Luis Venegas Likes To Have Fun

You started your career as a designer in fashion, and you made your first magazine, Fanzine 137, in 2004. What made you want to make magazines?

I’ve always been very, very into printed matter, since I was a child. I used to look at the gossip magazines my grandmother had at home, and I was also very used to reading comic books, especially Marvel comics – X-Men, Avengers, Spider-Man, all of that. For some reason, that way of documenting things, whether through art or stories, always stayed with me.

Later on, I became very attached to fashion imagery and fashion magazines. At some point, I felt that there was this very exclusive group, a kind of club of editors making magazines, and I wanted to be part of it. I thought that if I made a magazine myself it could be a good excuse to approach some of my heroes in photography and fashion, to start a relationship with them, interview them, or have them contribute work to the magazine. So I decided to find a way to make it happen. I asked a printing company for an estimate, started putting things together, and decided to produce the first issue. That’s how Fanzine 137 was born.

Since then, you have published over six magazines. How have you kept up such a pace? And why did you feel you needed different titles to pursue what interested you? 

I’ve always been someone who is interested in many different things. One of my blessings (or maybe curses) is that I’m curious about a lot of subjects. I think because of that I wanted to create different kinds of magazines: one about the arts, another about teenage culture, another about transversal identities, style and fashion, and even one about dogs. I like each publication to have only one thing in common: the fact that I’m the person behind it. So even though the subjects are different, the voice across every magazine I publish is always very much my own. At the same time, in terms of graphic design, format and presentation, I want every publication to have its own identity. They all had to feel different in order to be interesting to different people for different reasons.

You also work as a creative director, how do all the different parts of your working life and output interact? 

That’s probably my main job: being a creative director. Making magazines is complicated, especially these days, and even more so when you’re an independent editor, as I am. In order to make a living you also have to work with brands and take on projects that are commercially viable.

The good thing is that whenever brands contact me, it’s usually because they’ve seen my magazines. In a way, the magazines are my resume. I’ve never really had a traditional CV, brands see what I do and they want me to bring that same perspective and approach to one of their products or projects. I love that, because I believe that creative direction is not that different from publishing. It’s about using my creativity, knowledge, experience and network of collaborators in the service of a project that is (hopefully) exciting. I’ve worked on many commercial projects that I genuinely found inspiring and enjoyable.

I also like working with brands because there are boundaries. There are budgets, deadlines and specific requirements that have to be respected, and I actually enjoy that. Sometimes the lack of complete freedom is stimulating. Working within constraints is a great exercise for creativity and flexibility.

You launched C☆NDY in 2009. I read in an interview with Interview Magazine that you wanted to make a great fashion magazine for the trans world. Looking back at it now, what do you think of the impact it had? And of its evolution over its lifespan?

Yes, C☆NDY was born in 2009, at a time when trans issues, trans representation and the broader gender spectrum were barely visible in mainstream media, especially in fashion magazines.

At the same time, I was noticing a shift happening around me. I could see younger people going to fashion shows, experimenting with clothing in new ways—boys wearing their mothers’ blouses, for example—and expressing their identities much more freely. I think social media, which was emerging at the time, helped encourage that evolution.

In print media, however, there was still very little representation. C☆NDY became the first magazine entirely devoted to fashion trans celebration, through the people featured in its pages and also through its contributors. We worked with trans photographers, commissioned drag queens to write articles, and featured many other people whose voices had rarely been represented in fashion publishing. A few months after the first issue came out, I started noticing changes. Trans models began appearing in campaigns for major luxury fashion houses, and it felt as though a broader cultural shift was taking place.

Today, seeing a trans model on a runway is no longer unusual. It’s no longer headline news. In some way, C☆NDY helped contribute to that normalisation at a time when these realities were rarely represented. Looking back now, sixteen or seventeen years later, it’s encouraging to see how much things have changed. There has been real progress in terms of representation and in the way fashion media approaches these subjects. The conversation has become more respectful, more open and more inclusive. It was about time.

Over every title that you’ve worked on, what have you learnt the most from? And what’s the biggest mistake you’ve made?

What I learned the most probably came from making C☆NDY. I have to say that when I started the magazine, I jumped into it with only a limited knowledge of some of the subjects I was exploring. What I did have, however, was a great deal of respect, admiration and appreciation for the people I was featuring and collaborating with.

I learn from everything. I learn from reading interviews, watching television, reading comic books and talking to people. Making magazines is a constant learning process for me.

As for mistakes, when it comes to the content itself, I feel very proud of the work I’ve done. I can stand behind everything I published because it reflected the best work I was capable of producing at that moment. Looking back, there may be things I would approach differently today, but I can always say that I did the best I could with the knowledge and skills I had at the time.

If I had to identify one mistake, it would probably be believing that I could make a living exclusively from publishing magazines forever. That would have been unrealistic. Fortunately, I realised quite early on that I would need to do other kinds of work alongside publishing in order to build a sustainable career.

How has the broader landscape for print magazines changed since you started? 

Until around 2010 or 2012, I feel magazines were the primary place that people discovered culture and learned about what was happening in the world. They were one of the main formats through which people gained knowledge and found out what was interesting and relevant. Social media was emerging at the time, and in many ways it reflected what was already happening in magazines. 

Today, I think the situation has almost reversed. A lot of content is now created primarily to feed social media platforms, especially Instagram, through reels, posts and stories. In many cases, the magazine becomes the extension of a broader digital strategy rather than the other way around. Digital platforms are now the fastest and most immediate way to access information and keep up with what’s happening in the world. Magazines, on the other hand, have taken on a different role. They serve as a more lasting reflection of that content, something that can hopefully endure over time.

Of course, magazines are no longer produced in the quantities they once were, and fewer people buy them compared to previous decades. The balance between print and digital has shifted dramatically, and both now serve very different purposes.

I’ve heard that you have a massive archive of books. I’m interested in how much you reference older material when creating your magazines? 

I have a fairly extensive personal library, which I’ve been building since I was a teenager. Whenever I acquire something that interests me, I tend to keep it rather than get rid of it. Over the years, that has resulted in a large collection of books, magazines, fashion catalogues and comic books.

I often realise how much those materials influence the way I work. For example, the way I photograph things or the way I design and sequence pages in a magazine is very much connected to what I learned from reading comic books, especially Marvel titles, when I was younger. Those publications are essentially visual storytelling. They combine images and text to create a narrative, and that sense of sequencing has stayed with me.

My archive is also a constant source of inspiration. Sometimes I’ll come across a few pages in a magazine from 1986 featuring a particular person who catches my attention. That can lead me to research where that person is now or what happened to them. One discovery often leads to another. So yes, my personal library and archive are important to me. They’re not just collections of objects; they’re tools for inspiration, research and creativity.

Across all the magazines you’ve published, there is a commitment to ‘freedom’ and to representing communities in an authentic way. Why do you think these are the big themes of your work? 

One of the great joys of being an independent editor is the freedom it gives me. It’s not even a question of striving for freedom, it’s simply the way I work. I’ve always made things according to my own interests and instincts, creating the stories that I genuinely want to create. I don’t have to answer to an editor-in-chief telling me what topics I should cover or what I should focus on. The joy of being independent is that I can pursue whatever I find exciting, relevant or inspiring.

I’ve always tried to represent people and communities in a positive way. Maybe not necessarily in a documentary sense, more in a celebratory one. I like the people and subjects featured in my magazines to look and be perceived as fabulous. I want the work to feel uplifting, hopeful and full of positivity.

If there are recurring themes throughout my work, they’re probably that desire to celebrate people, respect them, highlight what makes them special, and create something that brings joy. Enjoying life is important to me, and so is having fun. Having fun is a fundamental part of everything I do.

Why do you keep making magazines? What do you think compels you to keep launching new titles?

I keep making magazines because, even after all these years, I still enjoy the process. Every now and then, I’m reminded of how much fun it is to create them, and that enjoyment is still a very important motivation for me. I also feel fortunate to have an audience. There are people who have followed my work over the years and who remain interested in what I do. The fact that they continue to support my magazines and buy them is really great!

So the reason I keep publishing magazines is actually quite simple: I enjoy making them, and there are still people who enjoy reading and collecting them. As long as those two things continue to exist, I feel there’s a good reason to keep going.