the concept
blight collective is a free digital zine assembled entirely from submitted work. the idea is to publish one a quarter if I possibly can. i'm one dude putting this together for free, and I work as a full-time freelance web & graphic designer. if the desire is there from artists wanting to contribute though, I will do everything i can to try to deliver on that.
each issue takes a theme and hands it to a group of independent artists working across every medium: collage, photography, painting, illustration, printmaking, whatever they do. they interpret the theme however they want, however it speaks to them. i gather what comes back into one issue and release it for free to anyone that wants it. no paywall. no ads.
how it works
I'll run an open call, cap it at a modest number of artists to keep the thing coherent, and then ask each artist to contribute one to four finished pieces. the work arrives completed. I simply arrange the issue. no editing, retouching, or disturbing anyone's artwork (aside from adding a page number). what they made is what you see.
nobody gets paid, and nobody pays. contributors submit their work and readers download it for nothing. the only currency is the work itself.
the blight collective is fueled by artists that love to feed the creative fire inside of themselves. the people that have that passion to create that burns like an unquenched thirst in their soul. if that sounds like you, i'd love for you to become a contributor for an upcoming issue!
whyit exists
this started as an homage of sorts. years ago when i was a teenager and first finding my footing as a designer, i stumbled across Beast Magazine by Thomas Schostok. That magazine is largely responsible for first igniting my passion for art and design. For anyone who doesn't know it, it was a free PDF that proved something I hadn't understood at the time: art doesn't have to be nice and neat and fit into a box. It also doesn’t need a gatekeeper, or permission to reach an audience. It just needs someone willing to gather it and put it out into the world.
The Blight Collective isn't an attempt to copy that incredible magazine -- It's an attempt to keep that spirit alive: a free, experimental space where artists make whatever they want, serving as a source of inspiration from artists across all mediums. They're free to make the thing they've been circling for months, the thing that Maybe doesn't fit anywhere else, and leave it here. It's a playground first, a magazine second.
who'sbehind it?
blight collective was created, edited, arranged, and designed by josh dunaway. majority of everything between the covers belongs to the amazing artists who made it -- josh just fills in the gaps in other places.
josh has spent the last 2+ decades as a freelance web and graphic designer, collaborating with marketing agencies across the united states. in his spare time he makes art for no reason other than to continue to feed the fire that burns inside him to create.
@twentytwomediaco
@joshuar1313
twentytwomedia.net
getinvolved
if you make things and this concept pulls at you, the call is open for the next issue. bring what you've got and lay it bare for all to see. if you just want to consume, that's cool too. the issues are always free and always here.