Punch! Culture Shelf

This ‘media platform’, as it describes itself, is essentially a new form of magazine, bringing you a fun, interactive spin on current affairs.

The humour and politics of Punch! may not be for everyone, but if you’re a fan of satire like The Daily Show then chances are you’ll get on with its irreverent style. It certainly goes to great lengths to not be taken too seriously, and offers a broad enough range of ideas to give you something to be interested in with each update.

At first glance, what you get from Punch! is a shelf of links to various content. These scroll from left to right with more items on each shelf. Tap any one and you open up a new piece of media, from wonderful pages of artwork packed with interactive links to video montages and high concept design projects. Everything in Punch! is commissioned exclusively, so everything you see in it is wholly original and unlike anything you might have seen elsewhere.

For example, one particularly fun feature we played with was ‘Closet Case’ – a game in which you dress up Rick Santorum. This small activity lets you clothe the former Republican presidential nominee in a variety of wholly inappropriate costumes. You could also find a slideshow of posters and advertisements conceived by professionals as to what a North Korean tourism push might look like. It’s all very silly and lighthearted, but delivered in so many diverse ways as to be very impressive. Even the most interactive of magazines on iPad don’t go as far as Punch! does.