Do you get bored of picking up the same magazines with the same cover stars telling the same stories over and over?
You need an injection of hashtag inspiration to your reading material. Unconventional covers! Up and comers you can actually relate to! Arty photography and edgy content! Independent magazines are the answer your creative block has been waiting for.
In the world of art, design and fashion, the marvel that is the internet has shown us the work of creatives we may never have had the pleasure of hearing of otherwise. Indies are giving chances to those all those talented people not getting those grad jobs (grrr) and sharing their work with the world. Hurray for the freedom of the press! So if your 9-5 has your creativity lacking of late, fear not, we’ve got just the ticket.
Bricks
Bristol brings it in the form of this arty indie mag. Bricks champions all that’s quirky and fine in art and design, photography and fashion.
Bricks perfectly marries together the latest and greatest work of fresh creative talents in its quarterly print issues. The magazine is gaining quite the cult following for its funky, cool kid vibe. Created on a submission basis, you won’t find any business suits keeping a lid on the creativity at this mag. Follow on Insta if you are a closet riot grrrl and have secretly (or not so secretly) always wanted to dye your hair pink.
Sicky
Founded in Madrid in April 2012, Sicky has provided a platform for artists across all creative mediums to showcase their work. In 2014 it expanded into a twice yearly print, now available in more than twenty countries. Can’t get enough of just twice a year? Head over to their online mag for some serious fash-spiration. Sicky’s strength is no doubt in its artistic fashion editorials, often using the amazing designs of graduate’s collections and up and coming brands, pushing boundaries from the #mainstream. The talents contributing to this title will be the big fashion guns of the future for ‘sho.
**Grit **
Grit is a quarterly mens and womenswear online journal. The Grit blog is updated twice a week (on Tuesdays and Friday) perfect for an online inspiration binge. Art Directed By Niclas Heikkinen and designed by Max Parsons, Grit has cool content galore, without a magazine price tag. This is the internet at its best. Championing fashion without the boundaries, or price tag, we wanna be in Grit’s gang. Grit has editorials so chic you’ll want to frame them for your flat.
Ballad Of
Since 2008 founders Claire and Lindsey have ‘searched across the globe for ‘Brand New Art We Heart.’ They showcase this daily in an online exhibition space celebrating the best emerging artists have to offer. When the ‘two displaced Northern art geeks’ moved to London, they were desperate to showcase the talent they knew was out there ‘bubbling under the surface.’ They find online is ‘the best way to get as much work seen by as many people as possible’ with the bi annual print edition featuring the ‘elite of online’ Fun, pretty and retro in equal measures, if you were to take all the allure, dreaminess and nostalgia of a Sofia Coppola movie and wrap it up in a magazine, you’d have Ballad Of.
Frankie
Some magazines stand out on a newsstand, and Frankie is definitely one of them. We’re drawn to its arty covers, the luxuriously thick matte paper, gorge layouts and cute illustrations. Based in Australia, Frankie is smart, funny, cute and curious. Covering all aspects of lifestyle; from travel, art, photography, fashion, to music, craft and interiors. Frankie wants to inspire their readers but also give them a ‘good old laugh’ as they turn this bi-annual’s beautiful pages. Follow them on Instagram for daily inspiration, but be warned, you’ll want to put flowers in your hair and run away to a life of Bohemianism.
Bad Lands 777
Sexually charged fashion. Rock n’ roll nostalgia. Female supremacy. Three sentences and we’re sold already. With a ‘mutual appreciation for all things bad’ friends Chloe, Jade and Lilli-Rose created Bad Lands 777 as blog in 2010. After the fierce threesome ventured into the business of vintage clothing, they decided a mag was the next step in world domination. The first issue, ‘The Sisterhood Issue’ is dedicated to women, fashion, film, music and art. You won’t find this mag telling you to drop a few pounds, that’s for sure! Catering to the ‘rebel girl inside you all’ Bad Lands 777’s pages are ‘soaked in female empowerment’. Our magazine prayers have been answered.
Girls Like Us
GIRLS LIKE US turns the spotlight on an international expanding community of women within arts, culture and activism. With personal stories and vanguard visuals GIRLS LIKE US unfolds feminist legacies in arts and writing. It’s Girl Power personified. Mixing politics with pleasure, the magazine is mapping new routes towards a feminist, post-gender future. Clever and creative in equal measures, featuring inspirational women you should be reading about. We so wish this was around when we were growing up. Prepare to meet your new girl crush.
Noon
Noon Magazine beautifully blurs the line between art and fashion. With fashion photographers shooting visual essays, and artists shooting fashion stories, the crossover is welcomed and encouraged in this visually stunning 'zine. Noon really is one to watch, already boasting impressive contributions from photographer Juergen Teller and stylist Jack Borkett. Previously the Art Director of POP magazine, Editor-in-Chief Jasmine Raznahan noticed her friends were making great self-initiated work but had nowhere to publish it. Out of her design and art direction studio, ARPA, Noon was founded in Spring/Summer 2014. Jasmine tells me ‘I don’t believe that print is dying, if anything I think the advent of digital publishing has made us fetishise print even more.’ Here, here!
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.