Ordinary magazine releases its tenth and final issue centred around one enduring relic

It’s 2005; you’ve just received Now That’s What I Call Music’s Big Hits for doing well in your exams. You put it into your radio, close the lid, and click play. Gwen Stefani proclaims, “Uh-huh, this my shit.” Life is good.

Who could forget the charm of the CD, its annoying tendency to scratch and never work again, time spent looking through the glove box compartment for the right case only to find the right CD isn’t in its case, or flicking through those gargantuan and never-ending leather CD organisers. Tomorrow, Ordinary magazine is going to keep those memories flooding back with its tenth and final issue, all centred around the CD.

The retro gizmo is highlighted and reimagined by over 30 artists, many of which have been favourites of the magazine, appearing in previous issues, as well as inviting new talent to fill the pages of the magazine. Ordinary is surprisingly thin on text but image-heavy, without any frills and theatrics, choosing simple layouts and bold colours with filled pages and double-page spreads. The front of the magazine always includes the object which that issue centres around.

In previous editions, loo roll, socks, and air have been the stars of the show. And the last issue was a tampon. Since the start, “Ordinary as a project has been an incredible journey,” says artist Max Siedentopf, founder of Ordinary. “In total working with over 300 renowned and aspiring artists from around the world, and inspiring artists and readers to always find the extra in their ordinary surroundings,” continues the founder, “it was great to see all the other projects that Ordinary sparked.” The final issue, Siedentopf states, is dedicated to one of the “most ordinary objects around, an object that often also came as an extra on the covers of magazines, but which in recent years however started to disappear out of our daily lives.”

Artists in the swan song issue include Thomas Albdorf, Polly Brown, Bobby Doherty, Sebastian Lager, Chris Maggio, Charlotte Rutherford, and Yumiko Utsu, among many others. The CD issue of Ordinary will be available online from tomorrow, 1 December.