New magazine ‘The Paper Mixtape’ features LA art, culture and artists

While going through cycles and cycles of names for her new project, second-year art history student Morgan Cadigan played Iron and Wine’s “Our Endless Numbered Days” on a record player and felt a desire to get back to the roots of vinyl and analog.

Instead of pure vinyl, Cadigan settled upon the idea of a mixtape because of its basis that every song adds to an overall feeling. Rather than concentrating exclusively on music, Cadigan’s arts and culture magazine, “The Paper Mixtape,” features everything from cuisine to fashion to local artists, which all contribute to an overall vision of Los Angeles.

Cadigan, the founder and creative director of the new UCLA publication, said the “The Paper Mixtape” documents L.A. arts and culture while creating an inclusive, creative community for people of different academic backgrounds to collaborate. “The Paper Mixtape” was officially established as a UCLA organization in November, but the staff was finalized over the last few weeks.

“I think sometimes what can happen is that the Design | Media Arts and (fine) arts majors kind of stick to their own,” Cadigan said. “It’s hard to break out without knowing where to go.”

In addition to publishing the magazine’s first print issue at the end of the school year, Cadigan said “The Paper Mixtape” staff plans to run a blog to update readers throughout the process.

Along with film and television, arts, city, cuisine, music, fashion and culture sections, elements of writing, photography, videography and playlists will be integrated throughout the blog and magazine.

Cadigan said she recruited third-year Design | Media Arts student Lizzie Zweng to fill the role of design director and second-year English student Aminah Ibrahim to serve as a section editor after working with them last winter quarter on her previous project, an independent art publication called “seeMag.”

“(‘seeMag’) was a great project to kick us off,” Cadigan said. “But I wanted to take it to the school level – get funding from the school, create a community and bring more people in, and that’s kind of how ‘The Paper Mixtape’ came about.”

Focusing on the visual identity of the magazine, Zweng said she has been selecting fonts and logos and trying to establish a general look and feel for the magazine.

“It’s fun for me because my personal passion doesn’t even really lie in journalism or in Los Angeles arts and culture, so it’s fun to approach it from the strictly visual side and see what I can bring from there,” Zweng said. “My goal was to begin by creating a visual system, and then, from there, the publication begins to design itself as we add in more content.”

Ibrahim said her position deals more with managing content and contributing ideas.

“There’s a lot about Los Angeles that’s very interesting, like the fact that it’s so diverse,” Ibrahim said. “People come here for a specific reason, and it’s just interesting to see that and explore that.”

As creative director for “The Paper Mixtape,” Cadigan said she will coordinate the staff’s skills and passions into one cohesive project.

When selecting the staff, Cadigan said that instead of experience, she primarily looked for people with excitement for the ideas they pitched.

“They had the experience if they had the passion,” Cadigan said. “I was looking for more tangible, viable ideas that we could implement.”

Currently, “The Paper Mixtape” staff is made up of 25 UCLA students. The staff, which is split into contributors, section editors and photographers, had its first meeting Tuesday. Cadigan said the staff also hopes to build a marketing team to develop merchandise in the future.

Cadigan said “The Paper Mixtape” hopes to support young, local artists in whatever service the magazine can provide to the artists, whether it be financial, distribution or design-based. In terms of financing, the staff plans to at least partially fund these artists by fundraising and selling merchandise.

“We can write about (the artists) all we want and I think it’s cool to feature them, but there is another step – actually supporting them through their process,” Cadigan said.

Currently, Cadigan said “The Paper Mixtape” is working with UCLA student and artist I.S. Cobb to help him fund and distribute his book.

“We hope to be a platform for artists in that way,” Cadigan said. “But we also hope to be a place where creative writers, journalists, photographers, graphic designers and foodies (can come).”

At the end of the year, Cadigan said “The Paper Mixtape” intends to host a release party incorporating live music, some of the work of artists featured in the magazine and some L.A. food and goods vendors.

Cadigan said the staff wants to make the “The Paper Mixtape” free for UCLA students, but may also try to sell issues to a wider audience and promote the magazine in bookstores.

“We are a part of Los Angeles arts and culture whether we like to think it or not,” Cadigan said. “So what we’re interested in is going to reflect what the broader picture is.”