The Tastemakers Society

Magazine’s are a dime a dozen these days, new one’s popping up monthly while others are folding daily, how many of the same repeated magazines do we really need? I think we can strongly say that people aren’t creating magazine’s to fill a void (which is the purpose of a magazine) they’re just trying to re-tweak a vision. Do we really need anymore, music magazines, film magazines, sports magazines, fashion magazines, and don’t I even want to begin to discuss the home/decor, wedding and celebrity magazines, how many chooses does one need to find a good lamp, nice wedding dress and read about Lindsay Lohan’s rehab addiction. If you don’t have a genuine new idea and focus you’re just wasting shelf space, but if you can tackle something in a deserted playing field than you might be able to create something worthwhile, and that something could be called THEME. A magazine that brings the asian culture from another angle than seen before, giving readers a more real look inside of the culture and what’s going on with it. I would love to take credit for this idea, but I’m sure that wouldn’t sit to well with Jiae and John.   

Name, age, location

John H Lee, 37, NYC for the past 9 years

Jiae Kim, 34, NYC for the past 9 years

How about telling a little abou life pre-theme, what were you doing, not doing?

Jiae: I was born in Seoul and moved to the West Coast of the U.S. when I was 8. I escaped the boredom of middle-class suburban life by graduating early from high school and hitch hiking my way through Guatemala and Mexico. I attended New York University and studied history and art history. Once again bored with life in the U.S., I moved to Seoul and then Tokyo, before returning to NYU to get a masters in art and technology. Prior to starting Theme, I was an associate partner at Pentagram Design. My information design and interactive installation projects for Bloomberg, Walker Art Center, and Detroit Institute of Arts have won design awards from AIGA, I.D. magazine, How magazine, and the Society of Environmental Graphic Designers. I teach design at the school of Visual Arts and serve on the Board of directors of the New York chapter of AIGA.

John: I spent my youth growing up in Borneo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, and Auckland. While attending college I spent two years as a professional BMX’er, developing my own brand of skate/bmx clothing, and organizing events and concerts promoting the culture. From ‘91 to ‘96 I art directed advertising and initiated guerilla marketing campaigns throughout Asia for clients like Levi’s, BBH, McCann Erickson, and Nike. In 1996 I moved to the U.S. where I art directed and designed volumes of projects for everyone from the Gap to Diane von Furstenburg. I’ve also spent time as creative director for iconic brands such as Equinox Fitness and Pokemon.

We met in 1996 in Seoul and then moved to Tokyo in 1997 where we got married. Jiae dragged John kicking and screaming back to the U.S. where we lived in San Francisco for a year, hated how small it felt and then decided to give NYC a chance. We’ve been in NYC since.

When did you start Theme?

We started talking about it in the summer of 2004, but really acted on it in September of 2004 by locking down a distributor, and finding a printer to work with. We started collecting stories for our first issue and launched it 4 months later. It was a real quick turn around.

What prompted the urge to create a magazine?

We were at a point in our lives where we were getting to comfortable with the path of our careers and making enough money to get too attached to a risk free lifestyle. We decided to take a risk, and invested all our money (house funds) into the magazine.

And why the concept focus on asian culture?

We saw some really exciting things while living in Seoul and Tokyo. The art and fashion scene were booming in Tokyo, and Korean art was just starting to find its own voice. We didn’t like the way American media covered these stories, and we wanted to tell the stories the way it should be told, from an insider’s point of view.

What has been the editorial approach for theme?

We try to indentify stories that aren’t trendy, but are relevant. We use the theme of the issue as a lens to interpret the story so it’s unique to Theme. We stay away from stories that are being told over and over again. An we make sure to write compelling stories, so we edit out the chaff. For example, the artist David Choe has been getting a lot of attention lately and he’s been featured in many mags, but we interviewed him for the “I Live Here” issue, which meant we spent the bulk of the interview talking about his love of his home, San Jose rather than the stuff everyone else covered. It was a great topic as San Jose is not an easy place to love; which really gave you an idea of the sort of person he is. He gave us a tour of his loft.

What was it like getting theme started, the good, the bad, and the ugly?

The good: we get to talk to some seriously interesting people. We’re constantly inspired, challenged, and motivated by the people we cover. The bad: it’s a business and to sustain it we have to get clever and serious about the money side of things. That means making cold calls to advertising agencies and chasing down invoices. The ugly: the magazine business is an extremely tough and competitive one, and everyday there is news of another magazine folding. It definitely keeps you on your toes.

What has been your favorite issue or piece you’ve written so far?

Issues 2(”I Live Here”) and 7(”Performance”). Issue 7 has won a bunch of design awards and is one of the issues we’re most proud of. We had some amazing photography and writing in that issue, from stories about japanese noise band the Boredoms and skater Dae-won Song. The stories in “I Live Here” were really intimate because it was all about where someone lived, and that was a nice departure from the standard magazine interview.

Are their any other magazines you love or get inspiration from?

We both really like New York Times Magazine it’s restrained design, tight writing, current events topics, and classic photography. We really like the newsletter ANP published by RVCA, edited by Aaron Rose, for it’s lack of pretension, obscure stories about artists, and local flavor. John: I still read Cream BMX, Ride UK, and Transworld Skate. Jiae: I have a shameful addiction to tabloids like Us magazine. Believe it or not, the writing in these tabloids is pretty good, writers have to spin stories out of an anonymous quote and a handful of circumspect photos. That’s really hard to do. But that’s not why I like them.

What is a usual day like for magazine publishers like yourselves, and how hectic is it when you’re getting ready to finalize and complete an issue?

7am: wakeup and walk the dog to Falai, our local coffee shop, for a shot of coffee

8am: go play soccer (John) go for a swim (Jiae)

10:30am: everyone gets to the office

10:30-12: emails, emails, emails

12:00: grab lunch for the team

12:30pm: editorial meeting to go over story list, assign stories, discuss angles

1:30-6:30: meetings with advertisers, collaborators, conduct interviews

6:30pm: dinner meeting or chill out with freinds, go to events

10:30pm: call our hong Kong printer, or contacts in Japan, Korea, China

When we’re in deadlines, no soccer, no meetings, no dinner, we essentially work from 8:30am to 11:30pm straight and eat in front of our computers.

How do you know what to cover or what angle to use for an upcoming issue?

Instinct and curiosity. A magazine is really the voice of the creators. We assume that if we’re interested in a subject matter, our readers will be too. Because we both have a very different background, we tend to bring a diverse selection of stories to the table for discussion.

Over the past few years or so the magazine and print publications world has been taking a hit, many saying the print era is on a major downfall and soon to be doomed. How do you feel about that, do you feel as if you’ve seen any negative results with Theme and how have you though of anyway to strengthen your print as well as your online presence at the same time?

When you go to countries like Japan where technology is so much a part of the culture’s DNA, you’ll still find print media thriving. Print serves a specific purpose, and nothing digital will ever replace the tactile nature of print. I don’t think print is doomed at all, on the contrary I think publishers will get smarter with what they put out. Print provides a deeper connection to information and narrative; and i think as long as we provide an integrated approach online as well as in print, Theme will continue to grow at the rate that we have been going the past couple of years.

Why do you think that the majority of new magazines fail?

High overhead and lack of vision. How many shopping magazines does the world need anyway?

Are their any plans to expand Theme with maybe another, possible sister magazine focused on something else?

We have curated events, thrown parties with great dj’s, and helped put together exhibitions and performances. Most of these have been VIP only and just for our readers and friends. We like events with a purpose.

We also have another part of the business that does consulting, art directing, and design for companies like Doo.Ri, Diane von Furstenberg, InHabit Cashmere, Evisu and next year we will be working on some custom magazines for Diesel and Elwood. We occasionally do work for Nike and some smaller streetwear brands as well.

We keep thinking about doing another magazine, but that might have to wait until we get some, financial backing.

Theme Magazine