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| Magazine Gallery on Clubhouse Lane, Adelaide |
JamFactory Furniture Studio Program Manager Lex Stobie designed
and built the fit-out for a local city business that has recently transformed
itself from gallery space into something a little bit more. You can grab a
coffee, specialty tea and a snack while you browse the collection of local and
international magazines at “Magazine”.
Magazine, located off Hindley Street on ClubHouse Lane, is
run by Josh Fanning and Farrin Foster. Four legged Fred is responsible for
greeting customers, and can usually be seen watching the laneway from the front
door. Josh is also the face behind
locally published and internationally distributed magazine Collect.
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| Magazine |
We asked Lex about Magazine and the fit-out.
I came to the job through my association with Josh from
Collect Magazine. Josh had done a feature on me in one of their issues, and
through the association with him and with others as well, we quickly worked out
that there was something that we shared in common, and that was about a philosophy
and a belief about how things could
be done in the ideal world. I suppose that was a bit of a shared aspiration,
and through that we got talking about what they wanted to do and I offered to
help them out with it.
My philosophy is about the local homegrown grass
roots approach to things. I’ve lived in
big cities around Australia and visited big cities around the world and I think
the common thread amongst those cities that ties them together, is the sense of
community between the people who live there. It’s about knowing your neighbor.
It was quite evident to me after a short period of talking to Josh that that’s
what he’s about as well.
I met Josh by chance at the Bowerbird Bazaar and told him I
thought the Collect was great and signed up for a subscription. It was early
days for the magazine (issue #3) and it arrived hand addressed with a little hand-written
note on the inside that said “Thanks for subscribing. It’s people like you that
make us willing to do this every day”. I’m just supporting a person who’s
striving to do the same thing as myself.
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| Magazine Display Shelving at Magazine |
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| Interior including Front Counter |
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| Fred |
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| Lex checking out some of the magazines on offer |
In the beginning it was a lot of just me helping them work
out what they wanted to achieve in the space; so more of the interior design
aspect of it, and later on he asked if I’d be willing to do the physical making
of those ideas for them, and that’s something I was happy to do.
The counter, in particular, which is the main focal point
for them, is their point of sale and where they have all their information and
paraphernalia. That piece had to be designed and made to suit the requirements specific
for them. It had to take into
consideration being more than just a big box; what you don’t see from the front
is there’s a lot more going on behind. It’s a clean facade from the front and
side, but when you get around the back it’s quite nitty-gritty and integrated. It’s a modular system that can be changed to
suit their needs as they evolve.
The shelving was a specific piece that had to meet the
requirements for the magazines. Not
having any of the magazines to work with in the country, we had to come up with
solutions that would accommodate the potential stock. So the variation of the magazines had to be
taken into consideration and it needed the kind of look they were after as
well.
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| Lex Stobie, Farrin Foster and Fred! |
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| Collect Magazine on display and for sale |
Lex is currently developing a range of furniture for the Jamfactory
studio which would be produced on site, and retailed as a JamFactory product.
He has also produced exclusive work for Great Dane furniture
and is in the process of creating a new design to for them to be launched in
six weeks time.
Lex moved from Melbourne to Adelaide in 2010 and has set up
a studio on George Street in the city. He splits his time between there and The
JamFactory.
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| Counter seating by Lex Stobie |
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