Men of style.
Modern Luxury Media uses every April to highlight men of style across the nation. Each magazine in the 22 different markets includes the same national feature story alongside an exclusive array of “men of style” in the area. DC Magazine chose to feature Alex Ovechkin, Ian Mahinmi, Dan Roberge, Bill Hamid, Patrick Ewing Jr., and Giuseppe Lanzone, six men who come from various walks of life, each with unique stories and senses of style.
Putting together this magazine requires months of organization and collaboration. Throughout February and March our team at Modern Luxury was making calls, sending emails, writing stories, taking photographs, and designing pages, culminating into a thick, perfectly glossy book of luxe papers for our readers. For more on how we did it, read below.
The overarching project that I outlined in my Comm386 Learning Agreement was supposed to be Modern Luxury Weddings, another magazine produced in our office in Washington D.C. I was slated to work on this magazine primarily during April. Due to the extenuating circumstances of the Spring 2020 semester, I did not get to work on this season's edition of Modern Luxury Weddings like I had planned. Up until the untimely termination of my internship, the project outlined below was at the forefront of our efforts at the office. I worked on it for the majority of my time at Modern Luxury.Production of the April edition
Everyone in the office has a different role from writing to editing to sales to marketing. The April edition of the magazine is focused around the Men of Style concept, meaning that the stories, advertisements, and events should be about men or of interest to men. Our Editor-in-Chief Michael McCarthy was in charge of organizing and attending the photoshoots for each of the men, and supervising the production of the magazine. Our sales team was in charge of selling advertisements to firms in the Washington area to populate the pages. Our events team coordinated vendors, guests, and details for the launch party (which was, unfortunately, cancelled). Every department has their role in producing the April Men of Style edition.
my role in the process
I worked under Michael on the editorial team. One of my biggest roles was writing stories to help populate the pages of the magazine. I contacted many people in the Washington art scene in order to compile a list of must-see exhibits along with eye-catching photos to supplement. I also had the opportunity to conduct an email interview with Tracy Morris, an interior design artist in Washington. In addition to my own pieces, I also fact-checked five stories within the magazine. This required reading through each of them and contacting PR reps or consulting online sources to confirm the claims made in every sentence. On two occasions I was able to attend photoshoots for the Men of Style spreads, assisting when needed.
what makes it all worth it: the learning value
The learning value of this internship cannot be overstated. I learned so much working on this project from writing with brand voicing to business communication to design processes. Not only did I get to watch professional photographers, editors, sales representatives, event coordinators, and publishers at work, but I also got to participate along side them. This project has provided me with the tools I need to function as an effective and efficient member of a publishing team. Magazine publishing as a career had never occurred to me before this internship. Now I see that it could definitely be something I pursue. I have always wanted to use creative storytelling in my future and this might be the way to do it.