If you’re in Austin this weekend, you’re surely eagerly awaiting the influx of hipsters the world ’round for the one-of-a-kind technology-music-film fest known as South by Southwest! I will be there reppin’ Makeshift, and you can find me in the locales below. Should be an exciting, jam-packed week. It’s my first time, so I hope to see some friendly Makeshift faces.

Good Capitalist Lounge

Makeshift is partnering with the Good Capitalist Lounge to bring you world-bettering ingenuity. Guests will enjoy complementary copies of our Mobility Issue and subscription discounts. I will also be leading a discussion:

Makeshift Innovation
Sunday,  March 11
3:30pm

Register here for free (Tickets are limited)

SXSW Interactive

I will be sitting on a panel called “Street-Level Genius” with some real geniuses in the field.

Street-Level Genius: An African Maker Safari
Monday, March 12
9:45am

More information here

TED@SXSW

I will be speaking at TED@SXSW on Monday evening.

Unleashing Hidden Creativity
Monday, March 12

More information here

Photo by SkyHigh Photography

Makeshift’s second quarterly issue, themed Mobility, is officially en route to a doorstep or newsstand near you! From fuel smuggling in Cambodia to Jeep Parades in Colombia, the Mobility Issue takes you on a tour of how people move themselves and their possessions at the street level.

Preview the Mobility Issue here and pick up a copy or subscription in the Makeshift Store. Premium Subscribers will also enjoy a set of photo prints from the magazine and delicious, fair trade Madecasse Chocolate direct from Madagascar. Digital subscriptions will be up and running within the next two weeks. Thanks to our wonderful contributors and partners for crafting this beautiful pulse on informal economies.

Big shifts are afoot here at Makeshift HQ. When we released the Re-culture Issue in October, we were a small global network of editors Skyping our way to a print magazine. But our vision was bigger: we wanted to be the premiere source of media on street-level innovation. Since then, we’ve built a team rooted in New York, expanded distribution worldwide, and hosted events in New York, Providence, and Mexico City. Today, we announce the next evolution of Makeshift.

Based on your feedback over the past few months, we’re launching several new projects this week: the Mobility Issue of the Makeshift Quarterly, a completely overhauled website and brand new Makeshift Online, and digital subscriptions of the Makeshift Quarterly. The Mobility Issue is already out the door and en route to our subscribers. The new Makeshift Online will serve as our online magazine updated regularly. And a digital version of the quarterly will be available starting next week through Zinio.

We’re particularly ecstatic about Makeshift Online, which will allow us to engage with our readers and contributors more regularly. You’ll notice online articles are organized differently from print—by topic, geography, and media type. Over the coming months, we’ll be rolling out new editorial columns and video series (this week we launched The Works) from our contributors around the world and produced with incredible partners. Makeshift Online will be an ongoing pulse of informal economies, from black market innovators to collaborative consumers. To stay plugged in off the site, follow our RSS, Twitter, or Facebook feeds. As for the Makeshift Blog, we’ll be sticking to updates from the staff on what’s going on at Makeshift.

One thing you’ll find fewer of online is our print articles. The Makeshift Quarterly is a curated and themed package of dispatches, features, photos, and infographics from our global network on the ground. It feels different from our website, and we want to embrace our various media channels for what they are. So we’re posting three articles from each issue, plus an infographic and the entire Observed photo section, to give you a taste of what’s in store in the quarterly. But you’ll need to subscribe to the print or digital version for full access.

Makeshift 2.0 will bring more content, more forms of media, more engagement, and more choices for readers. We couldn’t be more excited and can’t wait to hear your feedback!

With 700 parcels mailed in the last week, Makeshift’s shipping department is up and running! For those already receiving the hard copy, we’ve been thrilled by all the feedback—reader input always appreciated around here…

Select Kickstarter backers will notice three stunning prints from the magazine, along with a specially designed postcard. Each comes from one of Makeshift’s early collaborators, found below. We are thankful to have their work in our magazine, and hope you take the time to check out their work.

These are available for purchase at the Makeshift Store as a set of prints or with a premium subscription. Read on for more details on each of the prints.

Read more…

If you missed it by now, you really missed it. Two weeks ago, Makeshift launched with a bump, thump, and a boom on a fun Friday night in Rhode Island. With a lot of balls in play, we couldn’t find the time to write about it. But now, we’ve got a blog…

Let’s set the stage. September 30 – October 2, Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) played excellent hosts to the Better World by Design conference. Chock-full of designers, planners, thinkers, makers, and doers, dull moments were rare. Least of all at the Makeshift launch party, hosted by our friends at Providence’s brand new co-working studio ANCHOR.

Powered by the sounds of bicycle DJ Damian Ewens and his crew in their “I Wub-Wub-Wub Dubstep” tees, laughs over Trinity brews and sweaty dancing with Big Nazo monsters greatly outweighed serious conversation in the main room. Much needed change from many a long computer night.

Just outside the dance party, the first Makeshift exhibition. A fine collection of backpack speakers from Mexico, a nebulizer from Nicaragua, magazine copies, photos from our amazing contributors, and the fabled E-Charka from India—a traditional yarn producing device reworked to harness enough energy from the spinning to produce electricity—sparked all kinds of crazy conversations.

And if you missed it, no sweat. We got a bigger and better one comin’ at cha next spring at a secret location in NYC. A ton of interesting gadgetry from around the world and lots of boogey awaits…