Magma

Magma is a very small chain (think there’s 3 – 4 in the UK) of cool books, art, gifts and ‘graphic designy’ type magazines — a place that is ridiculously cool and I wish I had the money to shop here regularly.
It’s definitely a place that is great for browsing, occasional purchasing and definitely somewhere to buy unique gifts for friends. I particularly like the books on offer like the ones on Mexican culture, travel and on this occasion was very impressed with a ‘make your own snoopy’ pop up figure.
The staff were very friendly and knowledgable when I needed advice on buying something and I’m looking forward to going back and perusing more shelves in the near future.

I’m seriously crushing on this shop at the moment. I only went in for the first time last weekend and it was love at first sight.
Among the hundreds of cool art, design and photography books you’ll find beautifully illustrated books for both adults and kids, including a selection of Moomin comic books!
I adore the Moomins and had no idea you could buy official Moomin ‘merch’ outside Finland. There’s also a selection of Moomin home products (cups, saucers, bowls etc) which I will no doubt end up snapping up for our flat soon.
If you’re looking for a visually striking gift for someone, this is the shop to head to. As well as kooky literature and drop-​dead gorgeous design publications, you’ll find an array of eye-​popping posters, cute-​as-​a-​button notebooks, writing sets, coasters, birthday cards and more.
Amazing.
*swoons*

My favourite bookshop in Manchester. It’s mostly art/​design/​alternative books and magazines along with a few novelty items.
They also have a few interesting children’s gifts — and some rather cool t-​shirts.
It’s a great place to get something a bit different — and especially good if you want to grab an inspirational book.
I would also recommend a trip if you want a birthday/​christmas/​whatever card that’s a little bit out of the ordinary.

A place I could browse for many hours. Lots of inspiring magazines, books and unusual stationary and gifts.

I bought something from Magma today! Yay, get in!
It’s only 10 months ago since I wrote my review stating that one day I will buy something from here, and that day arrived today. Although I must state that in my previous review I said that if I did buy something, then it would probably be for someone else. Well I lied, I bought something for myself. Take that people who I would normally buy things for!
What I bought was a cardboard solar powered nodding skeleton (you know you want one). It was supposed to be a build your own thing, but unfortunately the only one that they had in stock was the display model, which had of course already been put together, but that didn’t bother me as I would’ve made a mess of it anyway.
And because of this, the lovely Man who served me knocked 30% off the price… result!
No longer in my eyes is Magma a museum of curiosities, it is now a cool shop of curiosities…

I love to browse through everything in Magma — but I have never once committed to a purchase. Maybe I see it as more of an art gallery and should be giving them a donation for my visit, as I can spend hours in there without buying a thing.
But for those of you who DO like to buy things! Then if you have any interest in art, graphics, photography, fashion, music Magma can provide a facinating book or magazine that will defintely take your fancy. Even if your just looking for a cool yet useless gadget/​mug/​stationery then you could spend quite a while purousing through the ever changing collection.
The staff are really friendly, whether your buying something or not.
Definitely worth a gander if your in the Northern Quater.
Do — Buy something!
Dont — Not buy something.

This is a great Northern Quarter shop. The main attraction here is the book collection! You can find all sorts of quirky niche subjects matter on the pages here. Art, fabrics and textiles, comics, Tim Burton’s poetry and scrawlings, all sorts you’d never find in Waterstone’s or WH Smith. The independent magazines are worth shouting about, and I was hugely impressed with the T-​shirts and wall hangings.
Perhaps most gawp-​worthy of all are the gift ideas (great for Christmas, birthdays and the like). If you have an awkward person in your life, there are all sorts of quaint little trinkets in here. A small card that minces garlic? Moomin mugs? Vinyl stick-​on designs for your rental property magnolia to give it a bit of pizzazz? All of the above. The staff are super friendly, the greetings cards are unusual and my favourite item was a box of postcards, all of which sported images of the front covers of Penguin classics.
Magma is my kind of shop.

Definitely in the running for Best Bookshop in Manchester.
Inside Magma you’ll find a brilliant chosen selection of books and gifts, designed to please even the pickiest of customers. Be warned — you’re unlikely to leave empty handed!
The knowledgable folks at Magma are happy to help and really understand what makes their customers tick. So if there’s something you’re looking for, don’t be shy.

I find the best books in here.
The stock consists of quirk, off-​beat, artistic, photographic, rare, and the just plain interesting.
The selection is prefected concision. The vibe is chill. The whole space is just exactly what a bookshoppe in the NQ should be. You could get lost in here.
I love this place.

Great store for the designer in all of us, even those of us who are designers.
Unsurprisingly for the Northern Quarter, it’s not cheap, but it’s a niche shop with limited stock, but the items are of great quality, quirky toys, interesting magazines and books and there’s always something new.

I wandered into Magma Books not knowing what to expect. It soon became clear this was an elite bookstore for the crazy creative individuals.
Books stocked varied from advertising, indie publishing, label design, print making. You name a type of creative industry, there’s a book to give you a low down on it. There’s also cool little note pads for the none experts such as a listography, that’s those who love to make lists! Doodle books a plenty also.
The usual creative magazines such as Dazed, Nyon, View complete the creative literature in here. What I did learn in here is that I’ll probably end up in a career so far removed from creativity (tear). Never mind eh, the «who tall are you?» chart at the cashier point told me as I was tall as James Brown. Wowzas.

Oh Man, this shop is great, fabulous, awesome, a lifesaver, inspiring, pointless, ridiculous, expensive, cheap, something special and a firm favourite all at the same time.
The first port of call for Magma may be for it’s speciality as a book shop, a book shop with a specialism, that’s far too much special, but this is being written early morning, and the olé java hasn’t kicked in yet. But with said specialisms in things like art, animation, film, graphics and the like, Magma can be a pretty good place to start when looking for a book that a media/​art nerd will love but doesn’t yet have, that Waterstones and the like cannot provide for in nerdy calibre.
What else is there to love about Magma? The pure novelty of it all? It’s a great pit stop for gifts, a King Ken t shirt anybody? Love It!!! What about an Eboy poster print? Or a fabulous girlie necklace? Prints, Posters, Books, Tees, Homewears, Gadgets, you name it, this intellectual stomping ground has it.
Great for gifts of for a self indulgent moment!

While it may look a little pretentious from the outside Magma is actually a glorious, shiny trove of bibliographic wonder. There are specialist books here on graphic design, architecture, publishing and the visual arts — the how-to’s, what-to’s and why-to’s of the creative industries. There are less niche and less technical publications available too — artist retrospectives, John Berger’s influential books on the philosophy of seeing and watching and collections of photography (including local born Kevin Cummins’ excellent ‘Manchester: Looking for the Light through the Pouring Rain.’)
In addition to this considered book selection there is a wide range of artsy magazines and periodicals including a personal favourite of mine, passionate bi-​monthly move bible ‘Little White Lies.’ Add to this the collections of plush (but expensive) manga collectables and some brilliant (but even more expensive) T-​shirts and you have almost the best single shop in Manchester (of course I would say that though as it’s filled with all the weirdo stuff that I like.) I admit at first I found the staff a little standoffish but once I realised they were as geeky as me I started to really warm to them. A trip here is a must even if just to walk round and browse the unique wares on offer. Fantastic.

Magma really reminds me of the Richard Goodall gallery up on Thomas Street. It has that same refined, intelligent and cool vibe that makes it a shop for people who seriously like their art and photography.
The main thing Magma sells is nice hardback photography and art books. As well as some original screen prints and awesome printed tote bags.
It’s also a good place to pop into if you’re looking to buy a small present for someone and you’re a bit stuck. They have some headphones that looked like bees that my girlfriend would love and I’ll probably get her at some point.
This shop is really cool. Good work. I’ll be back.

Magma is, as other reviewers have quite rightly pointed out, very hard to classify accurately. It sells all sorts of things, and they all look interesting and cool. There is a lot of arts and crafts related paraphernalia, and postcards, and random books by people you’ve never heard of but which turn out to be awesome anyway.
Essentially, it comes down to me simply saying, visit it. Explore it and find out for yourself what it is, because I can’t really do it justice by describing it in words.
Oh wait, yes I can! It’s like Octopus. Only not shit.

Ever thought to yourself «I wish there was a shop that would sell matchbooks full of wildflower seeds and animal-​mouth printed surgical masks for cyclists and pop-​up alphabet books and plates that couple my love of urban architecture and crockery. Sigh.» Well, wish no more, humble fool. Instead, hightail it to Magma, where ye shall find a plethora of wondrous, stylish, cool but essentially useless gewgaws.
Magma is excellent for presents. I would actually name it as the best ever shop for presents. Of all time. Seriously, if this shop did not exist, my boyfriend would be without his cardboard boombox ipod dock, his it-looks-like-paper-but-it-isn’t-paper-what-the-holy-heck-is-this? wallet and several tiny, delicate sculptures of headless robots riding bikes and flying helicopters (Mikroman, £8. Girls, don’t even try to understand why a credit-​card sized piece of metal that creates a pop-​up sculpture with a thousand sharp edges is cool, just buy it for your boyfriend/​brother/​dad/​uncle. They will love it, and you, forever).
And when you’re not perusing up and down the right-​hand side counter going «ooooooh, garlic card… oooooh, Moomin… oooooh, what is that?», you’ll be at the left-​hand side book wall flicking through such diverse titles as Werner Herzog’s ‘Of Walking in Ice’ and the VICE photobook whilst wondering how the fashion book ‘Uniforms’ would look on the coffee table (answer: awesome, buy the book). Then there’s the magazine rack. Japanese Vogue, NYLON, Love, Frieze, and one called ‘Fantastic Man’. ‘Fantastic Man’! I kid ye not! What joyous bounty this shop holds.
A wee shuftie at the wall behind the tills will offer you fun t-​shirts from such names as Jeremyville and David Shrigley (‘Ants Have Sex in Your Beer’, apparently). A bit steep at £30, mind, especially considering my proclivity for dropping spag bog on almost every item of clothing I possess; I’m a real lady.
Nothing Magma sells is particularly important or useful (though seriously, guys, garlic card, it’s a revelation) but it’s all fun and cool and stylish. It’s probably one of my favourite shops, because I always leave in a good mood. The staff deserve a mention, too, they’re always very friendly and chirpy and that makes you feel better about the fact that you just spent a tenner on a magazine.

Fab graphic tee-​shirts? Tick
Cool design books? Tick
Incredible photography and art books? Tick
Huge style bibles? Tick
Quirky hand-​made badges and zines? Tick
Ace cards, stationary and wrapping paper? Tick
Thanks to Magma, I was able to buy lots of unique and arty Christmas presents in one go. Wait, I forgot to get something for myself! How about the new Yoshitomo Nara book?

Great little place to buy an unusual/​interesting gift for someone i.e. animal shped rubber bands (well someone needs them).
This place had a huge selection of design/​art books and magazines that when I buy them look great on my coffee table but for others (more arty than myself) I suspect are very useful.
I will mention here that even the magazines were over a tenner but this is a specialist book shop so I cant grumble. If your a designer or are interested in all things arty this place will probably be a godsend.

Funny how things work. Not so long ago if a (n albiet small) chain store that had the audacity to look a little rought around the edges it would have been blacklisted, nowadays we celebrate how independant it looks. I’ve got to be honest, from the outside Magma has more than a touch of the ‘Arndale outlet’ about it but passes the cool test due to its awesome content– which is a lesson in morality to all you youngsters.
It’s actually quite difficult to pinpoint what exactly Magma sells, but if pressed I would have to say quirkiness. Printed quirkiness.
There tons of great art & design related books, coffee table books (the big useless ones that look pretty), postcards and figurines.
I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but when they look this good…

My little sister has been coming back from Magma on Oldham St for some time with cute and arty magazines so I went in recently to see what all the fuss was about.
There are plenty of alternative (or at least they use to be) titles: not only Nylon but Nylon for guys — no girls allowed; Conde Nast’s bi-​annual Love, Dazed and Confused, international Vogues etc.
There’s also a lot here for art or design students. A little black book of silly design rules. Books on self designing and printing your own book and a compendium of computer animation. Inspirational stuff to make normal people feel lazy. I was also enamoured by a book called Listomania which gives you the tools (i.e. loads of creative lists) to write your own autobiography within its pages. Magic.
The shop isn’t quite big enough to stand there for more than, say, 15 minutes browsing yet the man behind the till didn’t seem to mind this kind of idle activity.