Magazines, and media in general, are a part and parcel of the art world, and theres no escaping it. These days, with our rich technological endowments, various new forms of media continue to break news in a time honoured fashion, albeit often via very different means than would have been available even a mere two decades ago. Sure, not everything these days revolves around technology, but you can be rest assured, that at some stage, no matter where or how, no matter the magazine, the paint, the canvas or medium, technology has played its part somewhere along the line of process.

As a big supporter of art-related media, and, especially online media and journalistic output (obviously), it is this realm of new wave publishing that particularly gets my attention. I, like most, love the feel of a good magazine in my hands, its easy to put it into my bag and just whack it out to check out the articles and artwork within, but, equally these days, I also just love sitting down with my laptop, iPhone or suitable reader to go through and read the wealth of digital media thats exploding out there. From the big publishers, to the semi-pros, to the independents, ebooks and docs are everywhere, and are rapidly, if not already, becoming a ubiquitous part of our every day lives.

Its in this realm that a variety of new publications are coming out in support of – the production of digital media, though with no less effort and skill required in their production to provide a decent read, has changed over the past few years to enable more people better opportunity to get out there, write, promote and bring information to those interested via a digital interface – whatever the content. Thus its the kinds of people like those behind Nothing To Nobody, a new, all digital magazine dealing primarily with the types of artists and creatives that you probably browse to this page to find out about, who are leading a new charge alongside their erstwhile print media peers.

“Nothing to Nobody” comprises “a digital magazine created especially for people with style, taste and intelligence – like you! Inside you’ll find a wonderful collection of articles and imagery expertly mashed together to create a visual feast that is the equivalent of the most amazing chocolate sundae you have ever eaten!” – and as such, I feel is a pretty worthy addition to the reading list of any visual voyeur.

With all that in mind, Invurt caught up with Jo Jette, the talented and versatile publisher and creative director of this exciting new magazine, and picked her brain about both the new publication, the people behind it, as well as the goals that they wish to attain with the future of their digital lexicon  …

Can you tell us a little about the people behind Nothing to Nobody and what your areas of interest are?

At the moment there’s just me and my editor, Ostin Milbarge, and a few contributors – including the lovely Lou Pardi of Peppermint magazine, and Shannon McKinnon of Secret Wars fame.

In the past I have been the Managing Editor for Desktop magazine, Editor of Wooden Toy magazine and a contributor for T-world journal. Now by day I am the Digital Project Manager at digital agency The Junction. By night I don my Batman costume and become the Publisher/Creative Director/Senior Contributor for Nothing to Nobody. As you can probably tell from the Batman mention, I’m a bit of a geek….  I’m into art, design, sci-fi, history, English comedy, tattooing, pirates… I even write my own pirate series – Miss Blimey Pirate Girl. I have been working on that for the past four years, have self-published three books, and I am currently working on a novel – www.missblimey.com

Ostin, on the other hand, is our resident booze and culture hound, and has had an extensive editorial career with various magazines. By day he is mild mannered, by night he is Nothing to Nobody’s rambunctious, but very knowledgeable, editor.

How did the idea behind Nothing to Nobody come about, and what was your primary goal you wanted to achieve in putting it together?

Basically I had wanted to create a digital magazine for a couple of years – something that combined my love of art, design, music,  vintage, vinyl, kitsch and of course beer. I had tried to cajole a number of people into starting a digital magazine I could work on for ages, and I finally got fed up and said ‘stuff it – I’ll do it myself!’.

I approached Ostin to be my editor and thankfully he said yes – doing a mag on your own is so much hard work, so its nice to have friends helping me in my madness. To be honest I wasn’t sure what I wanted to achieve at first, other than seeing if we could do it. There are a lot of print magazines out there doing a digital version, but they are all designed for print first, then converted to digital, which doesn’t always work. Nothing to Nobody is designed specifically for digital only. Oh and of course we want it to be successful – and so far it’s going great guns – hurrah!

How far reaching will the magazine content be, and what geographic area will you cover? Are you local interest, national or international – or do you even give a shit about those things at all?

At the moment we are a bit Melbourne centric, but that’s because there is just so much cool stuff going on here all the time! We are starting to branch out globally though. We don’t really want the magazine to have any boundaries on it’s content.

Can you tell us a little more about the production of the magazine, and why it is that you believe it offers a different take on other publications?

Nothing to Nobody is designed completely for the digital platform. This takes into account legibility, screen resolution and media (ie iPad, PC etc). I think that’s really important. Most digital magazines I have seen to date are either designed for print and converted, meaning the design doesn’t often translate and the text is illegible, or they are designed like websites and are tiny 800×600 pixel affairs. When designing NtN I made sure from the beginning that you could read it clearly online. I also kept the text to a minimum and the images large so that it holds the online readers attention.

NtN differs from other magazines in that it is completely organic in the way content is gathered. As it is digital I can drop content in up until 5 days before it goes off to be put online, so I can expand or contract the size of the magazine depending on what content I run. If I need an extra 3 pages, or have to drop 2 it’s easy as pie.

Content wise we’ll talk to anyone – you don’t have to be the hippest, the coolest or the most popular – you just have to be doing something interesting and innovative. NtN is for everyone and no-one – just as the title suggests. We focus on vintage, kitsch and the unique, beer and bars and breweries, art, music, and boutique fashion rather than mainstream. We just hope folks enjoy reading it and come back for more!

Can you tell us a bit more about the regular sections that you will be doing in the mag, and what they will contain?

I did kind of start out with an idea along the lines of sections, but now I tend to think I don’t believe in them so much anymore. The magazine should just flow – I don’t want to get tied down to coming up with specific content. That being said each issue we will feature a band or two, a boutique shop, something kitsch or vintage (in issue one we spoke to a guy who fixes up old dragster bikes), some amazing artists, boutique beer reviews and a story from Miss Blimey just to round it off.

As a digital only publication, do you believe that digital publishing is now at an age where it can self sustain itself as a viable media, and what do you believe the advantages and disadvantages of your preferred method of publishing is?

I definitely think digital publishing is here to stay and we’ll soon see more people publishing their own digital publications. I don’t think its at a point yet where you can run a magazine and get paid without giving up your ‘day job’ but it’s getting there.  I think the advantages are accessibility, storage (50 issues on one device – no problem!), timeliness (no more waiting for the printer), you can change things once it’s published, and it’s a lot cheaper to produce, you can add video and also links to other sites and content.

The disadvantages are that it will never be as tactile or beautiful as print, and will never be able to replicate that experience you get when you flip through a book or magazine fresh off the press.

There are so many creatives around out there, what was your process for finding people you wanted to include in the magazine?

I started by talking to people I admire or whose work I think is just awesome. The beauty of my magazine is that it can get bigger every issue and so I can contact more and more people. I find amazing people everywhere – Facebook, Twitter links, Behance, Etsy, The Loop… or I might be walking up the street, going to an art exhibition, opening an e-newsletter, random emails. Anywhere – that’s why I say the magazine is organic as it just comes together. That’s what I love about it! If you’re doing something cool email us – We wanna know about it!! Email us at nothingtonobody@gmail.com

Whats the Douglas Adams connection, and what the hell is the actual question to the answer of the universe – you know that issue 42 has to totally have a tie in, right?

Issue 42 – Totally! I actually have the number 42 tattoo’d on the back of my neck. In the fourth book of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series we find out that we can’t actually discover what the question is because if the answer and questions are known at the same time then they cancel each other out and the Universe blows up to start all over again – or something (ed. I really need to get around to reading the fourth book in the trilogy at some stage!). But anyway, the name Nothing to Nobody comes from a love, and perhaps slight obsession with Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Adams wrote that given the Universe is infinite, but it’s inhabitants are finite, it then stood to reason that because a finite number divided by an infinite number was as close to Zero as you could get, the Universe was populated by Nobody. By that same reckoning, because the Universe was populated by Nobody, nothing was produced. Hence the name. Nothing to Nobody. See – it makes perfect sense!

Now that the first issue is out, how did the launch go? And as a bi-monthly publication, what will the next two months entail in terms of producing the next issue?

The launch was amazing – so many people came! We held it in the super sensational bar called Naked for Satan, which has just opened on Brunswick St. It’s a vodka and pintxos bar. Pintxos are these little bread canape type things – very yum!

I’m working on issue 2 at the moment – along with Ostin and my wonderful contributors. So far we have interviews with some awesome people – like DJ Mafia; artists Jason Limon, Rick Dienzo Blanco, and Francisco ‘Pac23’ Perez, publishers Able Miss Baker, and a trapeze artist/ pin-up model named Tank. Issue 2 is gonna go off like the proverbial frog in a sock!  But over the next month and a half we’ll be collecting content and imagery, and then it’s handed over to me to design it and test it and then launch it!

In the meantime you can check out our website for regular inspirational goodness – www.nothingtonobody.com

You can also buy Nothing to Nobody online here: www.zinio.com/nothingtonobody