About Matters

Matters Journal is a publication initiative of Local Peoples.

We are a weekly digital and biannual print publication telling interdisciplinary stories from the worlds of arts, design, technology, health, food and the environment.

Local Peoples have identified a clear opportunity to develop a publication that makes it easier for people who want to make a difference to connect with businesses and brands who are doing good. Matters Journal will bring the stories and insights of social enterprise and businesses for good to a wider audience.

Driven by research and real stories from the field, Matters Journal will engage its readers to question and think through what it means to create social impact through innovation and a sustainable approach to business.

A key point of difference is our interdisciplinary thinking; every article in Matters Journal connects and explores new frontiers between two or more areas of Arts, Design, Environment, Food, Health and Technology.

Why Matters Journal?

• Create a unique offering of content that provokes, motivates and inspires positive action, impact and sustainability
• Design a publication that champions the values of Local Peoples and attracts like minded collaborators and partners
• Build and connect a community with businesses and brands doing good
• Create a high quality, environmentally sustainable publication
• Learn and measure how our content impacts and inspires others to create business for good

Every Matters Journal article will explore content through the lenses of:

Business
We explore business practices that centre the user, community and connectivity. We will profile individuals and initiatives that look at business models and practices in a holistic way with an understanding of the full life cycle of each idea.

Impact
How do we generate impact for social good? What does success look like and how do we measure and communicate it?

Sustainability
Through the connections between arts, design, environment, food, health and te chnology, we will investigate what it means to be sustainable in the places where we work, live and play.

Ideas that Matter

To exemplify our focus on interdisciplinary thinking, each feature article will cover at least two of the following:

Arts
How we access the arts and how they impact our lives and inspire us, consciously and subconsciously, is part of our exploration into this topic. We will tell the stories of the creation of aesthetic objects, environments and experiences that can be shared with others. The Arts extends to cover performance arts, visual arts, graphic arts, literature, music and film.

Design
Exploring how design can positively impact people and the planet, we look at purpose driven design that is focused on creating collaborative community focused spaces, products and solutions and communicating a strong sense of identity, impact, purpose and language.

Environment
We are speaking to leaders reimagining the way of our built and natural environments. These conversations can often be influenced by long standing practices that are overlooked by current norms or a completely new way of thinking about everyday life.

Food
Food is one of the most fundamental elements of life. Matters gives us the the opportunity to explore what drives our local and global food trends and consider how we grow, prepare, store and consume food.

Health
A holistic look at health encompasses the physical, mental, social and emotional wellbeing of people and populations. Our look at health explores the broader health and wellbeing of people and communities where they live, learn, work and play.

Technology
We highlight the latest developments in technology and canvass the wider societal implications and questions that each new advancement brings. This is not a conversation about technology within a vacuum but rather the wider conversation on application, ethics, systems and its relationship to already established norms.

People That Matter

Editor-in-Chief & Creative Director
Giuseppe (Pino) Demaio

Editor
Megan Anderson

Digital Editor
Ryan Cheng

Design
Carolyn Ang