The architecture magazine Pin-Up, the legendary Apartamento, the concepts and photographs in Gentlewoman and MacGuffin, even old issues of Transworld Skateboarding Magazine: communication designer Kristina Bartošová likes to be inspired by indie magazines. So it's hardly surprising that she is now designing one herself. Together with co-creative director Verena Michelitsch, she is responsible for the graphic design of the bimonthly Gossamer, which focuses on the subculture of cannabis.
Kristina, what is your connection to the whole weed subculture?
None really, my days at art university were a long time ago. The content idea for Gossamer came from Verena von Pfetten and David Weiner, who had already published the first issue. Their aim is to take the use of cannabis out of the subculture and especially out of crime.
CBD, i.e. cannabinoids, have been proven to have many positive effects on health and yet are presented in a very grubby way. The image of weed is not up to date, there is not one type of consumer, just like with coffee or wine. We want to show that the consumption of weed is not the most important thing in the lives of weed users. Incidentally, many of the artists and authors involved don't smoke weed at all, but still stand behind the content. I also manage to design the magazine without smoking weed.
Gossamer is intended to be a platform that showcases activists and movements around cannabis, in addition to beautiful contributions. In the USA, a disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos, people of color, are imprisoned due to inappropriate legal penalties, although cannabis, including its use and cultivation, is legal in many US states.
Kristina Bartošová
How did your collaboration with Gossamer come about?
Verena Michelitsch and I have been friends since our time in Graz and have often worked together. The co-founder and co-editor-in-chief Verena von Pfetten became aware of her by chance through acquaintances, like "She has the same name as you and makes beautiful things". Verena von Pfetten then asked Verena Michelitsch if she would like to design the second issue of Gossamer, who in turn asked me. Coordinating and designing an entire magazine on your own is difficult, so she wanted to tackle this single issue as a joint project. It worked so well that we are still doing it. And we're really happy about it.
If I understand correctly, the editorial team is based in the USA, how do you organize yourselves remotely?
In our team, the other three are in New York City and I'm in Austria. The intensive phase usually lasts two months, during which we keep in touch every day via Slack and arrange video calls as needed. Before Corona, we actually met in person almost before every issue.
What do you like most about designing magazines and Gossamer in particular?
First of all, the fact that you develop your own system. In branding, that comes at some point, but with layouts you can always break out and still stick to the theme. Depending on the scope, you can develop your very own worlds.
You can push the whole thing even further in print. The team at Gossamer is very open to unusual ideas that we designers really want to do and that fit in with the themes of each issue, such as a flocked cover for Touch, Pantone colors and very different materials. We develop the magazine a bit on a whim, it's definitely designed by print lovers for print lovers.
It's also very special to work with many great and fantastic artists who may often have less time for classic commercial projects, but are available for editorial.
We try to evolve with Gossamer every issue and do things in a new way. Every time we set ourselves the goal of bringing out "this time a super simple edition". Then we can't stand it and suddenly we've built an unprecedented challenge for ourselves. I love that!
Kristina Bartošová
? To the Gossamer website
? In the Gossamer store you can discover all editions as well as various CBD oils and goodies.
? The portfolio of Kristina Bartošová
?? To the portfolio of Verena Michelitsch
Interview: Sonja Pham
