Pan #1
Over the last year at magCulture HQ, we’ve started to refer to a good number of magazines that we come across each week as ‘Platforms’ – publications that are specifically designed to show off what a designer is capable of, or to showcase the work of different photographers, illustrators or other image-makers in a network. A few months ago, we even saw a magazine that called itself Platform.
People don’t just make magazines because they have something to say; they also make magazines as portfolio pieces, or as a way to establish themselves as part of a collective alongside other artists and designers who work in a similar vein. For me, ‘platform’ magazines are most interesting when they’re the latter; when they’re setting out to bring together and establish a scene.
Newly released Pan from New York and Tokyo is a particularly vibrant and effervescent version of a ‘platform’: it showcases a collection of bold image-makers that are particularly fascinated by colour, lo-fi mediums, bright tones, harsh flash and the shine of jewels. They’re artists that I’ve seen a lot on the Internet when scrolling through Pintrest or Tumblr, and Pan has chosen to reproduce these Internet favourites in print.
The kinds of images on display in Pan are eclectic; there’s collage art by Chyrum Lambert (above), intriguing and warped photography by Brian Vu (also above), and odd, purposefully awkward illustrations by Noncheleee (below). There’s also the embroidery of Mana Morimoto (also below) and colorful pen drawings by Erin D Garcia (also below). I enjoy the slightly anarchic way that the names of the image-makers have been crossed out in red, and the way that a blood red line frames the side of all the pages.
The reason that the editors Junpei Inoue and Yoshirotten decided to make Pan and to platform these image makers is simple: every day on the Internet, they come across visual artists that they find tantalising and interesting, but with a quick click they find themselves on another blog or Instagram feed, jumping to the next image or artists or idea. “Because we don’t want to simply let go and move on, we created this magazines,” they explain, “These bits, moments, works or whatever you want to call them have been selected with the intention of spreading that feeling of being outside of time to our readers, and supporting the artists who are creating our new timeless scenery.”
Editors: Junpei Inoue and Yoshiro Nishi
Designer: Junpei Inoue