Today we’re going to get to know Janine Vangool a little bit better. Janine is a graphic designer, book publisher, blogger, and the creator and publisher of one of my two favorite magazines, UPPERCASE.
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Will you tell us a little bit about how you started UPPERCASE Journal and the magazine?
I was a graphic designer working freelance for various arts and culture clients as well as other book and small press publishers. After about ten years or so, I began to get restless with the opportunities for design within my city. Though I loved my clients, I wanted to stretch my brain and skills into new directions. While still working for clients, I shared my design studio with UPPERCASE, which started as a gallery and papergoods store selling other people’s things. It quickly developed into an outlet for my own creative products and soon took over!
Through blogging, I knew there was a community of like-minded creatives who loved print and were missing various magazines that had shut down. I took what I had started through the gallery into publishing and began UPPERCASE, a magazine for the creative and curious, as well as various book projects on design, craft and illustration.
I have a husband, a one-year-old son, an unrelated day job, and I’m trying to start a new career as a blogger/photographer/graphic designer/collage artist. You are involved in so many things: graphic design, writing and book publishing, the magazine, the journal, and you’re a mother to an adorable one-year-old boy. How do you do create balance when you have so many things that you want to do and so many competing obligations?
I’m not sure how I am able to do it all! I still marvel when a new issue is done.
At this point, the magazine is still a one-woman operation: design, editorial duties, subscriptions, order-filling, marketing, etc….it is all my responsibility. It is often overwhelming, especially considering that now with my 1.5 year old, I have half as much time to do the jobs of multiple people!
I look after our baby in the morning and then my husband takes over in the afternoon while I go to work. I’m striving to bring it all to a point where I can afford to hire some much-needed help. So there isn’t much balance right now; I just work whenever and wherever I can squeeze it in—whether on my laptop at home in the evening, or a weekend afternoon in the studio. My husband Glen is very accommodating and understanding of the demands on me—I couldn’t do anything without him.
Janine’s StudioWhen I read UPPERCASE I can actually feel a sense of community. How did you create and foster such a wonderful and talented group of people to be part of your venture?
I am so grateful for all the amazing subscribers that the magazine has attracted. I like to feature subscribers as much as I can. They are so talented that there really is no shortage of content ideas or potential contributors. I get to know them through their websites, blogs, Flickr, Twitter, etc. It is also through online sources that a lot of content is inspired or produced. I am very open to suggestions and content ideas from the magazine and blog readers, and have open calls for participation in each issue. I think people see that the magazine is very friendly and open and feel comfortable sharing themselves and their ideas.
What advice do you have for those of us who want to break free from their day jobs, pursue their passion, and live a creative life?
If you have day jobs and obligations, it is your own responsibility to make the time for your creative pursuits because it certainly won’t happen the other way around. You have to have the guts to say ‘no’ to the predictable or safe path—for me, it was declining perfectly good-paying client work during the economic downturn in order to invest my own savings into printing a magazine. It was a huge financial risk. But it is vital that you pursue your passions. I think it is the only way to be happy.
Thank you so much for your time, and for your beautiful magazine, books, and blog, Janine! I’m looking forward to meeting you when you’re in Seattle later this month.
If you’re in Seattle, stop by Assemble Gallery and Studio on Friday, September 30th from 6:00 to 9:00 PM where Tif Fussell will be signing copies of her book The Suitcase Series Vol. 2: Dottie Angel published by UPPERCASE.
Images courtesy of Janine Vangool. All rights reserved.