Ricarda Messner likes “publishing dreams”. Her latest project, Sofa, launched in Berlin last summer. With the tagline “Life is a Chatroom”, Sofa is a vibrant mix of low and high culture delivered in a punchy style. We reclined on a comfy cushion for a chat about it.
Where did the idea for Sofa come from?
Sofa is the result of my friendship with Caia (Hagel) who lives in Montreal. I met her through the Flaneur Montreal production in 2014 and since then we’ve stayed close friends via skype and other digital interfaces. We had endless conversations about topics that interest us, our email inbox was always our safe zone to express whatever we feel or think about xyz. At the beginning of last year we wanted to create a magazine with a similar editorial voice and have more people participate in the conversations we like to have. So Sofa was born.
You choose one topic per issue, the first one being ‘What is Generation Z thinking?’ and the current one ‘What are Cyber Hearts made of?’ How do you go about selecting these and your guest editor for each issue?
As I said it’s topics that interest us. We have fun and enjoy imagining how things develop in the future by looking closer at our current times. Starting with the future of the society, with the Teens of Today, it felt like a great start, although it was quite funny that people needed to see the second issue to not continue defining us as a Teen Mag. The role of the guest editor developed with the topics of the Teens. From early on we realised it would be wrong for us to talk about this generation, this is how it’s always done. Us older people talk about the youth with our stereotypical assumptions. So we said we need to have a teenager involved throughout the making of the content. Having spent hours on Instagram, we came across Andy who is brilliant and smart and introduced us to her thoughts as well as her community. For the second we went with our friend Natasha Lennard, who is a great writer from New York, and had an interesting take on defining cyber and love as well as a great network of writers, thinkers in cyber spheres.
Who is Sofa’s target audience? How would you describe the magazine/universe to someone unfamiliar with it?
We have just started out but I think people who like us, enjoy our mix of high and low culture which is our main DNA. We both as editors believe in emotional and ‘academic’ intelligence, are both lovers of trashy pop culture and its ability to say profound things about us and our societies. So it’s all about trying to have deeper, intimate conversations by establishing a fun, accessible comfort zone. We want people to sit down on our analog and digital sofas and express whatever they feel or believe in. It doesn’t matter if we agree or not. It is healthy to disagree.
The design is quite loud, hectic and trashy – not unlike a teenager in many respects. How conscious of this were you and the design team at Studio Yukiko?
I love working with studio yukiko and through Flaneur I know that they are very capable of translating the content through a unique design approach. So they knew we wanted to play with this mass kiosk look which maybe brings back memories of some old youth magazines. In a way we use the tool of nostalgia to have people feel comfortable or intrigued by its look because they are familiar with it but then they realize its very much its own thing and the aesthetic, tone is dedicated to the future rather than copy pasting something from the past.
What’s the reception to the magazine been to date? Any surprises?
It’s been quite funny because people have usually been surprised by the quantity and depth of content. There is a lot to read and to discover although readers have assumed its a magazine filled with images and no words due to the glossy cheap outfit. Its great because we exactly wanted to play with this presumption towards this kind of aesthetic.
Flaneur, another publishing project of yours, is quite a contrast focusing on one street per edition. Was this departure intentional and what overlaps have you noticed?
Well this departure was intentionally very different. When I started publishing Flaneur I had absolutely zero idea on what it takes. So last year I was intrigued to start something new with the ‘industry’ knowledge I had gained, I could focus a lot more on the creative aspects rather than the administrative parts publishing requires. Also I wouldn’t be interested in doing something that comes close to Flaneur. I want to experiment as much as possible. Plus SOFA very much reflects a lot of my other personal interests whereas Flaneur is more like an art project of collaborative exchanges we initiate while traveling to different cities.
Sofa issue 02, the Cyberlove issue, is out now. €6
@sofauniverse
Words: Michael McDermott
