Colophon 2011

BabyBabyBaby

Grupo Editorial Celeste S.A. de C.V.

Mexico City, Mexico

• Category: Art, Design, Lifestyle
• Periodicity: Bi-Annual
• Language: English
• Format: 213 x 270 mm
• Circulation: 10,000
• Price: 80 pesos
• Web: http://www.babybabybaby.com.mx

Founded in 2004

Exclusive Interview

Magazine as an open space

What is your magazine about?
BabyBabyBaby is a Mexico City-based contemporary culture magazine launched in 2004. We like to think that it's the kind of magazine that happens when a group of friends get together after school and put together pages from their diaries, poems and friends photos and drawings in a sort of scrapbook, pasted up with everything that inspires them, reflecting their personality, their innocence, their way of seeing life.

Speaking of our collaborators, we invite all our friends from around the world, both old acquaintances and new ones that we meet along the way; they are hugely talented, but not necessarily professional artists, and we're always eager to meet new ones. We want to create a space in which to put a bunch of things which on the surface are unrelated, but once on the pages, dialogue among them and can acquire a new significance or meaning.

Who's behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
The founders are Vanesa Fernández and Aldo Chaparro. After successfully launching Celeste magazine in Mexico in 2001, they realized there was an audience out there craving for something even more fun, contemporary, edgy and bold.
It was, and still is, a time of profound changes in Mexico; there is a new generation of young people with really good ideas out there, and the idea was for BabyBabyBaby to both, inspire them, and become their outlet. So together with the then editor in chief, José García Torres, Vanesa and Aldo decided to launch BabyBabyBaby as a new biannual project, that would cater to this kids.
Vanesa has a background in contemporary art as curator and critic; Aldo is a conceptual artist.
The editor in chief is Paola Viloria; a fashion designer who's also editor of Celeste magazine.

How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
It's a very organic, natural process; we go around collecting things that strike our fancy, things we really like, and at the end of the semester just decide what we include or not. We invite friends form around the world to collaborate, and openly receive the work of whomever want to work with us.
There's very little planning on every issue, in the sense that we don't make a storyboard or layout of the magazine. We kind of think that that would kind of kill the nonchalant spirit of it.

What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
There have been many, from collaborators believing in the project in its early stages, to having an international distribution through American Apparel. I believe BabyBabyBaby was the first magazine to be sold in all its stores around the world. This gave the magazine a more international scope, and it sparkled the interest of other distributors in places like Japan and Europe. In order for us to reach kids around the world, we changed the language of the magazine from Spanish to English.

Which are the key ingredients for the success of your magazine?
I think it has to do with how naïve and simple it is we show a lifestyle our readers can really relate to; I mean, our models are real, and not overdone with makeup and lighting. We don't Photoshop anything. We like to think of the magazine as an open space that doesn't really censor anybodys work; though obviously there is a very critical selection process.

What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be the thing to help the magazine to improve?
Money, LOL. We always seem to be short of cash.

Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
Still alive. It's easy for an independent magazine to disappear, mainly because it starts loosing its edge, hence loosing its readers to new, fresher magazines. So it's really up to us to evolve in the same direction as our readers. In an ever changing world, in five years we would like to be positioned in the exact same spot we're now.

Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
It's difficult to describe the audience of a niche magazine, because being so specific, it touches a cord that apparently unrelated people in terms of socio-demographics - have. I mean, we've met people from all walks of life, ages, and interests that love the magazine. That being said, we focus on young, urban, a little bit outsider kids in their late teens and early twenties that see the world in the same fashion we do. People who don't settle for whatever mass culture is feeding them, and who aren't afraid to be themselves.

Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
Being independent has allowed us to have freedom. We are accountable to nobody but ourselves and our readers. So, yes, it is part of our strategy to remain independent.

What's your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
Depends on which, we love our current advertisers. Being independent translates in a complicated situation with most advertisers out there, and it's understandable. They have to really trust the project in order for them to invest their money on a magazine that doesn't have a big media conglomerate to back it up.

We have few, but very loyal advertisers, they are companies and brands that like the project for what it is; they understand it, and want to be attached to it. So in a way they are more partners than simple sponsors. They don't really influence the content in any way, because they like it just the way it is. At the beginning we did some advertising-driven-editorials, some we actually weren't very comfortable with, but we had them just to keep the advertiser. We stopped doing them because it affected our relation with our readers. We now only do them and we've done one or two since - when we're both really happy with the outcome.

What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
For all we knew back then, it was going to be the only issue to ever be published LOL. It's very funny to look back and see that issue, because even though it has maintained its spirit, BabyBabyBaby has naturally evolved and grown as a project, explored different areas, and dropped some sections. Now there is a much more defined image of BabyBabyBaby. It has a stronger identity.

Magazine favorite(s) that inspired you in your career.
There are many, but some are Self Service, Purple, Fantastic Man, L'Officiel, V, Numero, W, Black Book

Do you keep old copies of magazines? If so, what is your favorite in your collection?
Yes, I have so many I don't have anywhere to put them anymore. My favorite is the March 1995 issue of Life. Joe McNally photographed Michelle Pfeiffer using different jewels from the Smithsonian collection. It's fun, elegant and very insightful.

How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself a maniac?
I'm such a magazine addict; I buy about 15-20 magazines a month that vary from the very independent fashion magazines to literary reviews; and I keep them all.

We are compiling answers from some of the most innovative magazine makers around the world today. Who else should we ask?
Jop van Bennekom of Butt and Fantastic Man, Edward Brachfeld of Self Service, Christophe Brunnquell of Purple, Ángela Esteban Librero of Metal.

Answered by Carlos Carbajal (PR Manager) Magazine: BabyBabyBaby Email: carbajal@celeste.com.mx Date: 01-10-2008

newsletter

• 2021
• 5177
• 2485
• 662

Produced by Mike Koedinger in collaboration with Casino Luxembourg - Forum d'art contemporain