Junko Journal

Junko Journal is an annual arts magazine responding to place. Each year Junko heads to a different region of the world, significant for its unique geography and distinctive creative communities. We explore the natural and urban landscapes, stopping off along the way to meet the artists and designers defining the visual scene of their place. Each issue is designed upon reflection of the natural geography and aesthetic languages of the region travelled, making the physicality of each publication definitive to the locality explored. Our mission is to understand the intrinsic links between the nature of creativity and the places where we make, to identify how our environment influences us, challenges us, helps and distracts us and to explore how our present geography effects creative decision making. The first issue of Junko led us to the vibrant, energetic and varied physical, cultural and artistic landscapes of California. Our second issue – out now – hones in on the dramatic landscapes of Iceland and the exciting creative communities of the island. Who is Junko? Junko, or Junko Tabei, on the morning of May 16th 1975 made history by becoming the first woman to scale Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. Like that wasn’t enough, by 1992 she went on to become the first woman in the world to reach the highest point on each of the seven continents. What a lady! In light of this Junko seemed a fitting name. Her achievements encapsulate a sense of adventure, a show of strength and determination and a defiance of expectations. These qualities echo the traits of character that the creatives we meet in making Junko demonstrate in paving out and defining their own extraordinary paths. Sure it’s not Mount Everest, but we all have our own mountains to climb…