So last week, we looked at the experimental and conceptually intelligent publication _Quarterly. While their work was new to my eyes, apparently _Quarterly is closer to home than I first believed. I’m proud to say that one of the creators of _Quarterly is currently taking classes at Art Center. Excited to learn more about the publication, I decided to get in contact Justin Sloane and co-creator Jesse Hlebo, in order to get a better understanding of not only how they got such a successful publication started, but also how they go about creating such intriguing content. Below are some questions that I asked both Justin and Jesse.

When and why did you start _Quarterly?

Jesse: _ Quarterly was started in the winter of 2008, the first issue was published in the early winter of 2009. I had been thinking about starting a physical publication for a while since I had run an online zine for a few years, commonismmag.com. I think Justin asked me if I had wanted to start some sort of publication and it was totally one of those moments where I had been thinking about it a lot and he brought it up at the perfect time. I think we really wanted to make something that interested us without being fully self-indulgent so as to remain relevant in the broader cultural sphere.

Justin: We definitely set out to do something that was a service to our work and to the people involved and their ideas. And those involved have continued to submit work and help promote the project.

How do you decide on themes?

Jesse: The prompts for all the issues typically come about through dialogues Justin and I have over the phone regarding themes in current culture that concern and interest us.

Justin: They also decide themselves. Our friends have made great pieces of work that address the topic, and we have simply given them an outlet for it. Or we collectively decide on a theme that we feel the contributors can work particularly well with. They’re not necessarily expository pieces that just illustrate something, it often has become an experiment to see what a particular word or idea means to the people involved.

How did it take off?

Jesse: Through a lot of nagging on my part and fake deadlines. Bugging people to get stuff done on time and hundreds of emails, phone calls and in store solicitations of the publication.

Justin: Jesse and Bryan have been amazing about promoting it and making it a continuous flow of information for people to tap into. In the past we had all been involved in a lot of projects that suffered from a lack of action by the people we had collaborated with. And luckily the people involved with underscore are passionate about constantly executing their ideas rather than just sitting on them. We’re fortunate to have a rad community of people.

What other publications do you currently take inspiration from?

Jesse: So many! I’m currently really psyched on Showpaper, a bi-weekly, all ages show listing periodical that comes in the form of a newsprint poster, one side features the work of an artist and the other lists all the all-ages shows in NY. It’s free! I love what the people at Foam magazine from Amsterdam do too, it’s a photography magazine that’s printed on a number of different papers and is so well edited and executed. Medium Rare, a small press run by my friend Milano, is another great source of inspiration. Everything she puts out has such a lovely emotional tone to it, yet never remains overly romantic; some of the titles even venture into places one could say are quite dark. Also, the original Aspen Magazines from the 70s are an amazing influence. Each issue was a collection of artist made works, it makes sense that a number of Fluxus artists were involved in the publication.

Justin: I feel like the reason Underscore stands apart from what people tend to call a ‘zine’ is that (as a designer) I take little or no inspiration from zines when addressing the layout. Although I love and respect the publications that Nieves puts out, I don’t feel like Underscore fits into that world. The format and look of it is generally determined by the work that is submitted, every issue has been what it needed to be to serve the content.

I’m into Ed Ruscha’s books, the relationship that exists between content and format always stands out to me, they also tend to function just fine being black and white. 032c is a really well made magazine, Colors is the foremost in thematic work without a doubt, Foam delivers amazing content and is very well designed. Idea magazine is also very well put together. I used to read Punk Planet a lot growing up, I don’t know if I would say things like that inspired Underscore, but it was printed the same way, black on newsprint. The inspiration comes mostly from traditional book layout; the goal is to apply a formal set of ideas to an informal medium.

How do people go about submitting?

Justin: It started out with us mostly getting work from our friends or from ourselves; it’s interesting to see the flow of incoming work increase as we have progressed.

Jesse: We take submissions through email; lately we’ve been getting some really great works from places as far as Amsterdam and Spain

Who has been involved within Art Center?

Justin: Christian Morin was published in issue 1 and had work in our first exhibition. Mia Chamasmany was also published in issue 1 and has been a consultant with the layout design on the first 3 issues. They are both studying graphics at Art Center.

Jesse: Lemuel Barbour has been published in issues 1 and 3, and has been a creative associate throughout the project as well as aided in funding. I used to go to Art Center but don’t any more.

So I hope this gives you a little insight into how much work it takes to get a publication of this magnitude off the ground and into the spotlight of the design world. Currently Justin is a seventh term graphic design student at Art Center and his work can be found at justinsloane.com. Jesse Hlebo is in his final semester at Parsons in NY studying photography. Jesse’s work can be found at jessehlebo.com. The best way to contact _Quarterly if you’re interested in purchasing some of their work or submitting, is through their website underscorequarterly.com.

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