Big Ink: big dreams come to life
Posted on
Flip through any glossy magazine and the backdrops for high-fashion shoots tend to be the usual suspects – New York, London, Paris, or if they’re really creative, a tropical Island.
But what if instead of London, you saw London Circuit – or NewActon instead of New York?
Enter Big Ink, a Canberra-produced, quarterly online fashion and culture magazine focused on utilising the skills and talent available in the national’s capital.
Created by Samara Gentle in 2013, the magazine’s readership has grown to over 5,000 people and recently, a 100-copy print edition was launched.
Samara, who is behind the popular blog ‘Blonde Ink’ and a public servant by day, says the magazine is a refreshing blend of local fashion, photography, restaurants, feminism and life.
“Even though people outside of Canberra don’t think it, we have a lot of super stylish and well-educated residents – this magazine is dedicated to them,” says Samara.
“[Our typical reader] is the educated woman who doesn’t apologise for loving fashion and is interested in modern day culture.”
Samara says the magazine began as a “creative outlet”, and used her savings to fund the production costs.
“Like a lot of people in Canberra I’m a public servant 9-5 and I edit Big Ink from about 6pm-11pm each night (and almost every weekend). Being a public servant, I needed a creative outlet to keep me sane!” she says.
Big Ink’s 11th issue, due out in August, will feature articles on local restaurants, ethical fur and homelessness, as well as fashion shoots; from street grunge to spring boho.
“There’s also beauty articles, a huge future on local Canberra fashion bloggers and creative submissions from some local talented photographers,” says Samara.
“I have a wonderful yet small, dedicated team of volunteer writers who help come up with the regular content such as the restaurant articles and fashion trends.
“The sub-editor and I then approach other creative people to put together shoots or submit existing work so that we have a constant turnover of new and fresh perspectives. This also helps promote our ethos of supporting the creative industry and showcasing different talent with each issue.”
The magazine is also currently holding a competition searching for its next fresh-faced, local cover girl.
Samara says the feedback for Big Ink has been “amazingly positive,” not just from readers but the creative community.
“For photographers, fashion designers etc to have a publication they can submit to like us is giving them a stepping stone to then approach other bigger and world-wide publications,” she says.
“Thanks to all our amazing contributors, it’s now morphed into this beautiful fashion and culture magazine that I’m so proud of.”
Buy your copy of Big Ink from biginkmagazine.bigcartel.com
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.