Tank (magazine)

Tank

A front page of Tank
Frequency	Quarterly
Year founded	1998
Company	Tank Publications Ltd.
Country	United Kingdom
Based in	London
Language	English
Website	www.tankmagazine.com
ISSN	1464-3472

TANK is a quarterly UK magazine, launched in 1998, covering contemporary culture, such as art, architecture, fashion, current affairs, and music. Completely unknown to most magazine readers, but with a following in the worlds of art and fashion, the magazine has acquired an idiosyncratic, distinct voice through design, critical approach to writing and eclectic style, although The Daily Telegraph has questioned if the articles are read.^[1] Tank also produces publications with advertisers such as Levis and Prada.^[2]

History

Launched by editor Masoud Golsorkhi and art director Andreas Laeufer in 1998, the magazine instantly became a small-scale success.^[3] Golsorkhi and Laeufer were both involved in fashion magazine publishing prior to establishing TANK. Disappointed by the growing homogeneity in the industry driven by commercialization, they elaborated a concept of a magazine where the content and form were dictated by aesthetics and ideas, rather than advertising and business models. It charges more for advertisements than Vogue, but runs less of them.^[4]

The first issue of TANK was published in September 1998. It was presented in form of thick square miniature book. A slogan inside said “Small tank, big fish”,^[5] signalling an ambition to become an outlet for grand ideas articulated by thinkers and writers, envisaged by artists and photographers. Each subsequent issue has included editorial features, interviews and objects of contemporary art and fashion^[6]

Form

TANK was one of the pioneers of the “bookzine” trend in magazine publishing;^[7] its ambition was and still remains to channel timeless ideas through a beautiful object. Over its 14 years of existence, TANK had a number of different incarnations: bulk pocket book, large wiro-bound magazine, and, finally, a rectangular perfect-bound edition. Praising cigarette packet design as one of the greatest ever, Tank published classics in Cigarette packet format from 2010.^[8]

Content

TANK’s editorial platform is different to that of a conventional magazine. Its motto, a maxim provided by Jean-Francois Lyotard, “Elitism for All” dictates versatility and depth that define TANK’s structure.^[9] Each issue revolves around a speculative concept, spawning intellectual and visual discourse that fabricates magazine’s texture. Subjects in the past included: embodiment, disorientation, illuminations, language, etc. The writers and staff of the magazine are given freedom to interpret the subject, which results in a polyphony of voices and opinions. Golsorkhi has described TANK as style statements that are often left out to impress other people, and Tom Leonard has questioned whether the serious articles are read.^[10]

On the pages of TANK, contemporary culture is given both theoretical framework and artistic freedom. Substantial amount of attention is paid to the very notion of “contemporaneity”, which is explored within the confines of art, architectonics of space, politics and fashion. By merging critical thought and journalistic reportage, fashion imagery and documentary photography, in each issue TANK creates an artful bricolage of contemporary culture, editing the world into a singular narrative.^[11] In September 2009, with readers moving to free online content and print ad pages in sharp decline, it featured 10 topless photos of Claudia Schiffer, by Luis Sanchis, featuring a hint of plumber's crack in an attempt to gain readership,^[12] while billing her as "icon, model, mother, mogul".^[13]

Management Team

Masoud Golsorkhi, editor-in-chief of TANK and creative director of TANK Group, was born in Iran and received a degree in photography from the University of Westminster.^[14] At TANK, Golsorkhi curates work across a range of media, from boutique, custom publishing to branding consultancy for luxury fashion companies. Advocate of quality design, striking art and critical thinking, in his work he manages to find equilibrium between aesthetic experiments in print and online, and practices within the sphere of advertising. Golsorkhi participated in panels at Tate Modern, the ICA, Victoria&Albert, Art Dubai’s Global Art Forum,^[15] and chaired photography festival in Arles and a multidisciplinary festival in Hyeres.^[16] He is also an honorary professor of Saint Martin’s School of Art and Design.^[17]

Caroline Issa, publisher and fashion director supervising all TANK’s projects, joined the team in 2002, following the leave of the co-founder, Andreas Laeufer. Issa was born in Canada to a Chinese mother and a Lebanese-Iranian father. Holding a business degree from Wharton, Caroline had worked as a business adviser in a consultancy agency^[18] before becoming an essential part of TANK’s enterprise. Through her work, Issa has gained attention in the fields of fashion and marketing. Together with Golsorkhi, she was a juror in Hyeres and Arles.^[19]

O: Quarterly Fashion Supplement by TANK

O: by TANK is a quarterly luxury fashion supplement for The Observer that was initiated in 2005. O: looks at the world of fashion and beauty and presents in-depth interviews with designers, perfumers, singers and artists. Published four times a year, O: is a shopping guide and a source of inspiration for the season ahead.^[20]

In fall 2012 the issue of the magazine was distributed with The Guardian and was accompanied with the free iPhone app, B Fashion Scan. It allowed the readers to animate the magazine's content via the app and make the articles come to life with more than a 100 videos. Richard Nunn, media analyst, at Charles Stanley thought the app was "a great technology to turn traditional print or outdoor media into an interactive, portable and engaging video content".^[21] Matt King, head of leisure, tourism, technology and media research at Mintel, noted that this sort of app was great for bridging the gap between print and digital media - especially given there was still a huge demand for print magazines.^[22]

Sponsored publications - MINED and …AND?

TANK attracted brands such as LEVI’s and Prada to sponsor two cutting-edge publications: MINED and …And?

Produced for Levi’s, MINED, a palindrome for ‘denim’, was a thick magazine designed to resemble a book. Designed and printed on rough, textured paper, MINED was a forerunner of the exposed binding trend in independent publishing. To open the magazine, the readers had to rip the pages. This 500-page biannual bookzine won the D&AD Silver and European Art Director’s Gold Star awards in 2002.^[23]

…And? was a magazine published once. It cost around £60,000 and Prada "bought enough advertising space to make it happen".^[24] It took the form of a pink broadsheet newspaper, aiming to rediscover the format of newspaper publishing. It went on sale in March 2002 with 150 000 copies and a price of £1.^[25] The principle of …And? was to comprehend the way the news is produced and distributed in the age of media and information: Theodore Zeldin penned down a possibility manifesto, James Westcott interviewed Noam Chomsky on the subject of media myopia and media’s adversarial qualities, Jemima Lewis talked about the news production in Britain. The newspaper also featured an abstract from Victor Pelevin’s “Babylon” and Imre Szeman’s explanation of Bourdieau's oeuvre. …And? re-purposed the concept of newspaper publishing, enriching it with strong visuals and thoughtful content.^[26]

TANK Books

Initiated in 2007, TANK BOOKS are a series of classical literature designed to look like cigarette books. Their release coincided with the ban on smoking in public places in the UK, and the creative director hoped for 'Great PR.'^[27] The design of the books mimicked the design and iconography of the cigarette cartons, providing each literary piece with its unique look. In traditional cardboard cigarette boxes, complete with cellophane wrap, gold foil strip and matt metal foil, were short fiction novels by Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Leo Tolstoy. The packaging of the books was not only intended to “hook” people on reading and engage with younger audience, but also referred to the fact that for many smoking is strongly connected with literary culture.^[28] TANK BOOKS received an iF product design award in 2008.^[29]

TANK TV

TANK TV is an online gallery of moving image established in 2003, exhibiting emerging and prominent video artists. The virtual gallery has collaborated on a number of events with art institutions across the world, among which are: Tate Modern, Kulturhuset, Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, and the ICA. Over the years, the online platform has worked with such artists and curators as Laure Provost, Paul McCarthy, Pipilotti Rist, the Turner prize winner, Jeremy Deller, John Latham, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Stuart Comer, John Bock, Negar Azimi.^[30]

Because Magazine

Because is Tank's sister digital publication, launched in 2009. According to Caroline Issa, "Because is a daily dose of fashion, fun and information."^[31]

References

External links

• Official Website
• TANK Magazine on Twitter
• TANK Magazine on Facebook
• TANK Books
• TANK TV
• Because Magazine