Toxic Fumes Magazine is a graffiti based magazine, that focuses on the people involved in the art, and documenting the culture. It includes interviews, stories, write ups and more. The first issue includes an interview with the late and great Dave Schubert as well as an interview with JOINS KYT. A story from NOTICE 44. Photo recaps and write ups on graffiti related events that took place this last year. Each page is filled with photos ranging from writers bombing the streets to crushing freight panels and everything in-between. This magazine is 140 pages, full color, 8.5" x 11". These are some previews of the magazine.

I have made zines for the past few years but wanted to make something that provided me with more of a challenge. I figured that making a standard sized magazine would give me the space to expand the amount of content I am showcasing as well as the ability to add more design aspects. I also wanted to include more text this time because I have always been so heavy on imagery. Typically magazines have interviews and write-ups which I have always had an interest in doing. Although my main interests may be photography, I have continually enjoyed the journalism aspects of the content I shoot and the stories it tells. I wanted to make something more complex design wise and more interactive for the audience. 

Zines have always been an interest of mine due to the rawness of content and unapologetic DIY aspect of the design. With this magazine, I wanted to make something more professional that could reach a larger audience and could even draw in people who weren't my typical customer. I wanted it to be easy to consume from the audience perspective but still have the ability to bring about someone's curiousity. So when I was thinking of people to interview that would go along with my content, I thought of one of my biggest inspirations for the preservation of graffiti culture, Dave schubert. I did a deep dive on his life and contributions to the subcultures he was a part of. I read other interviews with him to give me a better understanding of how I could have an original and interesting discussion with him. On the design side of things, I had never made a full sized magazine before, only its smaller counterpart- a zine. To give myself inspiration and perspective, I sifted through my personal library of magazines containing a wide range of content and which date back to the early 90's. I even looked through some of my favorite design and photobooks to inform myself a little bit more of layout, and small aspects that could bring the magazine together as a whole.  

After spending months taking photos and organizing them, I began to match them up with spreads that I though went well together. In the time in-between working on layout and design, I began to schedule and conduct interviews. After completing all the interviews I transcribed them and revised them for a more reader-friendly account of our discussions. I spent some time working on write-ups from two events that were related to the content of the magazine. Once all the content from interviews and photos were laid out, I began to add certain graphic aspects to pages, like text, colors and symbols. When I got close to feeling complete I took a step back and tried to observe the draft from a reader's perspective to knock out anything that didn't allow things to flow from page to page. When I finished that, I came back and looked over the pages many times, specifically at the text and graphics. I wanted to be absolutely sure things were as good they possibly could be. By this point the magazine was ready for production.