»So have you now seen everything you still hadn’t seen?« Boris Kochan asks the audience. Certainly a fitting final question for the 3rd QVED conference 2014, which after two successful previous conferences was sold out in a very short time and, with 650 participants, was one of the most successful events at the Munich Creative Business Week MCBW. To a certain extent, it is also a look at the future and a taste of what is to come – at the next »Quo Vadis, Editorial Design?« conference from  26 – 28 February 2015 in Munich.

Jeremy Leslie started his blog »MagCulture« eight years ago. At the time, there were no experiments, and no platforms of this kind, and even fewer forums dealing with editorial design. Leslie, the designer, is living the culture of the magazine, not only in the field of print, but also focusing on digital magazines. This attitude is his mission statement, and like the successful blog with an add-on shop, it’s also a contrast programme and »propaganda of the opposition« (quote Leslie) against those who claim that »Print is dead«.

»We are designers, we talk structures and processes«. That’s how Gema Navarro and Santos Henarejos introduce one of their magazines: »The Eight« is published twice a year. In print and online it invites eight photographers per edition to present their works on 20 pages. »The Eight« transcends the boundary between a photo-book and the image. The designers want texts and pictures on an equal footing and side by side. Thanks to the colour codes, which have been developed especially for the magazine, Navarro and Henarejos can do without page numbers.

Eroticism is in our heads, erotic complications are fantasies in print that stimulate all the senses. Is non-visual erotic material an inspiration? Mike Koedinger’s question put to the circle of makers of erotic magazines results in some surprising answers: Frank Rocholl prefers closeness to over-intellectualised text, prefers interviews with people that »get up closer«. Exciting is also working with things that are not visible, that mainly take place in the head.

Mirage is a joint venture by Frank Rocholl, the editor, and the South African fashion photographer Henrik Purienne. Mirage has 400 pages and wants to be a hybrid of a fashion and an erotic magazine. The journal is extremely successful on its key markets in the USA, Asia and France. Mirage is rather an object than a publication, its main feature being sumptuous compositions of images and an unconventional aesthetic appeal that Frank Rocholl calls »stimulated experiences«. Thus, Rocholl and Puriell rely on a printed product, i.e.

In the beginning, when »Talc«, a design magazine for adults in modern times, came into being, there was the internet. Designer Edvard Vince and the author and strategy developer Fauzia Musa launched a kickstarter campaign, because they wanted to be independent and start a magazine free from the constraints that an alliance with a traditional publisher would imply. Their crowd-funding concept has proved to be successful. »Talc magazine« - subtitled »Visual Stimulus« - brought the first print edition to the market in 2013.

»Freunde von Freunden« was founded as an international online magazine in 2009. The title is indicative of its programme. Frederik Frede and his team tell stories about their friends. They focus on creative people, and present their views and attitudes in interviews. Meanwhile the online magazine has expanded with a network of freelancers working in more than fifty cities, and supplies the magazine, an app and the print version with stories.

Five ideas, four encounters, three leaders, two feuilletons plus one »icon« - that is Riposte, a smart magazine for women founded by Danielle Pender in 2012. Already as a teenager, Danielle Pender was bored by your typical print media and the negative image of women these conveyed. Against the rather one-sided view of the female sex she decided to dedicate her journal, Riposte, to different themes and aspects.

As the founder of Typofonderie and Type Director at ZeCraft, Porchez designs tailored font and logo types for LeMonde, for numerous clients from the print and advertising sectors. »Thinking is non-tangible abstraction«, sayt Porchez. His font types are translations into information, communication and emotions. »Writing was the most efficient away to keep people and information alive. Written texts are a complicated response to a simple problem. They have to function in different contexts.«

»The most important utensil we have to have on stage is a crate of beer« says Boris Kochan when listing what things are needed for the Designers' Battle. Plus a flipchart and a few pens. A bar stool, opened laptops and bar tables are already up there. With Johannes Erler presenting, also appearing on stage will be Mirko Borsche, founder of editorials like »jetzt« and »Neon«; Mario Lombardo, designer of magazines like »spex«; and Lars Harmsen, publisher of »slanted«. All three will be battling it out with one another. There are rules of course.