Toilet Mag is an exploration of femininity, sexuality and gender and everything that happens before and during the Saturday nights in Via Padova 21, Milan. A collection of articles, interviews and photography, it seeks to give the observer a glimpse into the magic of Toilet Club, and a voice to its performers and characters. 5 selected drag queens took over this issue, La Croce, Trapezia, Camorra, Rachele and La Mestruo, and showed you their worlds through their own eyes. Covering the themes of femininity, sexuality, gender, Toilet Mag Issue 01, presents their 5 different and unique perspectives. In March, Toilet Mag gave the 5 queens one task: document their saturday night at Toilet. Each queen returned 39 exposures, depicting the preparation behind the shows, their performances and their own interpretations of the themes. As an outsider of the community, I acted as mediator and creative director, interviewing the girls and presenting to you their world through their personal words and photographs.

For my Industry Practice investigation I decided to focus on art/creative direction and branding for music promotion, with a particular focus on the hip-hop industry.
What I found most interesting in my investigation was the concept of the relationship between art and profit in music, and in particular, in hip-hop. During my thesis research on the commercialization of hip-hop music, I was particularily drawn to Wu-Tang Clans RZA’s debate on the devaluation of music and the ways in which the release of their album Once Upon A Time challenged the idea of music as an art form. I was interested in finding where this shift is taking designers in the music industry and the ways in which they can contribute to make music more than just an auxiliary experience. Inspired by vintage cardboard records, I decided I was going to design a collectible item for the release of the latest Wu-Tang Clan album ‘The Saga Continues’.