Book Band: The Launch
I’ve been a bit MIA, but life’s been a bit crazy as of late. Too many excuses. Anyhow, I’m back and as T.I. would say big shit poppin’ and little shit stoppin’. On May 11th, I attended my very first magazine launch! Granted it was a small affair, but who knows, maybe 5 years from now Book Band will be the new Visionaire and I can say I was there before Terry Richardson (please don’t be a dreamcrusher!)
Book Band is a periodical publication curated by Chicago-based designer Ryan Maconochie, who invites various creative thinkers to submit ten pages each of content on the topic of their choosing. Band members enjoy total creative freedom. Each is responsible for supplying their content exactly as they would like it to be published, and their submissions are not altered or edited in any way. The collective efforts are compiled into a single published work available for purchase online. Book Band No. 1 features the design, photography and writings of Matt Bandsuch, Kevin Ripp, Russ McClintock, Lars Söderkvist and Ryan Maconochie.
In theory, I quite like the idea of cutting out the editor as the middleman between the artist and the audience. However, the end result makes me realize that editors make a damn good salary for a reason (note: this is a small publication, and an editor of this scale would not make a large salary, but I still feel their role would still be highly beneficial) Of the 5 artists featured in the debut of Book Band, I only found one to showcase a well-edited and compelling collection of work—Ryan Maconochie.
Book Band, unbeknownst to them, illustrates a perfect tale of the trials of launching an independent publication. I read recently somewhere that for a magazine to survive, grow and flourish they need enough funding to be able to afford to buy a Honda Civic every other month. Obviously, these figures will be much less for a smaller publication such as Book Band. While large magazines fail quickly without funding it is often a much different situation for smaller, independent publications. Smaller publications end up passing their production costs onto their readers. Book Band’s $20 price tag illustrates this point to a T. I am in no way attacking Book Band specifically—go into any independent magazine shop and you will notice this is prevalent practice. Launching an independent magazine without corporate sponsorship and few ad sales ends in a product so cost prohibitive that the audience it is trying to win over with its independent mantra is cast aside. And that my friends, is how smaller, independent publications fail. There is a magic equation that exists of achieving the perfect balance of corporate sponsorship + ad sales + creative freedom, but much like a unicorn it is a mysterious beast that many search for to their graves.
Despite my disinterest in 4/5 artists featured in Book Band’s debut issue and the prohibitively high cover price, the concept is fresh and interesting, and every issue will continue to feature new talent. I am definitely curious to see this publication grow and hopefully I will be a bigger fan of the content included in future issues.
1 comment June 24th, 2007