EMPTY Design Magazine

Review by: Elliott Bledsoe
Date: 7/1/04

”You are not your client. You are not a brand. You’re a designer. You’re an artist.” This is the opening statement of Empty Design magazine’s pilot issue. The plain black text on white paper is a stark image, one that mimics Empty’s place in the design magazine market.

A self-professed design magazine alternative, Empty is not a carefully marketed ‘industry best practice’ publication. As the editorial declares, “Most designers aren’t particularly interested in reading about how many clients another agency has, or the introduction of yet another corporate identity.” Empty is for designers. It’s the filler on the ‘empty’ magazine rack.

The success of Empty is its creator’s honesty about the market it caters for. "We’re not saying that we know that we know everything about what designers want," the editorial says." The fact that we’ve immersed ourselves within the design community for so long has given us a pretty good idea. We know they like inspirational stories, we know they like intelligent debate. We also know they like to have fun, have a laugh and to be appreciated for what they do.”

Empty is published by the well-know experimental design group Design is Kinky (DIK), an international design organization that focuses on what it is to be a designer. When DIK was started in 1998, founder Andrew Johnstone saw DIK as a void filler in the much needed exposure of designers. “At the time no one was really interviewing designers, Andrew found the few interviews he had read really interesting so he felt that this would be a good theme to base the site on," DIK's website explains. This is the same theoretical basis for Empty, which is not surprising given that Andrew, with colleague, Matt Leach, are the editors of the magazine.

What makes Empty a cut above the rest is how it beautifully sculpts the stylistic elements of the featured artists into the page layout and design composition. Empty is an intersection of cutting edge design practice and experimental design technique with in-depth, and inspiring looks at designers, not at client work. Empty is as much a creative work as that of the people it is profiling.

The first issue includes a feature on Fecal Face, a San Francisco-based art community that has become a virtual meeting place of artists world wide. What makes this feature so incredible is that it is entirely made up of email responses related to the site. In the spirit of Empty, the opening article is about artists, by artists.

Also, there is a profile on Nago Richards, an industry veteran who has been designing his own way for years. His cover design, a bold collaboration of photography, illustration and design, is what drew me to Empty in the first place. His individualism and talent is awe inspiring, which explains why the magazine wanted to profile him.

In keeping with the 'keeping it real' theme, Empty also includes a ‘fresh meat’ profile of an up-and-coming designer. It features recent entrant to the design world and fine art refugee Venessa Gong. She is a Chinese designer who is mixing her traditional fine art origins with computer aided design.

‘The gallery’ is filled with submission. The publication openly expresses its desire for new work. “One of our main priorities when starting EMPTY was having a place to showcase work from, well, anyone basically. The Gallery is that place.” It includes photography, cartooning and illustration by ten different artists, and none are “...the usual suspects.”

On top of a hot looking magazine, Empty’s copy is personal-touch profiling, with interviews conducted by designer’s friends and colleagues. The journalism is fresh, personal and rough; the kind of stuff that set Hunter S Thompson apart.

Contributors include the film section, ‘Clip’ written by Jon and Josh Baker, who are also presenters at DIK’s Semi-Permanent design conference. Semi-Permanent is an international design conference held in Sydney and Auckland that has moved away from technology to focus on the passion that creative people have for what they do. The demonstrations focus on the creativity of design, not just on the technology used in design the same ethos that prompted the creation of Empty.

Empty is settling down in the hearts and workspaces of designers which will ensure it will settle itself down within the plethora of design magazines as the magazine of choice. Empty Issue 02 will be a “visual extravaganza” showcasing the Semi-Permanent conference, and will hit the magazine rack in July.

(Elliott Bledsoe is a guest writer for 2 Walls Webzine.)