Creating a club is not easy. There are many steps that, for some, could be overwhelming. For others, it’s just motivation to see the club come to fruition, which was the case with two college roommates and their neighbor.
Jessica Johnson and Brooke Faure arrived at San Diego State University as freshmen. Johnson, an English major, and Faure, a marketing major, wanted different professions but had shared a common passion for the arts. This passion ignited the spark that became known as Creative Collective Magazine.
When Johnson arrived at SDSU, she brought over an idea from high school. While there are similar magazines on campus at SDSU, none are specifically dedicated to just arts. For example, there is The Koala newspaper and The Look magazine. The Look is a magazine that showcases arts, like music, painting, fashion and culture. Whereas the Koala is a newspaper with a focus on humor and parody, in which you can write anonymously.
Johnson and Faure met at the beginning of last year as neighbors on their college dorm floor.
“So, me and my neighboring roommate, we both kind of came up with the idea together because we both wanted to submit writing,” said Co-founder and Co-president Johnson.
This magazine encompasses all forms of writing from short stories, fiction, prose and poetry to photography to music, painting, drawings and short films.
With music, you can either write lyrics or submit your songs using a Spotify code, Soundcloud or YouTube link. The same applies to short films, which you can submit through a link. All art is welcomed; true to its namesake, the magazine collects art from any major.
“The purpose of our club is to bring people together through art and help students on campus, of any major, exhibit their art and get their art out there when otherwise might not have the opportunity to,” co-founder and co-president Faure said.
As luck would have it, Johnson’s roommate, Maddie Meno, was interested in joining the endeavor. Meno, now the vice president of the Creative Collective Magazine, started as a first-year and became great friends with Johnson in the process.
One last person who helped create the Creative Collective Magazine was Rachel Fogarty-Noonan. A junior majoring in film and television production and new media studies, Fogarty-Noonan met Johnson in a journalism class, where she first heard of the Creative Collective Magazine.
Last year, she designed the first issue of the magazine, with the help from club members through feedback and suggestions, to create a magazine that represents and embodies the spirit of creativity at its finest.
“It took me two to three weeks. It’s a very long process,” Fogarty-Noonan said. “The cover design took me, probably, two weeks on its own, between making different covers, setting them and getting feedback. Some days, especially for spring break when I had a few days off, I would sit for like 12 hours. Knock it out,” Fogerty-Noonan added.
This semester, she has a Co-Magazine Design Officer, Shanti Velasco, who will be working alongside her in the design process.
The Creative Collective holds various activities across the semester. Every month, there is one General Body Meeting, GBM for short, where all executive board members and club members attend to learn about the club and meet the respective position they are interested in pursuing.
Social gatherings feature creative activities, including photo shoots, a writing workshop and painting sessions. Alongside social and general body meetings, the club also hosts a fundraising event to support producing and printing of the magazine.
And finally, there’s the magazine launch event. Creative Collective is released biannually every fall and spring semester. During the summer and winter, they use the time to prepare and plan out the activities for the upcoming semester.
There is no guidebook on how to create a club, yet the Creative Collective started as an idea in the spring of 2023 and it became a reality in the fall of 2023 with their magazine launch event.
As Johnson perfectly puts it, “Every time there’s an event, I feel so happy that all of the behind the scenes work that nobody saw is put into that event, and then people have fun. They enjoy the socials. They ask questions. That just really feels rewarding.”
