Clean design and dirty influences: Rueville magazine
It takes courage to create a magazine with a cover that has as much white space as Rueville’s. But pick it up and you’ll immediately feel that it’s something special — glossy pages sit on the inside, while an uncoated, thinner stock wraps around as the cover. Created by Jacob Critchley and Jack Glover, this is a design magazine that speaks authentically to contemporary lifestyles. You’ll find an interview with photographer Chi Modu, known for photographing Tupac, Nas and Snoop Dogg in the 90s, or Bill Ayres, another photographer but from the North West of England, quietly capturing the overlooked corners of his neighbourhood.
Read on to find out more in our chat with Jack…
Rueville’s tagline is 60% clean, 40% dirty — what does that mean?
The whole idea came from our lifestyle and our mutual appreciation for design (clean) but also our influence from the more dirty side of things like street culture and our music preference. 60% clean & 40% dirty almost came as brief to the publication — something that would give us barriers but also leaving us with a lot scope to play with.
The interview with photographer Chi Modu is fantastic. How did you get in touch with him?
Thank you! It was all down to Jake (Jacob) to be quite honest. Him and Chi had spoken previously over social media, and when we suggested an interview he was more than happy to answer some questions. So after agreeing on a date and time, we sat frantically at the desk in my lounge and gave him a Skype call. It was really quiet funny — picture four 21/22 year old guys sat around a haggard wooden desk, staring into a single 21.5″ iMac, waiting for Chi Modu to answer his phone. I think the four of us nearly gave ourselves a heart attack with the anticipation. Chi is a super humble guy, if he hadn’t already affected our lives through his photography he definitely did after that conversation.
Could you share a favourite quote from the interview?
It was so surreal. I really liked his view on whether the current presidency has affected the culture. “What last minute fears do is it tightens the noose a little bit in the short term, which triggers creativity on a whole other level.” We ummed and ahhed about featuring it on the website but I’m really pleased that we got it in print, it’s probably my favourite piece in this issue.
Hannah Valentine’s depiction of Paris in the issue (below) is so personal and affecting. What do you love most about her photographs?
For people who don’t know Hannah, she’s a well-rounded graphic designer, illustrator, photographer and writer. We’ve spent three years getting to know her at university and after reading her personal blog posts last year, myself and Jake just fell in love with her honesty, humour and personality that comes through in everything that she touches.
It’s not just about supporting the talented people around you, she understood what the magazine was about and stands for, which we take pretty seriously when receiving or asking for pieces of work.
What was the best advice you received on graphic design from your interviews?
“Keep it Rue!” – Jacob Critchley
This isn’t really a piece of advice on graphic design so to speak, but with me and Jake not seeing each other regularly for Rueville updates, it became easy to sit back and think about other work that was going on. A piece of advice that resonates from Dan James (Birthday Studio) was to not neglect the projects you love doing, like Rueville. I think Jake will agree that having someone like Dan to kick us up the arse from time to time was definitely needed.
What was it like to make Rueville the second time round?
In an odd way, issue two for me was a lot harder than the first, and it was all down to the communication between myself and Jake. Whilst I was at university, he was juggling the magazine and working in a studio, but we were both going through personal interferences, which, without a doubt affected how we worked. Collaboration has to come natural and by the end of the second issue we had found the drive again. I can only say that we have progressed in different ways since releasing both issues. Life is pretty colourful now.
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