i-D Magazine Returns to Its DIY Roots With Limited-Edition Print Project
CUT AND PASTE: i-D magazine has been revisiting its roots and the raw, cut-and-paste feel that made it stand out when it was brought to life in the Eighties by founder Terry Jones.
As a nod to the past, the publication is spearheading a new print project where it will release special, limited-edition issues made up of loose leaf A2 paper.
The first issue is made up of a collection of imagery and text from the magazine’s spring 2018 issues: images of Kaia Gerber, who fronted the title’s summer issue, are ripped up and stuck back together with duct tape for this special edition; there is an interview with Cardi B, and imagery by the likes of Tim Walker, Mario Sorrenti and Petra Collins.
“This edition is essentially a remix, born out of the idea of taking a fresh view, reworking and reconstructing the season’s work. It’s giving life to ideas that cropped up along the way but might not have had a chance to [materialize earlier],” said Graham Rounthwaite, creative director of i-D, pointing to this new format as an opportunity for the reader to engage with print in new ways. “The format of this issue is large and loose leaf, so you can interact with it, pull it apart, put it back together another way, paste it on a wall, put it in a frame. Magazines can become restricted by their own standardized form, so it’s interesting to try different things.”
He added that while i-D has been seeing increased demand for its print editions worldwide, it’s important to remain agile and the idea of something that’s handmade has always appealed to its audience: “When Terry Jones left Vogue to start i-D he very deliberately stripped the magazine back to handmade roots to really explore the subject matter. And built it out from there. The landscape is very different today, but the idea of making something more handmade has a universal human appeal.”
The new edition, which will be limited to 500 issues and will retail for 20 pounds, will be made available today at Machine-A, the experimental SoHo retailer, and the remainder will go on to be sold on the magazine’s web site.
“We have seen high demand from our audience for our merchandise, and the direct-to-consumer model is growing for i-D. A lot of our sales happen online. Equally it is an impressive and a tactile product so we wanted it to exist in a retail environment so that it could be seen and experienced. It seems natural for the edition to sit with our fashion retail partners,” Rounthwaite added.
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