After your Awards entries are lodged, it's time to consider Publishing...
When I walk past the magazine section in the supermarket and see new titles on the newsstands, I always feel a little thrill of excitement. I love looking inside other people’s houses and finding out why architects and their clients made the choices they did; in fact I’ll happily admit that I’m a magazine lover from way back.
My first memory of poring over a house in a magazine was in 1985, when I was 14, and doing a local history project in year 8.
Houses 138. Cover project: Coolamon House by DFJ Architects.
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
We were allowed to pick any historic item in the town where we lived – Shepparton – to research its origins and why it was significant. I chose ‘The Follies’, a Victorian house not far from the banks of The Goulburn River (hence the name). It was the home of my friend Annabel, and her parents were happy for me to use it for my project; her mother gave me a copy of a magazine article from House & Garden to use in my report.
Five years later – before I started my Journalism degree – another family friend showed me the feature on her mud brick house in Pacific Palms, in the same magazine. The homeowner’s sister was a stylist, and that distant but tangible connection planted the seed for me to think about a career in magazines, specifically house and interiors magazines.
Green Magazine 78. Marmion Street House by Philip Stejskal Architecture.
Photography by Bo Wong
Fast forward about 25 years and I started writing for House & Garden, a magazine I still contribute to occasionally, in addition to HOUSES, Sanctuary, Habitus and Architectural Review. House & Garden is also the only magazine I subscribe to.
But I read plenty of others via an online app that provides free access to popular titles, including HOUSES, inside, Belle, Vogue Living, Grand Designs and more. Each magazine its own style and appeals to different types of readers and audiences.
Inside Magazine, Sept/Oct 2020. Two Sheds by Roger Nelson and DREAMER.
Photography by Rory Gardiner
I love seeing which architecture practices’ projects are being published; how the stories are framed; and how current news and current affairs inform changing trends in both design and publishing.
I think it’s very useful to understand what particular titles are looking for in their featured projects, especially if you’re keen to have a recent project published.
I’ve written extensively about how to set a publication strategy – you can read that article here – and I’ve outlined how to pitch your project to editors (including swipe file emails that you can find in this blog post).
If you submitted a project to an Awards program this year, now is a good time to think about having it published, before the awards are announced. That’s because once those announcements are made, you essentially relinquish control over where your project will appear, so it pays to put in some time and effort to secure the publication of your choice before it becomes public property.
You may have heard me say before that I recommend you seek publication in print magazines before approaching online-only websites, because it’s usually difficult to secure a print feature if a project has already appeared online: print editors are much more focused on exclusivity than online editors.
Also, it’s worth noting that several of the big online publishers such as The Local Project and The Lunchbox Architect offer the option to purchase a paid feature, so if you have no luck securing free editorial in print or online, that’s always an option. You can request their media kits for pricing and options on their websites, by clicking on the links in this paragraph.
And if you’re keen to do some research about which print magazine might be the most suitable fit for your project, you can read plenty of titles via the RB Digital App – recently rebranded as Libby from Overdrive – with your local library card. Then, you can search for your preferred magazine’s media kits online (or request access to them), to obtain more details about a specific magazine’s audience sizes and demographics.
Why is Publishing important? If you use publishing well, it can help you to create a direct connection between your practice and your future customers. If an article about one of your projects resonates with a homeowner or renovator, publishing helps to raise awareness of your practice and your approach, and I’ve had clients tell me they kept tear sheets for ten years before engaging their architect of choice.
Publishing is the fourth channel in my six-channel marketing system for architects, so if you’re keen to learn more about how to use publishing to promote your practice, please pre-register for the next launch of my CPD Course, here.