Artist/creative director James-Lee Duffy works with editor Josh Jones on a number of magazines, including recent launch Ralph.

Their partnership began with cult zine Pavement Licker in 2003, and has led to work across multiple projects. Today he shares his working week as issue two of Ralph magazine arrives in shops. The quarterly pop culture mag is published by the London creative studio of the same name, and harks back to the nineties, ‘We wanted to hark back to the wild chaos of magazines of that era,’ he says.

What are you doing this Monday morning?
Monday mornings is my wife, Kate Halfpenny’s, turn to do the school run. I still get up early, though, help sort breakfast for our son, feed our dog Rambo, our two cats Punk and Chicken and make coffee for Kate. I have raw cacao mixed with organic coconut milk. I know that sounds pretentious, but I gave up coffee a couple of years ago, and this has been an amazing alternative.

Once I’ve done all that and everyone’s out the door, I head to my studio, which is upstairs in our old vicarage. The first thing I do is call my other wife, Josh Jones (editor of Ralph, Pavement Licker, Huck and Sandwich) to catch up on our projects, compare the weekend adventures and talk all things Ralph. Then I call Justin the gallery owner of Ashbees 100 who sells my work to see how the weekend went at the gallery and discuss commissions etc. This morning, I’m planning the week ahead. We’ve got a team meeting here on Wednesday to review issue three of Ralph.

Describe your work environment—what can you see from your desk/ through the window?

My studio is like a giant kid’s bedroom, minus the bed. It’s a large, open space with paint spattered floorboards and a wide window at one end, with a nice view of some ancient trees.

The room is illuminated by all sorts of lights, from shop signs to adjustable lamps. I’ve made it an intensely personal environment, blending my collections of art, toys, books, and magazines into a unique and vibrant setting. Each corner is thoughtfully arranged for a specific purpose. The table is reserved for handwriting and drawing, where I work with inks, dip pens, and pencils. My desk, featuring a Mac Studio, is for all my design and art direction work.

A battered but comfy leather sofa provides a great spot for reading, while a plan chest holds my artwork, with references for active projects placed on top.

There is also an area for painting and a separate table for laptop work, which is handy for when Josh (and occasionally others) join me in the studio. The walls and surfaces are covered with artwork, collectibles, and memorabilia, which inspires me and creates an ever-evolving atmosphere. My books and magazines are always within easy reach; as a meticulous collector, I know exactly where to find any one I need. 

Which magazine do you first remember?

It has to be Mad. I was and still am completely obsessed with it. Strangely, I was introduced to it by my cousin who lived in Sweden, so my first experience was purely through the pictures, which, when you’re dyslexic, works perfectly well.

I also vividly remember being blown away by my uncle’s collection of OZ magazine. He was a very talented record sleevedesigner and airbrush artist.

Aside from yours, what’s your favourite magazine?

I’d have to say Arkitip. It was a major influence on Pavement Licker and introduced me to an incredible array of artists, galleries, photographers, and illustrators. Each issue was limited edition and came complete with an art piece, making it more than just a magazine.

Describe Ralph in three words

Glossy. Entertaining. Fun. 

How does the magazine relate to the client, a design studio

Chris, the owner of Ralph Creative and publisher of the magazine is an old friend. He approached me and Josh saying he wanted to make a magazine with the strap line ‘Pop Culture For The Fun Of It’. It’s such a great line to build a magazine around.

All three of us thought that quite a bit of indie publishing is a little serious, the print quality too high and the design too beautiful. We wanted to make a magazine you’d be happy to roll up and put in you bag and pocket, be fun and funny and not take itself too seriously.

I cut my teeth in publishing in the late nineties and we wanted to hark back to the wild chaos of magazines of that era—titles like Tokion, early Loaded, RayGun, blahblahblah and Sleazenation. But done in a contemporary way.

The Ralph agency staff are definitely encouraged to pitch ideas for the magazine, and we’ve featured some great pieces from them writing and featuring projects they do outside of work in past issues. But there are no mission statements, industry jargon, LinkedIn links, client mentions, projects they’re working on etc. That is totally anti what Ralph magazine is about. As Chris said when we launched, ‘otherwise it’ll just be a book of case studies. Who wants to read that?’ Ralph magazine has a different website, email and instagram to Ralph the agency but it’s a symbiotic relationship that will hopefully grow stronger and stronger.

How does creating a magazine for a client contrast with producing your own magazine, Pavement Licker?

Chris is a perfect publisher with luscious hair and a great personality (and is in charge of the budget). He does input but in an editorial way—it’s not like a classic client/designer job who want to change everything.

Design-wise I’ve been let off the leash but Josh and I keep Chris abreast of the magazine as it’s being created so he’s involved from the start and he doesn’t get a total surprise when the issue is finished. Because the magazine is absolutely packed with so much stuff and the design is very loud and busy, I’ve purposefully made the font size for features larger than most magazines do, otherwise the eye would be doing a lot of work. so far Chris’ only design feedback is ‘can we see what it looks like one point smaller?’ So get ready for that design overhaul in issue three.

Highlight one story from the issue that best sums up the new issue of Ralph.

Sounds strange, but from a design perspective, the contents page in issue one (above) really encapsulates the essence of Ralph. When I created it, both Josh and Chris broke into a celebratory dance—it perfectly captured the Ralph mentality and set the tone.

As for a full feature, I’m particularly fond of ‘Naoshima, Baby’ written by James Brown of Loaded fame. The slightly hallucinogenic art direction and design complemented the feature beautifully, and was enhanced by Em Prové’s photography.

What advice do you have for anyone planning to launch a magazine?

Define your niche, style, vibe and stick to it. Oh and don’t work with dicks.

What are you most looking forward to this coming week?

The extended Ralph magazine team coming down to my house to eat lunch, crack jokes and have a fun meeting about the new issue and 2025. Also, issue eight of the brilliant design magazine Plastikcomb is being released. It has a big feature about Pavement Licker in and I can’t wait to see what they’ve done with that.

ralphmagazine.com

jamesleeduffy.com

@jamesleeduffy