magCulture Live, London 2021 update
As magCulture Live, London, approaches we can confirm the final line-up and running order for the event.
The day will open and close with speakers from two significant editorial projects of the past year.
First up, Christoph Amend, Editor-in-chief of ZEITmagazin, will join us from Berlin to share his growing range of launches and discuss the influence of indie magazines on them. The day will close with Alex Breuer, creative director at The Guardian, who will introducing their exciting new Saturday magazine.
The rest of the day will be a celebration the independents, ranging from the original 1980’s indie, i-D, through to the latest new arrivals, plus several of the biggest indie names.
Created around our mantra, ‘We love magazines!’ magCulture Live will champion great magazine work across art direction, editorial design, photography, illustration and typography.
The day will also be an opportunity to come together again IRL and celebrate the creativity at the heart of magazine culture!
Book now!
magCulture Live, London 2021
Thursday 4 November
9.00am—6.00pm
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square
London WC1R 4RL
Tickets include all talks, lunch, drinks, goodie bag and access to the video recording of the day. Plus! There’ll be additional side events as well as the pop-up version of the magCulture Shop on site.
Running order
09:00 Registration
09:30 Theatre opens
09:45 Welcome!
10:00 Christoph Amend, ZEITmagazin
10:20 Dan Crowe, Port & Inque
10:55 Sachini Imbuldeniya, Studio PI
BREAK
11:35 Harriet Fitch Little, Kinfolk & Kindling
12:05 Five x five independents:
David McKendrick, Paperboy
Rhona Ezuma, Thiiird
Anna Bates, Dirty Furniture
Osman Bari, Chutney
Georgeous Michael, Louche
LUNCH
14:00 Olu Michael Odukoya, Modern Matter
14:25 Kirsten Algera, MacGuffin
BREAK
15:30 Terry Jones, i-D (filmed interview and live Q&A)
16:30 Alex Breuer, The Guardian Saturday
DRINKS
Meet our speakers
Kirsten Algera
Editor-in-chief, MacGuffin
Kirsten is a writer, curator, educator and co-founder of MacGuffin, the design research magazine exploring the life of things, and is a regular participant at magCulture Live. She’ll be looking back at the first ten issues of MacGuffin, selecting a story from each issue that together sum up the project to date.
Christoph Amend
Editorial director, ZEITmagazin
The success of his weekly supplement for ZEIT newspaper has led to Christoph developing a series of magazines under the ZEITmagazin name. These include a series of local city editions, a men’s title and most recently a new food magazine. All share a commitment to strong writing and great visuals.
Christoph will be updating us on these developments while appraising the influence of contemporary indie magazines on his publications.
Osman Bari
Founder, Chutney Magazine
Born in Lahore and now studying in London, Osman is a self-taught graphic designer and occasional writer. He’ll be talking about Chutney, the beautifully produced risograph magazine he launched in 2019 as a platform for everyday stories of culture and identity.
Anna Bates
Editor, Dirty Furniture
Anna is a London-based writer, editor, curator and lecturer, and co-founder of Dirty Furniture, an independent magazine that considers design from the perspective of use. Each issue takes a piece of furniture as its theme and uses it as a springboard to explore topics spanning politics, history, technology, psychology, manufacturing – and the plain weird. She’ll be sharing their recent fifth issue, The Phone.
Alex Breuer
Creative director, The Guardian
Alex has led the design team at The Guardian since 2013, and established a fresh visual language across print and digital with its 2018 shift to tabloid format. He’ll be sharing the development work behind the newspaper’s recent magazine launch Saturday, which sees a significant shift of design direction for the newspaper. Alex notes of the title’s independent status, ‘We exist for our readers not for a proprietor or shareholders.’
Dan Crowe
Editor-in-chief, Port and new launch Inque
As well as co-founding Port in 2011, Dan has been responsible for such indie highlights as Zembla and Avaunt. The first edition of new title Inque, his latest collaboration with design partner Matt Willey, is published this month. This annual literary/arts magazine is scheduled to publish 10 times, ceasing in 2030. He’ll be sharing the launch strategy and giving a first glimpse of the much-anticipated first issue.
Rhona Ezuma
Editor-in-chief, Thiiird
Rhona is a London-based stylist, creative director and editor. She is also founder of Thiiird, an independent magazine amplifying voices from under-represented backgrounds through centralising the thought, being and art of people of colour, the queer community, women, and others with marginalised backgrounds.
Harriet Fitch Little
Editor, Kinfolk and Editor-in-chief, Kindling
Harriet has worked with culture and lifestyle indie stalwart Kinfolk for three and a half years, and this year led the launch of its first sister publication Kindling, a biannual magazine for people with children. She’ll be showcasing the new magazine and its relationship with its parent title.
Sachini Imbuldeniya
Executive creative director, Studio PI
Sachini spoke at one of our online events during the lockdown, and she returns here to update us on the work of her photography and illustration agency Studio PI. Launched to promote equality and celebrate diversity across the creative industry, Studio PI’s roster has quickly established an award-winning body of work.
Terry Jones
Founder and creative director, i-D magazine
Following his early career at British Vogue and Vanity Fair, Terry launched his own magazine, i-D, in 1980. Initially a black and white, stapled fashion zine, it quickly developed into one of the most influential magazines of our times. As it marks 40 years, we present a commissioned film interview with Terry, in which he looks back at the first issue of i-D and reflects on the nature of ‘independent.’
Following the film, Terry will join us remotely for a Q&A session.
David McKendrick
Creative director, Paperboy
After an award-winning stint as art director of British Esquire, David launched creative agency BAM in 2014 where he and partner Lee Belcher specialise in editorial and cultural projects. This year he launched his first self-published magazine, Paperboy, a beautifully crafted piece of print that combines work by renowned creative names with that of high school kids and undergraduates.
Georgeous Michael
Founder, Louche
Georgeous Michael is a drag king channeling the spirit of a much-loved 80s pop icon (the clue is in the name), and is the founder of Louche, a magazine dedicated to celebrating the UK’s diverse drag and queer performance scene.
Olu Michael Odukoya
Creative director, Modern Matter
Each issue of Olu’s biannual magazine challenges our preconceptions of the form, mixing long-form writing with conceptually-based physical design. He’ll be introducing issue 19 of his magazine, due out as magCulture Live takes place. It promises to be as fascinating as ever—the maagzine’s Instagram feed was recently hacked and the issue is a response to the experience of losing control of your content.
Goodie bags and water
To help prevent waste, we will be using paper bags to distribute the event programme and sponsor gifts. Please bring an old tote bag or simlar to carry these on the day.
For the same reason, we will not be distributing plastic bottles of water. Instead, please bring your own bottle, which can be filled on site.
Livestreaming
For the first time we’re also offering live streaming for the afternoon session, which starts at 2pm GMT. The afternoon session will include Alex Breuer, Terry Jones, Kirstin Algera and Olu Michael Odukoya.
If you’re not able to make it to London, select the livestream ticket at booking and tune in, accessible by a password protected link which will be sent the day before the event.
Video recording
All ticket-holders (IRL and streaming) will have access to a video of the entire day’s talks. A password-protected link will be shared after the event.
Covid-19
We’re excited to be assembling together again at Conway Hall, but realise Covid-19 remains a threat. We’ve reduced ticket numbers to give everyone a bit more space this year, but ask you to do a lateral flow test the day before the day—whether you are double-vaccinated or not—and bring your own facemask.
If you suspect you have symptoms please stay at home.
All speakers listed are confirmed, but we reserve the right to change the line-up for reasons beyond our control. We’re unable to refund tickets once booked.
With thanks to our partners whose support makes magCulture Live possible:
