Perdiz issue 9
Delivered to Stack subscribers in Jan 2018

by Steve Watson in January 2018

Published out of Barcelona, Perdiz is a bilingual magazine about happiness. But instead of offering you tips on how to be happy, it’s more interested in the strange and mundane things that make people feel fulfilled in their lives. This beautiful Spanish/English title features foiled covers and a hand-stitched spine.

Keep scrolling for our interview with founder and editor-in-chief, Marta Puigdemasa…

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Name
Marta Puigdemasa

Job title
Founder and editor-in-chief

What is Perdiz?
A magazine about things that make people happy.

Yes, we’re optimistic, but we don’t tell our readers what they should do to be happy, or even suggest that they should do anything. We simply show what makes others happy and satisfied with their lives. And you can’t imagine how diverse that is! We’ve had stories about a superfan of roundabouts, a tornado chaser, women who dance with their dogs, a university professor who trains his own flea circus, people who believe in aliens, a group of activist nuns who grow weed to heal the world, and a man who’s dedicated half his life to chasing his childhood dream: finding the Loch Ness monster. We’ve also discussed topics such as boredom, death, failure, virtual worlds, silence, and family. Each issue has some Good News and our Nice Things section features great photography and illustration, in order to stimulate the areas of our readers’ brains related to pleasure.

What makes it different to the rest?
The topic (which is universal, emotional, and doesn’t fall within the typical music/food/fashion categories), the design, and the way we approach every article. It’s not a commercially focused magazine. That has its downsides but also means that we’re free to do whatever we dream of and only publish those articles we really fall in love with. Visually, its unusual cover design, its hand-stitched binding and the hologram also make it quite unique. The idea is for Perdiz to be a collectible object that you keep on your library shelf and show off to your friends when they come home, it’s not a disposable magazine.

Who makes Perdiz?
Marc Romo and Eloi Montenegro (art directors at Querida Studio), Richard Aslan (English editor), Johnny Crisp (deputy dditor), Rita Puig-Serra and Borja Ballbé (photography editors), Ana Portolés (Spanish proofreader), me, and an endless list of photographers — such as Carlota Guerrero, Salva López, Peter Puklus, Alec Soth and Ana Cuba — illustrators, and journalists from around the world that contribute in every issue.

Who reads it?
We make the magazine for anyone out there interested in living better and willing to get inspired by other people’s positive stories. However, due to Perdiz’s design and the type of bookshops that stock us (a lot of contemporary art museums and magazine-specialised bookshops) most of our readership turns out to be 20-30-something urban people interested in photography, design, and creativity.

Why do you work in magazines?
Because my mother is a bookworm and I’ve inherited a bit of her spirit and passions. Because writing is the only activity that hasn’t bored me throughout the years. Because I love meeting people that are very different from me and hearing their stories – and working in journalism provides me with new victims every now and then. And because I love paper. And why do I love paper? Because I spend most of my day in front of a computer screen!

Aside from the print magazine, what else are you involved in?
I’ve worked for an independent publishing company for more than eight years and now I’m editing texts in Spanish for a major computer company, managing a website about social topics for Obra Social ‘la Caixa’, and writing for other magazines and brands about culture, lifestyle, and cities.

What would you change about Perdiz if you could?
The number of hours that we are currently able to work on it and the money we have to produce it. Right now, we’re paying most of our contributors but if we had a few more resources it would make a big difference. Design and content-wise, we’re doing what we love but every time we finish an issue we start thinking about all the things we’d like to change and try for the next one.

Where do you see Perdiz in five years?
I have no fixed idea, to be honest. Perdiz’s future is organic. We’ll keep doing it as long as we enjoy doing it. I’m already very proud of what we’ve reached so far. It’s more than I expected when it all started. Now we’ve just released issue 9 and we’re very excited to start putting together the contents for issue 10, which will be out in 2018. It’s such a feat for us. And we’ll prepare a very special issue.