Here is a magazine about architecturally designed houses in Aotearoa. It launched in 2020 in the middle of a pandemic lockdown when all the magazines, and particularly the ones about architecture, had closed.

Here Magazine

WHAT WE DID—
Publishing
Content Strategy
Storytelling
Art Direction & Design
Digital Strategy
Photography
Events

THE BRIEF—
They said that magazine publishing in this country was dead. We just thought it needed to be better. With Here, we wanted to celebrate colour, joy and fun: we wanted to showcase architecturally designed houses. We didn't care if they were humble or luxurious: we just wanted them to be good.

APPROACH—
The design approach is novel: the magazine has a clear identity, which revolves around strong, often playful typography, clean design, negative space – though not necessarily white – and solid blocks of colour, but we also welcome guest creatives each issue to mess with that. Editorial values are clearly identified. Production values are high – a counterpoint to most mass-media titles on the market in Aotearoa. Text pages are printed on 100gsm matt paper, while the cover is on matt 250gsm uncoated stock.

RESULTS—
Here is nationally distributed with a stable circulation and a loyal subscriber base across both print and digital versions. The magazine enjoys stable, committed advertising partnerships and runs a nationally recognised awards programme. It has won numerous awards including: Best Covid Response at the 2020 MPA Magazine Media Awards, Best Graphic Design at the 2022 and 2023 Voyager Media Awards – not to mention a gold pin for Editorial and Books at the 2021 Best Design Awards. It enjoys high engagement: 80 per cent of readers have taken action after seeing it in the magazine.

CREDITS—
Sarah Gladwell, Simon Farrell-Green, Hannah Kidd, Alex Scott, Harriet Cowie, Simon Devitt, Sam Hartnett, David Straight, Jackie Meiring, Simon Wilson, Michael Moore-Jones, Claire McCall, Karo Lutkiewicz.

Curious how we work? Email us, we’d love to hear from you.

Here Studio acknowledges Māori as tangata whenua and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partners in Aotearoa New Zealand.