VAULT

The full-length version of the film our sister brand, Common Good made last year as part its Four x Four series. It was a privilege to showcase the work that the artists and the staff at Alternative Community Creations are doing to build a more inclusive art community. 

On set at our sister brand, Common Good’s video and photo shoot at Alternative Creations, an art studio and gallery that helps artists with disabilities create and sell their art work.

Four x Four is a platform that champions creativity through compelling stories that celebrate people who turn ideas into reality.

Full credits can be found here.

In the first film, we featured Gibson Robinson of Private Barbershop. Enjoy the movie stills, videos coming very soon!

A sneak peek.

A stunning illustration I come across while brainstorming illustration ideas for a story we're working. I love Malika Favre's use of colours, space, and shade in her illustrations.

I recently came across this illustration by Anna Parini when looking for a way give an illustrator we're currently working with some visual feedback in addition to my written response to his proposed ideas. I ended up getting sidetracked for a bit and marvelling at the beautiful illustrations in the rest of her portfolio. I do this type of thing so often that I've recently embraced it as part of my work/creation processes. I've come up with some of my best ideas while working on the current issue during these moments where I get distracted from what I'm supposed to be working on and go "off task" for up to hours at a time. Who else has an unusual work process? Please share below.

Before I started posting on Tumblr again recently, I spent weeks fervently editing stories, setting up photo shoots, commissioning stories, looking for an illustrator, conceptualizing and reviewing editorial designs and raising funds. I'm happy to say that I can finally see the finish line and that most of the work on issue one is done.

What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve overcome? How did you do it? The biggest — the initial — obstacle I had to overcome was just . . . uncertainty. Is all this work and effort and time and energy and money investment going to be worth it in the end? That’s always the question. There’s so much sacrifice from your family’s perspective, from a time perspective, from a money perspective. When you have a startup, it’s just so much sacrifice. The Wonderful Things Factory founder Keith Hall. You can read more of his story on vaultmg.com.

"I knew the product was good because we did get some preorders out of the Kickstarter thing. It may have actually met its goal because I changed the video somewhere, like, a few days into it and it started to really pick up, but I was so nervous that it was going to flop that I just went ahead and canceled it." keith Hall on his @kickstarter experience when launching his company, The Wonderful Things Factory. Visit vaultmg.com to read more of the story.

"I have always had a passion for creativity, to create things out of nothing. I had a business venture before and brought on a bunch of partners to do some modern homes. It burst right as we were going to start getting through the loan process. It was emotionally devastating at the time but ended up being a blessing that it didn’t work out." @jkeithhall on his failed venture before launching @thewtfactory. You can read more of his story on vaultmg.com.

The third and the final spread I'm sharing from our last issue (at least for now). This spread for our Conversation feature was designed by the talented art director Jan-Alfred Barclay. I had never come remotely close to making a magazine before and Jan-Alfred had not worked on a magazine project of this scope prior to our collaboration on issue zero of Vault. It was neat to look go through the magazine in my hand once it was printed and to marvel at how much we had both grown since we started the project. I still laugh at the fact that our initial deadline of two weeks to a month to design the magazine turned into six months!?! In hindsight, all the delays we faced (self inflicted or not) gave us time to make "small" improvements each time that ended up making a huge difference in the design and overall quality of the magazine.

A post we shared on Instagram earlier this month: The past week has been a busy and productive one with us editing stories and creating magazine layouts. I'm really excited about the final version of our first essay layout! I can't share photos of that yet, so I thought I would share a photo of an interview spread from our last issue.

A post we shared on our Instagram page a little ago: I've really picked up the pace the past two weeks in regards to collecting stories, conducting interviews, and setting up photo shoots for our upcoming issue. I'm really excited for a recent shoot that we recently did on the on the Lower Eastside in New York City! I can't wait to start designing the story's layout. In the meantime, enjoy this photo of our Connect The Dots feature from our current issue. You can read stories and see an extensive magazine preview by visiting vaultmg.com.

The time I had to meet a photographer on short notice at 9pm because we had a great opportunity come up at the last minute that we couldn’t pass up. I decided to stop by artisanal ice cream shop Earnest Ice Cream at 9:30pm since it was within walking distance of my meeting spot. It ended up being the first time in my life that I waited 30 minutes in line for ice cream. In case you’re wondering, the sour cherry goat cheese ice cream I had was worth the wait. The place was still packed 30 minutes after their closing time.

A new moodboard I created for my art director with detailed notes of my thoughts on the design direction of our upcoming issue (see the comment icons near the photos). By the time I finished creating this moodboard and sending her a long reply to her email about the art direction of the issue, I could barely type due to fatigue. That’s what I get for sleeping a total of six and a half hours in three days.