Bottega Veneta's 'Issue 02' Quarterly Digital Journal 2021

Review of Bottega Veneta’s ‘Issue 02’ Quarterly Digital Journal 2021 by Carlijn Jacobs, Photographer; Daniel Gordon, Artist; David LaChapelle, Photographer; Dean Giffin, Animation Artist; Edward Meadham, Artist; Gérard Schlosser, Artist; Hagihara Takuya, Graphic Designer; Jeong Greem, Artist; Kwangho Lee, Artist; Mark Vomit, Graphic Artist; Marili Andre, Videographer; Lin Zhipeng, Photographer; Patricia Doria, Artist; Pfeifer & Kreutzer, Artists; David Brandon Geeting, Photographer; Leonn Ward, Director; Seth Bogart, Artist; Tyrone Lebon, Photographer; Walter Pfeiffer, Artist; and Zac Bayly, Photographer, featuring talents Arca, Naomi Campbell, Ning Zetao, and Travis Scott

Bottega Veneta shares the second issue of its Issued By Bottega online magazine. Featuring a slew of collaborators across various media and art forms, the digital magazine continues the brand’s rethinking of its online and social media presence.

A few months ago, Bottega Veneta left many of us scratching their heads when the brand scrubbed its entire social media presence, without much of an apparent reason as to why. Soon after, however, the brand shared Issue 01, the first installment of the quarterly digital magazine, signaling an ambitious change in direction for their approach to online marketing communications.

As with Issue 01, Issue 02 features a range of more-or-less branded content, ranging from straightforward fashion editorial shoots to experimental film clips and dives into the portfolios of exciting contemporary artists.

Photographer David Lachapelle captured the issue’s two most high-profile collaborators, Naomi Campbell and Travis Scott. Campbell’s queenly status was played up through inventive set design, which positioned her as the ruler of a surreal circus landscape, attended by a coterie of hunky male acrobats. Meanwhile, Lachapelle’s portraits of Travis Scott had a more laid-back and candid feel, highlighting some of the new collection’s playful accessories through the rapper’s casually confident energy.

While these photography editorials appear all in one place as they might in a more traditional magazine, the works of other artists are spread throughout, creating an interesting sense of rhythm and collage-like recurrence as one moves through the digital pages. The occasionally interspersed appearances of Seoul-based artist Greem Jeong’s loopy, tubular sculptures enter into an interesting conversation with Patricia Doria’s retro-inspired, airbrush-and-chrome cover artwork, or Seth Bogart’s whimsical ceramic sculptures. Menu soundtracks from experimental electronic producer Arca – who also appeared in the house’s recent Spring campaign by Tyrone Lebon – are an excellent way to use the digital format and extend the creativity across all its features.

Bottega Veneta and creative director Daniel Lee have put themselves in a very strong creative position with the magazine. With total control over the content itself and the way in which fans engage with it, they have a powerful opportunity to create an expansive yet focused brand identity in a way that other brands don’t have access to.

At the same time, however, this means that their situation is precarious. A major part of what is engaging about traditional magazines, and especially social media, is that many perspectives are democratically represented. Instagram is still in some sense a market place, but this means that it is a place where many different individual creators come together before the eyes of a viewer with many different interests, not limited to one specific brand or product.

It remains to be seen whether Bottega Veneta’s digital magazine will be able to hold fans’ attention across many issues, or whether they will grow tired of seeing the same name over and over, even though different artists are wearing it. The format certainly does have the potential to be consistently fresh and long-term, but Bottega Veneta will have to work hard to make each issue unique and worthwhile on its own. For now, they’re off to a strong start.