Jack Rowe, senior art director and Solomon Thomson, managing director of Gay Times, shared the stage at October's Nicer Tuesdays event and gave an insightful talk about the responsibility of spearheading a magazine about a long history of queerness, the history of Gay Times (including its "salacious covers" and a tidbit about how archival material was destroyed by poppers!) and finally its grand return to print media.
Historically-like other cultural forms-architecture has been documented, shared, and promoted primarily through print. Books, journals, and magazines carried the discipline's arguments and images, and because architectural practice relies so heavily on visual communication, printed journals created a bridge between academic publications and commercial magazines. Through the postwar decades, beautifully produced volumes curated a collective point of view, signaling what the field broadly considered discussion-worthy or exemplary.
It is the first project from Enninful's new venture EE72, a media and entertainment company he set up in May with his sister, the talent agent Akua Enninful. On the magazine's masthead Edward Enninful is credited as chief creative officer, cementing his pivot from editor to entrepreneur. Speaking to the Guardian, Enninful said he wanted to create something tactile, timeless and collectible by creating an object that honours traditional media with an unconventional approach to modern storytelling.