Circulation: 60,000
Frequency: Quarterly

Background:  Most lifestyle publications on any given newsstand tend to be crammed with content that focuses on women’s relationships with men. But in 1990 the creative minds behind Curve magazine realized that there was a gap in the market and set out to develop a publication that catered to lesbians and queer women.

Curve’s mission is to keep its readers (women in the LGBTQ community ages 25-44) up-to-date on current affairs and community politics with a focus on lifestyle content, says Merryn Johns, editor in chief.

What to pitch: A lot of Curve’s content is created in-house, but freelancers may be able to get a byline by pitching profile stories. Celebrity musicians, actors, and athletes are all fair game—including people who have recently come out, are allies of the LGBTQ movement, or just may be of interest to Curve’s target readership. Profiles of lesser-known people (lesbian business owners, politicians, etc…) may pique an editor’s interest as well. “It’s very important that we do offer a kind of coverage to show the diversity of our community in a positive way,” says Johns. Word count: 500-2000.

Fitness pitches can have a home at Curve as well. Editors are looking for profiles of fitness professionals, as well as trend articles, first-person essays, and reported stories. Word count: 1200.

Photographers are also welcome to submit images for consideration: $30/image.

What not to pitch: Travel stories are handled in-house, so only send a pitch if you have an extraordinary angle.

Online opportunities:  CurveMag.com has about 250,000 unique visitors, so it can provide up-and-coming writers with a great opportunity to get their names out into the digital space. Instead of pitching one-off pieces freelancers should focus more on providing regular column-style content that focus on music, beauty, fashion or movies. Bloggers have tackled topics like parenting and a comedian’s take on touring with the military: $50/post

What publicists should pitch: Send pitches that are of interest to female members of the LGBTQ community. Pitches for products or organizations that are fair trade, cruelty free, certified organic or helmed by a female owner may bump you up to the top of the list.

 Percentage of freelance content: 40%
Percentage of freelance pitches accepted: 10%

Recent freelance story pitched and published: Freelancers pitched profiles that focused on burlesque icon Dita Von Teese, The Indigo Girls and Grammy-nominated artist Mary Lambert.

Etiquette: Limit your pitches to about one paragraph that outlines the focus of your story idea. Include links to clips. And please let the editors know if you can supply hi-res artwork along with your story.

Lead time: Three months
Pay rate: $.20 a word
Payment schedule: On publication
Kill fee: 25%
Rights purchased: All rights for first three months

Contact info:  Twitter handle: @TheRealCurve | Facebook

Direct all pitches to:  Editor in Chief Merryn Johns: MERRYN at CURVEMAG dot COM or EDITOR at CURVEMAG dot COM

The post How To Pitch: Curve appeared first on Mediabistro.

« Je me sens attirée par la Chine parce que je ressens un lien profond avec sa culture et ses habitants », révèle Viktoria Porsche. Cette photographe d’origine Ukrainienne a passé la majeure partie de sa vie en Allemagne et a commencé à prendre des clichés en tant qu’autodidacte, lorsqu’elle s’est installée en Chine, il y a une dizaine d’années. Pour cette série intitulée « Feel the sand IV, China », l’artiste s’est rendue en famille, dans le désert de Badain-Jaran, qui est une partie du désert de Gobi, dans le nord de la Chine. « Pour atteindre cet endroit, on a dû rouler cinq ou six heures. Je ne savais pas vraiment à quoi m’attendre et surtout, je n’étais pas vraiment prépare au climat et aux conditions locales. La température chutait parfois à -35°C, les téléphones portables ne foctionnaient pas et nous étions (à l’exception de quelques habitants), les seuls êtres humains à des kilomètres à la ronde. Lorsque nous y sommes rendus, au mois de Décembre, toute la région est généralement fermée aux touristes. Mais comme je parle chinois, nous avons pu faire venir un chauffeur local, spécialiste de la découverte de cette région».

« Les aventures que nous avons vécues là-bas sont difficilement descriptibles. Je peux dire que ce fût un voyage très dur mais aussi et surtout, inoubliable ».

The Aision AN-S01 watch comes just at the right time to usher us into the space age. For a species that will, in roughly a decade, populate another planet, Aision’s watch is time-appropriate. Designed using the vast bank of science fiction as its inspiration source, the AN-S01 models itself on the design of a UFO, with a style that’s more futuristic than traditional… perfectly fitting for a species that will soon be interstellar!

The AN-S01 deviates from the regular watch-face design, opting for concentric rotating discs that align to tell the time. This formation is punctuated by a metal frame that sits in front of the watch, almost like an exoskeleton, giving the watch its aggressively future-forward appeal. A circular case-design does a hat-tip to the most popular perception of a circular UFO, and a highly curved Hesalite glass gives the watch an incredible amount of depth, while also accentuating the UFO-esque shape of the overall body, making the AN-S01 look like it was co-designed by humans and extraterrestrials alike.

Sitting underneath the Hesalite glass, the stainless steel exoskeleton, and the rotating lume-coated dials is a Miyota caliber 82S0 movement, a part of the 8215/821A family, with a 21-jewel movement that beats at 21,600 vibrations per hour. Encased in a 316L steel case with a watertight construction, the watch’s insides are waterproof up to 30 meters. The watch also sports leather straps, but in keeping with its theme of space, comes with a white stripe running down the center of each strap… a detail that, when wrapped around your hand, almost looks like the teleporter beam shooting out from under the UFO-shaped watch!

Designer: Lee Cheuk Chung

Click Here to Buy Now: $346 $449 (30% off). Hurry, less than 48 hours left!

The Aision AN-S01 automatic watches are inspired by space and UFO. It deviates from the regular watch-face design, opting for concentric rotating discs that align to tell the time.

“SPACE” is the theme of design and the designer has skillfully added a hemisphere – dome-shaped – glass to greatly enhance the design of the dial.

Lume on the dial makes the time easy to read in the dark.

There are two main parts to the dial – the first one is the metal skeleton, which is inspired by the streamline of the wheel. The second part is the disc hands.

The team has designed custom fonts for the dial.

The Miyota caliber 82S0 is from the 8215/821A family but offers a skeletonized dial design. Miyota claims that the caliber 82S0 offers accuracy of -20 ~ +40 seconds per day. This is measured within 10-60 minutes from a full wind via the crown.

There is also a gilt (gold tone) version available.

The watch straps are made from genuine leather and there are two options.

Genuine Leather – Black & White

Genuine Leather – Black Crazy Horse

Aision AN-S01 Silver Watch

Aision AN-S01 Gun & Silver Watch

Aision AN-S01 Black & Rose Gold Watch

Click Here to Buy Now: $346 $449 (30% off). Hurry, less than 48 hours left!

Designed using generative algorithms, the Generico Chair by Marco Hemmerling and Ulrich Nether fall under the domain of computational or parametric design, i.e., the use of computational algorithms in the design process. The generative design process allows the software to add its expertise by achieving a design that fulfills certain parameters. In this case, the chair retains its strength and also comes with a flexible backrest, but with a volume that’s drastically cut down, and that uses less material, thanks to its voronoi-esque design.

The Generico Chair not only cuts down on volume, but it also maintains a certain level of ergonomic design so the chair is comfortable to sit on. The chair is then 3D printed, given that the generative design comes with its share of manufacturing constraints. It, however, retains a beautiful, skeletal charm that’s brought about by the unique combination of creativity and the software-aided form design.

Designers: Marco Hemmerling and Ulrich Nether.

The following essay and photos (edited for length and clarity) come to us from Netherlands-based industrial designer Laurens de Rijke. Enjoy!

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The past five years I have spent developing my first take on a so called ‘driver watch’. This first series of watches is called the Amalfi Series, named after the beautiful Amalfi Coast in Italy. It is a watch that is focused on the gentleman driver that loves to take out his car in the weekend. Maybe my story is a nice article on your website, otherwise just admire my pictures and let me know what you think (scroll down for pictures of the watch).

I grew up tinkering on old mopeds. And like many adolescents, I had an urge for speed and driving like a lunatic, and I was lucky enough to survive some stupid incidents. Tinkering and wrenching became the safer hobby, and a serious one.

When I was 17 years old, things changed: I stopped lusting for fast, modern mopeds and bought a classic Vespa. This opened up an entire new world, of classic cars and motorcycles. I loved cruising on the Vespa, did so as much as possible, and challenged the little machine to carry me on my first ‘adventure,’ riding to Paris from the Netherlands.

At 19 I attended the Technical University of Delft with the ambition to become a car designer. I soon found out that car design is an incredibly niche market, and that I was not eager enough to become a car designer. I lost my passion for design. I got through my course-work and just focused on finishing my Masters degree.

To find inspiration and fuel my dreams, I decided to find a new adventure. My part-time job was working at a classic Vespa restoration company. This gave me the possibility to do a real adventure with a classic Vespa motorscooter, a Grand Sport 160 with a converted 200cc engine. The goal of this journey was to follow the ancient Silk Road as much as possible, which took me through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kirgizstan and Kazakhstan.

It was an amazing journey on a wonderful vehicle. During a day off in Tbilisi, Georgia, I stumbled upon a flea market and I found a nice relic, a classic Vostok watch. The watch still worked fine and I decided to use it on my Vespa for the rest of the trip.

This is me along the Pamir Highway, Tajikistan, together with my Vespa GS160 from 1962.

One year later it was time for me to graduate, and the Vostok had inspired me to develop my own take on a (driver) watch. For my graduation I had the possibility to work on this dream. I was soon introduced to Professor Bruno Ninaber van Eyben, a renowned Dutch designer (well known for his watch designs and designs for the Dutch euro coin), who has been a tremendous help in fulfilling this dream.

At Studio Ninaber I learned to use a CNC lathe and mill and I learned many tricks of the watch designing/developing trade, mainly focused on case making and development. At the studio I made important steps in the development of my first series of watches, producing my first working prototype.

After a year I decided that it was time to stand on my own two feet. This meant building my own little workshop with my own CNC mill and professional lathe. The past three years have been all about developing and building up the workshop at the same time, until the moment where we are now, launching my first series of watches.

At work behind a lathe at Studio Ninaber.

My journey fueled me with inspiration to develop a so-called “driver’s watch.” Being a design engineer I hold on to the philosophy of form follows function (which I try to execute in an elegant way in the Amalfi Series). What I want to achieve with my watch brand is to develop the ultimate driver’s watch in terms of functionality. This means that I also draw my inspiration from function and not from driving-inspired themes (like a rotor that is shaped like a car wheel).

For the Amalfi Series No.1S, I focused on the gentleman driver. I tried to find the balance between the watch being both a jewel and a functional tool. One might call this a dress watch, whereas in my future product portfolio I also want to develop a driver’s watch that is focused much more on function, something more like a tool-watch.

The Amalfi Series No.1S with special strap and solid lugs.

One more of the Amalfi Series No.1S with case rotated under 45 degrees.

The functions that I focused on: I wanted a rotatable watch, a highly readable dial and an easy strap change. The watch rotated under an angle makes it more legible while driving. A highly readable dial results in a big dial with relatively long watch hands (and future opportunity for filling with luminescents). Being able to easily change straps is useful for swapping in a NATO strap, for instance, and wearing it on top of your shirt or racing gear.

I am now finalizing the details for the first batch of watches. Watches are currently made to order and delivery time is around two months. The Amalfi Series No.1S is limited to 99 pieces, each piece numbered in the side recess of our special case construction. Clients can inquire for their number and custom engravings are possible.

The No.1S with highly legible dial and special straps to easily change for a longer strap.

The special case construction allows for an engraving in the side recess of the case, with the watch not rotated the ‘Amalfi Series’ logo is visible and the serial number is hidden.

The specially-shaped sapphire glass has a (single) blue ultraviolet antireflective coating. The case is made of 316L stainless steel and made in-house. The watch is 38mm in diameter and it is 9.5mm thick.

The watch uses a high end Soprod M100 movement that is visible through the sapphire crystal of the caseback. The hand height of the movement is adjusted in-house to meet our design specifications (the dial high up in the case).

The black lacquered dial is painted in-house and pad printing is done by a specialized printing company in the Netherlands, the applied indices are silver plated and filled with paint by hand. The hands are laser cut by a highly specialized German company and finished by hand in-house.

The strap is unique and made by hand by an artisanal Belgium company.

Thank you for reading my story.

Laurens de Rijke

Owner/Founder

0031 6 82 00 54 02

www.derijkeandco.com