features
08.25 Twos Mag
Twos Mag covers the highs of London, then flips it entirely
Live in London long enough and you’ll soon learn to know one thing: it can charm you and chew you up in the same night. It’s this truth, that Morgan Allan has stitched straight into Twos, the “janus-faced” magazine that spins on its own axis between devotion and disdain. Twos was born after one of those rolling nights out in London until sunrise, following by the grim reality of having to sell off his Stone Island to pay council tax. The push-pull was too good to ignore.
“The emotional floor and ceiling of this place are so far apart”.
Now three issues deep, the South London art director and editor has built a publication that refuses to smooth over the city’s contradictions. The design of Twos mirrors the mood swings of the city. Flipped one way, it is an ode to the romance of living there. Flipped the other, it’s an unfiltered airing of grievances. Twos is record of a city that inspires as much as it exhausts, and of those who know you can love and hate a place in the same breath, and still come back for more.
In the interview that follows, we chat with Morgan about how that duality shapes the magazine’s identity and why Twos will never pick just one side.
CAN YOU TELL US IN YOUR OWN WORDS, WHO YOU ARE?
My name is Morgan Allan. I’m an art director and magazine editor based in South London.
TWOS IS UNIQUE IN THAT IT IS ROTATABLE AND “JANUSFACED” – A DOUBLESIDED GUIDE THAT EMBRACES BOTH LOVE AND HATE FOR LONDON. CAN YOU WALK US THROUGH HOW THIS DUALITY SHAPED THE MAGAZINE’S IDENTITY FROM THE OUTSET?
It’s an unusual way to format a magazine but once I’d settled on it as a framework, it was a useful way to discern if ideas were right for this issue. If they didn’t fit into either category, they weren’t going in. It also made the project seem more achievable. The proposition of filling 100 pages is pretty daunting. Breaking it down into two 50-page magazines that happen to be attached to each other helped me get moving.
WAS THERE A SINGULARITY – A NIGHT OUT, A CONVERSATION, AN EXPERIENCE, A FRUSTRATION – THAT MADE YOU THINK “I NEED TO MAKE A MAGAZINE ABOUT THIS CITY”?
I had had one of those exhilarating, rolling London nights out – jumping from place to place until the early hours – woke up and realised I had to sell all my Stone Island to pay council tax. I just thought “the emotional floor and ceiling of this place are so far apart”. The love/hate push-pull is inherent to existing in London – you just have to speak to anyone that’s lived here. I was looking for ways to push the format of the new issue of Twos and a double-sided mag centered around this theme felt like an exciting way to do it.
THE “LOVE” SIDE HIGHLIGHTS THE LIKES OF LIME BIKES, THE DLR (A PERSONAL FAVOURITE OF MYSELF, TOO), VENUE M.O.T., WHILE THE “HATE” SIDE CRITIQUES BREWDOG, AND HAVING TO LOCATE PUBLIC TOILETS IN CENTRAL LONDON. HOW DO YOU CURATE THIS EMOTIONAL PULL, WHILE ENSURING BOTH AFFECTION AND CRITIQUE FEELS EQUALLY HONEST AND ESSENTIAL?
I think it’s just that: being honest. You couldn’t make a magazine like this from your bedroom. I’m severely outside in this city so I feel like I can speak authentically about it: both positively and negatively. A lot of the ideas featured in Twos Three start with experience: the DLR is fun to ride, BrewDogs are shit to drink in. Once you have that initial emotion, it’s just about finding the right format.
WHAT WERE SOME OF THE EARLIEST REFERENCES OR INSPIRATIONS THAT SHAPED TWOS FIRST ISSUE? PUBLICATIONS, ZINES, NEWSPAPERS OR PERSONAL OBSESSIONS?
My first job in the industry was at MUNDIAL Magazine, where Alex Mertekis took me on as a junior even though I didn’t know how to use inDesign. I’ll always be grateful for that and for everything the team taught me there. John Joseph Holt’s LAW magazines are foundational texts for me, both in content and form. And then London: being surrounded by people putting so much time into insane projects in a hostile economic climate inspires me to do the same.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE FIRST ISSUE? HOW DIY WAS IT? WERE YOU WRITING, EDITING, DESIGNING, AND DISTRIBUTING ALL YOURSELF?
The first issue was my final project at LCC. Me and my mates would sit about in the pub, looking at the people being featured in traditional youth culture publications and think “these guys aren’t any better than us or people we know. They’ve just got good PR”. Those magazines had stopped rewarding talent and were prioritising Instagram followers. It felt backwards. So I thought “I’ll just make a magazine and put all of us and the cool people we know in it.” I wrote, designed, edited the original Twos and collaborated with a bunch of my friends on the content. I printed 100 and spent a lot of time at the post office.
My name is Morgan Allan. I’m an art director and magazine editor based in South London.
TWOS IS UNIQUE IN THAT IT IS ROTATABLE AND “JANUSFACED” – A DOUBLESIDED GUIDE THAT EMBRACES BOTH LOVE AND HATE FOR LONDON. CAN YOU WALK US THROUGH HOW THIS DUALITY SHAPED THE MAGAZINE’S IDENTITY FROM THE OUTSET?
It’s an unusual way to format a magazine but once I’d settled on it as a framework, it was a useful way to discern if ideas were right for this issue. If they didn’t fit into either category, they weren’t going in. It also made the project seem more achievable. The proposition of filling 100 pages is pretty daunting. Breaking it down into two 50-page magazines that happen to be attached to each other helped me get moving.
WAS THERE A SINGULARITY – A NIGHT OUT, A CONVERSATION, AN EXPERIENCE, A FRUSTRATION – THAT MADE YOU THINK “I NEED TO MAKE A MAGAZINE ABOUT THIS CITY”?
I had had one of those exhilarating, rolling London nights out – jumping from place to place until the early hours – woke up and realised I had to sell all my Stone Island to pay council tax. I just thought “the emotional floor and ceiling of this place are so far apart”. The love/hate push-pull is inherent to existing in London – you just have to speak to anyone that’s lived here. I was looking for ways to push the format of the new issue of Twos and a double-sided mag centered around this theme felt like an exciting way to do it.
THE “LOVE” SIDE HIGHLIGHTS THE LIKES OF LIME BIKES, THE DLR (A PERSONAL FAVOURITE OF MYSELF, TOO), VENUE M.O.T., WHILE THE “HATE” SIDE CRITIQUES BREWDOG, AND HAVING TO LOCATE PUBLIC TOILETS IN CENTRAL LONDON. HOW DO YOU CURATE THIS EMOTIONAL PULL, WHILE ENSURING BOTH AFFECTION AND CRITIQUE FEELS EQUALLY HONEST AND ESSENTIAL?
I think it’s just that: being honest. You couldn’t make a magazine like this from your bedroom. I’m severely outside in this city so I feel like I can speak authentically about it: both positively and negatively. A lot of the ideas featured in Twos Three start with experience: the DLR is fun to ride, BrewDogs are shit to drink in. Once you have that initial emotion, it’s just about finding the right format.
WHAT WERE SOME OF THE EARLIEST REFERENCES OR INSPIRATIONS THAT SHAPED TWOS FIRST ISSUE? PUBLICATIONS, ZINES, NEWSPAPERS OR PERSONAL OBSESSIONS?
My first job in the industry was at MUNDIAL Magazine, where Alex Mertekis took me on as a junior even though I didn’t know how to use inDesign. I’ll always be grateful for that and for everything the team taught me there. John Joseph Holt’s LAW magazines are foundational texts for me, both in content and form. And then London: being surrounded by people putting so much time into insane projects in a hostile economic climate inspires me to do the same.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE FIRST ISSUE? HOW DIY WAS IT? WERE YOU WRITING, EDITING, DESIGNING, AND DISTRIBUTING ALL YOURSELF?
The first issue was my final project at LCC. Me and my mates would sit about in the pub, looking at the people being featured in traditional youth culture publications and think “these guys aren’t any better than us or people we know. They’ve just got good PR”. Those magazines had stopped rewarding talent and were prioritising Instagram followers. It felt backwards. So I thought “I’ll just make a magazine and put all of us and the cool people we know in it.” I wrote, designed, edited the original Twos and collaborated with a bunch of my friends on the content. I printed 100 and spent a lot of time at the post office.
WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND BEFORE TWOS? HAVE YOU ALWAYS WORKED IN EDITORIAL AND DESIGN? OR WERE YOU DOING SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT?
My year at MUNDIAL really birthed a love of editorial design. I was studying Graphic Branding at the time, kind of hated it, then managed to get work experience there and my eyes were opened to this new world. I was born in 1999, so I didn’t read loads of print magazines growing up. I think my love for print is a reaction to how digital my life is. Everything moves so fast, feels so fluid, that it feels good to make something permanent by putting something down on paper. Each magazine is a record of how I wrote, how I designed, how I felt at a particular time.
THE PHYSICAL DESIGN OF TWOS INTENTIONALLY DISRUPTS THE READING FLOW: FLIPPING IT UPSIDE-DOWN REVEALS A NEW ANTITHETIC PERSPECTIVE. WHAT CREATIVE CHALLENGES CAME WITH BUILDING A MAGAZINE THAT DEMANDS A PHYSICAL FLIP TO FULLY EXPERIENCE IT?
I really treated them like two separate magazines during the production process. Of course, they informed each other in aesthetic but it was only right at the end that I joined them together.
TWOS DRAWS ON LONDON’S VISUAL LANGUAGE TOO – FROM HAND SCANNED TEXTURES, TO TUBE SIGNAGE AND TYPOGRAPHY. HOW DO THESE VISUAL ELEMENTS INFLUENCE THE AESTHETIC DECISIONS?
I wanted the reader to feel London when they sat down with the magazine. One of the ways I did that was to incorporate textures I had scanned throughout the city into the graphics. A couple years ago I bought a hand-held document scanner and have been using it to build a texture library that I use to make my designs feel more alive. Now, the signs, walls and windows of the city live on every page.
I also drew a lot from the city’s most obvious existing visual language: the TfL network. The headline type on the cover is P22 Underground – a font based on Johnston’s iconic 1913 design. The Twos logo, redesigned for this issue, is an adaptation of an arrow taken from Tube signage. Even the colour palette is inspired by old TfL tickets (pink and blue for ‘Love’, the inverse green and gold for ‘Hate’).
I treated the two halves of the mag as two distinct publications. There are two covers, two editors’ letters, two contribs’ pages. The cover feature runs twice – once on each side – with different imagery and design in Love & Hate. This division helped when crafting the flow of the mag, ensuring that each section held its rhythm.
THE MAGAZINE FEELS DEEPLY ROOTED IN THE LONDON CREATIVE SCENE. HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT FINDING THE WRITERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, AND ILLUSTRATORS WHO CONTRIBUTE TO EACH ISSUE?
Like I said, I’m outside a lot. Part of the joy of that is meeting interesting people. I also love discovering new names on Instagram. Building a network there is really gratifying.
WHAT EMOTIONAL OR AESTHETIC “CRACKS” IN LONDON LIFE ARE YOU LOOKING TO EXPLORE NEXT, AND HOW MIGHT TWOS PUSH ITS FORMAT EVEN FURTHER?
We’ll have to see. The next one won’t just be a print publication. I want to make the magazine part of a wider project. What form that takes I don’t know right now.
IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU HOPE TWOS SPARKS CONVERSATION?
I think it would be helpful if we could acknowledge that it’s possible to hold contrasting ideas simultaneously. I love London and I hate London. You can do both. If we understand each other as complex and messy, I think things get easier.
My year at MUNDIAL really birthed a love of editorial design. I was studying Graphic Branding at the time, kind of hated it, then managed to get work experience there and my eyes were opened to this new world. I was born in 1999, so I didn’t read loads of print magazines growing up. I think my love for print is a reaction to how digital my life is. Everything moves so fast, feels so fluid, that it feels good to make something permanent by putting something down on paper. Each magazine is a record of how I wrote, how I designed, how I felt at a particular time.
THE PHYSICAL DESIGN OF TWOS INTENTIONALLY DISRUPTS THE READING FLOW: FLIPPING IT UPSIDE-DOWN REVEALS A NEW ANTITHETIC PERSPECTIVE. WHAT CREATIVE CHALLENGES CAME WITH BUILDING A MAGAZINE THAT DEMANDS A PHYSICAL FLIP TO FULLY EXPERIENCE IT?
I really treated them like two separate magazines during the production process. Of course, they informed each other in aesthetic but it was only right at the end that I joined them together.
TWOS DRAWS ON LONDON’S VISUAL LANGUAGE TOO – FROM HAND SCANNED TEXTURES, TO TUBE SIGNAGE AND TYPOGRAPHY. HOW DO THESE VISUAL ELEMENTS INFLUENCE THE AESTHETIC DECISIONS?
I wanted the reader to feel London when they sat down with the magazine. One of the ways I did that was to incorporate textures I had scanned throughout the city into the graphics. A couple years ago I bought a hand-held document scanner and have been using it to build a texture library that I use to make my designs feel more alive. Now, the signs, walls and windows of the city live on every page.
I also drew a lot from the city’s most obvious existing visual language: the TfL network. The headline type on the cover is P22 Underground – a font based on Johnston’s iconic 1913 design. The Twos logo, redesigned for this issue, is an adaptation of an arrow taken from Tube signage. Even the colour palette is inspired by old TfL tickets (pink and blue for ‘Love’, the inverse green and gold for ‘Hate’).
I treated the two halves of the mag as two distinct publications. There are two covers, two editors’ letters, two contribs’ pages. The cover feature runs twice – once on each side – with different imagery and design in Love & Hate. This division helped when crafting the flow of the mag, ensuring that each section held its rhythm.
THE MAGAZINE FEELS DEEPLY ROOTED IN THE LONDON CREATIVE SCENE. HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT FINDING THE WRITERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, AND ILLUSTRATORS WHO CONTRIBUTE TO EACH ISSUE?
Like I said, I’m outside a lot. Part of the joy of that is meeting interesting people. I also love discovering new names on Instagram. Building a network there is really gratifying.
WHAT EMOTIONAL OR AESTHETIC “CRACKS” IN LONDON LIFE ARE YOU LOOKING TO EXPLORE NEXT, AND HOW MIGHT TWOS PUSH ITS FORMAT EVEN FURTHER?
We’ll have to see. The next one won’t just be a print publication. I want to make the magazine part of a wider project. What form that takes I don’t know right now.
IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU HOPE TWOS SPARKS CONVERSATION?
I think it would be helpful if we could acknowledge that it’s possible to hold contrasting ideas simultaneously. I love London and I hate London. You can do both. If we understand each other as complex and messy, I think things get easier.
