Welcome to Sleek’s 2014 summer issue, where we look at that most summery of subjects: play. It’s what children do naturally, it embraces chaos and irrationality and its greatest product is that most rare of things, fun, and that highest of emotions, joy. If you ever have the feeling that we live in a joyless, funless, workaholic era, it all makes playing quite important. Vital, in fact.

Thus, fun and games are what we examine through art and fashion in this issue of Sleek: we consider the influence computer games are having in contemporary art, look at how game theory works in fashion design, wonder about how toys and dolls in art can express something of the uncanny fears we felt as kids in front of the TV, and elsewhere we invite a number of artists, photographers and designers to show us their idea of fun, which ranges from jumping up and down on a trampoline to rollercoaster rides to wearing funny masks to… well, see for yourself in the magazine.

Also look out for interviews with Sir Paul Smith, Huma Bhabha, Iris van Herpen, Davis Ostrowski, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Wall, Rad Hourani and Philip-Lorca diCorcia.