Celeste
Grupo Editorial Celeste S.A. de C.V.
El tiempo Celeste
A unique editorial project in Mexico that involves several core competences of the vanguard contemporary culture.
Mexico, Mexico
Email: paola@celeste.com.mx
- Category: Architecture, Art, Beauty, Cinema, Culture, Design, Fashion, Food, Music, Travel
- Periodicity: Quarterly
- Language: Spanish / English
- Format: 220 x 290 mm
- Circulation: 25,000
- Price: 11 €
- Web: http://www.celeste.com.mx
Founded in 2001
Outline of the Magazine:
The Celeste Magazine is a unique editorial project in Mexico that involves several core competences of the vanguard (forefront) contemporary culture and allows the interaction of different genders between each other. As a result, this is a publication that because of its format works as a forum that questions and increases the creative statements by putting over subjects, and at the same time, relates the interests of the contemporary readers that hardly keep themselves focus only in one area.
Celeste is a trimester magazine dedicated to personalities and works that outline the vanguard creation in such genders as fashion; architecture; industrial, graphic y advertising design; films; plastic arts; literature and music, between others. Besides, the magazine includes articles about travels, drinks, food, new design products, beauty, entertainment, TV shows, cultural spaces, art expositions and much more.
The first number of Celeste was printed on may in this year with an edition of 10 thousand samples and now is already on sale in places like Sanborns, book shops, museums and specialized places all over the country.
Who we are?
Celeste is a project part of the prominent company of communication Multimedios Estrellas de Oro. This company offers several publications like Milenio Diario in Mexico city, Milenio Diario of Monterrey, Público in Guadalajara y Milenio Semanal, that are successful editions that quickly have gained the interest of the readers and have excelled because of their successful permanence in the market. Also, the Multimedios Estrellas de Oro Group manages channels of TV, radio stations and movie theaters, between many other areas that conform the hole company.
Contents
Celeste is dedicated to the creations, personalities and subjects that outline the contemporary culture. Submerged in the actual tide (rush) of globalization, Celeste includes articles of international relevance according to their creative competitiveness, having in this way, global contents of particular interest between the Mexican public.
The content of the magazine appeals to men and women with a high socioeconomic level and a cosmopolitan culture, who search new proposals in the creative scene as an important part of their life style.
In order to avail the possibility of containing several core competences surrounding the edges that mark their limits, the contents are organized according to the subjects, reason why the first edition of Celeste is divided in three sections: Power for the opinion of guest authors, Placer for recomendations of Celeste, and The Pictures, where there is not necessary photography.
The magazine distinguishes itself because contains a great scale of subjects that are developed by specialist people of different areas, but also thinking in a public with general knowledge of the scenes that conform the contents. Like this, the magazine is attractive for specialist readers as for people interested only in creative vanguard, searching accurate and pleasant sources of information.
Design
Celeste break up the standard editorial design in our country and introduce an innovator magazine. In a bigger format than the conventional publications (29x22 cms), Celeste's design is versatile and propositive, but also clear and simple, projecting the contemporary vanguard sense implicit in the subjects that contents the magazine.
Bringing a special privilege to the visual aspect, every article has its own design, including the cover and the headline, which would be different in every number. In addition, the impression quality (200 lines and imported paper of 90 grams) of this magazine is hard to find on Mexican publications.
Editorial council and co-workers
The editorial council is conformed by recognized characters in the cultural environment of Mexico and in the world as writers, artists, graphic and industrial designers, intellectuals, fashion designers, publicists and architects, between others. The editorial council of Celeste is different from other publications because it really works as an active team of work, conformed by specialists that interact in the contents, which makes the principal part of the necessary feedback so we can offer actual and interesting subjects in each number.
The articles we publish are written by experts in such subjects and the reports or interviews to personalities are made by leaders that have the same public recognition than the interviewed person.
Domain (competition)
We are inaugurating a recess in the national publications. Celeste is the choice for many readers that search information about actual subjects of contemporary culture and are interested in publications with visual quality of international level. In this sense, Celeste has no competition in Mexico.
Exclusive Interview
Blue Sky over Mexico
What is your magazine about?
Celeste magazine is a unique editorial project in Mexico that addresses contemporary culture in its many disciplines. Its format makes it a publication that works as a forum for questioning and expanding on creative expressions, with a variety of interlinked topics, related to the diverse interests of contemporary readers.
Celeste is a quarterly magazine dedicated to the personalities and projects that make up the creative vanguard in different areas, such as contemporary art, fashion, architecture, industrial, graphic and advertising design, photography, cinema, literature and music, among others. Furthermore, the magazine publishes articles on travel, drinks, design products, beauty, entertainment, TV shows, cultural institutions, art exhibitions, and much more.
The first issue of Celeste was printed in May 2001.
Who's behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
The founders are Vanesa Fernández and Aldo Chaparro. They wanted to create a magazine that would appeal to a contemporary reader interested in the cultural vanguard. At the time, Mexico lacked a magazine that would address different disciplines and that had more to it than celebrity culture and general interest topics.
Vanesa has a background in contemporary art as curator and critic; Aldo is a conceptual artist.
The editor in chief is Paola Viloria; a fashion designer who's also editor of BabyBabyBaby magazine.
How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
Every issue is carefully planned around a very abstract topic, which is always fun, and certainly challenging. We always search for fresh content, but aren’t afraid to use something we’ve had in archives for years, as long as it is still relevant, and work with the overall contents. Right now, we are a little bit more focused on contemporary art than before, so we go mad tracking and writing about some of the best exhibitions and artists from around the globe. The magazine is quarterly, and we take all of three months to produce the magazine.
The creative team in the office is six people, but one of the main attractions of Celeste is its collaborators. They are friends form around the world that share our vision and perspectives. It'2s people who basically have a lot to say, and don't hold back. On a single issue we can have up to 30.
What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
The magazine was originally founded in Monterrey, Mexico; so the first important step was to actually move to Mexico City.
Big, important moments in the magazine have been the changes in editors the magazine has had. It originally started being edited by Aldo and Vanesa, after two years they appointed a member of the original staff, José García Torres as the editor; he brought in his particular vision and uncanny eye. The magazine took a slightly different road; it became somewhat more urban, edgier, more underground and a little bit surreal. After two years, Paola the current editor was appointed, and she brought in her extraordinary intuition and insight on the different cosmopolitan tribes and their work.
Obviously the magazine has changed from when it first started, but it has done so in a very natural way. The spirit of the magazine remains constant.
Which are the key ingredients for the success of your magazine?
Keeping the magazine relevant in every aspect of it. When the magazine started seven years ago, the goal was for it to be on the cutting edge, to stay at the front of whatever interesting things were happening in the world without attaching it to a certain trend or fashion. To keep moving. For this to happen we relay on collaborators / friends form around the world; they are our eyes and ears out there.
And basically, interpreting the information we get with a very Mexican perspective. Mexico is a chaotic, dramatic place where there's no Order (with capital O), but a lot of interlinked orders that may only make sense to people who live here, it's a very surreal place with profound effects on its inhabitants. It enables us to process the information in a whole different way as if we were living somewhere else.
What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be the thing to help the magazine to improve?
I'm sure everybody answers this the same way, but money could come in handy.
Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
Everywhere. We started selling the magazine abroad in 2003, and by now it is sold throughout the world. The idea is that in five the distribution network is very consolidated.
Putting the physicality of the magazine aside, we would like to be still at the forefront, whatever that means in five years. A thing we've seen in many independent magazines is that once they achieve a comfortable spot, they kind of stay there until they reach a point they loose their edge, and hence start lagging behind, becoming irrelevant. That's something we definitely don't want.
Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
Young people (between 20 and 45) interested in something beyond mainstream. People who observe, but not necessarily follow trends in different aspects of culture.
Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
Being independent has allowed us to basically exist. There is no way Celeste would have been made in a big media company, especially at the time it was launched. We've always celebrated being independent, because it gives you a lot of space to move. I must say however, that remaining independent or not, is not part of any strategy. If an opportunity came along that would benefit the readers, collaborators and advertisers without changing the soul or nature of Celeste, or any magazine, why not take it?
What's your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
Well, advertisers are our means of survival, so they deserve all of our appreciation and respect. They are brands and companies that believe in the project so much they are willing to invest on it. It would be untruthful to say they don't influence our content, because they do; but we don't see this fact as a negative thing. One of our most emblematic issues, Manipulación (number 6, summer 2002) basically assumed, embraced and celebrated this fact and to prove our point we sold our cover to Absolut Vodka. And I don’t mean it was just a case of product placement; we literally sold the space, and ran a full page ad.
Advertising affects and influences collective consciousness, so we decided to embrace this fact. A magazine like ours can't pretend to talk about contemporary culture without addressing advertising, moreover because some of the people we admire and write about in the magazine are the same people that are designing and photographing the ads.
What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
It's funny because it looks as if it was a magazine made very, very long ago. The first issue of Celeste was very experimental and naïve, it feels almost as if it was a scrapbook of all the things we loved; it has evolved to be much more sophisticated and insightful.
Magazine favorite(s) that inspired you in your career.
There are many, but some are Self Service, Purple, Fantastic Man, L'Officiel, V, Numero, W, Black Book.
Do you keep old copies of magazines? If so, what is your favorite in your collection?
Yes, I have so many I don't have anywhere to put them anymore. My favorite is the March 1995 issue of Life. Joe McNally photographed Michelle Pfeiffer using different jewels from the Smithsonian collection.
How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself a maniac?
I'm such a magazine addict; I buy about 15 - 20 magazines a month that vary from the very independent fashion magazines to literary reviews; and I keep them all.
We are compiling answers from some of the most innovative magazine makers around the world today. Who else should we ask?
Jop van Bennekom of Butt and Fantastic Man, Edward Brachfeld of Self Service, Christophe Brunnquell of Purple, Ángela Esteban Librero of Metal.
Answered by Carbajal Carlos (Commercial Director)
Magazine: Celeste
Email: carbajal@celeste.com.mx
Date: 02-10-2008
Publisher
Grupo Editorial Celeste S.A. de C.V.
Cozumel 81 piso 1, Col. Roma, 06700, Mexico D.F., Mexico
Phone +52 5553 1841
- 2044
- 5180
- 2482
- 662
