Frame
Peter Huiberts
The Great Indoors
Frame is an edgy design magazine for professionals with a worldwide content and distribution.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Laan der Hesperiden 68, 1076 DX
Email: info@framemag.com
- Category: Architecture, Design, Homes/Interiors
- Periodicity: Every two months
- Language: English
- Format: 236 x 303 mm
- Circulation: 34,000
- Price: 19.95 €
- Web: http://www.framemag.com
Exclusive Interview
All about Interiors
What is your magazine about?
Frame is all about interiors. We try to find the most radical and inspiring spaces out there, from shops and bars to offices and homes. Part of the magazine is dedicated to interior products, such as furniture and lighting.
Who's behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
The magazine is founded in 1997 by Peter Huiberts (still Frame's publisher) and myself (editor in chief). We met at a Dutch trade magazine on interior design and discovered we had the same interests and ambitions. Since we couldn't achieve our goals working on that magazine, we decided to launch a magazine ourselves. Sounds easy, but it took us a year to find a publisher who believed in our plans. Since then our mission has been to create a global platform for interior designers, to inspire them and make them proud of their job (which they usually were not at the time we started. They felt like second-rate artists.) Meanwhile a lot of people read Frame: from architects to designers, brand managers and all kinds of creatives.
How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
We're in the lucky position that designers and brands submit many new projects. Secondly there's a network of freelancers who tip us. So we can select the most inspiring new interiors worldwide. Our editors and freelancers write stories about the designs they discovered, and we request photos and drawings from the designers. In some occasions we commission a photographer. After careful editing the material is sent to our freelance graphic designers. Making one issue takes about 6 weeks. We have a team of three editors, usually assisted by an intern.
What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
After a year or two we had lost so much money that our publishing director thought about putting an end to publishing Frame. We survived thanks to a one-time grant from the government. After that things went uphill. After five years Frame finally became profitable. On a different level it has always been important to switch graphic designers each two or three years. Collaborating on a magazine is an intense process. Typically the energy level gets too low after a couple of years. A fresh look at things by new designers always worked until now.
Which are the key ingredients for the success of your magazine?
Well-researched content, high-quality pictures and contemporary graphics. Some call Frame the interior-design pornography bible.
What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be the thing to help the magazine to improve?
The publishing world has become extremely global: everyone can access the same information at the same time. Moreover, blogs can publish that information on the same day, whereas a magazine like Frame is published bimonthly. And then there are simply more magazines on interior design available then 11 years ago, meaning that competition has become stringer. These are the challenges we're confronted with. I don't think there's a one-thing-only solution to make the magazine better. We try to be as sharp as possible all the time.
Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
It would be great if Frame still would be one of the leading magazines in its niche, and perhaps would have succeeded in broadening that niche.
Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
Our main target group consists of interior design professionals. The magazine is also read by architects, brand managers and all kinds of creatives. Roughly 10% of our readership consists of design students. They are the magazine's future.
Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
I wouldn't say it's part of our strategy, but it's important for us to be able to do what we think is good for the magazine, instead of some marketing people telling us what to do.
What's your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
Advertising is important for us, because it generates more than one third of our income. We therefore cannot neglect advertisers from an editorial point of view. So yes, we also run advertorials.
What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
It makes me smile, because I like to think that the magazine has become much more mature and balanced since then. But the magazine's DNA is already present in the first issue.
Magazine favorite(s) that inspired you in your career.
Domus, Wallpaper, Dazed & Confused, Intersection, Fantastic Man, Another Magazine, to name a few.
Do you keep old copies of magazines? If so, what is your favorite in your collection?
Yes, I have the whole collection at home. Roughly the first issues by new graphic designers are among the most beloved ones. They are fresh and hold a promise (which usually gradually fades away).
How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself a maniac?
I don't count them, but I think I see about 10-15 magazines each month. Many of them we get, some I buy. I consider myself a maniac in the way that I simply can't enjoy reading a magazine, but always look at it from a professional point of view.
We are compiling answers from some of the most innovative magazine makers around the world today. Who else should we ask?
There's a young Dutch magazine, more a book actually, so a boogazine, called Duf ('boring'): http://www.duf.nl. Chew on that one!
Answered by Robert Thiemann (Editor in Chief)
Magazine: Frame
Email: robert@framemag.com
Date: 29-09-2008
Publisher
Peter Huiberts
- 2044
- 5180
- 2482
- 662
