Indoek’s Inaugural City Guide Zine
Get an inside look at the best of Venice, LA
It’s been said that Los Angeles isn’t a city so much as a collection of small towns or neighborhoods that run more or less continuously from one to the next. Just ask any Angeleno to point you to the center of town and you’ll get a range of destinations. For active beach-lovers with a creative slant, Venice is the neighborhood of choice and Indoek’s recent print city guide pays homage to the people, history, culture and top destinations to check out in the 90291.
“Since starting Indoek, we have always wanted to do a printed extension of the site,” says Matt Titone, co-founder of the surf-centric blog. “It became an especially strong desire since bringing Indoek under the ITAL/C umbrella because we do a lot of printed content pieces through the design studio for various clients.” Switching to print not only allowed Titone to experiment with open design layouts and new editorial concepts, it also offered a respite from the digital experience.
“People want to get away from their computers to read stuff they are interested in,” Titone adds, “At least that is how I feel. I work in front of a screen all day; I want to relax with a magazine or book in my free time.” And for Titone, a travel guide was the perfect way to explore Indoek’s print potential and Venice—his home base—the natural choice for a first issue. For visitors, locals and transplants alike (and there are plenty of them) Venice is a place that’s significant. It’s where modern skateboarding’s early roots were laid in the days of Dogtown. Neglected by the city of Los Angeles for decades, Venice is a place where crime and community cohesion were always at odds.
In more recent years, gentrification has seen new residents arrive by the vintage van-full and with them rising rents and new beginnings. And Indoek has not ignored this aspect of the conversation in their travel guide; one feature maps out the rise in property costs. Another piece—a team effort from contributor Danny DiMauro and illustrator Ty Williams—gives a tongue-in-cheek profiling of all the newly minted Venice tropes from “Amish Kinney” to the “Synthetic Nouveau Surfer Bro.”
“A lot of creative people are surfers, and these scattered surf communities give coastal towns a certain unique character and usually push the culture at large to progress and evolve,” Titone says of approaching a travel guide through eyes that are always checking the surf. From profiling surf shops to sand-friendly bars and restaurants, Indoek’s guide goes deeper than your average guide book, offering legitimate insights and humor regarding local culture and lore.
Pick up the Indoek Venice Issue (84-pages of sun-splashed California in a large-format newsprint) for $10 online.
Images courtesy of Indoek
