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Tyler Brulé, photographed by Mikael Jansson for our book ”PA&Co – More than a cookbook”

Tyler sees the globe through Monocle

Claes Britton | Nov 17, 2006 | 0 comments

Joel Berg, whom I've returned to with compulsive consistency in this column through this fall, is not alone among our friends to be starting new magazines (Italian fashion glossy Velvet, where Joel is creative director, was launched in Milan the other week). After a few years of "silence", when he has restricted himself to operating his global communication agency, producing BBC TV-shows and writing columns in Financial Times, the most influential magazine editor of the past decade, Wallpaper's founder Tyler Brulé, is back in the big time. This coming February will see the global launch of his new contemporary news magazine Monocle – a publication which, grossly simplified, can be described as a cross of Wallpaper and The Economist for the late 00s.

You can have different opinions about Wallpaper – which Tyler left some years ago – and people have indeed had strong feelings about this magazine. You could hardly, however, question the fact that few, if any, publications of late have had such immense impact not only on the business of image magazine publishing, but on our world´s entire perception of design and lifestyle in a much wider scope. Interior magazines, catalogues, advertising, shop interiors, restaurants, hotels, and, above all, home interiors quite simply look different today than in the ”pre-Wallpaper” days.

When Wallpaper was launched in 1996, our own magazine, Stockholm New, had already been up and running for a few years. On their first visit to Sweden, Tyler and his friend Helen Pippin came to visit us in Stockholm's Archipelago in the summer before the launch, to show us the dummy for the new magazine and hear our opinions about it – a memorably brilliant day that forevever influenced Tyler´s image of Sweden, something he described in a Financial Times column this summer. I myself was sceptical and couldn't see anything new enough in this new magazine to break through the global media buzz. Christina, though, was fully convinced from first glance that Wallpaper was destined to become a global mega-succes. There´s hardly any doubt about whom among the two of us was more accurate our opinions...I've since learned never to underestimate Tyler, this global traveller and observer if ever there was one. I've seen the dummy for Monocle as well, and this time around, I too am convinced of its success. It's a smart book for the 00-age globetrotter, thick with both depth and surface, lust and knowledge. The magazine, which is financed by longsighted backers all around the world, with editorial offices in London, Zürich and Tokyo, will give Time, Neewsweek, The Economist and many more something to brood over. I have a distinct feeling that these publications aren´t going to appear quite the same in the future...keep an open eye for Monocle!

Tyler sees the globe through Monocle

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