Look-Look
The magazine by young photographers, writers, and artists
Los Angeles, USA
732 N Highland ave, CA 90038
Email: nicole@look-look.com
- Category: Art, Photography, Youth
- Periodicity: Bi-Annual
- Language: English
- Web: http://www.look-lookmagazine.com
Look-Look is a youth culture company dedicated to building a community of young and powerful voices and getting their ideas heard by corporations, the media, and adult culture at large. For the past four years, we have been building up a network of contributors-sort of our own CNN but staffed by people between the ages of 14 and 30. We started out with one person and we're now 30.000+ strong. Over and over again, we kept hearing from our correspondents that they wanted a showcase for their creativity, one that would treat their work with respect and push them beyond their limits. Look-Look Magazine is exactly that.
Look-Look Magazine is a bi-annual magazine for young people by young people. It features their photographs, their writings, their drawings, and any other art that can fit between the pages of a magazine. 100% of the editorial content is the work of young people. It is all theirs, completely uncensored. The first magazine of its kind, one made up wholly of submissions from the inside of the outsider's mind.
Exclusive Interview
Young people have a lot to say and create.
What is your magazine about?
We publish the art, writing, and photography of amateur artists from around the world.
Who’s behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
The founders and publishers of Look-Look Magazine are Sharon Lee and DeeDee Gordon. The magazine is published by Look-Look. Inc, a company dedicated to the research and understanding of youth culture.
How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
Each issue takes about five months, beginning to end. It takes a long time to acquire all the artwork and advertising from around the world. There is one person who works full-time on the magazine, and then a creative team of five more people, including the designer.
What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
The launch in 2003 and achieving our fifth issue this month. Our readership has been growing and it has been really rewarding to see the increase in submissions and subscriptions.
Which are the key incredients for the success of your magazine?
Quality submissions of art, writing and photography. Without them we can’t produce an issue.
What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be “the” thing to help the magazine to improve?
I think every magazine struggles with getting advertisers to understand them. With us, all of our ads are made by amateur artists for the corporations who sponsor each issue. Convincing a company to hand their logo over to a young artist is a challenge, but people are starting to see how cool it is to have young people make their ads for them.
Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
It would be great if we could be bi-monthly with a huge in-house staff to produce each issue. We want to show off as much art and writing as we possibly can. Young people have a lot to say and create. It’s really amazing.
Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
We have readers of all ages, but I think we have particular appeal with the 14-25 age range. They can just really relate to what is between the pages of our magazine.
Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
Extremely important. We want to make sure there is no one censoring what goes into the content.
What’s your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
Advertising has 0% influence on the content of the magazine and there is no advertising-driven-editorials whatsoever. This comes from the artists themselves and that’s it.
Do you think that magazine readers still need to watch TV?
Answer: I think people drawn inspiration from all areas of the world.
Which is your relationship with your printer? Does he play a main role in your development?
No, just in making the magazine look good.
Which magazines did influence you most? What are you looking for in other magazines?
We feel like what we’re doing is a first in the magazine world, so we didn’t really have any magazine influences.
What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
I’m really proud of it.
What question did you never ask in your magazine but would have liked to?
No comment.
How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself a maniac?
I’m not a maniac, but we probably subscribe to around 30 magazines here in the office that I look at when I have time.
E-mail interview from “01.10.2005”. © Colophon2007.com – Mike Koedinger Editions SA (Luxembourg)
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