The self-made magazine »Handjob« comes wrapped in plastic. It is more an art object than a journal, it is dedicated to the theme of masturbation. Josie Majetić had the idea of making a magazine about three years ago. She wanted an experimental space, and a product that would balance out her ordinary job as a graphic designer. But how do you speak about a topic you don’t normally speak about? Majetić tried advanced methods of public visualization, in order to present a very private subject. First, she asked friends and acquaintances. Hardly anyone wanted to answer her questions.

»Freunde von Freunden« was founded as an international online magazine in 2009. The title is indicative of its programme. Frederik Frede and his team tell stories about their friends. They focus on creative people, and present their views and attitudes in interviews. Meanwhile the online magazine has expanded with a network of freelancers working in more than fifty cities, and supplies the magazine, an app and the print version with stories.

Five ideas, four encounters, three leaders, two feuilletons plus one »icon« - that is Riposte, a smart magazine for women founded by Danielle Pender in 2012. Already as a teenager, Danielle Pender was bored by your typical print media and the negative image of women these conveyed. Against the rather one-sided view of the female sex she decided to dedicate her journal, Riposte, to different themes and aspects.

Narrative density, exploration and discovery, in combination with excellent user-friendly design and content describes the work of James Cartwright. As editor of Printed Pages, a magazine of art and design, he demonstrates this attitude consistently in print and web media. The website of the magazine, »It's Nice That« offers a very interesting mix of diverse content.

Small, smart, a team of three – that’s HeyStudio from Barcelona. HeyStudio focuses on illustration and graphic design for print media. Their illustration projects are all about presenting complex contents in an easily readable and understandable way. The Nokia Annual Report, thus, includes individual stories told by illustrations: the origin of the company, corporate values, how mobile phones work … little narrative pieces in each and every picture, translated into legible visual pieces of information that convey ideas and background information.

Attention to detail. Maximum respect for the customer. Narrative density. These are the key points on which Christian Hanke builds his work for numerous clients from start-ups to publishers and major clients such as Red Bull. Different levels of narrative in text, image, video and sound leave the reader intrigued. To quote from a reader's comment on Hanke's work: »The presentation of news will never be the same, ›Snowfall‹ has set new standards for passionate storytelling, whether in aesthetics or emotional density«.

What does corporate publishing have to do with hurting people? And what does it have to do with barbecuing and meat? The answer is surprisingly simple: Ana Parreira and Holger Schmidhuber’s clients include the company Weber-Stephen, formerly rather an unknown inventor and manufacturer of round barbecues – a brand previously known in Europa, and above all in Germany, among real barbecue fans, but which has since become a cult bbq-grill among all age groups.

Different stylistic devices for telling stories, using either the written or the spoken word, time cast in language and the relationship between movement, pace, thematic range, rhythmical and lingual consistency. All of these are listed by Horst Moser as forming the essential basics of storytelling, initially focussing only on the word. These are a range of tools at one’s disposal, with language paramount.

»We still feature sexy images, but it's more art than eroticism now«. A quote from a video flashes up as a woman's hand with red fingernails scrolls through the pages of a magazine. For Mike Koedinger, CEO of Maison Moderne, this is the difference between ›old porn‹, today mostly found in the digital space, and printed erotica. The erotic becomes an event, a tactile experience to be touched, its ownership savoured, not concealed.

Live on stage, in a film, somewhere in the Caucasus: Klaus Neuburg and Sebastian Pranz followed the Goethe Institute’s call – to Tbilisi. Ten kilometres before the Chechen border, people drive Lada Nivas or ride on horseback. The two designers sit in a tavern and count the minutes. They are about to leave Georgia.  The release party has been scheduled for the next day. If the printer delivers. »I used to be a veggie, « says Klaus Neuburg.  »Until I came to Georgia. Now I will have to start from scratch.« On the screen we see a picture of regional delicacies. Each bite a surprise.