July 12, 2004
You Will Buy and Obey! Street Artist Shephard Fairey Launches Stunning New Pop Culture Mag!
We haven't been this excited about a big new magazine launch in a long time, not only because Swindle magazine looks so fresh, but also because it's largely the brainchild of Shephard Fairey. If you don't recognize the name, you may recognize Fairey's street art-turned-brand Obey Giant--its logo is designed around an iconic image of the late great wrestler Andre the Giant. Obey Giant became a worldwide street-marketing phenomenon in the 90's. In a few years it went from a guerrilla sticker-art campaign to a global commercial brand in a way that has become a textbook study for marketers and culture-jammers alike. Now the same mind behind Obey Giant brings us Swindle magazine.
According to the Swindle Web site, the quarterly magazine aims to be "the definitive pop-culture and lifestyle publication for young men and women." That's Cool. But that's also quite an ambitious statement.
Advertisers, distributors and retailers, however, LOVE hearing statements like that and expect nothing less than bold, hyperbolic declarations from mag publishers.
We mean, think about it, do the marketing team at, say, Diesel really want to hear that your magazine hopes, someday, to "humbly carve out a niche on the magazine rack" and be just "one of many voices attempting to define and document pop culture"? No. No, they don't. (Not unless they're on drugs.) But "definitive"? C'mon! If Swindle can pull that off or even half, that would excellent--we're rooting for Swindle all the way! So, Shephard, more power to ya'! Bring it on and be definitive!
The essential content formula is--suprise, surprise!--fashion, music, art, etc. Yes, it seems there are more magazines like this than any other kind on the newstand. Though it also seems that the more ads pages the publication has the more commonly it is referred to as a "lifestyle magazine."
Like several other high-quality, highly original and well-produced small mag titles in the fashion-music-art-lifestyle category, Swindle has the potential to be successful and important insofar that it can be influential. First the magazine will need to be deemed cool by the kidz that matter. That influence will be determined in part by the way Swindle styles its editorial voice and packages itself. The magazine could become truly inspiring.
But to do this, Swindle will have to mine the richest areas of pop cultural evolution--the cutting edge, the underground. It will have to interpret and disseminate the 411 and style elements of what's happening at the fringes of popular culture in places under the mainstream radar, rather than what's obvious and truly "popular" in the mass culture. In other words, not Britney Spears, but Bebel Gilberto. (Hey, there's a mantra in here ... repeat: "Bebel, Not Britney! Bebel, Not Britney!") We have no doubt Swindle can do this and do it well.
But even so, for how long can such a magazine remain niche (not mass) without collapsing under the intense financial pressures inherent in the print publishing business unless it packages its content for a broader readership and in a way that will appeal to more mainstream sensibilities? At what point does it cease to be relevant, especially in the face of the ever rapidly shifting ground that is pop culture. It's rare that such a delicate balance can be achieved and sustained. Tokion magazine (one of our faves) has managed to pull it off fairly consistently for close to a decade. Raygun--if anyone remembers it--didn't and folded.
In its favor, Swindle will be a quarterly publication. That's a smart move. (Though our media metabolism is such that we could eagerly digest the magazine on a monthly basis.) That gives Swindle more time to put together something really special for each issue. And it puts a greater premium on its content. The Swindle crew have also upped the premium by offering two versions of the magazine, one a higher-quality "boutique" version published by Gingko Press that will be that much pricier.
The content and overall design is essentially the same for both versions, but one will be more book-like with some small tweaks, the other more of the soft-cover magazine. The difference is akin to that between a hardcover and paperback novel, except with Swindle you won't have to wait a year for the more affordable paperback version to come out.
It goes without saying that Swindle will serve as default brand advertisement for Obey Giant's work and product line‹everything from stickers to t-shirts with some variation on the Shephard Fairey iconography.
The first issue of Swindle weighs in at a formidable 160 pages, with full color and quality paper. The graphics, layouts and page designs and photography look super-juicy delicious. Aesthetically the magazine is a sight for sore eyes. On the cover is an illustration of hip-hop godfather, Grandmaster Flash. Contents in issue number one include a feature on Grandmaster Flash, an interview with L.A.-based designers National Forrest, a six-page photo spread on old-school gangland fashion inspired by the 70's cult flick "The Warriors," and a cool story on Brazil's graffiti subculture-- way rad!
--Instamatic + The Kid From Kyoto
RELATED LINKS
+ Swindle Magazine Web Site
+ Obey Giant Web Site
+ Shephard Fairey Biography [Gingko Press]
+ Grandmaster Flash Web Site
+ The Medicine Agency
+ Gingko Press Web Site
Posted by at July 12, 2004 10:51 PM
