Pilot is changing the way we read magazines with a new board game-inspired third issue

Take a look at Pilot magazine’s upcoming third issue and tell us what you see. Keen observers will recognise friends of It’s Nice That and Amsterdam-based creative duo Robuche’s distinctive gooey design – more on that later. The even keener might see that it’s not just a magazine, it’s a board game too. Founder and editor-in-chief Dagny Tepper, describes the art, music and fashion magazine as a “creative playground” that came about after she realised the extent to which artists and writers are “pressured to make things that are palatable as opposed to what excites them”. Even though, as Dagny points out, “art flourishes in organic and free environments”. With this irony in mind, Dagny connected with like-minded people across the globe, many of whom she’s never met in person, and launched Pilot.

For Issue 3, bringing in fan favourite Robuche was only one piece of the puzzle. Dagny and the team decided they’d need a theme that got into the heart of the creative process. They were excited by the idea of ‘Play’ and curious as to how playfulness acts as “creative fuel for the brain”. They set out asking each other questions like “How does being playful distract you?” and “Could it be more difficult to be playful than it is to be serious?”; each question is designed to elicit novel perspectives on the influence that play has on artists. Based on these criteria, one of the projects they included is independent clothing brand Smuttysnak. Like Pilot, founder and creative director Victoria Gill is passionate about supporting queer artists and freelancers. Dagny was enamoured by the creative choices made, noting that “The looks are so playful and experimental, and the entire project just emanates something new and exciting that makes you want to keep up with it”.

To bring the project to life, Dagny searched for loud, “multi-dimensional” and raucous artists. As luck would have it, she landed on Lou Buche and Javier Rodríguez Fernández, AKA Robuche. “Their distortion, experimentation and visual language is one of a kind,” she says. She describes her initial call with Javier as hectic. “I got on a call with Javier, sounding like a lunatic running through a deck about the American board game Candyland, little distinct ‘worlds’ that would exist, and poster zines.” Fortunately, play figures fit right into the studio’s ethos. With that sorted, they set on workshopping the board game and supporting Robuche in designing some postcards to accompany it. For Dagny, it came down to the design complementing the spirit of agency and interactivity that they’ve nurtured in all three issues. “Overall, they married a lot of chaos in such a beautiful, cohesive way – I think that’s what they do so well in their personal work and why we went with them,” She details.

Elsewhere in the magazine, the team catch up with Scottish music producer Hudson Mohawke. In discussing the importance of “being joyful, loud and sarcastic and the way all of those things inspire him”, they get at what it means to really play in earnest, to be swept up in the moment and be completely unfettered. It’s what they’re all about. “The main way we all work towards our purpose is creating and asking for content that’s unfiltered – we don’t publish pieces with any preachy or pretentious tone, we don’t ask for meaning where there is none.” Grab a copy when Issue 3 hits shelves on 13 November.