The Gig

After moving to Taiwan in 2008, I found myself in the southern port city of Kaohsiung, on the hunt for anything and everything that would help me build my nascent design portfolio.

As this was the days before smartphones, magazines were still relevant sources of info and there were a number of locally-produced publications catering to various audiences; food, culture, foreigner resources, etc. Xpat was a funky collage of all three; a trifecta of loose branding, freestyle articles, and subcultural synopses. I was a fan of the presentation, and as luck would have it, they needed a designer.

After a 10-minute interview over beers with the Editor-in-Chief and Founder, I was offered the gig. When I took up the casual mantle of lead design, the only rule was to explore the space and make it pop, so that’s what we aimed to do. ‘Official’ duties were to handle all layout and article design for whatever pieces came without.

For a recently graduated and just-arrived expat noob with a meager portfolio and a lot of ideas, this was a dream job. What did a paycheck matter? I had an artistic license to drive and no style guide/road rules to abide by. I was floored; buy the ticket, take the ride.

Summer 2008 Issue

I approached the first issue as an opportunity to exercise the free-range I’d been granted, taking inventory of the Spring 2008 issue, looking to elevate and polish whatever I could.

This included an emboldened logo, organizing the masthead, and leaning into the existing collage-aesthetic more confidently, as that was really emblematic of the spirit of the patchwork grassroots operation. I largely let the flavor of the articles dictate the style of the spreads that I did, which was most of them except for the articles on pages 28, 32, and 35.

As the lead designer, I worked with the editor and contributors to assemble and arrange the whole layout. Being my first real print work, I really enjoyed the additional challenge of working with Chinese in several places like the Glossary and Listings.

Winter 2008 Issue

The Summer issue turned out really well and getting to design 90% of it was a joy. I embarked on the Winter 2008 issue with equal bricolage aplomb, again having the honor of designing most of the magazine with the exception of articles on pages 16, 26, and 30.

RESULT

As is the way with the fickle, high-flux world of expat life, the whole motley mess went over a cliff just a year into my involvement due to a communication breakdown between the founder and the ad/distribution team. It was a disagreement over something that amounted to a few thousand dollars, but it was enough to put the kibosh on operations.

It was a damn shame, but I’m forever grateful I had the opportunity at all. It was a fantastic introduction to all things Taiwan, allowed me to connect with fascinating people from around the world, and still it remains in the the Top 10 passion projects I had the pleasure of working on. Shout out to Matt Gibson for giving me a chance and going on to be a trailblazing digital nomad.