In a sea of graphic magazines, with book shelves positively dripping in Grafiks and I-d’s, Varoom gives a welcome voice to the often ignored; illustration.

And boy, does it have something to say. Since its conception in 2006,Varoom has been on a tireless mission to provide a platform for illustration and it’s place in contemporary culture and modern society, putting imagery out there that’s not necessarily been seen before in printed form. It can be beautiful, or it can be challenging, but with in depth articles on all aspects and themes of contemporary illustration, as well as interviews with leading image-makers and up to the minute news and reviews; it’s never boring.

Published by the Association of Illustrators, Issue 12 is out now, and with its futuristic theme and chock-a-block content full of 21st century Zodiac signs, art/science marriage and erotic collages, it would be a crime not to delve in. We dropped by the AOI studio to have a chat with Varoom’s publisher, Derek Brazell, and learn more the magazine’s conception, direction and whether print is in fact on it’s last legs.

CH: Who started the magazine and how did it all come about?

We always had a membership magazine at the AOI called the Journal, which was printed 6 times a year in black and white. We’d always wanted to go to full colour and had talked about it for a long time, weighing up expense and things. We thought if we printed 3 colour issues a year instead of 6 black and white ones, we could just about afford it. Me, Silvia Baumgart, the AOI manager at the time, Jo Davies and other people we pulled together started it. It had a long gestation but finally got printed in 2006.

CH: What were your motivations when you first set out?
To broaden the magazine readership beyond our membership. We wanted other readers to be able to pick it up and not feel it was just for illustrators.

CH: Varoom had a relaunch in issue 10 that not only saw the introduction of a new editor (John O’Reilly), but also a new designer (Studio Fernando Gutiérrez) taking over from Non Format. How has this changed the feel of the magazine?

Quite a lot, Non Format did amazing design, they were great visual stylists and really imprinted their vision on the magazine. But interestingly, as soon as we said we were changing designers, everyone suddenly admitted they could never really read their design, especially the bold headlines. But I loved the way it looked, it was very cool, and we actually won quite a lot of awards for it, which was fantastic.

Our remit for the new designers was to make the magazine more classic and readable, so the content was not dominated by the design. We also wanted less of a showcase- up to issue 9 we had done more showcases, which were usually tied in with a theme, but this time we wanted to give good weight to the text.

CH: How do you go about producing an issue? Who’s involved?

It starts with the editor, John O’Reilly, who comes up with the theme, and we put it forward to the Varoom editorial board. We have some great people on there like Martin Colyer from Readers Digest and Paul Bowman from LCC, Angus Hyland from Pentagram, the designer Fernando Gutiérrez and Ramón Blomfield. I work out a schedule for it all, timings and when it all needs to be printed and so on. We do some reviews and shorter pieces in house but a lot gets out sourced to professional writers, academics and illustrators. John’s great at working with people to knock things into shape, he wants to make sure everything is as well written as possible, with thought and an idea behind it.

CH: Varoom 12 is all about the future, exploring the unlikely marriage between art and science. Does every issue have a theme?

This the first issue that’s had a theme, but we thought it worked really well and that’s how we’re going to work from now on. Issue 13 is going to be all about ‘Place’- that may be geographical, or in your mind, a sense of place.

CH: So next issue is out in…

September, and then there should hopefully be another issue after that before the end of the year.

CH: What’s the key ingredient to success?

Tackling issues that other magazine don’t necessarily talk about. Illustration is used in so many contexts all over the world and in so many medias and platforms; we’ve collated it all in one place. Varoom Lab is our most recent development; it’s an online site where our several college partners put articles forward. It’s a nice way to introduce new content and will hopefully expand the opportunities the magazine has as well.

CH: You’ve just reached the very respectable issue 12 mark, looking back what have you learnt along the way?

Personally, I’ve learnt a lot in terms of getting things done in a more official way and planning as well as you can. We’ve had an incredible string of bad luck with printers for example, which has been a huge learning curve- we had 4 printers go down on us over the space of a year. It was the start of the recession and printing got hit first because people start cutting back on the easiest budgets. One printer went under right at the middle of printing issue 7! I was in this nightmare scenario, trying to make sure that we got all the sheets out and to another printer to get finished off.

CH: The magazine market is a volatile place at the moment with the internet taking over as the medium of choice, how is Varoom managing to ride the www wave and stay afloat?

Interestingly, our subscriptions seem to be going up, not by millions, but it doesn’t seem to be dropping. And copy sales in shops wouldn’t have dropped had Borders not shut down! Borders closing was a bit a blow to all independent magazine, especially art ones. We are looking into online content, but we do have limited resources. We’ll have to wait and see, it’s not a profit making set up, but we seem to be riding it out thus far.

CH: Is print dead?

I don’t think so. I’m interested in what’s going to happen with the ipad, I think Varoom would translate well. But the joy of a physical magazine is that you can flop about with it, fling it aside, read it on the loo, in the bath, I don’t want to hold something worth £400 that I have to precious with. I’ve read a lot of online magazines that just exist in pdf format but it isn’t the same as having a flick through actual pages. And people like beautifully designed things around them, Varoom is a nice thing to have lying around. It invites you to pick it up. If something’s electronic you have to turn it on and remember to look at it. I leave books and magazines lying around my flat all the time to remind me to look at them. That’s what worries me with an electronic magazine, how are you going to remember you want to see it?

CH: On the cover of issue 6 it says “That’s Not Art, That’s Illustration”. What’s the difference? And can illustration ever be art?

I think it is art. That Brad Holland cover is fantastic, “Madonna is an artist because she explores her own sexuality. Snoop Doggy Dog is an artist because he explores other people’s sexuality…the only people left who seem not to be artists are illustrators.”

But all illustration is art, some of it transcends the fact its been commissioned for something which is a fantastic achievement. And a lot of illustration is authorial so it’s hard to look at anything and say, “this isn’t art” , if you’ve done it for yourself. And is it even illustration? I think it’s an argument that’s going to run for a long time, but I almost don’t care because we’re producing amazing work as illustrators and who cares.

CH: Is illustration given enough worth?

A lot of people don’t recognise it and I don’t understand why, I mean everyone knows what photography is, maybe that’s because everyone owns a camera. Everyone’s heard of David Bailey and although he’s still around, he’s not been famous since the 70s or 80s. But the only illustrator people have heard of these days in Quentin Blake, and of course they completely attach him to children’s fiction. Most people who think of illustrations, end up thinking of kids’ books, which is strange because they’re surrounded by it, on book covers, billboard posters, and even iphone apps, it’s everywhere, but every picture’s different. I think its hard for the general public to realise this is what it is.

We’re always going to need pictures to look at and help us understand text, and those pictures aren’t going to come from fine artists. Maybe we should be called commercial artists, but maybe we’re not always commercial all the time…

CH: Has the recession hit illustration in particular?

It’s hard to tell because you still see it everywhere. The main worry is that people wont commission illustration as much for the web. If the web is the primary publication point for newspapers I don’t think they will use as much illustration or photography, just stock imagery that generally fits the theme. But no one knows what will happen, the publishers are freaking out, the newspapers are freaking out, but I don’t think we need to freak out, we just need to be aware that it might not be a primary market in 5 years time. Fingers crossed.

CH: As well as Varoom publisher, you’re also a key member in the Association Of Illustrators, being so heavily involved in the illustration field, do you ever feel at risk of being illustrated-out?

I don’t, curiously, because there’s just so much going on in illustration, so many different fields that I haven’t even delved into. When I started writing the book with Jo Davies, I started looking into things that I hadn’t really paid that much attention to, like graphic novels. I struggled through Chris Ware and forced myself to finish the slightly miserable Jimmy Corrigan, and I thought it was actually a really great piece of work and can see why it got the accolades it did, and this is years after being involved in the illustration world. Sometimes I get a bit tired of having to deal with the issues I hear about day to day at the AOI, but not the actual work, the work’s great.

CH: What illustrators, new or old, are catching your eye at the minute?
I’m a drawer in my illustration work, I’ve always drawn, but I’m fascinated by stuff that I almost cant see how its been done, like vector based art. I love Pete Fowler who did the Super Furry Animals cover, I love his colour and the kind of creatures that he does. A lot of people are doing creatures at the moment, but he’s got a different layer on it, which gives it a bit more interest.

Also Pauline Baynes, her illustrations for the Narnia books were the first time I really started noticing illustration and I’ve just loved her pictures ever since.

CH: You’re currently writing a new book called Making Great Illustration and, as a result, are travelling all over the globe to interview various illustrators. In your opinion where is the illustration hub at the moment? Has London still got it?

I would say so, absolutely. I’ve spent hours researching on the web going cross eyed and looking at old magazines seeing who’s been doing interesting stuff. Recently I got in touch with the European Illustration Forum, asking if they could tell me who they thought was the best in their countries. After investigating all the responses, and there was some really nice work, I have to say (and I don’t think it’s just me being British) if that’s who they think is the best, then a lot of the times, we have better.

You can get a copy of Varoom Magazine issue 12 here