One of Courtney’s type treatments in Issue 05

EDIT: The position has been filled. Please welcome Emily Harris to the Coilhouse design team. Check our her blog, Design Gossip. Thank you to all who applied!

For the past two issues, we had an incredible design intern named Molly Hawthorn helping us in the last stages of magazine production. But Molly is graduating from MICA this weekend (congrats, Molly!), and unable to help out this time around.  So… any graphic design students reading this have a few hours to spare this weekend? We need help wrapping up Issue 05 on the 15th and the 16th. The entire issue has been laid out, and we just need to put the finishing touches on it. We need someone who knows Adobe InDesign on an intermediate-to-expert level to work side-by-side with our Creative Director, Courtney Riot, to iron out all remaining issues. The help we need has to do mostly with adjusting text for readability: kerning, tracking, alignment, and other such stuff. Not the most fun or creative task, but still a valuable learning experience for how a magazine comes together and goes to print.

Perks: you get to see Issue 05 before anybody else does! You’ll be credited as a Graphic Designer on Issue 05’s masthead, you will of course get a free copy of Issue 05, and we can pay $200 for the extra help this weekend. Interested parties, please email us with your available hours for this weekend. Any attachments or links to documents displaying your layout and InDesign skills would be most welcome.

Thank you so much!

We know, we know. So many self-referencing posts in one week. We promise to make up for it with lots of juicy blog posts in the weeks to come. For now, three quick notes:

• There are only 2 hoodies left, both in Size L. Seems that this was a popular item. Duly noted, and we’ll try to make more.
• There are only 27 sets of the deluxe Issue 04-themed porcelain candy dishes left. Please note that this limited edition will never be recreated – once these are gone, they’re gone. We may do other pieces of a Coilhouse tea set in the future, but these plates will be gone forever.
• The deadline for reserving your ad in Coilhouse Issue 05 is at midnight tonight. Click here for our media kit, as well as some exciting notes about Issue 05’s distribution. To reserve a spot, please contact Sam.

And finally, a note from Gretta, our lovely Mistress of Shipping: “As always upon an initial release of Coilhouse goodies, due to heavy order volume, it may take up to 3 business days to be shipped. If you absolutely must have it shipped within 24 hours of placing an order, please make a note with your order or email [email protected] with the subject “RUSH ORDER” and your name and transaction id number in the body. This is no guarantee it will get to there any faster due to I have no power of the post office’s speed of labor, but I will brings yours to them sooner. Once again, kindly make sure the shipping address is correct and up to date. Thanks!”

We’re proud to present the latest round of Coilhouse Merch, available to purchase immediately in our online shop.

• Unisex hoodies. These feature our battle-cry of “INFORM INSPIRE INFECT”, emblazoned in black on a black, incredibly soft, long-sleeved hooded top. $34.99.
• Tank dresses. Super-soft, relaxed-fit summer dresses featuring our postergirl, the Stratosphere Messenger. An over-sized screen print on heather gray. $34.99.
• Miniature Porcelain Plates Set. A set of three creme-tone 3″ porcelain coupe plates featuring the Issue 04 section dividers, drawn by Zoetica. The plates come encased in a semi-gloss black box stamped with an elegant tarnished-silver I/I/I inscription designed by Courtney Riot. Hang them on your wall, use them as candy dishes, or to store your keepsakes – the choice is yours, comrade! $44.99.
• Issue 01. We are selling 25 copies of the coveted, limited-edition Neogender version of Issue 01, for a discounted price (they were originally $15). If you haven’t been reading Coilhouse long enough to remember why we did two different versions of Issue 01, there’s a NSFW explanation here. These copies are returns – meaning they got shipped to the wrong address (this happened a lot less after we put up a little warning in PayPal). They might have small defects from being in transit, so they’re not in mint condition – hence the lower price. $12.99. This issue is now completely SOLD OUT. Thank you!
  
• Last but not least, there are only 65 copies of Issue 03 left. Issue 03 took longer to sell out than our other issues because we had a larger quantity of it in stock, but it’s almost gone. Which is awesome, because we need to make room for Issue 05.

Many, many more detailed product images, after the cut.

Intrepid early adopters of the Small Business ad format, Issue 03.

The final call for placing an ad in Issue 05 is here. The deadline is this Friday. For those just tuning in, it’s possible for small businesses to advertise in Coilhouse for as low as $99 per issue. Please see our Advertising FAQ for more details. For the media kit, which outlines our circulation, distribution, demographics, rates and other stats, click here. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again ’til we’re blue in the face: we’d much rather survive with the help of small independent businesses than large corporate sponsors.

Issue 05 is probably the best issue to start advertising in: we’ll be in three times as many Barnes & Noble stores as we were before, the magazines are going to appear in B&N’s most prominent display cases where everyone can see them, and we got picked up by the revered alt distributor Last Gasp. More details on this expansion available here.

If you’re interested in grabbing a spot in this upcoming issue, please get in touch with us by this Friday, May 7th. After Friday, we cannot accept any more ads. You don’t have to have the artwork ready by this Friday, but if you want to reserve a spot in this issue, getting in touch with us by the end of this week is crucial. For those who have already placed an ad, you’ll be receiving your proofs shortly. For those who bought a 4-issue package starting with Issue 03, we’ll be reaching out to you shortly as well.

One more thing: we’ll be doing a huge “Support Our Advertisers” blog post in conjunction with Issue 05’s release, similar to this post that we did when Issue 01 came out.

Click here to get in touch with our brilliant Ad Manager, Samantha, to reserve your spot in Issue 05!

Achtung! Tomorrow, we will be updating the Coilhouse shop with several new merch items, some of which we’ve been working on since January. In addition to a new, snug unisex hoodie and a relaxed-fit eco-heather summer dress, we’re also issuing our first “luxury” item: a boxed set of three small porcelain plates, encased in a silver-stamped black box bearing a custom Coilhouse inscription.

In addition to the new round of merch, we will be offering a very small number of copies of an out-of-print issue of Coilhouse at a reduced price. Which issue? Check back tomorrow to find out!

This is a super-limited merch run. There are 50 hoodies, 50 dresses, 50 boxes of plates (3 plates in each box), and 25 copies of the mystery issue. Because of the small quantities, we anticipate that this round of merch will sell out fast. Stay tuned for the full reveal.

Download the media kit here!

After weeks of streamlining, updating, researching and grooming, our media kit is finally done. We’re so proud of it, comrades! It might seem a little strange to get the warm fuzzies over something intended for cold, hard commerce, but we feel that this is a respectful and elegant representation of Coilhouse and its readers. We’re excited. Especially when we think back to 2007 and realize just how far this good ship has traveled. For those interested in learning more about advertising in Issue 05, as well as in future issues, the 2010 Coilhouse Media Kit is available for download here. In addition to that reveal, we have three more bits of very interesting information to share:

1. Our biggest news is that we’re dropping the magazine’s price to $12.99 in stores. We’re doing this to give back to all the readers who’ve supported us through the years, and for everyone who wishes the magazine was slightly more affordable. The quality of the magazine (number of pages, paper stock) will remain the same. In fact, the overall quality of Issue #05 is going up, as we’ll be trying out a dazzling special effect on the cover, and including a large fold-out poster inside. For the time being, the mag will remain at $15 in our online shop and will include a special surprise (to be divulged at a later date), for those readers who buy directly from us. We’re committed to making the magazine more affordable both in stores and on the web, but we need to take it one step at a time. This is the first step.
2. We’re more than tripling our distribution in Barnes & Noble stores across the country. It will be in more stores than ever before! A list of locations will be posted. In addition, Issue 05 has been accepted into the Barnes & Noble Endcap Display Case – you know, the one that you see when you first walk into the magazine aisle, under the heading “Featured Titles” or “Just Arrived.” Issue 05 will be there for four whole weeks. This is a huge win for us, as we hope that we’ll be able to introduce more readers to Coilhouse than ever. Especially with such an intense cover, which we can’t wait to reveal to you. Eeee! We’re sitting on our hands to keep from spilling the beans. Soon. SOON.
3. Issue 05 will be appear in more independently-owned shops than ever before. We just got picked for distribution by Last Gasp, a respected distributor of all things alt, who recently celebrated their 40th birthday. They’re amazing. In addition to its history of publishing underground comix, Last Gasp is known for distributing items such as the RE/Search books, the Gothic & Lolita Bible, Hi-Fructose, Fantagraphics titles, and a lot of other more obscure counter-culture stuff. They can get us into a lot of cool mom and pop shops that other distributors don’t have access to.

Issue 05 will have more reach than any issue we’ve ever done, and it’s our most ambitious, colorful output to date. It’s so hard to keep the content of this issue under our hats! We’re sitting on our hands again. But there’s some beautiful stuff. You already know about the Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer piece, and some of you may have heard online whispers of Chet Zar and Zoë Keating and Gibbous Fashions and Crabapple illustrations… babies, that’s barely the tip of the iceberg. Just you wait.

For small businesses looking to advertise in Coilhouse, this is the issue. We considered putting that sentence in flashing, grunting, neon porno marquee lights for emphasis, but we are classy ladies. (Besides, we couldn’t figure out the HTML coding.) If you’ve been on the fence about taking out an ad, please note that this is probably the best issue to start. With the lower cover price, more people who haven’t heard of the magazine will be inclined to buy it. Combine that with special display promotion at Barnes & Noble, and it’s a guarantee that more folks will be picking up and leafing though it than our previous issues, which were often relegated to the back shelves of periodical purgatory.

We’d much, much, muchly much rather survive with the help of small independent businesses than large corporate sponsors. We cannot overstate that. Which is why we’ve kept the Small-Business Ad Format rates the same as they were before. It’s still possible to advertise in Coilhouse for as low as $99 per issue. We’ve hired a kick-ass Ad Manager, longtime Coilhouse reader Samantha Chin-Wolner, to help small businesses get their ads squared away. Sam will assist you with every step of the process, and she’s a total sweetheart.

For those interested, please contact Samantha for details.

For everyone else, thank you, as always, for your support and kinship on this journey. We remain gratefully and giddily yours. Up, up and away we go!

A sneak peek at some original artwork by Greg Broadmore, created expressly for Coilhouse #05.

Self-taught graphic designer Courtney Riot is celebrating her whelping day. At 24, she’s the baby of the Coilhouse family.

Rascally Riot.

Courtney joined us on Issue 02 as the magazine’s Creative Director, and she’s been rocking our world ever since. Normally, someone in this position oversees a full staff of graphic designers. When she set about to work on Issue 02, Courtney handled everything from the overall design themes to the minutia of kerning and tracking on every single page. She didn’t just lay the magazine out; she gave it a personality. Suddenly, each article had a life of its own: hand-drawn lettering, intricate scrapbook-style collages, angular Soviet poster sensibilities, layouts constructed from cityscapes and mushroom clouds, type overgrown with weeds or shrouded in smoke… an article that looked like a pharmacy… an article that tasted like sugar skulls. Courtney brought them all to life.

This woman has become the invaluable fourth core member of Coilhouse’s editorial team. She’s a vital force in our production, and our evolution. As we head into the final production weeks of our next print issue, we want to shout something from the rooftops: THANK YOU, COURTNEY RIOT.

Photo by Lou O’Bedlam.

Our secret weapon. Our powerhouse. You never cease to amaze us. Without you, we were a knock-kneed, three-legged endtable that wasn’t quite sure of its aesthetic, or direction. With you, we’ve become an elegant, streamlined, galloping banquet table. We can’t wait to share what you’re working on right now for #05. Jaws are gonna drop.

Happy birthday, beautiful.

Okay, you know the 2010 Media Kit and Big Coilhouse News that we’ve been promising you since last week? Well, turns out we’re going to have to make you all wait one more day (this news is worth the wait, though, we promise!). Tabulating the survey results has taken more time than we anticipated. Here’s a screenshot of what the process looks like in Excel.  While we finish up the media kit, allow me to entertain you with six graphs and pie charts that we’ve created so far. Some of this will be in tomorrow’s media kit, some of it is a blog exclusive!

This was in response to the question “what country do you live in? Some fun facts:

• Six respondents included their state in the answer. Two of them were from California, and the other four were from Texas. No one else indicated a home state.
• Six respondents wrote in “USA! USA! USA!”  Three respondents wrote in “USA! USA!”
• The eight readers who wrote in from The Nertherlands are highly encouraged to attend the OK Festival that we just blogged about.
• Other top countries included Germany, Brazil, New Zealand, Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Sweden, China, Croatia, Finland and Singapore

This was in response to the question, “do you have a creative pursuit that you’re extremely passionate about?”

• 116 creative pursuits were listed
• The chart above indicates the Top 16 creative pursuits. The next most popular pursuits, in order of popularity, were: knitting, sewing, animation, blogging, singing, costume design, jewelry, videography,  acting, electronic music, guitar, sculpture, baking, web design, book binding, cloth design, digital art, gardening, printing, theatre and aerials
• Some of less popular creative pursuits included: ceremonial magick, spinning poi, papercraft, math (“pure mathematics is eminently creative”), hardware engineering, typography, haberdashery and swimming

This was in response to the “What are your favorite magazines?” question:

• Most indicated that Coilhouse was their favorite magazine. Aww, you guys! *squish*
• The graph above indicates the Top 12 favorite magazines. The runners-up that didn’t make it into the chart, in order of the number of people who indicated that they were favorite magazines, were: Filament, Adbusters, Edge, Esquire, Fortean Times, Zink, Cabinet, Der Spiegel, Dwell and Elegy.

Photo by Gustavo Lopez Manas. Design by Courtney Riot

Much is afoot in da’ Haus. Next Monday, we’ll be putting out a call for ads for our upcoming Issue 05 as part of our Small Business Advertising Program. On that day, we’ll unveil our brand-new, 2010 Media Kit (the cover of which you can see above).

Meanwhile, have you got a few minutes to spare? To complete the media kit, we’d like to ask you, valued Coilhouse reader, a few questions about your stance as a consumer and your spending habits in a  35-question survey. It’s secure and anonymous, and all of the questions are optional. We hope you’ll help us, as well as the many indie businesses that support us, by answering the survey as truthfully and completely as you can. [Update: the survey is now closed. Thank you to all who participated!]

Monday’s post will also include some very exciting news about Issue 05. Stay tuned.

In honor of Alex Chilton’s passing, we’d like to publish this article written by Joshua Ellis. This article appeared in Coilhouse Issue 04. You can also view a PDF of this article, by a strange twist of fate, over at the official Pixies website. It’s not an article about him, or The Pixies, per se. However, we’ve been wanting to publish this article on our blog for a while now, and this feels like the right moment to do so. This article speaks to the heart of why we’re all here together. What’s that song? / I’m in love / With that song…

I have this memory, and I’m not sure if it’s even real–or if it’s real, if it’s cobbled together from a half-dozen memories, fragments of things that happened over the course of a year or two that began the summer before I started high school, in 1991.

In this memory, I’m sitting in the basement of a girl named Sara, who pronounced her name “Saah-rah” and had purple hair and smoked clove cigarettes. I didn’t know Sara very well, but she was part of a small collective of freaks and weirdos that I had congregated to when I moved that summer from my ancestral home of north Texas to the small mountain town of Hamilton, Montana.

I’m sitting in Sara’s basement with my friends: Jeremy, the pretty guy who wears big black woolen overcoats and Jamaican tam o’ shanters in bright yellow and red and green, and seems to have unlimited access to the panties of every single girl in the Bitterroot Valley; Wade, who perpetually sports Birkenstock loafers that look like inflated bladders and drives a white Volkswagen Beetle covered in Grateful Dead stickers; Nate, who is one of the best guitarists I’ve ever met and is a huge aficionado of what will later come to be known as “extreme” sports, like bouncing down jagged rock faces on a beat-up skateboard deck; Sarah and her sister, Jenny, who are both fond of dropping random giggly non sequiturs into the conversation when stoned.

They’re all here, or some of them, or none of them. We’re sitting in the dark, talking bohemian bullshit, maybe smoking pot. It’s the kind of night that gets put on endless repeat when you’re young and strange and condemned to spend your adolescence in some far-flung desolate shithole like Hamilton, Montana, where you can’t lose yourself in the noise or happily become part of it, the way you can in New York or Seattle or Los Angeles or Chicago.

I’m not as cool as they are. I don’t know about cool shit. I’m just this uptight kid from J. R. Ewing Land who talks too much, still wears Bugle Boy button-downs and M. C. Hammer pants, and has only the dimmest idea that there’s some entire world out there of cool shit that I know nothing about. I own a Jane’s Addiction album and I’ve vaguely heard of the Sex Pistols.

And in this memory, Sara gets up and puts a cassette tape into her boom box. It’s a time traveler from 1984, beaten and scuffed, with the inevitable broken-off cassette door, so you just slap the tape in and hope that the tape head keeps it from falling out, which will cause the relentless motors to chew the tape and unspool it like the entrails of a slaughtered pig. Sara slaps the tape in and hits play.

This song comes out–a slow beat, big and echoing, then a bass playing eighth notes, and then a guitar, dreamy and vibrating. It sounds like what I imagine sunrise on a beach would be like, like what I imagine doing heroin would be like, like what I imagine sex in a dark room with that awesome girl you lie awake and dream of meeting would be like. I haven’t experienced any of these things–yet.

And then a voice, a high husky man’s voice, gentle over the music.

Cease to resist, given my good-byes
Drive my car into the o-o-sha-hah-hahn
You think I’m dead, but I sail away
On a wave of mutilation, wave of mutilation
Wave of mutilation
Way-hey-hey-hey-have
Way-hey-hey-hey-have

“What is this?” I ask. Sara shrugs.

“It’s the Pixies,” she says in this memory that may not even be real, or maybe didn’t happen this way at all. “The song’s called ‘Wave of Mutilation.’ This is the U.K. Surf Mix. The real version is faster and louder.”

“I’ve never heard of them,” I said. “I’ve never heard this.”

“They’re pretty cool,” Sara says. “I think they’re from, like, Boston.”

I nod. Pretty cool.