Insider: Eldorado by Folch Studio
Regular readers of the Stack blog will already know Odiseo magazine, the thoughtful, sophisticated erotica title. It’s published by Barcelona-based design agency Folch Studio, and this week the team also launches Eldorado, a sister title that bears a strong family resemblance to Odiseo, with its personal and philosophical approach and its hardback format. We spoke to Vincenzo Angileri, editor-in-chief at Eldorado and editorial director at Folch, to find out more.
Tell us about this new magazine.
Eldorado Volume One collects travel experiences from a global collective of filmmakers, writers, designers, artists and photographers. From Galápagos to Iceland, from the endless lands of Asia to fallen Soviet settlements, this first issue consists of 11 stories by creative travellers that leave their safe homes and set off to explore, gathered together in a limited edition hardcover publication of 1000 copies. As a special feature, the first issue comes in three different covers, which will be unveiled in the next few days on our social networks.
I kind of see it as a shared travel diary, or one of those beautiful anthology films with diverse directors. The travellers, the locations, the motivations and their sensibility are different, but all stories are bound together by a single yet wide theme: the infinite and deep ways of experiencing a journey.
How is Eldorado different to other travel titles?
Our stories are not just about the great epic moments: Eldorado is about the unforeseen, the relationship with nature, the inner time against the real time, the most blissful and the saddest moments, the encounters, the hustle and the boredom.
Our narratives, both visual and textual, are strongly entwined — in the way we treat photography to build a visual tale that represents the inner experience of the traveller, or how we use words to make the story so personal that it turns universal. We are trying to slow down the rhythm, and to let our readers take a closer look at things. Eldorado wants to show places and make the reader imagine them at the same time.
Like Odiseo, the magazine seems be aiming at capturing sensations or feelings. How has Folch studio put their special touch on this magazine?
The world has already been explored, there are no uncharted places anymore. With that smart device in your pocket, you can see tons of pictures and access information about ANY place in the world. But this means the only thing that makes a travel story still attractive and special is the intimate vision of the traveller. This is why we aim at crystallising those sensations in space and time, capturing and reproducing those feelings of a journey.
The bookazine is making an exercise of essentiality. We gave great prominence to pictures: no borders, no frames. On the other side, texts were given a bookish treatment, in order to provide the reader with a contemplative and unhurried experience.
At Folch, as communicators in a broader sense, we question ourselves a lot about the media we are using, about the message we are giving, and — most importantly — about who is receiving it and how they are doing so. Independent editorial initiatives like Eldorado and Odiseo are there to exemplify this.
What are some features in the magazine you’re excited to share with readers?
It is hard to choose between all these stories, which all have something uncommonly special. But of course I have my favourites. Have a look at Chris Burkard’s mesmerising visual essay (above) about the creative power of water: His aerial views make you forget you are staring at rivers and tributaries, they seem to come from some otherworldly place.
As do the smoking mountains from copywriter Stephanie Dietze’s story (above). And to add a little spice to this breathtaking scenario, Steph and her friends slide across those rocky mountains on one wheel, balancing on their unicycles. A real mind-blowing adventure.
In Seanomads, the travellers turned the coastlines of the Canary Islands into their path and only travel across waters. They spend hours and hours diving in the waters of the ocean, setting their feet on the ground only to sleep and to eat. Have a look at this short film (below) and you’ll see what I mean.
Where are some notable places you visited during the making of this issue?
Our creative director Albert travelled to Barbados for a one-month surf trip with photographer Primoz Zorko and filmmaker Fran Torres — a real travel experience that is told first-hand in the publication. On the other hand, I just came back from Southern Morocco: Confusion and contemplation, hours and hours in the car, homemade oil, mud houses, incredible nature, amazing isolated places, Klein blue and palm trees, pink salt mines, dates and avocado juices, and waking up in the middle of the Atlas with nothing around you but mountains.
And why should everyone buy a copy?
Grab a copy because there is some authentic and inspiring stuff in it.
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