Adrian and David, Buffalo Zine
We start this week at work with David Uzquiza and Adrian González-Cohen, the principals behind the brilliant Buffalo Zine. Launched in 2011, each biannual issue presents the latest fashion in a high concept, themed format.
David and Adrian became friends while at university in Madrid. They produce Buffalo Zine from London, alongside their commercial projects.
Issue 13, Buffalo Viral, has just been published, one of thier weirdest but best issues yet: a spiral-bound collection of photo stories using viral memes as the visual theme, alongside several heavyweight essays about the nature of viral content. We invited them to answer our questions using memes.
What are you up to this Monday morning?
Adrian: I’m in Spain at the moment, working from my parents family home in Galicia, in the countryside. ATM organizing the FW20 issue of Buffalo and some photography projects of my own.
David: I’m wfh at the moment. Through most of 2020 we kept going to our office, which is in a previously semi abandoned one hundred years old building on Hackney Road (see buffalozine.com/no5). But the building is now closed for refurbishment, they’re doing some major works, converting a lot of the empty warehouse space into artists studios.
Describe your desk and your work space
David: A little while back I moved into an unfurnished flat and set up my desk next to a window, since we won’t have our office back until September. Just very recently, a few weeks ago I bought one of those under desk cord organisers to keep all the wires cute and tidy but…
From my window I see the old Ace Hotel London, currently empty while it awaits to be turned into a new hotel. That means never needing to worry about drawing the curtains, but when the guests come back it’s going to get weird as I can literally see even the bathtubs in those rooms, and I guess they’ll also have a pretty direct view of me.
Adrian is away at the moment so we catch up in virtual reality via the famous Zoom software.
Adrian: I place my laptop on the dining table, it’s quite big, and looking at the green fields.
David: I’m doing just fine, working from home…
Me before…
…me now.
Are you feeling optimistic about 2021?
David: I was. Until everything turned a very dark turn last week with #FriendsReunion
Adrian:
Which magazine do you first remember?
Adrian: HOLA! Fashion. It was a special edition of HOLA! (The spanish Hello! and the actual original) covering all the fashion shows. It was the first and only access I had to proper fashion.
David: Not the very first one, but I think the first one that sparked something special in my brain was Ragazza (teen mag for girls, and their gay brothers, was big in Spain in the nineties) that my older sister used to buy and collect and I would secretly read.
Full of sex, fashion, travel, horoscopes, top models and sexy men. There was a section called ‘Who’ featuring everyone who was cool. In ‘Where’, tips for where to eat in Madrid or Barcelona (very useful for a 12-year-old boy living in a small northern town). ‘When’ was about who was coming on tour to Spain, ‘What’ about what was trendy in the capitals of the world and ‘Why’ was all gossip.
Articles about how to use condoms, safe sex and stuff. With edgy layouts and heavy doses of lovely Bruce Weber-esque photography of hot guys that made me very confused. I learned so much with it LOL
Which magazine matters to you the most this morning?
David: I’m reading the book about Nova magazine—‘Nova,1965-1975’. Fascinated by the ins and outs of how it was conceptualised and produced in sixties London, and there’s a lot of good gossip, backstory and anecdotes about the highs and lows of working there. Everyone says the same but it’s so true: it feels so modern and yet it was made 50 years ago.
Adrian: I’ve been having a look at old Nuevo Estilo (interior magazines) issues that my grandma bought back in the day. The mix of modern minimalistic style with very adorned and (now) dated elements got me truly obsessed (above).
Which meme best describes your mood at the start of this new week?
David, 7am…
…David, 11am
[ picture deleted ]
Adrian…
Describe Buffalo Zine in three memes.
David…
Adrian…
Why ‘Buffalo’?
Adrian: The name? I was working in a cultural space in NYC, and this woman called on the phone, I had her spell Buffalo (the city in NY) because I couldn’t understand her thick american accent. It’s a very similar word in spanish but it’s pronounced totally differently, I found it funny, I was quite embarrassed, I thought it was a funny word, regardless the meaning.
David:
You subvert some of the biggest names in fashion; do you ever get a bad reaction from the big brands?
David:
Adrian: Very glad to say no, we have never been called out, never any brand made us compromise our vision, in our case its an urban legend. We didnt have to sell our soul to anybody, and if someone think we have, dont blame it on the brands :)
What’s your position on crocs?
David:
Adrian: I have a pair and I adore them. Christopher Kane did this great collab with Crocs many years ago that of course was only available in women sizes. Basically the jibbitz were crystals, so I turned my crystals and stones collection into jibbitz with glue, and got myself a pair...and its a massive success, people stop me everywhere, Rocks on Crocs!
And on the topic, here a brilliant bit of a story by Raphael Bliss, Lily Bling and George Serventi in the new issue…
The Buffalo Zine issue 13 front cover set
There’s something delicious about seeing a printed magazine embrace digital culture so emphatically; can you imagine a 100% digital edition of Buffalo Zine?
David: Thank you, that’s very nice to hear. No one has written anything about this new issue yet, I think. I’m curious to know what you thought of it. So, although I can be potentially tempted by the idea of reaching further and beyond with our online presence, print is where my heart and mind are. So no way 100% digital.
Adrian: Yes, It would be possible, we have a digital edition already which is an edit of the print, but suitable to have its own exclusive content. I guess doing an issue that is only gonna exist in digital format would be something different.
If one day we dont see the point in printing we could try that and see how it goes I guess, since it would be quite different from what we do now. But I’m not closed to the idea.
How high was your screen time last week?
David: I’ve never checked that let me see… good lord my phone says it was 3h 59m per day! 😱 That simply cannot be possible.
Adrian: I dont know how to check that!
What will be your highlight of the coming week?
David: Actually from tomorrow I’ll be OOO in an undisclosed location.
Adrian: The pool!
Fun fact: Just last week we heard that we won a D&AD wood pencil for issue 11 (Buffalo Earth). And for issue 10 (the unfinished issue), one of the only 2 graphite pencils awarded this year. I think that makes Buffalo the only magazine that has been awarded a D&AD pencil for every one of their issues. #shamlessselfpromo