Magazines. Without them, we’d be in a void of inspirational stupor. There isn’t a day that goes by that we here at Invurt don’t delve into some form of ‘zine, be it print, digital or web, and these gorgeous products that we view are often a wonderland of the surreal, beautiful and bizarre.

Yet a magazine is nothing without the many people behind it – from the editors, to the designers, to the artists and people whom are often both subject and contributor – we think its safe to say that ‘the magazine’ is one of the greatest collaborative institutes of modern culture.

There are too many brilliant magazines to count that spring from here in Oz. Some of our regular reads, Nothing to Nobody, King Brown, Clouded Thoughts, weAREtheIMAGEmakers, Dont Sleep, Acclaim, Empty, Curvy, Wooden Toy Quarterly and way too many more to count, are often the final result of many hours of love-labour-effort, and Six Years Later is most definitely the product of a good deal of concupiscent creativism. Brought forth from the germ of an idea by Roger Wilkie and Laura Chong, the first issue of 6YL was warmly received, which is no surprise – the curation, design and ethos of the magazine are a testament to what two people with a little passion can accomplish between folded pages.

In the lead up to the closure of submissions for Issue #2 of Six Years Later in September, we caught up with Laura (ed. okay, admittedly we caught up with her a few weeks ago, but we’ve been waiting for the perfect time to post it!) – and she gave us a great rundown on the magazine, the first issue, the launch party, what’s coming next, how to submit work, and how the whole project began …

We’re always curious as to inception and ideas – this magazine was conceived after sitting in a backyard – tell us more about the story behind the creation of the magazine, and what you initially thought you wanted to do, and have you reached that goal?

Backyard idea says so much already! It’s those light-bulb moments when you’re just chilling with your mates that gives you the feeling that, ‘Yes, this is what we have to do…’. That initial sparks gives you the drive to make the project into reality. We always wanted to be able to have a really high quality magazine with mind-blowing work, it didn’t matter that we didn’t know anyone in the industry or know any famous artists. We just knew that getting amazing artwork out there was what we wanted to do.

I think, with Issue One, we went above and beyond; we were able to publish some amazing pieces with the added edge of the ‘what will happen in six years’ idea.

  
Can you tell us a little bit about the team behind Six Years Later? Who does what, how, when and where?

Not many people realize, but the team at 6YL is actually just two people; myself and Roger. We do as much as we can in our spare time. I take care of the online side of things; building and updating the website, twitter, Facebook and spreading the 6YL digital love.

On the other hand, Roger does the real-world things; getting the flyers out there, stockists, spreading real-world 6YL love and any heavy-lifting… There’s always a list of things to do – it keeps life busy!

What other magazines and publications have you drawn inspiration from in the formulation of Six Years Later? What other publishers, blogs, and other journals have contributed to the direction you’ve taken with it?

Our biggest inspiration have been the Semi-Permanent conferences. We’ve been going for a couple of years now, usually to the one in Sydney. It’s always an amazing opportunity to hear from artists and designers who started off exactly where we are now and are now internationally renown. They’ve gotten so successful and gained so much experience just by doing what they love.

Wooden Toy Quarterly, Curvy, King Brown, Empty magazine, Semi-Permanent Books – Australian-based publications with international renown, they all got to the top by keeping the dream alive – we hope to be up there one day!

In terms of the publishing side of things, have you only gone the paper format route? Also, in terms of distribution, how are you going about it all?

Right from Day One, we knew 6YL had to be a print publication – the feel of paper, the look of the ink … the fact that you can even smell it!

Issue One is available to order right now from our online shop. Right now, we’ve only got one stockist; the lovely boys at Combined (Brisbane, QLD) – it seems that Melbourne just hasn’t caught on yet …

How did you find the art editorial side of things? How did you select artists to put into the book and what were some of the more difficult aspects of choosing what you believed would help define the first issue?

Wow. It was so hard, ‘wow’ was seriously all we could say sometimes. We received over 500 submissions from around the world. So many different styles, so many different styles and so many topics covered.

We were lucky though, that looking at all of the submissions, we found that was this narrative running through all the submissions. (It’s that crazy collective conscious theory). Anyway, we managed to compile all the art into rough ‘chapters’ so the artwork kind of sorted themselves out.

On art editorial – Pictures have a high visual impact and can often tell a story without words, so in the absence of words, how do you utilise the images to convey the overall themes that you are working with in the magazine?

As I said earlier, lucky for us they all have interconnecting themes. All we had to do was put them in order. In saying that though, what I love the most about Six Years Later, is that artworks can have multiple meanings. While I thought a piece could on page 4, Roger might think it would be better in page 34. There was a lot of discussion and consideration spent in placing the artworks – it’s all about how you perceive the works. In a newspaper article, all the paragraphs are related but each paragraph is a standalone idea that is elaborated upon.

In the 6YL mag, each page is related to the theme (i.e. consumerism) but each page is its own idea (i.e. a woman’s role in consumerist society, technology).

You had your launch party for Issue One back a few months now, how did the whole thing go?

Our launch and exhibition was an amazing success! We had an incredible turnout with people enjoying the amazing artwork, chilled-out beats from Dom and we also had that very enticing all-white installation – which was definitely not white by the end of the night.

From publishing to promotion, and everything in between, What have you most enjoyed about putting together the magazine?

The best so far is being able to meet all the artists that got involved with the project. They’re people we admired from afar at the start of the project and now they’re a part of the 6YL family. We’ve also gotten so much love and support with the project. It’s what keeps us going for Issue Two.

We gotta to say a big thank you to the artists who were involved with Issue One, it definitely wasn’t possible without you! And to anybody who helped with the Launch, cheers!

What invaluable lessons have you learnt about becoming a publisher, that you didn’t realise when you started out, and that you will carry on with you throughout?

It’s funny, because I think with what we know now we wouldn’t have started the publication. It’s a big risk starting up a magazine when there are already so many out there. But I think we knew that 6YL was going to be different. It’s the financial side of things that’s a big risk I think, oh, and whether people would actually be interested. There was a lot of uncertainty but we just went for it. That naivety is what brought 6YL into being. I think the courage to just go out there and do it is something I’m keeping with me.

If its risky, it’s gotta be good – or maybe it’s the other way around?

What’s the plan for the rest of the year, and the next issue? Tell us a bit about what the future holds for Six Years Later … where would you like to see the magazine, in, say, six years?

For the rest of this year, 2011, it’s all about Issue 2. We’re still open for submissions now, until the 19th of September – so all you artists and designers get on it! 

Future 6YL? Six Years Later magazine in six years? Well, we really want to go to Japan … maybe we’ll move there for a bit?

 Go and check out the Six Years Later website for more information, lots of cool news, and to get the submission guidelines for Issue #2.