Australian design and former Monocle art-director Ken Leung
It’s not enough to be watching your local news and current affairs anymore. And if local Australians acknowledge this statement, they also realise how disparaging how news stories are of noteworthy or demand its own air time. Australian news television, the prime seat in gathering news for its population is only substantially reported by the public broadcasting channel Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and the Australian Broadcasting Service (ABC) the national news carrier of the country. News stories would at least fill a 30 minute time bracket and not truncated to only 15 minutes by sports coverage. Generation Y has swiftly and fastidiously compelled themselves to look beyond local news and source international news as their daily intake. Largely unfilled was a printed title that could amalgamate and unite populated stories attaining to current word affairs, business, design and culture. One that could articulate and be a confident, fluent read for magophile readers whose interest in fashion-led magazines is devoid of such reportage. In 2007, a new and expanding title had uprooted itself from the backdrop of Tyler Brule’s editorship of Wallpaper* Magazine and co-joining him was editor Andrew Tuck from The Independent newspaper’s Sunday Edition. The magazine aptly named Monocle proposed a new establishment on integrating newswriting where active foreign correspondents reporting on breaking news and commissioned writers and photographers would entitle the opening of international news.
It’s because of these commissions encompassing a host of news correspondents, photographers and stylists that have made Monocle a brand and media succession. A magazine that could offer a Prime Minister’s/President’s transport inventory, the latest in Germany’s naval technological advancements, the break down of menswear trade fair Pitti Uomo and independently well-crafted fashion, to the efficiency of Swiss Rail network and the rich pickings of business and design entrepreneurs. If a briefing such as this to offer an unparalleled news service in both digital and printed form, Monocle negates itself from its own criticism of its high-flying editors and advertorials by introducing content that is both well-informed and an offering of new potentiality of a better, more flourishing society.
In this special interview with former art-director of Monocle, Australian Ken Leung discusses about the magazine, its growth and his design attributes for which has made the magazine a comprehensive visual compendium.
