All posts tagged: Magazines

Devoted

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At 15, considerably late in the game, I first picked up a skateboard and decided that this was the way I want to spend my time with, the way of exploring and making sense of the physical world around me. When I’m at my parents, my old room still has that skate rat feel to it. Broken boards here and there, some cut-out photos and ads of my favourite pros, some worn-out shoes crammed in the back of the wardrobe and of course, the huge pile of magazines collected along the way. A big chunk of my early skateboarding education, I owe to the videos I borrowed from friends on VHS or DVD and studied over and over and over again, yet my weapon of choice for inspiration were the print magazines released every month. Now, in times of the digital word, countless blogs, social media, digesting the news about literally anything – not just the subculture of skateboarding – has changed radically, not just compared to the early 2000’s, but the pre-internet times. And …

Say Hello to Boom Saloon

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Having freelanced quite a bit in the wonderful magic world of indie magazines, keeping ad-free photography and adventure magazine Wildland Mag afloat, I was genuinely excited when I was let in on a new project idea. About a year ago, I met (then) twitter acquaintance Rachel Arthur for a chat and it felt like two magazine minds instantly clicked. We talked about the way media, journalism and the publishing industry shifted in the past years, old powerhouses falling by the wayside and how indie magazines have taken over bigger and bigger chunks of traditional readerships with exciting new content and financing models. And so we spoke about boom saloon, a new adventure she was scheming with friend and designer Jamie Smail.  At its core sits a beautifully printed magazine full of inspiring stories by a collective of international contributors, seeking to spur a movement, a wave to democratise creativity for good. As part of every issue, boom saloon selects a social project to support and champion creativity in underprivileged areas. It’s about taking young creatives by the hand, nurturing their raw talent …

And Here We Harvest the Fog

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Ingenuity exists in so many ways, it’s mind-boggling what’s possible when people just pursue their dreams and harness their creativity to the fullest. That’s where the passion of the people behind Makeshift stems from. Known for a kaleidoscope of beautifully crafted content that seeks to uncover creative solutions from the economic fringe, it’s no wonder why the magazine quickly snatched a hot spot on my bookmarks list. Just take features about Barcelona’s pickpocketing school, Palestine’s lone brewery, building DIY limbs in Thailand or the Chinese copy painters of Dafen as a benchmark and you’ll get a good impression of what I mean with innovative stories. And their Power Hackers short film series is no exception, visiting unexpected makers and designers who are developing creative climate solutions. I especially loved this one on the Cloud Catchers of Peru. By using nylon nets, lo-tech ingenuity and an abundant local resource, the locals of Lima’s arid hill villages developed a hack to maintain the supply of water in the surrounding areas. With nature’s future on the razor’s edge, it’s always great to see …

On The Bookshelf: The Eighty-Eight Volume 2

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It’s been a while since I last introduced an exciting new magazine to the blogosphere, so here’s the newest addition to my mag stand. The Eighty-Eight  proudly refers to itself as the ‘adventurous magazine for the occasional thinker’, featuring essays, stories and pictures, girdled by engaging, playful designs and illustrations. Created by curator and jazz musician Jamie Cullum, editor Anna-Marie Crowhurst and art director Kate Monument, Volume #2 is jam-packed with great and unusual stories, quirky illustrations and cheeky commentaries you won’t easily find elsewhere. What about finding the true origin of Come on Eileen, taking a dip into the dark and dirty history of flamenco or rummaging a whole mini zine dedicated to Donuts? Exactly. And because I can’t feature all of the goodies, here are my 3 fav picks from the issue! Isobel Diamond & John Hooper: Kerala by Rail Some time ago, photographer John Hooper and writer Isobel Diamond set off to travel the vastness of the Indian land & chose the most common means of transport: On one of the 11.000 trains traversing the 71.000 miles of track. This amazing …

© Matiinu Ramadhan

Creative Findings #2: Of nature myths, wanderlust, empowerment & creators

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So there we are. Time for another bunch of creative gemstones I loved reading about and marvel at over the last few days. Maybe you’ll love em, too? Mighty mountain ridges have fascinated photographer Charles Emerson since his early childhood & I suppose he happily embraced the offer to travel the world and create such an impressive photo essay for Intelligent Life Magazine. The online release of ‘Myth and Mountains’ has now been launched by the good folk at Bristol’s Antlers Gallery and features breath-taking shots that literally look like impressionist paintings. Fab work! We all probably know him by the name of Walter Jr. And after his breakthrough role in cult series Breaking Bad, RJ Mitte’s career as an actor and producer has taken off big time. In the latest issue of Schön Mag, he talks about how he uses his media fame to turn his own disability into a voice of empowerment for others. Read it here via ReadBug. Oh, and no spoilers, promised! For someone like me who has worked with magazines before & tries …

Cover © Maud Chalard

On The Bookshelf: The Quarterly Magazine Issue #2

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Inevitably, you stumble across them, whether covering a whole page or squeezed into its very last corner. For many of us, adverts are inseparably entangled with our favourite magazines. Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not only an admirer of the written word, exciting stories and compelling photography, but equally digging clever adverts. It’s just about keeping a balance. Well, if I’m flicking through the pages of most lifestyle, fashion or culture-related mags, all you basically do is jumping from one random perfume, clothing or technology ad to another. The actual articles quite often wither into mere fill-in amongst the crowd. To me, something’s wrong here. Annoyingly wrong. People (supposedly) buy magazines for content in the first place, right? At least I do. So where’s the value and appreciation for the creatives behind it – writers, editors and photographers – if the focus is constantly distracted from the real deal? The photographic print journal The Quarterly however proves that things can be done quite differently, devoted to an ethical, art-valuing and ad-free concept. Well, let’s step back and get to the bottom of it. …