About Uppercase

Uppercase

Uppercase is a Calgary-based quarterly magazine devoted to craft, fashion, illustration and design, published by Janine Vangool. Launched in June 2009, it is an independent, ad-free, reader-supported journal for "the creative and curious," pairing lush print production with an international community of makers, illustrators and designers. What began as a one-woman publishing venture has grown into a respected small press with an expanding book list, a devoted global readership and a reputation as a proof that print can thrive in the digital age.

Overview

Each issue of Uppercase explores creativity through themed features on designers, illustrators, crafters and makers, mixing profiles, studio visits, project ideas and visual essays. The magazine's subject matter ranges across textile design, jewellery, book-jacket design, typography and paper craft, taking readers around the world through the collections and creative adventures of contributors who range from working professionals to dedicated hobbyists. Typography holds a special place in the magazine's affections — a reflection of Vangool's well-documented obsession with typewriters and mid-century ephemera — and paper itself is a recurring subject, from stationery culture to bookbinding. A British stationery retailer's profile of Vangool traced her publishing career back to childhood stapled booklets and a lifelong infatuation with pencils, crayons and craft supplies, a fitting origin story for a publisher whose magazine treats the printed object as worthy of devotion. A signature design touch: every issue carries a unique pattern that runs across the spine, cover and interior pages, giving each edition its own visual identity — a collection of patterns Vangool later parlayed into a fabric line.

The magazine is published four times a year in print, and its business model deliberately rejects advertising. It is entirely reader-supported, financed through subscriptions, newsstand and stockist sales, and the companion book program.

History

Janine Vangool's path to publishing ran through nearly every corner of the creative industries. Before launching the magazine she worked as a freelance graphic designer, taught, produced a wholesale line of greeting cards, sewed products, and ran her own gallery and bookshop in Calgary. The Uppercase entity itself dates to around 2005, when Vangool began publishing books; the magazine followed in 2009 as a way to combine everything she had learned and loved into a single ongoing project.

The first issue, released in June 2009, set the template: articles on the history of the screw, the fashion design of Heini Koskinen, the illustrations of Blanca Gomez, and Karyn Valino's Toronto crafting business The Workroom. From the start it was a resolutely print object — launched, as the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association later noted, by a first-time editor, committed to a print format in an increasingly digital age, and pursuing a reader-supported business model, seemingly defying every prevailing publishing trend.

Defiance paid off. Within five years the magazine had increased its original print run tenfold and built a steadily growing international base of subscribers and stockists, alongside an active digital presence. Vangool did nearly all of it herself: selling subscriptions, liaising with stockists, shooting photos, writing stories, blogging, designing, managing and financing the magazine, leading what the association described as a small and fiercely loyal team. A British stationery retailer's profile marvelled that a publication as established as Uppercase was essentially a one-woman operation — Vangool serving as editor, designer, web developer, social media manager and customer-service desk in one.

Content

The magazine's editorial content celebrates making in all its forms. Typical issues feature in-depth profiles of illustrators and designers, explorations of craft disciplines from quilting to letterpress, typography stories (a particular passion of Vangool's, who collects vintage typewriters), and project features that invite readers to create. The tone is curious and encouraging rather than competitive, aimed at readers who make things themselves and want to see how others work.

Vangool's own obsessions flavour the content. Her fascination with typewriters — she owns multiple mid-century Royal Quiet DeLuxe portables in pink, turquoise, red, teal and grey, plus framed ephemera such as a 1947 Hermès typewriter advertisement by Swiss poster designer Herbert Leupin — culminated in The Typewriter: A Graphic History of the Beloved Machine, a 396-page book published by Uppercase that was reviewed in The Globe and Mail in December 2015. Her sewing background, inherited from a mother who did alterations and a grandmother who sewed drapery professionally, led to a fabric collection with Windham Fabrics built from the magazine's archive of issue patterns, documented in a free digital look book.

Book Publishing

In addition to the magazine, Uppercase operates as a book publisher with a focus on specific designers and illustrators. Its list has included The Shatner Show (2007), The Suitcase Series Volume 1: Camilla Engman, The Elegant Cockroach by Martin & Augustine (October 2010), Work/Life 2: the UPPERCASE directory of international illustration (February 2011), A Collection a Day by Lisa Congdon (March 2011), and The Suitcase Series Volume 2: Dottie Angel (August 2011).

The Work/Life volumes deserve special mention: conceived as databases for illustrators, with contributors chosen through a juried process, they combine portfolio samples, interviews and contact details, functioning as both showcase and professional directory. A companion iPhone app directed users to the individual illustrators' portfolio websites — an early example of the press extending print content into digital tools.

Coverage & Audience

Uppercase serves a global community of creative readers — illustrators, designers, crafters, stationery lovers and design enthusiasts — who value print as an object and a medium. Its audience is international, built through stockists and subscriptions rather than mass newsstand distribution, and it skews toward makers who participate in the culture the magazine documents: many readers are also contributors, blurring the line between audience and community.

The magazine's success has made Vangool a visible advocate for independent print publishing. Industry profiles credit her editorial acumen and entrepreneurial flair, describing her as a creative inspiration and a true innovator in publishing — recognition earned not through scale but through the loyalty of a readership that funds the magazine directly.

Ownership

Uppercase is owned and published by Janine Vangool, who serves as publisher, editor and designer. The operation is based in Calgary, Alberta, where Vangool recently moved into her own studio — a 1907 house converted to office space — after years of renting, becoming, as she put it, her own landlord. In a podcast interview she noted that Uppercase as an entity began around 2005, making the enterprise more than 18 years old, with the magazine itself launching a few years into that run. The independent ownership structure is central to the magazine's identity: with no outside investors and no advertisers, editorial decisions rest entirely with the publisher. The Alberta Magazine Publishers Association credits that independence for the magazine's integrity, noting that the entirely ad-free, reader-supported title has never compromised its original editorial vision — and that Vangool has earned a reputation as a creative inspiration, an advocate for the possibilities of print, and a true innovator in the world of publishing.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, uppercasemagazine.com, serves as its storefront and community hub, handling subscriptions, back issues, books and the fabric line, alongside a blog that extends the magazine's curiosity-driven editorial voice. Vangool maintains an active social media presence, and the brand's visual identity — pattern-driven, colourful, tactile — translates naturally to image-led platforms. But the digital operation exists in service of print rather than as a replacement for it: the magazine remains a print-first publication, and its reader-supported model means its online audience is cultivated as future subscribers rather than as advertising inventory.