Beautiful Decay
Beautiful/Decay is the definitive art and design publication showcasing emerging and established contemporary artists. The magazine acts as a go-to, first exposure sourcebook that reveals today’s most influential and innovative talents from the creative world. B/D strives to uphold the integrity of the magazine through distinctive covers, attention to detail and design, and provocative creative content.
Culver City, USA
CA 90231, P.O. Box 2336
Email: contactbd@beautifuldecay.com
- Category: Art, Fashion, Music
- Language: English
- Format: 216 x 286 mm
- Circulation: 45,000
- Price: $ 6.95
- Web: http://beautifuldecay.com
Founded in 1996
Audience
The Beautiful/Decay audience is a highly educated demographic that works primarily within the art and design worlds. Nearly three quarters of B/D’s readers are creative influencers, including collectors, critics, gallerists, writers, artists, and designers. Our readership is equally divided between men and women, with an average age of thirty-one. The magazine’s distinguished audience is not only interested in today’s breaking creative trends, but also inspires and leads the market.
Beautiful/Decay New Media
-Beautiful/Decay Online
The Beautiful/Decay website presents comprehensive commentary on the creative world in a dynamic and engaging fashion. Along with exclusive web based content, the site acts as a vibrant sounding board and connector for creative influencers. B/D online features a broad range of opportunities for users to generate content: artists upload portfolios, galleries promote openings, and creative institutions publicize lectures and conferences. An unsurpassed art and design portal, Beautifuldecay.com is an instrumental resource for the creative community.
-Email Newsletter
The Beautiful/Decay newsletter delivers exclusive web content to over 45,000 subscribers’ inboxes every week. Arts coverage includes breaking developments regarding the magazine, B/D-orchestrated creative events, interviews, show reviews, and profiles on some of today’s most exciting artists and designers. This up-to-the minute content offers advertisers an exceptional forum to consistently reach the magazine’s audience in a dynamic fashion. A wide range of new media opportunities is available, including banner ads, event listings, and other creative marketing initiatives.
Strategic Marketing
Beautiful/Decay engages in a broad range of endeavors, from spearheading creative events, forums, and lectures, to promoting new talent at art fairs and collaborating with galleries to curate shows. B/D doesn’t just cover the creative community, but also contributes, actively participating in today’s cultural dialogue. B/D has worked with a wide range of creative companies and is open to collaborating with clients to orchestrate related innovative programs.
Distribution
Beautiful/Decay is distributed internationally on all major newsstands, including Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Virgin Megastores, as well as high-end boutiques and major museum shops. We also serve as a media sponsor at a range of creative events, including Art Basel and The Armory Show. In addition to this diverse media presence, the magazine boasts a pass-along rate of ten times its circulation, translating to an organic distribution of over 450,000 interested readers.
Exclusive Interview
We work one issue in advance.
What is your magazine about?
Beautiful/Decay documents the convergence of art, design, music, and fashion with a focus on emerging talent.
Who’s behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
Beautiful/Decay started in 1996 when my friend Jay and I decided to make a small zine. I have always been a huge magazine junky, and I would buy a few every week. I mostly bought high-end art magazines or graffiti zines. I never could find a magazine that filled in the gap between fine art and pop culture. I wanted to make a zine about my interests, which at the time included: punk/hardcore music, fine art, graffiti, hip-hop. We did three B/W issues and gave them out and sold a few in stores. We got bored with the idea and at some point Jay and I stopped doing it.
Four years passed and I was living in NYC doing a exchange program in college. At the end of my stay I had a small art show and sold five paintings. I made $5,000 dollars, and, after thinking for a few weeks about what I should do with the cash, I decided to bring back Beautiful/Decay as a real magazine with professional printing and proper distribution. There were no US publications at the time documenting the convergence of art, design, street culture and fashion. I decided to fill that void.
Having no formal training in design and barely being able to use a computer I asked two college friends to design the first issue. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Even purchasing a barcode took days upon days of research at the school library. Somehow we got the first full color issue done and I personally sold it to 40 stores around the country. I slowly learned how to use a computer and began doing the layout of the magazine. It's funny because if you place the magazine in chronological order you can literally see when I learn certain design & layout techniques & rules. Shortly after the second full color issue came out I met my current business partners Ben Osher and Fubz. I brought them on to help with the business and marketing side of things. Once the three of us came together B/D began to pick up a lot of steam. In just a few years we have gone from a small side project to a internationally distributed art & design publication that has branched off to curate art shows, start a apparel line, and run a website that is a daily destination for millions of people around the globe.
How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
We work one issue in advance. We have a full time staff of 6 people with over 20 freelance contributors for each issue. We are quarterly so we spend 3 months on each issue from start to finish.
What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
Getting a solid group of dedicated and talented individuals on our staff. Without them nothing would get done.
What are the key ingredients for the success of your magazine?
Original content & clean design.
What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be “the” thing to help the magazine to improve?
Money is always a problem with independent publications. A influx of money would allow us to do bigger and better projects.
Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
We see us doing what we have been doing from the start, publishing a quality publication and expanding into new markets such as apparel.
Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
Our readers consist of young forward thinking artists, designers, musicians, art collectors and other
Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
Yes. I personally don't want to work for a large corporation.
What we do doesn't lend itself to going to corporate route.
What’s your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
We try to keep the magazine as pure as possible but as long as you have advertisers you have to work with them on some levels. I think overall we do an excellent job of keeping content and advertising separate.
Do you think that magazine readers still need to watch TV?
Sure if they enjoy it.
What is your relationship with your printer? Does he play a main role in your development?
We choose to print with printers that put quality over everything else.
Since we are a art magazine we can't sacrifice quality.
Which magazines influence you most? What are you looking for in other magazines?
I get influenced by any publication that has original content mixed with quality layout and design.
What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
It's not the best layout but for a first issue I think we did an okay job.
How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself as a maniac?
I don't have a huge number that I read but I definitely consider myself a magazine junkie.
E-mail interview from “11.10.2006”. © Colophon2007.com – Mike Koedinger Editions SA (Luxembourg)
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