1806 Magazine

The Standard

Best Cocktail & Spirits Publication nominee, two years running.

Copies of 1806 magazine, Volume 1 New York City and Volume 2 New Orleans, fanned across a surface, each cover reading "the defining stories of thirsty people," shot by Ford Media Lab.

Collectif 1806 / Rémy Cointreau

Cocktail Culture

2017

(the_challenge)

The Challenge

Rémy Cointreau’s Collectif 1806 program wanted a publication worthy of the bar world it served. The pitch was simple and the bar was not: a Drift Magazine for the bartending industry, the kind of print object a notoriously discerning trade would keep on the shelf instead of tossing in a swag bag.

(the_approach)

The Approach

No AI, no shortcuts, just the two of us. Rachel ran every interview and wrote every word; the second volume went deep on New Orleans and the people who shaped the modern bar. I shot the photography, built the layouts, and edited the whole thing. Two volumes, 192 pages each, made to be kept rather than discarded. This was Ford Media Lab before any of the tools, and it’s where the standard came from.

A bartender lifts the rolling security gate at Amor y Amargo, a closed bar with a wood-paneled doorway and padlock, captured for 1806 magazine by Ford Media Lab.

A musician in a white jacket plays a hollow-body electric guitar under stage lights at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, captured for 1806 magazine by Ford Media Lab.

(lab_report / results)

The Results

Top 4

Best Cocktail & Spirits Publication, 2018

Top 10

Best Cocktail & Spirits Publication, 2019

384

Pages across two volumes

The industry noticed. Top four in the world for Best Cocktail & Spirits Publication at the 2018 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards, and a top-ten return in 2019, for a two-person studio’s first major project. It gave Collectif 1806 a way to celebrate the trade’s best people and put their stories in print. We’ve never lowered the bar since.

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