Herd Magazine’s co-founder and photo editor, Pat Bolduc, is sitting at a small copper-plated table, tucked in the back corner of a dimly-lit basement bar on the corner of Elgin and Frank in downtown Ottawa.
Herd is one of Ottawa’s newest magazines that tries to bring awareness to what Bolduc believes is an underrepresented art scene.
Bolduc said when he first moved to Ottawa, he heard many complains that the city was dead, and a mere government town, where nothing was happening.
“Every time I would go out I would end up meeting somebody different. Somebody new, interesting, talented,” Bolduc says.
After meeting people he could connect with, he decided to go ahead with the creation of a magazine that encompasses what he considers the city’s talent.
“Either nobody knows about it or these people just didn’t have an outlet to express themselves, so we decided to do something different.”
One way they’re doing that is by giving the mag away for free.
“I don’t want the people we’re writing about to not be able to afford the magazine,” Bolduc says.
According to Elgin Street’s Mags and Fags employee Ian Cooke, this is a good thing.
“People really seem to enjoy it. I think it’s a great publication. Ottawa can use this sort of publication,” Cooke says.
“There’s such a strong arts scene, and no one really knows about it.”
Magazine co-founder Stephanie Vicente backs up Bolduc’s work ethic.
“He feeds off of the energy around him and that translates into how passionate he is about his work,” Vicente said via email.
Oddly enough, he wasn’t always sure he wanted to be a publisher. He began his academic trajectory by pursuing a degree in history and political science at the University of Ottawa, but said he was “miserable” the whole time.
“I started getting really jaded against the whole education system,” Bolduc says.
Bolduc cites educationalist Ken Robinson’s TED talk on changing education paradigms as a motivation for dropping out of school.
“It’s such an industrialized education— if they don’t change it then they’re just producing the same people over and over again.”
So how do Bolduc and Vicente expect to separate their “herd” from the rest? With designer Joey Arseneau, who operates the visuals.
“Our designer is brilliant. He takes what we want and turns it into this beautiful thing. I feel a lot of our effect on people has been through our delivery and our aesthetic. It helps our message come out clearer, and it hits people a bit harder,” Bolduc says.
“I want to make sure that when people walk by [Herd] they’re like ‘what the hell is that.’”
In regards to their layout, Arseneau says he believes the magazine is too young to set a vision for their layout. He says it can “cage creativity in the beginning.”
“Right now I see the layout as a playground of growth and experimentation — a lab where I need not worry about the consequences of explosions,” he said.
“We’re just finding our way, and so far it’s been radical.”
