered to them.
That context is an important part of the wall.
A magazine might have introduced someone to a completely different style of photography. Another might have changed the way they thought about editorial design. For somebody else, seeing unconventional ideas represented in print might have given them the confidence to pursue their own creative career.
It demonstrates something we see every day at Unique Magazines: a magazine can be much more than something you read once and put down.
The right publication can become a reference point, a source of ideas or even the starting point for somebody’s own creative work.
Five magazines that made the wall
With recommendations coming from people working across different areas of the creative industries, the final selection brings together an exciting mix of publications.
For this first look at The Most Inspiring Magazine Wall, we’re highlighting five of the titles chosen and the stories behind their recommendations.
Handpicked by Tom Owen, Founder of Fausto Agency.
Sierra Leone’s first high-end arts and culture print publication, Muyu Journal was created in Freetown by photographer Abdul Hamid Kanu Jr.
Why it inspires Tom:
“Rather than let barriers define him, Abdul created the platform himself – building Muyu from the ground up with ambition, resilience and vision.”
Dedicated to craftsmanship, culture and heritage, Maison Ë looks beyond the finished object to explore the people, knowledge and traditions behind it.
Issue 07 takes readers from the world’s finest wool and the enduring relationship between horses and humankind to coach built automobiles, tea ceremonies and contemporary Thai cuisine. Different subjects, but all connected by an appreciation for craft, ritual and ideas worth carrying forward.
Why it inspires us: Maison Ë is a reminder that inspiration doesn’t always have to mean creating something entirely new. Sometimes it comes from understanding, preserving and reimagining the skills and traditions that came before us.
Handpicked by Jodie Beardmore, Founder of Shutter and Strategy.
A contemporary art and culture magazine exploring photography, visual art and creative ideas, with a focus on thoughtful, concept-led work.
Why it inspires Jodie:
“It has shaped how I think about narrative, context and meaning within my own creative practice, consistently highlighting thoughtful, idea-led work.”
Handpicked by Kimberley Nugent, Founder of Kimberley Creative.
A film magazine renowned for transforming each issue around its featured movie, with bespoke cover illustrations, typography, icons and design details inspired by the film’s visual identity.
Why it inspires Kimberley:
“I discovered it at university in 2009 and it even inspired my Final Major Project. I love how the entire design of each issue is built around the featured film.”
Handpicked by Sean Collins, Illustrator & Senior Graphic Designer
A beautifully produced magazine dedicated to graphic design and visual culture, packed with inspiring interviews, reviews, ideas and exceptional design.
Why it inspires Sean:
“Every issue is packed full of inspiration. It’s beautifully designed, a lovely thing to hold and a proper quality publication. There’s never been a bad issue.”
Inspiration in print
One of the most interesting things about creating the wall has been seeing just how different everyone’s definition of an inspiring magazine can be.
It might be ground breaking art direction, brilliant journalism, experimental photography or simply a publication that arrived at exactly the right point in someone’s life.
Together, the recommendations show the enormous influence magazines can have on the people who read and create them.
And this is only the beginning.
There are plenty more recommendations on The Most Inspiring Magazine Wall that we haven’t explored here, so we’ll be sharing more of the selected publications and the stories behind them in future posts.
In the meantime, you can discover the wall for yourself in The Mag Room at Unique Magazines, browse the recommendations and perhaps find the magazine that inspires your next idea.
Because sometimes all it takes is one magazine to change the way you see things.
Discover The Most Inspiring Magazine Wall at Unique Magazines.
See you in the Mag Room,
Jessica
