Rough Trade launches monthly magazine

© Bruce Usher: Rough Trade

The 70s inspired mag will feature “a strictly smiles-only photography policy” and absolutely no PR shots

Independent record label, Rough Trade, have launched a “human and imprecise” new magazine to complement their wide-reaching roster and perennially popular physical stores.

Talking to It’s Nice That, the new magazine’s editor, Liv Siddall, explained some of the publication’s influences. “ Rough Trade isn’t about being perfect,” she tells the culture site. “It’s not a cut-and-paste zine, but we wanted to evoke the feeling of being in a Rough Trade store.” Magazine designer Bruce Usher agrees: “Each Rough Trade store has layers upon layers of additions on every spare inch of its walls (markered-on graffiti, posters, scratched out names etc) which was something we wanted to manipulate somehow into a design language without it feeling too full-on.”

Siddall also explains another friendly approach from the brand: “There’s absolutely no moody, posing band photography. Hopefully that’ll give a sense of happiness: when I first read iD and The Face everyone looked like they were having a really good time, and I wanted to make Rough Trade like that.”

See some spreads from the new magazine in the gallery below, and read the full feature from It’s Nice That here. Rough Trade will be a monthly magazine, available to buy in Rough Trade locations worldwide.