About this project
$42,675
784
The Magazine
Cherry Bombe is a beautifully designed, biannual indie magazine that celebrates women and food—those who grow it, make it, serve it, study it, enjoy it and everything in between. It is about sustenance and style and the things that nourish the mind, the eye and, of course, the stomach.
Cherry Bombe features a variety of cultures, cuisines and voices—chefs and servers, food stylists and scientists, culinary icons and up-and-coming entrepreneurs—as documented by some of the most interesting food and fashion writers and photographers around.
Almost all of the subjects and contributors are women.
The Founders
That would be us, Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu. We were colleagues at Harper’s Bazaar years ago, with Kerry working on the editorial side and Claudia part of the creative team.
Kerry went on to work in beauty and fashion and opened two Brooklyn restaurants (Seersucker and Nightingale 9) and one coffee shop (Smith Canteen) with her chef boyfriend. Claudia opened her own graphic design firm, Orphan, and launched Me Magazine, the cult indie publication.
The two of us got together to discuss a potential project and several conversations and meals later, Cherry Bombe was born.
We both love magazines (and food and fonts and fashion) and were surprised that so few beautiful indie food magazines exist, especially given how much the indie food scene has grown. We were particularly interested in exploring women’s contributions to the scene.
The First Issue
In Spring 2012, we started calling some friends and strangers who we thought would be interesting contributors and subjects. Not only were they receptive to the idea, but they graciously spread the word among their friends, made introductions and gave us suggestions for other subjects, contributors and story ideas.
The first issue started to take shape and we christened it The Tastemakers Issue.
We don’t want to ruin the sense of discovery you'll have when you flip through the first issue, but a few of the names you’ll find among the essays, recipes and Q&As are Prune's Gabrielle Hamilton, The Spotted Pig's April Bloomfield, director Sofia Coppola, sisters Melia and Mirabelle Marden (chef and photographer, respectively), supermodel Karlie Kloss (the co-founder of Karlie's Kookies and our first cover girl), Momofuku Milk Bar's Christina Tosi, photographer/illustrator Garance Dore, food stylist Victoria Granoff and artist Jennifer Rubell.
All of the women in the first issue are amazing, talented individuals doing interesting things and making meaningful contributions to their fields. You will find that our subjects and contributors are passionate about food, aesthetics and the world around them.
We’re looking for readers who are too.
Distribution and Pricing
Cherry Bombe will be available at select bookstores, magazine shops and boutiques worldwide. Each issue will cost $18.
Subscriptions will be available through cherrybombe.com. An annual subscription, with shipping, will cost $40.
The first issue is 172 pages and printed on high quality matte paper. It weighs in at 1 pound, 11 ounces.
We hope Cherry Bombe is something you will choose to collect and keep alongside your most beloved books.
The Kickstarter Campaign
Our first print run is 10,000 copies. (We will print additional copies if the demand exists.)
We are looking to raise $30,000, which would cover most of our printing and shipping costs.
Additionally, we hope our Kickstarter campaign helps us build the Cherry Bombe community and find potential readers and subscribers who share our values and interests.
The Future
We have started planning our second issue and brainstorming themes for Year Two. You won’t find any of Cherry Bombe’s content online, but we hope to have a robust Internet presence next year that will let us connect our community digitally. We will offer content that is complimentary to that found in the magazine.
In the meantime, we'll have plenty to offer the person who still loves the printed page and having an actual, physical thing to read and linger over.
We hope to offer a beautiful, unique print experience for years to come that explores meaningful people, issues and subjects.
We would love for you to join us on the journey!
Risks and challenges
The magazine business is a challenging one and it is possible that Cherry Bombe will fail to find an audience or that future paper, printing and shipping costs will make publication impossible financially.
However, we are optimistic that our experience in the publishing world, our subject matter and our quality product will result in success. We also are confident that enough like-minded individuals exist around the world to help this project flourish.
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Funding period
- (21 days)