HEROTIC
Ah… magazines. I love ‘em. So when London-based Fabien Kruszelnicki and James West emailed me with news of their newbie title Hero, I wanted to know more. And they were happy to answer my questions. Nice.
Above: Model Robbie Wadge photographed by Matthew Kristall
Hey guys, thanks for chatting with Gym Class Magazine. So, big news… you’ve started your very own magazine. Exciting. What’s the Hero back-story? What’s the magazine about and who’s it for? Is it a fashion title or is it a magazine about models?
[Fabien] Hey, well we wanted to create something that wasn’t based in fashion but obviously does come from fashion. We have always been interested in the people that are on the bill boards, in advertisements, on the bottle, kind of like movie stars and thought people would want to know more about them just like we do. We wanted to make sure all the guys in Hero are actually models, that’s the whole point. They are starting to live that dream. Just because they’re models, it doesn’t mean they’re only a pretty face. It’s nice to hear that most of them are actually pretty intelligent and interesting. We wanted to make Hero an optimistic magazine where the shoots were wholesome, fun and fresh. Something that people could just enjoy and flick through. When I was a kid, I loved flicking through magazines; I loved seeing this other, perfect world and the amazing photography and how it felt comfortable and reassuring.
Ok I need to stop otherwise I’ll just keep going but generally it’s not just a fashion title, it is about the models. The next issue will have a bit more styling in it but it will always be about the guys. The magazine is for anyone who’s interested in fashion, photography and the models.
What are your backgrounds? Fashion? Magazines? Editorial or art direction?
[Fabien] Well James is an art director and designer and I’m a fashion photographer, but that said we’re both mad magazine fans. We’ve been talking about our own magazine for years and then thought, now is the right time.
Let’s talk art direction and design. What’s Hero’s look? And how long did it take to finalise the magazine’s image? How long has issue one been in the pipeline? And how many people were involved in the process?
[James] I guess we wanted the look to mirror the photography in that it’s fresh and optimistic and quite ballsy, and we also wanted it to feel very contemporary. Coming up with the look was a pretty tough process and we ended up re-doing the whole thing 24 hours before going to print… although the magazine sits in the fashion world it couldn’t look quite like a fashion magazine, so it is a bit of uncharted territory. There are only two of us actually putting the magazine together, but for issue one there were 10 photographers around the world, plus all the help from the modeling agencies etc. So quite a few people contributed their time. We had been thinking about the magazine for a few months but really only started properly in May.
I need to pop into R D Franks and thumb through a copy. For all the print spec geeks out there: How many pages is it? What size is it? What stock have you used?
[James] If you really want to know it’s 100 pages, including a four-page cover, all on a gorgeous uncoated paper called Starfine from Fenner Paper, a specialist paper supplier. It’s 210 x 280mm. And if you’re a real geek you might also love to know that all the black and white images inside are printed as duotones to really give a nice image tone and depth.
Which magazines do like and were any inspirations for Hero?
[James] We love magazines. We have shelves full of them.
[Fabien] We seem to collect mostly menswear titles, a few of our favourites are L’Officiel Hommes, Homme+, Fantastic Man, Slurp, Useless, Self Service, Dazed, 10 Men, V Man, GQ Style and Man About Town.
[Fabien] We get inspired by all kinds of things so no doubt they all probably inspired us a bit at some point. We’ll remember something we liked the look of even if we can’t remember where. But there is some amazing stuff they all do, and some amazing photographers.
Hero is widely available in London and a few other select UK locations. You’ve also got international distribution in the pipeline. What’s the bigger Hero picture? All going to plan, where do you see Hero in five years time?
[Fabien] More pages, more locations, big holidays and people saying, “yeah, I saw him in Hero, he’s going places.”
More here: Hero.