The magazine market is saturated with ditzy, gossip magazines, usually targeted at women. ‘Riposte’ is a new women’s magazine that differentiates itself with intelligent, well-written editorials and beautiful design.
The title, ‘Riposte’, was taken from a line in a ‘Maximo Park’ song, ‘The Coast is Always Changing’. The word also means to ‘retort’, which alludes to the magazine’s content being able to spark intelligent conversation and debate.
The magazine focuses on style and substance, and features capable and intelligent women working in the fields of design, technology, science, arts, and music.
Editor Danielle Pender conceived the magazine after her frustration at the lack of good magazine material for women; she found that the breadth of male-oriented titles were more interesting. “I felt like there was a need for a women’s magazine which featured fascinating women and a broader range of topics,” she says.
The magazine is styled like an art journal, with a minimalistic typographic cover showing just the names of the featured women. This acts as a reminder of the magazine’s focus on words and what women have to say, instead of what they look like or how they dress. “It’s a risk to not have an image on the front cover—we all know images sell—but we hope we can capture people’s imaginations first with words,” says Pender.
“The aim is to profile incredible women who do incredible things across a range of sectors and disciplines—not to big them up in an over the top way, just to let their achievements speak for themselves,” says Pender. “We’re not interested in that world of big name celebrities and interviews full of media trained responses where you end up finding out nothing of any meaning,” she adds.
[via Creative Review]