kinkSTYLE Magazine
I was already a follower of Occasus Jayaram on flickr, but when yesterday I saw in The Sexiest Pornstars group a message about a premiere issue of a new magazine, I did not see that coming! Bad me, because she had advertised it on her stream. I browsed it on Issuu.com , and I found it surprisingly well put together, with an astonishing amount of work and thought that went into it from what looked like the effort of a single person, besides the marketing and web support by others aknowledged in the credits (including a very well known name in porn such as Kane Daffyd ).
So, I jumped on the chance to contact the person herself, and here she is, explaining this new project of hers!
Occasus Jayaram, who was a real pleasure to interview
- "A lifestyle magazine featuring and focusing on Second Life kink, its community, and its participants". This sounds interesting. First, tell us a bit more about your background, your ....story. (Story of O...sounds familiar). Who is O, and how did she decide it was time to make a new magazine , and this magazine in particular?
" Haha, yes, I get asked the question about my name quite a bit! But in all honesty, Occasus is very difficult to type and so I shortened it to O. I thought it was fun, flirty, sexy, and just easy. In regard to the magazine, I had wanted to do this for years. Back in 2010, I had an idea to do a similar magazine, called "BOUND." I wasn't really well versed in photoshop, magazine editing, and it quite frankly just wasn't the right time. I think you know when it's the right time, when everything just falls together and everything just came right together for this."
This feature from the current issue makes for a compelling read. The answers are very much to the point and honest.
- Did you have to learn new skills to put together this first issue? Which part was the most challenging to put together / work on ?
" I spent a lot of time on youtube watching tutorials. I pored over other SL magazines to try and study the aesthetic, find out what I liked about them and what I could use as inspiration when putting together this publication. I used the online website issuu to do this, and most people who upload to issue use an adobe program called InDesign. I subscribe to the basic adobe package for photoshop and lightroom, but I didn't want to shell out additional money to add InDesign, so I decided to just make each page of the magazine in Photoshop. I may have made it harder on myself, but I wanted to use a program I was familiar and comfortable with.
I think the most challenging thing was shedding my insecurities. I am a perfectionist and I was so worried about how it would be received, both by the vanilla and kink communities. I spent so much time editing each page to the point where I was driving myself crazy! But at the end of the day, I had to just accept that this is something I'm so proud of and that's all that matters. "
Great to see the beautiful Terri featured in this issue! You can read a bit about it on her own blog!
- I'd like you to tell us about the featured articles/shoots of this first issue, starting if possible with the one you worked on first, basically telling us how did this particular issue come together from start to finish.
" This first issue is basically considered a prototype. There are very few advertisements, with the exception of three that I had offered to friends who are business owners free of charge to be part of the first issue. So because this is a prototype, it's very small. The very first article I worked on was the article interviewing Phedre Luckless of Indulge Gentleman's Lounge. It was while putting together the layouts, that I really began to envision kinkSTYLE and its potential.
The next thing I worked on was a high fashion editorial shoot with model, Bai Nightfire and it was sexy and fun from the start to finish. She really brought a legitimacy to the magazine, at least in my opinion due to her stature in the Second Life Fashion community. I want this magazine to be a bridge between both the vanilla and the kink community.
" O " is a very capable photographer, who did wonders designing the magazine. Admire also her work on her flickr
After the photoshoot, I interviewed Koshka Plisskin and Dusty Amulet for the article on the Daddy/babygirl dynamic. The photoshoot that we did was so much fun, and I honestly feel that I learned some more about the dynamic of DD/bg that I did not know before and because of that, I was thrilled.
The final piece in this magazine was an erotic pictorial. I put a casting call out in some adult/porn groups in SL and received an overwhelming amount of responses. I was very happy to have so many people who wanted to work with the magazine. Terri Topliss and DJ Barry (LuciusMoonKill)were so easy to work with, and made it such a great experience. "
More of that Terri/Barry hawtness! Last bit to be added, but first to be spotted, i am sure!
- Do you have an in-world version of the magazine? do you plan to have one at some point?
" We currently are exclusively online. Maybe at some point, we will have inworld copies, but for now people can find us on issuu.com "
- I expect you have plans for this publication : what type of collaborators are you looking for, what type of commitment, skills. roles...? Tell us if you wish in what direction if any you'd like to expand the magazine.
" We have big plans for this magazine! First and foremost, we want advertisers. We are offering extremely low and affordable rates. kinkSTYLE is about promoting the kink community and also includes businesses, clubs, stores, etc.
We need writers, models, photographers...of only the highest caliber...we want kinkSTYLE to be classy, sexy, and of high quality.
We'd like to expand to at least 75 to 100 pages in our future issues, so there is a lot of room to grow. Anyone who wants to inquire about ad space, or employment with the magazine and reach out to me inworld ( Occasus Jayaram) and I will get back to them asap.
Thanks so much for sharing the news about kinkSTYLE magazine! "
Enjoy the first of what we hope will be many issues, and contact me anytime if you'd like your projects to be blogged here!
