Published by Leonardo Calcagno
Can you tell about us, about your magazine
Our team is formed by two designers & art directors, and a biologist who’s specialized in writing. Before making anything, we’ve always wanted to get involved in a magazine and creating something new. Definitely, the editorial world always got our attention: Making all that curating work of finding incredible collaborators and make something beautiful and collaborative. After thinking about what our editorial project would be about, we realized that there weren’t editorial projects talking about animals in a sociological or arty way, but the number of young people/couples with companion animals had increased, suddenly it wasn’t only a family thing. Here it came all from.
Then, we spend a whole year (maybe a little more) curating and thinking about the topics, preparing all the contents, designing,… We had a lot of fun, and actually, we’re learning a lot, as we are a three people team, so we all make everything, and learn by failing, it’s hard and slow, but a nice experience honestly. In the end, is our baby!
Editorial wise…
We look for upstanding contents, try to publish things that haven’t been published before, or create our own content for our magazine. We start always making a list of the things that we think could be interesting to feature, that looks different to other volumes, also things that haven’t been published before or that are not on the internet. That’s why we try to make all the contents especially for our volume, as much as possible, it won’t have any sense for us to print content that you already have a click away on your hand.
Also, we look for the variety of contents to keep our reader interested, with rhythm in the contents and the graphics of the magazine. We use to start with a foundation, to give them a voice, and visibility telling their part of the story, we love to feature animal inspired art pieces, fashion editorials, still lives and get deeper into some expert’s knowledge about nature fauna.
I think it’s always perfect when you have an original article with the perfect harmony between good writing and great images or illustration to accompany the article.
Tell us about yourself
I met Iván, one of my Agapornis partners, at the college. We were both studying graphic design, and we shared that love for print and photography. We love beauty, even when it’s pretty ugly!
With the time, Iván introduced me his couple Toni, who is a biologist with a strong curiosity about the relationship between art and science, and who used to write for some blogs also.
And, after some more time, once Iván and I finished the Bachelor, we came up with the idea of Agapornis Magazine. We always thought of making ‘something’ together, and finally, we make the perfect triangle, as animal lovers, art directors, and writers.
Quick resume in three easy steps!
Print: Why choose print? What kind of paper you use and why? Typography?
First of all, because we all have a full-time work and Agapornis is kind of our after work, then if we were thinking of creating contents and give them value, it has to be an object with regularity, but without the stressful part of having the need to update at least twice a week.
Also, because we are all print lovers, we love that great moment when you buy a magazine and it has this particularly smell of a book that hasn’t been opened yet. At least is an object that from the outside you feel is the same, but each one has its magic and beauty when you open it.
How’s the public response?
We have super good feedback from our customers, some write us with nice compliments, some from the creative fields write us to get involved in… That ALWAYS makes our day and helps us work with enthusiasm on new volumes and projects.
Our main priority is to keep improving and make it the best we can.
Business: Good print mags get a lot of love, but is not always translated into sales or advertising. How’re the sales? Advertising-wise, is it a normal approach of selling an ad page or more a brand ad approach?
We are happy with the sales, I think for us the hardest part —and maybe most important to make the life of any project longer— is the advertising, it takes a lot of time and is not always translated in an ad page if you are not a regular commercial magazine. But I think, as all the independent publishers who are starting, we have to find an original way to make our product attractive to brands, and honesty and being loyal to the project its’s a plus value for any brand who want to gain this same values.
Upcoming projects
Our more imminent new project is the launching of our new site, which will have some articles and other stuff that cannot have place in the printed issue of Agapornis. Also, the idea is to open it a bit, not only animals but include also all that things that we found respectful with our environment, as it is a field that we are willing to explore.