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Barney McDonald

CONSULTANT / CD . Specialist writer

In a sense, I am Barney McDonald, founder/publisher/editor of Pavement magazine, discontinued three years ago after 13 years at the top of its game. And it is a game. Contemporary culture involves the interplay between the media and the market, the producer and the consumer, leaders and followers. It’s the latter where things get complicated, eventful, challenging. Who’s truly in charge? Is it the creative individual beavering away in his or her studio, office, garage or subconscious? The clever company that taps an idea to mass market a product? Or the recipient of those ideas and products who adds meaning and value and context to what is, on the surface, a simple exchange?

Pavement was both a popular culture and a youth culture magazine. Those are my two key areas of interest and expertise. They’re both inextricably linked, as dependant on each other as people are to sunshine. Understanding what appeals to young people and how it underscores and influences their lives, activities, friendships, ambitions and spending involves being as interested and passionate about emerging trends as they are, while also drawing on years of assimilation, consumption and engagement with youth culture on practical and theoretical levels.

I love ideas that shift the paradigm a little or a lot. I love art that unsettles pre-conceived notions of edification or entertainment. I see the world as an amorphous body of ever evolving forms of expression that go in and out of focus according to shifts in the human appetite for gratification. As technology continues to accelerate our integration with the world around us, it’s important to step back a little from the blurring this creates in order to better understand what people want and what these things want from them.

We live in exciting, complex times that require exciting, simple responses. The passive consumer is a thing of the past so conceptualising innovative and unique ways to communicate ideas to people is where the fun begins. Hopefully that’s where I come in. I’ve been a writer for over two decades and honed my skills to cut to the chase. The experience of publishing Pavement also developed my ability to interact with a media savvy market. This often involves conceiving and refining strategies that speak fluidly to a specific sector of the population or unfolding a more universal vernacular that speaks to everyone. It also requires an honesty and conviction that resonates with people in our contemporary cultural and political environment.

I taught Sociology of Popular Culture and Film & TV Studies at the University of Auckland (can you tell?) just prior to launching Pavement in 1993 and both subjects continue to form the basis of many of my interests and ideas. This includes reviewing films for Sunday Star Times and George FM and writing a column and stories for Rip It Up over the past couple of years. My areas of expertise include youth culture, advertising, film, music, design, photography, fashion and table tennis.

I’m someone you can count on to think outside orthodox parameters. I believe in producing work of the highest possible calibre and integrity. And I thoroughly enjoy working alongside likeminded souls who want to inspire people with their ideas and originality.

Let’s change the world.

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