discovering creatives

☆

discovering creatives ☆

WITH

Kia

Interview by Liberty

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In a stroke of incredible luck, we’re here with Kia of Luxury Literature Magazine, founder, co-chief editor, interviewer, head of staff, and graphic designer. Clearly, a wonderful jack-of-all-trades.

[Liberty] Hi Kia, Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Could you introduce yourself to our readers?

[Kia] Hi, Liberty! Thank you for having me. I’m Kia, an author and student who is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Luxury Literature Magazine. I am originally from the Maldives and grew up in various places around Europe, Asia, and Australia. I find the phrase that best describes me is “a consumer and creator of media in all forms”, which is somewhat of a motto of mine! I try to honor that in every way possible, from working on my own writing to evaluating others’ to studying up on art and literature and fashion

[Liberty] Funnily enough, I discovered Luxury Literature Magazine on Instagram maybe a month ago, and was immediately obsessed. The thing that drew me most to your page were the designs of your posts. Was graphic design something that you were already skilled in, or did you learn specifically for this magazine? What is the hardest part about keeping your theme and look consistent with design?

[Kia] Thank you, that means a great deal. I would not say I began as formally trained in graphic design in any real sense, though I did have a modest understanding of it from the writergram account I used to run. An obscene amount of time on Pinterest, and months of studying or participating in everything from face painting to museum catalogues, old advertisements, bookstagram, roleplay, editorial spreads, and film stills, supplied me with a more trained eye too.

During our first issue, we were quite understaffed, so I worked on the design team myself and learned as quickly as I could, largely because I did not want to embarrass our contributors. In addition to that, I run our social media myself, and around 98% of the time, I develop the posts people see on our page. That is probably the hardest part of maintaining consistency, but it is also a duty I would be reluctant to bestow on anyone else as a) the magazine operates according to my whims, which means our direction can change quite often and b) secondly, I try to plan our posts months in advance, so it does not always work logistically to hand that responsibility over.

[Liberty] Founding a magazine and starting something like that from scratch is a very hard and laborious task. What were your sole motivations in the early stages of Luxury Literature Magazine?

[Kia] In the early stages, my motivations were almost entirely internal. I wanted to create a magazine that was organized, visually strong, and useful to emerging writers and artists in every way possible. There are several young creatives producing excellent work online, but I felt that a lot of it was either overlooked or presented in a way that did not fully reflect its quality. In a way, I suppose it functioned as proof to the self. I was also motivated by the contributors themselves, of course.

“Once people began trusting us with their work, I wanted to honour the pieces we accepted with a sense of responsibility. That obligation became very sustaining.”

[Liberty] You have a large team collaborating with you at Luxury. What is the most important thing when gathering likeminded workers? What are the top priorities when hiring staff?

[Kia] When hiring, I generally look for three main indicators: reliability, taste, and initiative. Reliability is the most practical priority, because we do receive a lot of applications from people who are talented, but struggle to meet deadlines or communicate consistently. Taste is essential as they need to understand the visual and editorial world of the magazine. Initiative matters also - I value people who can think independently while still respecting the direction of the magazine. Above all, though, enthusiasm is truly of the utmost importance. If you don’t love us or what you do, we don’t see you flourishing with us!

[Liberty] And probably the most asked question you get … what made you start Luxury?

[Kia] I started Luxury because I wanted art to feel valued and for gratitude to be practiced. The magazine has changed enormously since our founding, but we have always retained that original message. Of course, while I don’t think I have discussed this side so openly before, there was also a logical element to it. I loved writing, editing, design, social media, and curation, and a magazine allowed all of those interests to coexist. I was, and still am, able to experiment however I want. I highly recommend it.

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©Luxury Literature Magazine

[Liberty] You have built a large community on Instagram, accumulating over 35k followers. How do you maintain a relationship with your followers and keep them wanting to engage with what you have to offer on social media?

[Kia] Because the relationship operates on reciprocity and consistency, we tend to have strong connections with our followers from the moment they join us by making our page animate. We offer submission calls, staff roles, interview opportunities, advice columns, collaborations, and community-led projects, so there are several points of entry for creatives to involve themselves with us. Our social media is didactic, too. I do not want our account to exist only as a promotional appendage of the magazine but a body where people can encounter literature, history, art, culture, and ideas in a beautiful, accessible, and unpatronizing manner. I want people to love literature and learning with the same appetite that I do, and I know the community recognizes that. We also try to interview and platform as many artists as possible. When people see that we are not only speaking about ourselves, but actively engaging with writers, artists, editors, publications, and cultural workers, interest mounts. There is so much to take from so many.

Drawn image of Kia, Luxury Literature Magazine founder.

[Liberty] I’d love to know more about your passions as a founder. The inspiration for creating a lit mag must come from your own love for the arts. What is your biggest passion and how do you utilise it in the world today?

[Kia] Literature and art are central to my life, but, perhaps unexpectedly, neuroscience is my greatest passion. In many fashions, actually, I think my love for literature and my interest in neuroscience are not separate at all. They are simply two different ways of studying the mind. In the world today, I utilize that through both my academic ambitions and my creative work. Luxury Literature Magazine is an arts publication, of course, but a great deal of its editorial identity comes from a fascination about the human condition. I am interested in the systems of thought, feeling, and experience that lead to the production of creative work.

[Liberty] The work load for work of this scale must be vast. When it all gets a bit too much, how do you regulate yourself so that business doesn’t override passion?

[Kia] Practically, I regulate myself through structure. I plan quite far in advance, keep systems for submissions and staff work, and try to separate what is urgent from what only masquerades as it. That distinction is crucial, because online work especially gives everything a sense of immediacy. I also try to do my favorite tasks within the magazine more often than the administrative work. Reading submissions, developing issue concepts, interviewing creatives, designing posts, etc. Those are the things that remind me why I began. Business is necessary because it allows passion to develop into the tangible, but I never want it to become so dominant that the magazine loses its sense of wonder.