The Beauty Edition
On Friday, December 1, editors, teachers, student media members, and guests alike rang in the freshly launched Winter 2017-18 issue of the Peacock Magazine. The dimly lit Amex began to fill up around 7:30 PM and the pool table turned food station grew more and more crowded as the guests rolled in. The array of hor d'oeuvres were gone in an instant, but to everyone's surprise, the wine and champagne kept coming. Bundles of light pink hydrangeas filled the room, along with countless copies of the newly issued magazine. In the lobby, a makeshift photo booth was adorned with a jumbo print-out of the magazine, a clean white backdrop and equipped with a professional photographer. It was up-and-running ready for guests to have their moments captured. The crowd was excited and chatter of the making of the new issue filled the air—you could almost feel the relief of overworked students.
Image credit: Facebook/PeacockPlumeFR
In case you missed the launch, the current issue of the Peacock is themed around beauty. This issue is not limited to the conventional beliefs of who or what beauty is, but rather who and what encompasses beauty and how it is represented—or not represented. Along the thick white pages of this new issue, you will find pressing topics discussed head-on, how society is changing in terms of beauty and what beauty looks like around the world. Ultimately, this issue embodies a new definition of what makes something beautiful.
As the night progressed and guests mingled it came time for toasts. A microphone was not to be found, so the room hushed as Editor-in-Chief, Stuart Edwards, began his speech. Edwards thanked everyone for their time and hard efforts in making the latest issue and how much it meant to him and those who worked on it. Everyone raised their glass in celebration of relentless hard workers and impeccably talented individuals.
Image credit: Facebook/PeacockPlumeFR
In a short conversation with the Photography Director, Jackie Wegwerth described what the magazine meant to her and her overall experience in the creative process. Despite being involved with ASM previously, this was Wegwerth's first year working on the magazine itself. Wegwerth excitedly admitted her thoughts about the process, saying, "My favorite part was interacting with all of the students and finding out about their different interpretations of beauty and working with them to get the visual component to illustrate their articles". Turning to Sophia Foerster, friend and illustrator, she also commented on the making of the magazine and what makes it different from past issues, "There's a lot more work that comes directly from the students in this issue. In previous issues, we had sourced a lot of images. [This time] we did a lot of our own photography and illustrations... so it's really student made".
Any and all copies of the Peacock Plume are free. They can be found all around campus, and online too. The creatives who made this issue encourage you to take an issue (or two) home and show your friends and family the amazing work of an extremely dedicated team.
