80 – Publishing with Janine Vangool of Uppercase Magazine

Nikki

00:01
I’m as much of a graphic designer as I am an artist, so when I see something that’s an example of really great design, I just can’t get enough. And that’s what happened when I came across Uppercase Magazine maybe a decade ago. I first fell in love with how beautifully designed it is, and only then did I dig in and appreciate the art, craft and illustration within. And it’s designed, edited and published by the extremely talented Janine Vangool, a one woman publishing magnate who in addition to putting out her beautiful magazine, has created – and continues to create – an amazing series of books called Encyclopedia of Inspiration. And I could go on fan-girling all day, but let’s let Janine tell her story.

Laura

00:53
Hi, this is Laura Lee Griffin.

Nikki

00:55
And this is Nikki May, with the Startist Society, inspiring you to stop getting in your own way and start building an art biz and life that you love.

Laura

01:04
We are artists who believe strongly in the power of community, accountability, following your intuition, taking small actionable steps and breaking down the barriers of fear and procrastination that keep you stuck.

Nikki

01:17
Follow along with us on our creative business journey as we encourage you on yours.

Laura

01:25

Janine

, welcome to the Startist Society. We’re so excited to chat with you today.

Janine

01:29
Thank you. It’s my pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Laura

01:32
So Janine<, you've had such an interesting journey. I mean, clearly we can see your graphic design roots because you design Uppercase Magazine so beautifully. But you've also been a shop owner, a bookseller, a gallery curator, a stationery designer, a fabric designer, and an educator. And I'm kind of exhausted just saying all of that. So give us an idea of how this winding road got started and what brought you to where you are today. What is your Startist story?

Janine

02:04
Sure, well, I didn’t do all of those things simultaneously. Sometimes there was overlap. So if we want to go way back to the beginning, when I was a kid, I always loved drawing and writing and combining the two. And so I would make little tiny books, you know, just a couple inches wide and staple scrap papers together and draw my own stories. And I would sort of publish little magazines that I would force my family to look at during gatherings, family gatherings like Christmas and Easter and such. So I was always making little books, and I loved typewriters. I loved anything where I could put my ideas on paper. So this love just has been part of my makeup really. And then when I was, you know, old enough to head into college, I had discovered that graphic design was a thing, that you could actually combine text and images professionally. And actually someone has to design books and do all these things. So that was a revelation. So I went to art college and studied visual communications.

Laura

03:20
Awesome.

Janine

03:21
And that was a diploma program.

Laura

03:23
And where was this?

Janine

03:24
This was in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. And I graduated in 1995. So right when computers and desktop publishing was becoming the new normal for what we, how we do things, even though I have also some background and paced up and dark rooms and cameras and stuff.

Nikki

03:48
Rubylith.

Janine

03:49
Rubylith. Yeah, I was a negative stripper, you can put that on the list too. So when I graduated from college, I bought a computer and just invested in understanding how that works and learning Quark Xpress and Adobe stuff at the time. And I looked for a job and pretty much right away I was freelancing. I had a job for maybe nine months, and then just started doing things on my own. So I did graphic design, freelance for arts and culture clients for about 12 years and really enjoyed that a lot. And I got to know people in the arts and in publishing, and I did design for other people’s books and other people’s magazines. And eventually, I just realized I wanted to do that part of it, like the publishing and combining all the ideas and images right from the beginning. So there was a little segue where I had a retail and gallery store called Uppercase, and that’s where Uppercase got its name. It was in downtown Calgary and people could come in and see the gallery shows that I curated. In the back I would do my design for clients and in the front, I had the gallery and sold greeting cards, and I designed and made products and things. And so eventually I just retired from client work so that I could concentrate on Uppercase things such as launching a magazine.

Laura

05:18
Well, that is no small undertaking. I mean, when you get this idea in your head, okay, I want to launch a magazine, where do you even start with something like that?

Janine

05:27
Well, I had been designing for other publications, and one of them was a magazine. So I learned quite a lot just from observing what they were doing and kind of I learned what not to do, because they were very occasional in the issues that they released, like one time, there was four years between issues. So when that publication finally decided to call it quits, that’s when I decided that I had this part of my brain that was magazine thinking that I could create my own publication. And so I was initially thinking of it from purely a creative standpoint, like that it was something that I wanted to do. And I wanted to express my own ideas. And then I had to figure out how to make it into something viable that other people could actually support.

Nikki

06:23
So how did you decide what it was going to be about? I mean, obviously, with the arts, and everything that you were into, it was going to be in that direction, but how did you narrow it down? How did you choose what the focus was going to be?

Janine

06:39
Well, when I had Uppercase Gallery Books and Paper Goods, so I’ve been doing that for a number of years before the magazine came about. So within the art gallery, I was curating shows that were about design, or they were about so-called commercial art and photography. And so they would mostly be themed. And I would put it on open call, and people would submit their artwork, and I would curate a show from it. So that’s how my, that’s how the content for the magazine developed really was through those experiences of curating shows and getting to know artists from all over the world. And also the marketing of gallery exhibitions where you know, you have to get people into the place to come see the artwork. And so that’s what Uppercase was for many years. And so the idea of a magazine was born out of that. Creative and curious is what I call it, like, different ideas and different kinds of art and different kinds of creativity, all starting with like graphic design as a base. So through typography and communication and illustration, those are the foundations of it and then as I’ve grown, craft has really become something that I’m personally really interested in. So those are the kind of the basic topic areas that I explore.

Nikki

08:05
And I can see the transition from like your theme shows that you would curate because each … I was gonna say episode. Each issue has has a theme. So it’s pretty natural transition there.

Janine

08:20
Yeah, yeah, the themes are, there’s usually a couple and one is more of a, like an obvious practical one. And then there’s usually a sub theme, which is more of like an emotional theme or, or a tone or a mood that I’m trying to curate for. So that’s a fun challenge to have that combination.

Laura

08:41
I have to say, I love this one. So I’m holding up my latest issue that is says “keep showing up.” I think it’s a Lisa Congdon image on the front. It is a beautiful magazine. So when you first started this, I mean, people always wonder if you go I want to make a magazine, and you’ve created such a beautiful one. When you just started this was how many years ago? 10 years ago or so?

Janine

09:09
More. 2009 was when the first issue came out.

Laura

09:12
Did it look like this? I haven’t seen any of the really older issues. Is it very similar and true to what it was 10 or 11 years ago?

Janine

09:23
Well, the cover is actually, so the design of the cover, the masthead position, the logo, the pattern spine.

Nikki

09:31
Oh, the patterned spine, they look so beautiful on a shelf.

Janine

09:35
Yeah, well, that was all by design when I first launched the magazine.

Nikki

09:39
Oh, yeah, definitely. It shows.

Janine

09:41
Yeah, because I wanted it to have you know, shelf presence both from the front and from the side. Because I love libraries. I would imagine seeing my magazine in the library from the side. So originally when I came up with that concept, then I had to have enough pages so that it would be perfect bound. So that determined how much content I needed. So a lot of it at the beginning was directed from a graphic design kind of vanity sense, really.

Nikki

10:11
Yeah. I mean, as as a graphic designer myself, I love that.

Janine

10:15
Yeah, well, like if I was gonna do my dream magazine, I had to have certain things. And that was one of the things that I had to have, which was a nice thick spine and nice paper. So that kind of general template has been the same since day one. But then within the image area, that’s where I’ve explored with different kinds of art and typography. And different artists, there are over 53 issues now.

Laura

10:40
Wow.

Nikki

10:41
Congratulations. That’s amazing.

Janine

10:43
Thanks. That’s so that’s part of the personality of the magazine now, is that design, but inside, the magazines changed a lot. Like if you looked at the first six issues, the editorial direction was a little, I don’t know, all over the place. I didn’t quite know what I was doing as an editor. And it had a wider range of topics. And it just, I took a while to find my footing as an editor.

Nikki

11:11
Yeah, you had to find your voice.

Janine

11:13
Yeah. Yeah. But, and then the design inside changes a little bit over the years. I hope better typography and the grid system and such has actually stayed quite similar over time. But yeah, I think the personality inside the magazine has changed the most through both my learning as an editor and also my skills as a designer, and then the quality of the content that’s presented as well.

Nikki

11:43
Well, it’s a great combination of consistency and growth, I think.

Janine

11:49
Thank you.

Nikki

11:51
So, okay, if I had the idea that I wanted to make a magazine, and I think, Okay, well, I can pull together some content, and I can design something. But how do I get it out there? How do I get it published? How do I get people to buy it? I mean, how did you? How did you go from idea to the beautiful well known and loved publication that you have now?

Janine

12:19
Well, there’s 13 years there.

Nikki

12:21
I know! You don’t have to tell us all 13 years, but…

Janine

12:26
Yeah, but in the beginning, in the beginning, it was sorry, my dog is making a lot of noise right now. My dog is 16 years old and…

Laura

12:36
Mine is 15 years old, so

Janine

12:37
He just sort of wanders around bumping into things because he can’t see. Yeah, okay. All right. So, yeah, so the magazine is 13 years old. So when I first started, it was in the time of blogs, and Flickr and pre social media, like Instagram and Twitter wasn’t around. And I had a newsletter list as well, because I had the gallery and these international shows that I was curating. So initially, I just needed 400 people to subscribe to the magazine, and that would cover the print expenses for the first issue. So that’s where I started, right. And then I just crossed my fingers and hope that after I had the first issue that more people would subscribe. And I’m very grateful that it worked that by the end of the first year, I had about 1000 subscribers.

Nikki

12:47
Oh, that’s fantastic.

Janine

13:21
That was enough to go for another year. It’s just but just barely squeaking by, you know, just getting the basic expenses. But so over time, many, many years, it took for it to become something that was, I guess, sustainable? Probably it seven years really before it was actually something that didn’t stress me out on a regular basis as far as how I was gonna pay for it. But it was just a labor of love for all those years. And it continues to be a labor of love. But actually now it’s actually a decent living as well.

Nikki

14:13
Excellent. But how did you grow that subscriber list? So you started with a newsletter list that you already had? And obviously, some growth is just gonna happen organically by people loving it and sharing it. And

Janine

14:30
Yeah, actually, I would say that that’s the number one way that the magazine has grown over the years is people talking about it and sharing it with their creative friends. And so that’s one way it’s grown. And then I guess Twitter launched. I can’t remember what year Twitter came out. But when my first issue came out in 2009, I remember opening a Twitter account and my tweets were about the first issue being delivered and such and so for a while, Twitter was a really great place to let people know about the magazine. And then for a while, it was a blog. And then for a while it was Instagram. Mostly though these days it’s from my newsletter that people find out about the magazine and become subscribers through there. But it’s just a lot of experimenting and trying and basically just putting out as good a quality of a publication as I possibly can and then letting that speak for itself.

Nikki

15:34
Well, and it really does. I mean, there’s no other magazine out there that I think is beautifully designed.

Janine

15:42
Well thank you.

Nikki

15:45
I haven’t seen it.

Janine

15:48
Thank you very much.

Nikki

15:49
The only other thing I can think of that even comes close is what is it called? Flow?

Laura

15:55
Yes.

Nikki

15:56
Is it Flow? It’s about paper and…

Janine

15:58
Yeah, that’s a Dutch publication.

Nikki

16:01
Yeah. That’s another like really beautifully designed one. But most magazines out there…

Laura

16:07
Not so much

Nikki

16:07
Not so great. All right. So I want to talk about, you don’t have advertisers?

Janine

16:18
That’s correct.

Nikki

16:19
And that, obviously, is a conscious decision that you made from the beginning. Can you talk about that a bit?

Janine

16:25
Actually, I did have some ads at the very beginning. But advertising has never been something that I have relied on at all, like, the magazine is entirely supported by its readers and subscribers. So the very first few years, I had ads, because I kind of thought, well, that’s what you’re supposed to do. Some people wanted to be in it back then. And it was ads, like, you know, the art college where I went to school or people who are in the magazine, I would give them some ad space, you know, in exchange for them having contributed in one way or another and people could purchase inexpensive ads about their Etsy shops and that sort of thing. But it was a lot of work to wrangle the ads and such. It wasn’t really worth it from a financial standpoint. And honestly, I just wanted more pages to put more content in. So once I decided I wasn’t going to bother with ads and then that was a great decision that I’m very glad I made it. And so for the vast majority of time, it’s been ads free, and entirely supported by readers. There’s no like government grants or sponsorships or anything. It’s just they’re subscribers.

Nikki

16:45
Right?

Laura

17:41
The business model was really you putting out this amazing product into the world knowing that it would organically grow, right, you’re putting the best product out there and that the readership then, those subscriptions are supporting the publication itself and you.

Janine

17:54
Yeah, and it wasn’t necessarily like a model for growth that I understood when I started. But it’s just, I’m a perfectionist by nature and so I wanted to make something that was really, really pretty and really nice that I was proud of. And I don’t need to have a lot of subscribers to support that. Like I’ve always been a niche publication, because it’s not available, like in Barnes and Noble or any place like that. It’s just mostly through me directly through my website, and then some indie shops here and there. And those people have gotten in touch with me directly, like I don’t actively seek out stockists. So that’s sort of been the model.

Laura

18:37
Well, let’s talk a little bit about content. You mentioned content before. And when you create a publication, of course, you have to get contributors, you know, to create that content, you have some vision, like themes, like you were mentioning for what would be in the magazine at a certain time. So how do you go about getting that content to fill the number of pages that you require?

Janine

18:59
Well, so once I’ve identified the themes, I have a roster of regular contributors. And so I know where their areas of expertise are and what they’re, they’re personally interested in. So then I start assigning the content to the right people. Or I’ll just say, this is the theme. What do you think about it, and then they will come back to me and pitch some ideas, and then we work out which is the best direction to take. And then there’s always new writers and freelancers that I work with in each issue because they’re particularly an expert on that particular theme, for example, and typically, I’ll reach out to them because I’ve, you know, I’ve been following them on Instagram or I’m familiar with their work, or I read their blog or know their subscribers and I’ve googled them and seen what they’re up to. So there’s always those ones that I will assign and then there’s usually a couple of open calls for submissions. And those are open to readers. And they can submit work based on particular themes, or they can pitch article ideas or their own portfolios based on those specific themes. So those are the three ways that I, that I have content, but ultimately, it’s all coming through my brain and my content idea database that I keep, where I’m always putting things in and tagging ideas and sorting through things.

Laura

20:32
It’s all the magic in your head.

Janine

20:36
A lot of it is really, it is, because I think that’s part of what makes the magazine so unique is that it does filter through one person, and it is a lot of work, but I think it works.

Nikki

20:51
It’s definitely your vision.

Laura

20:53
But I imagine you get hundreds of pitches, right? And you know, when you do those open calls? So are there specific proposals that catch your eye the most, I mean, if people were looking to have work in a beautiful magazine like yours, is there something that would help them sort of stick out to the crowd?

Janine

21:13
Um, well, I actually don’t receive too many, just general idea pitches throughout the week, there aren’t that many. But when I make specific mentions in my newsletter, for example, then I might get more, but there’s always instructions and information on the participate page on my website. But what stands out, when I get a pitch that I want to work with is the person is first of all, if they’re familiar with the magazine, and they understand the kinds of articles that I do, and then their pitch will be well articulated, well written. So if they want to write an article, that’s kind of the basic thing, it has to be articulate or they have like outstanding images, and they’re extremely talented visually, those those two things help for sure. Well, I love that you provide so many opportunities for artists and writers to get published for free in your magazine. And, and the you have the Submissions page on the website. And then I love that the email that you send out, just has all these calls. And that’s how I’ve actually gotten to be in it twice, I think. Where you’ve just put out a call, for example, the one that I was in, you put out a call for art related to vehicles, cars or transportation. And I submitted my car that I had drawn all over. So that was super fun.

Nikki

22:07
I don’t remember that theme. I’ve never had that theme. It was issued 28. I don’t remember the exact wording it had to do with…

Janine

22:57
Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn’t transportation just started but maybe travel or something like travel. They were vintage transit tickets on the cover. Maybe that’s so long ago. I can’t even remember.

Laura

23:09
We’ve all slept a few times since then. I think

Nikki

23:12
Well, yes. I remember it because I’m not published in so many magazines, that I’ll easily forget. But my my car is in there that I drew all over.

Janine

23:21
Okay. I’ll look for it later

Laura

23:24
And Nikki is about to draw all over a bus soon. So she’ll have a much larger vehicle that she’s drawing all over

Nikki

23:30
Oh yeah, I’m about to move into a school bus. And will have my home and studio in it. And the outside of the bus gonna be a big canvas for me.

Janine

23:41
Wow, that’s amazing.

Nikki

23:42
Yeah, yeah.

Janine

23:43
That could be an article.

Nikki

23:44
I might have to propose one.

Laura

23:47
Pitch is coming.

Nikki

23:50
Yeah, let’s get the bus first.

Laura

23:54
So for the last 10 years or 11, 12 years, you’ve created these amazing magazines.

Nikki

23:59
Thirteen

Laura

24:00
Thirteen. Thirteen years, you’ve created this amazing magazine. And then at some stage, you started to produce and make books. How did that come about?

Janine

24:10
Actually, I started making books before the magazine. So when I had some gallery shows, I made books, um, you know, gallery exhibition books, they would go with the show. So that’s where I first kind of got the publishing bug was when I did that. And the very first book I published is a complete anomaly. But it was called the Shatner Show. And it was about William Shatner. Captain Kirk from Star Trek. Yeah, so that was 2007 when I did that show, and he was 76 at that time, turning 76. And I had a gallery exhibition with open calls for images of William Shatner and his various incarnations of Captain Kirk, and all the other, TJ Hooker and all these other characters he’s been over the years. And since I had so much artwork coming in, I got his permission to create a hardcover book about the show called The Shatner Show.

Nikki

25:12
That’s amazing.

Janine

25:13
Yeah, so that was a weird year where it was all about William Shatner. But that was that was pre- before the magazine and everything. But that was the very first book I did. And then I did some subsequent books for gallery exhibitions. And those are really kind of fun and quirky. And then the magazine launched in 2009. And I had already done maybe for four or five books by then.

Nikki

25:41
Wow.

Janine

25:42
And then more recently, I’ve been doing, as you mentioned earlier, the Encyclopedia of inspiration.

Nikki

25:50
Which is so beautiful.

Janine

25:52
Those are an epic, large, large books of in between three and 500 pages each, like real encyclopedia size, just full of profiles of different artists on a very specific topic for each volume. So there’s been about printmaking and ceramics and yarn, thread and string. And I’m working on one right now that will be out in June and it’s all about art supplies. So that one’s really exciting and beautiful.

Nikki

26:22
We’ve already been lusting over that one.

Janine

26:25
Yeah, it’s it’s so pretty. There’s so much amazing profiles of artists and their love of art supplies. And then manufacturers, people who make artisanal like watercolors or others small batch art supplies, and then some of the large, big companies that you all know a love that you can get at your local art supply store.

Nikki

26:46
Do you have any encaustic in there?

Janine

26:49
Yes, there’s some encaustic.

Nikki

26:52

Laura

and I are both encaustic people. Among other things.

Laura

26:57
Well, I have an entire house full of art supplies, so I don’t really, I don’t really favor one over the other. I just like them all.

Janine

27:07
That sort of the Uppercase way is that’s the hallmark of a reader is that we just love all that stuff. All the creative things. Yeah.

Nikki

27:15
Oh yeah. Oh, yeah, it was so hard. And it’s still so hard trying to downsize to get what I can fit on a bus. So how many of the encyclopedia books have you published so far?

Janine

27:30
Art Supply will be the 10th

Nikki

27:32
Oh, wow.

Janine

27:33
Yeah, it’s quite a stack.

Nikki

27:35
Wow. Yeah. Are you doing one for each letter?

Janine

27:39
Yeah, that’s the plan. I call it their each have a letter of the alphabet on the spine. And but I’m, they’re released in what I call a whimsical non-alphabetical order. So yeah, they’re just, I’m doing A now for example, A for Art Supply. But I’ve already done Y for Yarn, Thread and String. But yes, someday, eventually, I’ll have one for every letter of the alphabet. And I do have a list of ideas for each of them. There’s a few missing pieces, but I have many, many years to work on this. It’s like a lifetime project. I think.

Nikki

28:15
I don’t know, you’re you’re almost half through.

Janine

28:17
Oh, well, yeah. I slowed the pace down a little bit, though. Before I was doing two a year. And that was that was the one too many. I can only do one a year, so…

Laura

28:31
Wow, I mean, because they’re, they’re huge, right? They’re 400 pages or 300 pages or something. So there’s a botanical one, I think, with like florals.

Nikki

28:42
Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna own that one pretty soon.

Laura

28:45
And I I also think that you’re a fan of vintage things, if I’m correct. Now, I grew up with my mom taking me to estate sales every Thursday to collect antiques. So I always love all things vintage. So I’ve seen some of that in your magazine and in your in your books and stuff as well.

Janine

29:02
Yeah, I love vintage stuff. So I do have one of the encyclopedias is Vintage Life. And that explores people who live in vintage clothing or sell or they have a vintage environment or something. And then there’s also an encyclopedia about feed sacks, which is a vintage textile. They used to be what, you know, chicken feed or flour that used to be packaged, and it’s beautiful fabric that people would upcycle into clothing and crafts and things with just really beautiful surface pattern design. So that’s another vintage themed volume. And then, outside of this theme, I published a book called The Typewriter, which is all about my own personal obsession with typewriters, that was released in 2015. It’s out of print now, but it was a, yeah, that book took many, many years to put together. And it was a total passion project.

Nikki

30:04
I love old typewriters, too. I just had to part with two of them.

Janine

30:10
Well, maybe you can fit one on your bus.

Nikki

30:14
Maybe a miniature… do they come in miniature size?

Janine

30:16
Yeah, you can get a portable. And then if you’re not connected to the internet, you can still write.

Nikki

30:22
There you go. Well, I can always draw.

Laura

30:28
Okay, so one question I have you are creating a book every year, you’re doing at least is it, is it four issues of the magazine every year? That is a lot. And you’re like a one woman show, like you’re designing all of this yourself? Is that correct?

Janine

30:45
That is correct.

Laura

30:47
Wow.

Janine

30:47
Yeah. Yeah. The design aspect is like the icing on the cake, though, like design of any of these projects is…

Nikki

30:54
That is the most fun part.

Janine

30:55
Yeah. But it’s like one of the smallest part of having a magazine is maybe there’s 10 or 12 days of design per issue. And then the rest is just like content gathering, editorial, and logistics, and database and finances and all that other stuff.

Laura

31:12
The boring part of being a designer and artist that people think only takes up 10% of our time, but usually takes up like 90%. So you have all of these things that you’re doing, how do you manage your time? How do you get all of this done in a day – that is just fascinating to me.

Janine

31:33
Well, I’ve been doing it for a long time now. And before the magazine, I did freelance design. So I’ve always been in charge of my schedule, and I’m responsible for getting things done. So even when I was working for a client, that is up to me to figure out how to manage my time so that I deliver on the job. And with the magazine, I have literally thousands of people waiting for each issue. And I’m always on time; I’m very driven by that responsibility and that accountability and having people waiting for it. So that’s a driving force to make sure that I get down to business and do my work. And I have developed lots of systems and lists and procedures and things that I can repeat now that I’ve done this so many times. That takes away a lot of the stress of wondering oh, what do I do next? Because I know, because I’ve written it down. I know what happens next. So I’m very organized. I don’t waste time. Like it’s just, I just don’t. I don’t.

Nikki

32:39
Can you bottle that up?

Janine

32:41
I don’t have time to waste. And I’m homeschooling my grade sixer this year too.

Nikki

32:46
Oh, wow.

Janine

32:46
So there’s there’s a lot. Yeah, definitely, really try not to waste time.

Nikki

32:52
That’s amazing. I wish I knew how to do that. Procrastination is my middle name.

Janine

32:57
Well, there’s good procrastination. There’s detrimental procrastination, actually issue 52 explores the ideas of creative procrastination is can sometimes, you know, actually help your creativity to procrastinate. But there’s a lot of like very specific deliverable things that have to happen at certain times if I want to keep the magazine on schedule, from a production standpoint, and mailing and all those things. So there are points along the lifespan of an issue where I have less that I have to do and it’s a bit of a break and, and I can relax a little bit and I don’t have to be working so intensely. So you know, it ebbs and flows. But basically, I just have a good work ethic and I get down to business when I have to do things just so it frees up more time overall to get things done when I can.

Nikki

34:00
Yeah, that’s good. I need to learn from that. So you mentioned you were homeschooling your child. And is this related to COVID? Have you always homeschooled or is this a new thing?

Janine

34:15
Oh, it’s because of COVID. And yeah, we decided to keep him home. Yeah. So the first year pandemic there was a program like remote learning. But the second year pandemic, they didn’t offer that anymore.

Nikki

34:29
So everybody was going back?

Janine

34:32
Yeah, but we didn’t feel comfortable with that. So we’ve been homeschooling him instead.

Nikki

34:37
Has COVID affected your business in other ways? Has it affected your business? Has it caused production delays, shipping delays, printing?

Janine

34:48
Well, the first thing that happened was I just came home instead of going to my office every day so I kind of missed my studio, but it’s very portable and that I just need my big computer, so that I can design and keep on top of things. So that was just a personal shift for me to bring everything home. And then I’m very grateful to my printer, they have stayed operational the whole time. And for the most part, the Postal Service has done their job. There have been some times where it’s been extremely delayed and no stuff that’s beyond my control. But eventually people get get their magazine. So I’m grateful to all those systems.

Laura

35:30
Well, especially because you ship internationally, right?

Janine

35:34
Yeah, yeah, there’s some countries I’ve had to not ship to in the past couple of years, but I can ship to wherever my core audience is anyway. So that’s been, I’m very grateful that I didn’t have to have any shutdowns. Obviously, a lot of the stores that stocked the magazine had to close for a while and that affected more of the stores than me because it’s very small number of magazines they actually have in comparison to subscribers. And I’ve been very grateful to all the people who really embraced Uppercase in the past couple of years. So it’s actually been a time of growth as far as subscribers are concerned, because we all need something to do and something to cheer us up and something to look forward to.

Nikki

36:22
People had more time to read magazines.

Janine

36:25
Yeah. And so I’ve tried to keep the content of the magazine is always optimistic and uplifting and motivational. So that’s been well received.

Laura

36:38
Excellent. Now, one of the things I love is that your magazine is beautifully printed. And we’re kind of in a world now where everything seems to be going digital. I love used bookstores, but now it’s like, everything’s on a Kindle and things seem to be moving digital. Have, have you ever felt a pressure to go that route?

Janine

37:01
Well, when I first launched the magazine, there were a lot of big publications that were very heavily invested into the iPad version of their, of their magazine. So if you remember Wired magazine, or Martha Stewart Living back in the day, they would have these elaborate video, animated, amazing iPad apps. And people like me, what are you going to do? And like, there’s no way I could do that, I can’t, you know, become a programmer and do all that stuff. And people would be used to paying a lot less for the app than they were for the print magazine. And I didn’t want to take away from the print magazine by offering a digital version. So I decided pretty early on that I was not going to have a digital version. And I just stuck to that. It’s about print on paper.

Nikki

37:57
I think that’s a great choice.

Janine

37:59
Yeah, well, we’re all tactile artists and creative people. And we just, we need paper. And even if the magazine ends up like getting cut up for collage or something, you can’t do that with an iPads.

Laura

38:11
We’re stuck in front of our screens all day long, you know?

Janine

38:14
Yeah. Yeah. So I really do embrace print on paper. But of course, I always have environmental concerns and sustainability concerns. So it’s all on, the interior stock is 100%, post consumer recycled paper. And it comes in a recycled Kraft envelope. And so I’ve plastic free across the whole system, even in the fulfillment they’re are not supposed to use any plastics or wrap or anything. Plastic wrap. So that’s where I’m at right now. The only thing that would persuade me to do digital is environmental concerns. Because shipping of a printed thing across the world is carbon intensive. So yeah, but that’s not something I’m going to do anytime soon.

Nikki

39:04
Good. I love the way they look on my shelf, and you just can’t spread out a whole series of them on an iPad.

Janine

39:13
Yeah, the magazine will always be print. Yeah.

Nikki

39:16
And I even love that you include a little note that suggests you reusing, recycling the mailer that it comes in, paint on it, you know, use it in collage, I love that.

Janine

39:30
Yeah, people do that. They really look forward to the envelope, and they have like, started a series and they need another envelope. And someone emailed me recently said, do I have extra envelopes because she has something in mind. So I might send her the like, sometimes I get returns in the posts of people who have moved or whatever, and it couldn’t be delivered. So then I get all these magazines back with the envelope that’s been, you know, there and back again. I save that. So you know, maybe I can send that out to someone else and they can make use of it.

Nikki

40:01
I love it. Yep. All right, let’s talk a little bit about. So we are, Laura and I both also do surface pattern design. And so we’ve we’ve always loved your patterns that you do. And let’s talk about your partnership with Windham Fabrics and your, your fabric collection.

Janine

40:23
Sure, yeah. So as we talked about, on the spine of the magazine, there’s a different pattern that I design inspired by the content of the each issue and the theme. So quite a number of years ago, now I had a stack of magazines, and I took a picture of the spines, and I thought like that would look really nice as fabric someday. And I had been asked to be a judge for QuiltCon one year. And so I went down to Texas, and I looked at hundreds of quilts and learned a lot about quilts because I, I love that stuff, but I wasn’t, you know, in that industry at that point. So it was like a great crash course in learning about quilts and fabric and surface pattern design and with experts like Carolyn Friedlander, who was the other judge at the time. So then when that exhibition of the quilt that the judges and I had curated was up, Windham Fabrics was down at QuiltCon. And the President emailed me from QuiltCon, and just said he really liked what I had selected for my Judge’s Choice Award. And I figured, like, this is the guy from Windham Fabrics, and he has time to email me from QuiltCon. Like, he’s got time on his hands and I thought, this is the opportunity.

Nikki

41:51
This is your opportunity.

Janine

41:53
I had that photo of the spine. Then I sent it his way and said, What do you think? And then like he said, Yeah, let’s do it. So that’s how the first fabric collection came about.

Nikki

42:04
That’s amazing.

Janine

42:05
Windham had been involved with the first, well, the first surface pattern design issue that I had out, they really liked a lot of the artists and commissioned collections from those people.

Nikki

42:17
Fantastic.

Janine

42:18
So I had followed up with an article about what how that had developed into a collection for some of my readers. So we had already a rapport via email but I didn’t want to take away from my readers by pitching my designs. That wasn’t the point.

Nikki

42:33
But when the opportunity arose…

Janine

42:36
It was perfect. So I’ve done four collections with them over the years, and they’ve been involved with the past surface pattern design issues, in that they will select a winner from all the submissions that I get. And that winner gets a quilt collection with them. Windham.

Laura

42:36
Nice.

Nikki

42:36
Awesome.

Laura

42:38
So I’m curious, what is the biggest challenge that you’ve come across in your career so far? And how did you get past it?

Janine

42:53
Hmm, that’s a good question.

Laura

42:56
Not to put you on the spot or anything.

Nikki

43:01
Totally put you on the spot.

Janine

43:02
The biggest challenge was for all those many years at the beginning, where I loved what I was doing. But I wasn’t, I didn’t have a viable business. Right. So it wasn’t until 2014 that I kind of turned the corner because it was was basically just living on a line of credit, for all that time, like I would gain subscribers, and that would pay for print bill, then I’d have to pay the print bill. And then I would dip into the line of credit and go way into the hole, then work myself up, and then get back into the hole. And it was like that forever. So 2014 is when I discovered B School, which is like Marie Forleo, who’s the…

Nikki

43:58
Oh, yeah.

Janine

43:59
Basically a business mentor. And she has a signature course about business and marketing. And I took that in 2014. And it totally changed the course of my business. Yeah, it was, it was pretty great.

Nikki

44:12
Was there anything specific that you can say it was this thing that turned the corner? Or was it everything?

Janine

44:20
Well, it was everything. At the time I had employees. For the first few years I had people working with me. But the magazine wasn’t successful enough to keep paying them and to pay me and pay the print bills. And that was at that point where something had to give and I was paying my employees and not paying me and like I’m the soul earner in my family. So that wasn’t going to work out. I kind of knew that I was going to have to do a big reboot. So when I took B School, first of all, I learned about some marketing basics that I had really no clue. I had a good intuition about what I should be doing. But it was just confirming to me that I needed to do certain things that I had been afraid of doing. So I did have to let everybody go and start over basically, and start over with just working on my newsletter and communicating with what I was going through and just talking, you know, authentically, what I was doing instead of trying to so-called market stuff, you know?

Nikki

45:23
Right?

Janine

45:24
So that was the biggest shift. And the newsletter is the number one thing that really turned the business around. And so yeah, B School was a big thing. And I’m an affiliate for B School and have been for the past four years. So it’s a big part of my business career now is promoting B School and but also like, putting all the things that I’ve learned into into reality year after year.

Laura

45:49
Yeah, into action.

Nikki

45:51
Yeah, that’s fantastic. We actually both have done B School too.

Laura

45:57
We’re just not putting it into action, like you did.

Nikki

46:00
Oh, yeah, we’re, well, we both had other full time jobs that kept us from going 100% all in. I don’t remember what year it was that I did it. It’s probably been, I don’t know, four years, maybe? Yeah, I can’t remember.

Janine

46:18
Well, you can come back and do it again. We’re doing it live right now.

Nikki

46:22
I’ve been thinking about starting it over again right now. So other than B School, what other resources can you share with us that have been really helpful for you?

Janine

46:35
Um, well, I use Notion that is a, basically my external brain. So it’s as platform software, I don’t know what you would call it.

Nikki

46:47
It’s a relational database.

Janine

46:49
Yeah. But it’s, it’s where I put absolutely everything. And it’s very customizable. So I can do everything in there. I have my ideas, I have the encyclopedia content, I have the information that goes to the printer, aoubt the logistics of where 12,000 copies of the magazine goes, like absolutely everything Uppercase related, is in Notion and so I couldn’t live without it. I’ve been using it for a little over two years now. Before that, I used Evernote, which was also amazing. But Notion is a level up.

Nikki

47:25
Oh, yeah.

Janine

47:25
There’s just much more that you can do with it. So it’s really complex. But once you invest your time into understanding what it can do, it’s pretty amazing. So that would be my recommendation.

Nikki

47:40
Excellent. I’ve played around with it a bit. But I, I have a tendency to to go all in on a new tool and and work on getting it set up and then see the next shiny one that I’m like, ooh, now let me try this one.

Laura

47:54
Each project manager tool lasts you two weeks.

Janine

47:57
Yeah, I’ve gone through a lot of them too. And it was sort of a hobby, vetting all these different ones.

Nikki

48:03
Yeahs, it has been for me too, but that’s not a very great use of your time. It’s really not.

Janine

48:09
It’s not productive, no, but with Notion, you can pretty much do anything because you can just make it exactly what you need. So yeah, that’s pretty good.

Laura

48:17
Okay, so I have a question. Is there a warehouse somewhere that is just full of books and magazines

Janine

48:21
Of Uppercase books? Well, I have a storage unit, and it’s full of my books and magazines. But what happens when a new issue is printed, the majority, well, first of all, the subscriber copies are sent out. And then the others are sent either to my distributor in the UK, which takes about 600 copies. And then the rest are sent to a fulfillment company or fulfillment warehouse. And there’s, I use one in Montreal for sending Canadian orders. And then I use one in Los Angeles area, and that one fulfills orders that are going across America and overseas. So those are the warehouses that have the bulk of my items so that when people come to my website and buy something, that’s where it’s shipped from, unless it’s right before a new issue is sent from the printer and it goes from the printer. Yeah, but those are gigantic warehouses and I’ve just got little tiny pallet or two there in comparison.

Nikki

49:26
You mean you’re not stuffing every single issue into the Kraft mailer and sending them out yourself?

Janine

49:32
No, I’m not. But I did start out doing that in the early days of the magazine. I did all the mailing myself, but no, the printer does the stuffing of envelopes, but they’re called the Prolific Group and they’re in Winnipeg, Manitoba. And they do a lot of amazing stuff by hand that you’ll see on on Uppercase like the Encyclopedia of Inspiration has a dust jacket around it and then it has a belly band around it. That’s all put on by hand.

Nikki

50:03
Wow. Just not your hand.

Janine

50:05
Not me. No. Sometimes I have little goodies and things that I’ve packed up into little glassine envelopes, and I’ve had friends come over and we’ve packed those things up, but with COVID and stuff we haven’t done that sort of thing in a few years. Yeah. If I could do it, I would do it all. But really, that would be taking it too far.

Nikki

50:27
You gotta sleep.

Janine

50:28
Yeah.

Laura

50:29
One of the things I’m curious about is the length of time it takes you from the concept of the magazine to actually finishing it up. I know the books take about a year.

Janine

50:39
Yeah, the books are a year, that’s about right, nine months at the very least, like a baby.

Nikki

50:46
They are babies, you have many babies.

Janine

50:50
With the magazine, I’m always looking ahead coming up with themes. And the theme might not have a specific issue yet. But if I’m feeling inspired, or I see a lot about a particular topic or theme that I want to investigate, then that goes into my Notion database where I can start collecting towards that particular theme. So I like to have themes lined up for at least two or three issues ahead of time. And it’s fairly nebulous at the beginning. But as I get closer to the dates, then it becomes more and more cohesive. And I start kind of honing in on the vision. But the initial ideas and themes that can happen a year in advance, but more likely, like eight months in advance, I’m always working on trying to get that, you know, done a little bit sooner, so that I can assign content sooner and have everything kind of in process a little bit sooner. But some some themes are easier to to see come to fruition and others. So for example, the spring issue that’s out in April, had gardening as one of the main themes and like gardening is – that’s so easy, really, as far as a visual theme to come up with amazing things for that. So that one was it didn’t take much advanced planning for that one to come together. But then I have some themes that are a little more difficult or open to interpretation. So for example, I want to do something about abstract, abstract art, abstract thinking. Abstract as a word, what does it mean? And so that’s a theme that’s abstract. It’s open to interpretation, right? So that’s one that I’m working on right now. And that would be for the issue that comes out in July.

Nikki

52:40
Yeah, I could see how that one, the visuals would be easy. But to get writing around abstract is a little more challenging.

Janine

52:48
Mmhmm. Yeah. And then the one after that will be about graphic design and typography. And so that’s my wheelhouse. So I’m like really into that, kind of returning to my roots. So that one will probably be a little bit easier for me. But yeah, so I guess, working three issues ahead is really what I like to do.

Laura

53:08
Awesome.

Nikki

53:09
Well, Janine, thank you so much for being here. This has been amazing. I’ve loved your magazine since the second I saw it. So I’m thrilled to have you here on the podcast. And we just are looking forward to the next issue. And I’m pretty sure we’re going to end up with the Art Supply Encyclopedia.

Janine

53:30
Well, thank you so much for your enthusiasm. I appreciate your support of the magazine. And I look forward to hearing from your listeners and seeing their work when they submit to the magazine too.

Nikki

53:44
Excellent.

Laura

53:46
Absolutely. And what’s the best way for them to do that?

Janine

53:49
Yeah, at uppercasemagazine.com. In the navigation, there’s the participate page. And that explains all the different open calls that are current and some ongoing ways that you can submit or pitch your work or submit your portfolio. So that’s like the inbox there’s always open. If you go through that web page, you’ll get all the information about how to submit.

Nikki

54:10
And you’ll definitely wanna sign up for her weekly email. She sends is it one a week or two a week?

Janine

54:17
Well, I have my main newsletter, which I send out every Tuesday. And then there’s an optional one that you can select, which is called All About You and I send that on the weekends and that’s highlighting the work of readers and subscribers from around the world.

Nikki

54:30
Yeah, that’s actually a fantastic one because I’ve been in that one and you just have to send you a little, an image and a blurb and you’ll put it in the in the newsletter. But definitely sign up for the Uppercase email list because you’ll get all of the submissions that she’s looking for sent right to you.

Janine

54:49
Exactly. Yeah, that’s how to do it.

Nikki

54:53
To learn more about Janine and Uppercase Magazine, check out our show notes at startistsociety.com/uppercase.

Laura

55:01
If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, we’d love for you to share it with a friend. Sharing helps us reach more Startists like you and keeps us inspired to create new episodes.

Nikki

55:11
Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next week.