To accompany this month's festivities, it's December Things!

The month of December is upon us and the festive cheer is materialising all over the place. With that gift-giving time of year creeping up, December Things offers potential ideas, from No Brow’s latest publication to Acupuncture’s fifth issue about sport, this month’s Things is bound to inspire some end-of-year cheer.

Always appreciative to the kind creatives that send us their valued work, please keep sending in your submissions for next month’s Things to this address.

Masses

The Paris-based biannual magazine Masses is a men’s fashion publication. Currently, in its 11th issue, the large glossy pages invite viewers to explore men’s fashion through eclectic art direction and candid photography. Published by Eric Diulein, the full bleed images feature the talents of Scott. G Fraser, Mathias Vriens-McGrath and CG Watkins, who each take us through individual visual essays which inspect an all-embracing scope of men’s fashion. Ultra-close-ups of a bloody toothbrush, a dining table come human fish tank, along with various explorations of male sexuality fill the pages of the latest issue of Masses.

4 seasons, 16 recipes by Orphea Heutling

Orphea Heutling lives and works in Lucerne, bringing bright, block colours to her visual design practice. In her latest book, 4 seasons, 16 recipes, Orphea uses three Pantone spot colours to illustrate the playfully designed cookbook. Haphazard type scattered across the spreads reflect Orphea’s joyful illustrations that combine a collaged, cut out aesthetic with thin line drawings and textural brush strokes.

Acupuncture No. 5: The Sports Issue

The quarterly magazine, now in its fifth issue, looks at sport “as a lens to explore culture, branding, philosophy and commerce.” Looking into five, key sporting figures – Asger John, Gareth Southgate, Jesse Owens, Chloe Kim and Li Ning – this issue examines ideas of “leadership, ethical purpose and cultural relevance”. Acupuncture delves into issues of teamwork, an integral part of sport, as well as most other areas of working life. Designed by Cai + Kyn, the publication is influenced by a “retro-futurist neon aesthetic”, referencing the constant evolution of sport across time. Also, the cutaway hexagon on the cover is a visual reference to the “3-sided football pitch, a concept devised by the radical painter Asger John”.

Shelf Heroes Issue H: Celebrating Cinema from A-Z

Shelf Heroes is a submission-based magazine with a very simple brief: “Watch a film that begins with H, go create something”. With a huge variety of results including illustrations, essays, short fiction and more illustrations; Issue H is wonderfully assorted with diverse styles and content. In one piece, Sam Diss reminisces on his teenage discovery of La Haine whereas Jordan O’Shea re-imagines Hiroshima, Mon Amour through a series of postcards with dialogue from the film’s protagonists conversing with one another.

Point.51: Issue 01

Point.51 is an independent print magazine of long-form reportage and documentary photography. Investigating “essential contemporary issues in Europe”, the first publication focuses on the theme of “journey”, with a particular emphasis on, “the asylum seekers and ordinary citizens caught up in the largest mass movement of people across Europe since World War II”. The politically significant pieces of journalism are accompanied by stark photographs that capture the movements of the subjects. Issue 01 explores the journeys undertaken by asylum seekers, as well as ordinary civilians whose lives are affected by the ongoing social and political upheavals. All in all, “unity and openness are challenged by suspicion and fear – a return to walls, wire and the infrastructure of hard borders.”

Something City by Ellice Weaver

Something City is a graphic novel by the Berlin-based illustrator Ellice Weaver. With clients such as Vice, The Telegraph, and Soho House, Ellice’s first book documents a series of ten short graphic novels about “different communities, different families, different lives” all living in one city. She created the drawings for the book travelling around seven west European cities in her van. Most notably, the character’s expressions in the book are highly emotive. Each drawing sensitively captures the character’s feelings and their human traits, documenting some of the difficulties encountered throughout city life.

Rising by Eleonora Marton

London-based illustrator Eleonora Martin made a drawing of her bed every day between 2012 and 2013. She published the 365 drawings on a blog and has now reproduced the year of her life in a self-published book, Rising. The simple line drawings become an exercise on the movements of a daily routine. The crumpled sheets and arrangement of pillows record our bodies in the most personal way, these intimate details of our lives are detailed through Eleonora’s drawings that see one year of her life in this small yellow book.

Kiblind Magazine no.66: Numéro Hasard

Founded in 2004, Kiblind Magazine is a Paris-based publication dedicated to visual culture, specifically illustration. Featuring contributions from Marie Mohanna, Kine Andersen, Anapurna and many more, the publication sees interviews, features and opinion pieces on contemporary subjects. Highlighted by a colour scheme of baby pink, black and forest green, this issue is not only a good chance to brush up on your GCSE French, it also showcases an array of creativity from the last quarter.

NoBrow 10: Studio Dreams

For NoBrow Press’ tenth birthday, the publishing house commissioned some of its favourite illustrators to imagine their dream studio. Published earlier this year, the immense book features work from the likes of Eleni Kalorkoti, Daniel Clarke, Grace Hermer, Joey Chou and Olimpia Zagnoli, as well as a plethora of other highly commendable illustrators working in the industry today. NoBrow’s co-founder highlights the importance of the dream studio for illustrators as “they dream of their ideal workspaces the way most people dream of their ultimate holidays”. The book sees imaginations run wild with dreams of tropical forests, the highest ceilings imaginable, medieval settings of knights and all kinds of mythical creatures and a lot of depictions of the great outdoors; each spread is an insight into the individual illustrator’s creative mind.