![]() ![]() You don’t have to be able to read or understand English to appreciate what’s inside. ![]() We don’t have a particular niche or theme like many pubs out there. To be open and accessible to whoever wants to pick it up. Birdy was also made to be a human magazine. With that, listen to your gut when it comes to your own work or business, because it’s usually right. Our idea proved successful as we soon saw multiple publications in Denver and Colorado follow suit. The cover speaks for itself and the only way to know what’s inside is to dive in. We got so much flak for this in the beginning from others telling us that no one will understand what the magazine is about. You’ll also notice no cover lines, just art and our title. And the businesses who jump on board with us, want the same thing, they want to contribute to and be a part of the enfranchisement of artists. But we held fast, because our mission is to showcase and uplift artists first and foremost. By industry standards, this is absurd and foolish because we’re missing out on potentially thousands of dollars of ad revenue. From the get-go, we made a pack to never sell the front or back cover (which includes wrap-arounds ads or plastic-wrapped issues with external ad paraphernalia). And with nine months of planning, designing and convincing artists, writers and businesses to jump on board, we launched Birdy with $2,000 and one month of content and never looked back.Īlright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?īirdy is different from other magazines because we never followed the traditional publication route in either content or business. So in 2013, Jonny and I reached out to our first designer Michael David King who soon introduced us to our ongoing partner and community connecter Kayvan S.T. And most importantly, we wanted to make it free so that anyone could have access to it. We wanted the end product, Birdy, to be a collectible piece of art, in and of itself. We didn’t want money to inform our choices but rather we wanted to make soulful and artful choices and trust that the money would follow. In the void left by the internet, we decided to stem the tide and make print our new venue. Not only were we screened out and Googled out and longing for the tactile human experience, we also adhered to the idea that print is essential to preserving free speech, thoughts and ideas, especially through all forms of art. Fast forward to the last decade and we suddenly found ourselves faced with popular culture telling us that “print is dead.” To us - and many others - this was a myth, and a dangerous one at that. Magazines deeply shaped us as kids and our love for them carried over into our early 20s where we both had experience contributing to and creating our own print publications. And most importantly, to create something that would contribute to and document our fellow creatives in real time, and amplify the voices of those who were literally building the counterculture in our city, state and beyond. Being lifelong gig economy creative workers, we were itching to set out on a journey based on no one else’s schedule or vision but our own. ![]() We also had a deep-rooted punk ideology from our earlier years that forever shaped us, that: do-it-yourself-‘cause-no-else-will / rebellion against the status quo / art is resistance, and a fun mentality that made it hard for us to accept traditional style jobs. Our friendship was sparked by the discovery that we both had a love for tangible and analog formats of art: vinyl, radio, film, books, magazines, comics, View-Masters, cereal boxes, musical instruments, etc. Jonny founded the venue in 2011 and I hopped on to help manage it. We met in 2013 via Denver’s DIY / comedy / speakeasy space, the Deer Pile. It’s our DNA, our souls and the lens through which we do everything in life. Like many creatives, it’s not something we chose. Hi Krysti / Jonny, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business? We had the good fortune of connecting with Krysti Joméi and Jonny DeStefano and we’ve shared our conversation below.
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