Mastertalk: MIGRANT Journal with Isabel Seiffert & Michaela Büsse

Migration involves far more than just individuals. Dictated by shifting markets and natural forces, the movement of goods has shaped from international to local spaces as well as landscapes. The traffic of goods has increased dramatically during the Industrial Revolution to develop into the present day’s extremely complex global commercial patterns. From the influence of African slave trade routes on the centenary traditional Portuguese carolino rice, to the impact of Japanese crops on the Bolivian countryside: there are more intricate facets of migration whose pertinence equals to human fluxes. Besides goods and people, ‘impalpable’ flows of data, ideas and information now constitute a new spatial challenge to understand.

MIGRANT Journal aims at exploring the relationship between these elements, events, journeys and spaces bound under the idea of ‘migration’ in all its forms, determinant to understand today’s society: the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals in Hong Kong, the rise of xenophobic political forces in Europe, the San Diego-Tijuana border, ships full of Sudanese and Eritrean capsizing in the Mediterranean sea, an antenna at the top of a church tower in London pointing to a satellite dish at the top of a grain silo in Dunkirk. Migration is creating new spaces that MIGRANT wants to explore.

MIGRANT Journal is a six-issue independent publication exploring the circulation of people, goods, information, fauna and flora around the world and the transformative impact they have on space. The magazine’s visual concept ensures a unique voice: bold colours and a custom-made typeface that guide the reader through the narrative layers of the publication; intricate maps and vivid infographics which invite to explore topics in a greater, atlas-like depth; and eclectic sequences of images accentuating the publication’s rhythm.

MIGRANT Journal has received five commendations for Best Magazine (2017 & 2018), Best Editor (2018), Best Art Director (2018) and Best Launch (2017) at the Stack Awards. It has been shortlisted for Swiss Design Awards 2020 and the Design Museum’s Beazley Design of the Year 2018 and received a Graphite Pencil at the 2019 D&AD Award. The magazine was also awarded the first Willy Fleckhaus Preis by the Art Directors Club Germany.