From Caracas, Venezuela to the heart of Austin, Texas; Gopher Illustrated is a magazine aficionado’s dream come true and the latest addition of its kind to the local arts and design scene.

After the first issue (July 2010) was met with critical success, Michu Benaim and Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz, the founding co-editors, decided to step outside their comfort zone and relocate their fledgling operation to Texas.

High quality content, presentation and a fierce allegiance to the print medium in general, the bi-annual cultural tome gives a well-edited look at emerging artistic talent from all over the world. Gopher offers only minimal accompanying web content and makes no apologies for it. In a digital world, the idea of launching a standalone indie magazine is daunting at best, but thankfully Benaim and Gutiérrez-Ruiz tuned out that noise and held fast to their vision.

The Editors

Publishing industry veterans and Caracas natives, the two intellectually curious creatives hatched the plan for their own editorial project after meeting during their time together at Plátanoverde, the popular Venezuelan arts magazine.

Turns out that Gutiérrez-Ruiz is no stranger to the challenges of starting an independent publication. A founding member of Plátanoverde, he worked with the magazine up until his recent move stateside. A regular commentator on international culture, he has also helmed an urban arts column for the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional, and was a 2010 TEDGlobal Fellow.

With a bevy of editorial contributions to her name, Benaim brings a diverse perspective to the venture and is equally passionate about her role in creating a platform for emerging artistic talent.

Creative Communities

“Caracas is a city that is seeing its creative class sort of leaving. There are these subtle hints indicating that freedom of speech is not exactly what it should be, and I think that is alienating to a lot of people in the arts. Whereas Austin, I think is exactly the opposite, it’s a magnet for people trying to experiment and do new things,” says Benaim.

Following the guidance provided by a few trusty Google searches, they moved to Austin sight unseen and established their new home and studio space tucked away on a quiet Clarksville street. A far cry from the bustling urban spaces of Caracas, but a welcome change in the eyes of the young editors.

“We wanted to be in a city that had a vibrant arts community and demographics that involved Latinos – given our background. And Austin is definitely a small city facing the challenges of becoming a big city. It’s not a town but it’s not a huge metropolis, so it just seemed like an exciting moment to be here.” says Gutiérrez-Ruiz.

“Collectible in Motion”

As their tagline suggests, the bi-annual publication is meant to exceed the limitations of traditional print media. In other words, Benaim and Gutiérrez-Ruiz set out to create an enduring portrait of a cultural moment, not a fleeting snapshot of a passing trend.

Each of the 1000 issues is hand numbered by the editors themselves and embossed with the customized Gopher letterpress seal. Furthering the personalization concept, a page of stickers invites readers to interact with the content by adorning anything from the magazine itself to even a bike or laptop case with the playful renditions of selected artwork from the issue.

“If it is impenetrable, then art is intimidating. But if it’s something that plays a role in your life and if it’s something that you can stick on the back of your car then it’s not,” says Benaim.

Locally-Based, Globally-Minded

A thematic thread ties each issue together, and a wide-ranging arc of contributors covers an array of topics from science to religion. One of the primary goals of the magazine however, is to showcase emerging artists across a variety of mediums like graphic design, literature, illustration and photography—especially from Latin America.

“Part of the dream of being able to edit our own magazine was to bring to the English-speaking public these amazing things that are being accomplished in Latin America. In many people’s eyes, Latin America is just sort of traditional and we would love to work to promote the amazing people that are coming out from there,” says Benaim.

Austin Arts Scene

Although clearly international in scope, Gopher has quickly become a part of Austin’s cultural fabric since its arrival just a few months ago.

From participating in the Digestible Feats portion of this year’s Fusebox Festival, to collaborating with TODO, a local monthly newspaper that focuses on Austin's multicultural community, the duo hope to explore and contribute to the creative scene as much as possible.

So where can you get your hands on one? Book People, Waterloo Records and Domy Books are all carrying the current “On City Limits” issue.