ntelligence in Lifestyle or IL is a relatively young Italian magazine about contemporary passions and consumptions. It premiered in September of 2008, and like T Magazine, the style supplement of The New York Times, IL is the supplement to the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 ORE. The design takes inspiration from Swiss formalism, fashion magazines, and popular Italian & Northern European periodicals from the 70s. As for the content, I only wish I could read Italian. For now, I’ll just pore over the layout, typography, and infographics—oh my, the infographics—I’m a huge fan of Feltron—but egad, these ones are amazing.

Francesco Franchi, one of the art directors for IL, archives all the covers and various interiors on his Flickr feed, and you can view them in much higher resolutions. I couldn’t quite figure out the serif font used throughout the magazine, and Francesco was kind enough to identify it for me: Publico, released under the foundry Commercial Type and designed by Paul Barnes, Christian Schwartz, Kai Bernau, and Ross Milne. It’s sexy and elegant and not nearly as ubiquitous as say, Helvetica or more recently, Archer.

Other things I love about IL:

• Cover design consistency
• The cutout of the IL logotype on the cover
• The perfect combination of serif and sans serif type
• The use of color as part of a theme, complementary to the content

I just want to dismantle the whole thing and hang the pages up as framed art.