Reed Pages magazine by Staple Design

I was on the Reed Space store's website yesterday and saw that Staple Design (the creative agency that runs Reed Space) is now publishing a quarterly magazine, entitled Reed Pages.  The entire preview issue is viewable online. 

I read through the magazine and liked it quite a bit.  It consists mainly of interviews with street culture trendsetters, touching on how they started, what their design influences are, who their personal influences are.  The magazine follows Staple Design's overarching aesthetic of being "a positive social contagion."  For example, the interviewees are asked what advice they would give their 18 year old selves knowing what they know now.  There isn't much in the way of negativity or shittalking, which is nice.  Interviewees include graffiti artists Claw Money, the team behind Fader Magazine, and some of the employees at Hypebeast. 

Probably the most interesting article for me was a piece on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  The LES is currently ground zero for gentrification, the influx of "hipsters", and hipster backlash.  The magazine interviewed owners or employees from every business (or at least a good number of them) on Rivington St., asking them about where they would ideally like to have their business, what they think of the changes in the neighborhood, and how they think the neighborhood could be improved.  The businesses ranged from stores that have been in the area for decades to restaurants that opened within the past year.  For me, one of the most fascinating aspects of city life is the constant flux of businesses and people.  There are probably very few places in the world where that rate of change is as fast as it is in New York City.  I recently moved to a new apartment, and when I go back to my old neighborhood I'm surprised by all the stores and restaurants that have opened and the businesses that have left in just the few months since I've lived there.  An article like this that documents an urban neighborhood in the midst of change is very interesting. 

Reed Pages is a solid magazine, especially for design inspiration from some of the big names in street culture and street art.  The subscription price is a hefty $60 so here's to hoping they get it into circulation at the public library.