Cycling in the desert and a city guide to Ramallah - a UAE magazine that does its own thing
I just discovered Brownbook, a three-year old magazine based in Dubai, which was recommended to me by a friend. He told me it reminds him of Monocle, and its neat but playful manner certainly suggests that the team behind it has taken a thorough look at some of the more off-beat up-market titles in the West (i-D, Frame, Mark and Mono.Kultur maybe?) and come up with a MENA spin on them.
Editor-in-chief Rashid Bin Shabib says: “Our focus is to look at Middle Eastern agendas and Middle Eastern culture and find out what is important in the region. (…) Everything exported from the Middle East is always about conflicts or mega-projects. It’s never about skiing in Tehran or surfing in Yemen or a new movement in the Sahara region.”
Content-wise and visually it’s a joy - especially when held up against some of the other mags that originate here in the UAE. The editorial line is decidedly apolitical, but the Agenda section is full of edge-skimming stories about contemporary life across the Middle East, written by a roster of international correspondents. This is social reportage of the Monocle-variety, but with a lower degree of elitism.
Plus they produce Podcasts, most of which are excellent.
With so many international titles out there, it’s not easy to set a new benchmark. But Brownbook appears to be making the cut. As more local writers, designers and artists get (back) into regional media, Brownbook could well accomplish the fine-tuning of its regional style. If it can sustain its current editorial and production values, it may even plant the seed for a more authentic, witty and aestethical cosmopolitanism in the region’s media.
The magazine is distributed internationally and is available in UAE, KUWAIT, QATAR, SAUDI ARABIA, BAHRAIN, BELGIUM, THAILAND, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, FRANCE and LEBANON. Selected retail outlets:
EGYPT
-The Townhouse Gallery
-Diwan Bookstore
PARIS
-Colette (Rue Saint Honore, Paris)
MILAN, ITALY
-10 Corso Como
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
-FAMOUS APE (17 rue de la rôtisserie)
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
-ParisTexas
BARCELONA, SPAIN
-The Rent Shop
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
-Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum
JAPAN
-BALS Store, Tokyo
INDIA
-Bombay Electric (10 Reay House, Mumbai)
SINGAPORE
-Anthropology (Raffles City Shopping Center)
