As a celebration of print and the physical artefact of the magazine, it can’t have been easy for indie mag celebration magCulture Live to not be able to do things IRL last year.
Now, though, the London conference is back with something of a bang: the 2021 event’s speakers include i-D founder Terry Jones; MacGuffin editor-in-chief Kirsten Algera; and Olu Michael Odukoya, creative director of Modern Matter, the mag dubbed “porn for a magazine editor” by Magma’s Marc Valli.
The other speakers revealed so far are Dan Crowe, editor-in-chief of Port and new launch Inque; and Harriet Fitch Little, editor of Kinfolk and editor-in-chief of Kindling, with more to be announced.
The annual conference, which returns to its usual Conway Hall home in central London, exists to platform “exceptional magazine work” and champion the power of print. The talks’ cover pretty much all aspects of magazine-making across art direction, editing, photography, illustration and typography. “But we also want this day to be a celebration of returning to some kind of normality—at last, an opportunity to come together and celebrate!” say the organisers.
“After a year and a half away from live events we’re excited to return to our Conway Hall home for a celebratory day focused on the independent magazine,” says Jeremy Leslie, magCulture founder. “From eighties innovator Terry Jones (i-D) to today’s big successes (Kinfolk, MacGuffin) and the latest generation of new magazines, we’ll hear what powers the evergreen desire to create, publish, sell and read printed magazines.”
Away from its live setting, magCulture is an online resource, a magazine shop and editorial consultancy founded by Jeremy Leslie around the simple idea “We love magazines” and the belief that “editorial creativity is an ever-developing discipline that continues to adapt to technologies and circumstances,” says Leslie.
magCulture’s various strands work together to celebrate magazine history as well as championing contemporary publications and exploring the possibilities in the future of print. “We believe independent voices in print are more important than ever, as digital channels get ever-more efficient at closing down serendipity,” Leslie adds.
magCulture Live takes place all-day on Thursday 4 November 2021 at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL.
This year’s event will, for the first time, offer livestreaming tickets for those who can’t make it to London.
- Autobahn - November 26, 2021
- Alphabetical - November 12, 2021
- SOFA Universe - November 8, 2021
