YouTube/HGTV The season 1 competitors of "Rock the Block."
Leanne Ford is the latest HGTV star to launch a magazine, working with a360media to release FEEL FREE quarterly. Volume I hit newsstands on September 23, 2022.
“Our world is opening up again, and in new ways — making this a great time to create,” Ford said in a press release. “FEEL FREE is here to encourage free thinking, free living, and the joy of creating a home YOU love. Throughout my career, I’ve always encouraged people to create, saying ‘here are the ideas, the possibilities, and the tools to play. Now it’s YOUR turn.’”
The designer, known for “Restored by Fords,” “Home Again With the Fords” and season 1 of “Rock the Block,” told People that it is more than just a design magazine.
“I really wanted it to be bigger than design,” she told the outlet ahead of FEEL FREE’s release. “The reality is that it’s an art magazine that’s centered in home. It really isn’t a home magazine. I’m forging my own path.”
Leanne Ford Graces the Cover of FEEL FREE
Ford’s artistic fingerprint is easily found throughout FEEL FREE.
Not only does she serve as its first cover model, but according to People, her handwriting was turned into a font to be used in the publication. It also features her signature black-and-white color scheme, appearances from her friends and daughter, Ever, and even her own home.
The 41-year-old was also unique in her perspective. One of her cover stories, “Sneak into Fallingwater with me,” sees Ford approach Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous house as if it were her own. The property is located near her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“I love having a famous architectural piece, but shooting it in a fresh way is so fun to me,” she told People. “I was pretending I lived there and shooting it how it was lived in and loved when it was built.”
Leanne Ford Created an Interactive Magazine
Ford took to Instagram to explain how the magazine is meant to be used as a workbook.
“This is a skinny dog-ear-it, mark-it-up, tear-it-out kind of book,” she wrote. “Circle it, underline it. Cross it out, for all I care. Just get that creative energy.”
The publication has tapped its featured artists to provide readers with tips and inspiration.
“And then my favorite thing that we’re doing in FEEL FREE magazine is asking all these incredible artists to do a call to action,” Ford said while speaking with Jackie Leishman on Instagram. “Now it’s your turn. Here’s what we create, here’s how we create it and now here’s something to get your brain going.”
Leishman is a Los Angeles-based artist who showed off her studio in FEEL FREE, using her call to action to motivate readers to create collages.
According to a press release, the magazine will also feature “a ‘hand-drawn home’ Leanne designed and accented with modern trompe l’oeil;” “artist Heather Chontos’ gorgeous, rustic home and studio in France” and “a profile of Sister Mary Corita, a groundbreaking screenprint artist.”
Ford’s website has a call for other artists to submit their work.
It states, “Artists, photographers, designers, all you creative souls out there. Submit your ideas to our team for a chance to be in one of our upcoming issues!”
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‘Rock the Block’ Alum Launches Magazine