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CR's December issue looks back at the year in visual communications, plus features on surrealism, the Illustrative festival and much more

This is the first time we've done that magazine staple, the year in review. We start off with a look back at the stories that cuased the most debate right here on the CR Blog

Then, we asked image libraries to analyse their data to reveal what you have been searching for over the past 12 months

And we couldn't ignore all the illustrative work that was done using paper (a trend that has been simmering away for a couple of years but which reached boiling point this year with the publication of three books on the subject)

In type, we look at the enduring influence of Herb Lubalin as well as revealing the top-selling typefaces from some of the world's leading foundries

And we also look at the impact of social media, and Augmented Reality, advertising's buzzwords of the year

Plus we've got Jeremy Leslie on the year in magazines, Magma's Marc Valli picking his books of the year, the impact of Twitter, plus pieces on scam ads and the end of the creative team.

Elsewhere in the issue, Steve Hare reports from the Portbou Festa del Grafisme in Spain

And James Pallister does the same for the Illustrative festival in Berlin

CR's former editor Lewis Blackwell discusses what he has learned about the future of photography while interviewing many of the world's leading practitioners for his new book, PhotoWisdom

And Rick Poynor urges readers to attend the Pompidou's major show on surrealism and photography

For subscribers, our Monograph this mopnth features illustrator and tutor Matt Lee's collection of Indian matchboxes

And, as a little Christmas surprise, we commissioned illustrator Johanna Basford to decorate a tree for everyone (regular readers will remember Johanna from this). Subscriber copies arrive in this envelope

With a bit of careful cutting and folding, it becomes this

Our December issue will be in the shops from 25 November. Or you can subscribe and get CR sent to you each month.

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