Jaffa Magazine
behind every cover there is a story
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Jaffa Magazine is an independent magazine from Riga, Latvia. -
It is daring to be different from Latvian mainstream magazines, still ensuring high print and design quality standards.
Although Jaffa Magazine has a core team, it can be also seen as a platform for experimentation and original ideas, which are contributed by different authors, thus creating a rather unique blend of contents and graphic design.
So far Jaffa Magazine has got six limited issues. The previous issues have come out irregularly — from time to time — but since now it is planned to have four issues per year. In spite of the fact that Jaffa Magazine has grown up and become more professional, for the people, who are involved in its creation, working on the magazine is still more like an adventure than doing a serious commercial business.
Contents
Jaffa Magazine, being free of marketing constraints, represents an alternative, original and subjective view on pop-culture, which includes a large spectrum of current issues. Different modes of expression and stylistic approaches are used: from having pure fun to irony to provocation to serious discussion etc. The Magazine is entertaining and informative at the same time. The ratio between texts and artwork is 50:50 roughly.
A bit of history
In 2004 Jaffa Magazine was started by a group of creative people and friends, who had some background in journalism, design and non-traditional marketing. In fact, the webzine was first, and then came idea to make a compilation of the best articles, design them and publish them in a printed magazine. Although the first issue was highly experimental and egocentric, due to the positive response the publishers decided to concentrate more on the printed version than the on-line content.
There is some special story behind each issue.
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The first issue is notoriously famous for its cover -
the President of Latvia Mrs. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga resembling that famous image of Che Guevara and the following wordplay: "Che GeVaira". That caused some inquiries from the national intelligence bureau.
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The issue No.2 was dealing with terrorism -
an extremely radical political group from Germany.
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The No.3 has a cow on its cover -
One of those cows that are designed by different artists and then exposed on streets (Cow Parade) was stolen and later left in a central park in another town, which attracted a big media attention. Afterwards the publishers faced serious legal accusations, were sentenced but eventually were acquitted.
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The No.4 contains an official letter from the Ministry of Culture -
expressing support to our magazine. There is also our answer to them.
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The No.5 was awarded -
for the outstanding graphic design in the ADWARDS festival.
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Jaffa Magazine is planning to be more regular -
The Magazine is also interested in developing international networks and cooperation with like-minded publications. Translation of articles to English is being under consideration at the moment. Furthermore, many topics that the magazine is dealing with are somewhat international, for instance, new emerging sub-cultures and interaction among them.
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Different modes of expression and stylistic approaches are used -
from having pure fun to irony to provocation to serious discussion etc. The Magazine is entertaining and informative at the same time. The ratio between texts and artwork is 50:50 roughly.
