Didier Lerebours

They’re like a Danish version of Bert and Ernie. Office Magazine’s Editors-in-chief, Simon Rasmussen and Jesper D. Lund seem like best friends who constantly finish eachothers’ sentences yet keep each other in check. Simon is a stylist, and the obvious outlandish one of the group. He’s recently become a fixture in front of the camera himself, being photographed at fashion weeks. Wearing pink tracksuits and his signature lumberjack beard, he’s striking yet self-aware of his own ridiculousness. Jesper, the creative director at Bergdorf’s is just as opinionated, but leaves the flashy colors for the pages of Office. Together, the expats are blending minimalist design (inspired by their homeland) with a colorful take on what’s happening in New York’s downtown scene. Office launched in 2014. Past issues have featured set designer Matt Jackson, The Virgins former-frontrunner Donald Cummings, and even a profile on the magazine’s own intern/ model. Each issue gets three limited-edition covers, allowing each of the three co-founders their own say. It also allows the magazine to be segmented into its three arenas: women’s fashion, men’s, and art… and minimal fighting around the office. The title Office might make you think of photocopiers or a depressing cubicle. But a look at the magazine will quickly reveal this office couldn’t be farther from that.

Photo Credit: Alex Lee

Can you give our readers some background on your past professional experiences that lead you to want to create Office?

Jesper: I’ve done creative direction for magazines for over 10 years. Simon is a stylist. Our co-founder is Zenia Jaeger is a make-up artist. We’ve all been working in the industry for 10+ years. We felt there was a need for a different kind of magazine in New York. We felt the magazines were very commercial and also wanted to have an outlet for ourselves.

Photo Credit: Alex Lee

Why is it important to have the layout stay minimal?

Simon: It’s encouraging the content to be really good. When you plaster a magazine with a lot of typography, and drawings over the visuals, it’s because the content sucks. I am being really rough now but we’re trying to push really good content and letting the design be minimal. I think that’s why really good photographers like to shoot for us because we allow their photos to come to life.

Jesper: I think in general we give artists a lot of freedom. Of course we edit and curate but they have quite a lot of freedom in comparison to other magazines. Because we don’t pay anyone [right now]. So when people work for us it’s because they really want to.

Photo Credit: Alex Lee

In terms of the physical structure of the magazine, how did you first find your printer?

Jesper: We worked with a printer in Minnesota, we shopped around and then found a more affordable option in Iceland, we then switched to this printer in Philly for the 4th issue. It’s hard. Hopefully we’ll land on someone land on for longer. They’re all really high-end quality printers. It was important for us to a magazine that felt like an art book. Because there’s so many magazines out there, a lot of competition. We wanted to do something that felt special. That’s why the format is quite a large format. It’s quite a conscious decision on our end, because it is so visual. I pretty much laid out all the issues myself, I have an assistant myself, but the overall aesthetic, we wanted to keep it fairly simple and minimal. The content is pretty out there but the layout is pretty minimal.

Photo Credit: Alex Lee

Any content that doesn’t make the cut?

Jesper: The only way we get censored is through our printers. They censored two images in our last magazine that we had to change.

Simon: A blowjob. This American printer didn’t like sex. We’re from Denmark, we have to control ourselves. We don’t think like Americans think. We don’t censor ourselves. We just put it out there and people are like, “You can get sued!”

First Published on New Distribution House