Jefferson Waters

Cutting-edge design, prestige goods and new innovations are all available to a Liverpool audience as much as anyone else and readers were intrigued by this stance. I wanted to 'break out' articles to a wider audience by emphasizing their relevance to everyone, whenever the product originated from.

Taste set out to focus on the positives in Liverpool and the things that happen here. I found a lot of companies who had never even considered promoting themselves in social media, and even more who were genuinely stunned to see how well their companies could look in articles and features.

Fashion, design and beauty are articles that can be most quickly turned around, as by definition they tend to only require 300 words to convey the angle. The Leather Satchel Company opened in the Albert Docks and were creating some really striking leather goods which I was happy to create a piece about. The supporting imagery is all my design.

Voodou hair salons were a solid subscriber to my on-line magazine and I created four articles for them over 18 months. Always at the cutting edge (groan) of new trends and styles, they consistently stand out as the number one salon in Liverpool for truly cool hair-cuts and it was very easy to create engaging content for them.

This piece celebrated a revival in the Albert Docks in 2017 and supported a swathe of positive media attention in Liverpool at the time.

Writing content for corporate businesses can be quite challenging if the business is perhaps viewed as controversial. This piece set out to redress any misconceptions in an informative and fun way about a Gentleman's bar in Duke street.

As digital content continues to proliferate, memorable, witty and informed articles are never more needed to cut through the hum of social media nonsense. Unless an article has a voice that is original, and I think, at least trying to be entertaining, it gets lost quicker than ever under the non-stop avalanche of internet information. I approach each article I write with the simple principle, would it it stand up in 20 years from now? and will it be noticed in the next 20 minutes?

Reviewing bars is much the same pleasure as restaurants but with added guilt afterwards. The nightclubbing scene in Liverpool is so renowned now that we have the nick-name 'Amsterdamaged' and whilst I think huge stag and hen parties flooding in every weekend dragging an inflatible penis around and hunting down Tequila is a mixed blessing for the city, no one can deny that Liverpool knows how to have a good time.

Critical analysis is this lifeblood of a democracy and even seemingly superficial subjects deserve a sharp eye if their basis seems a bit, well...crap. As I kid I was fascinated with the Hans Christian Anderson story of the naked Emperor and the small boy who was the only one to blow his cover. Contemporary culture has a habit of 'herd-thinking' and it's always a juicy assignment for me when I get to let rip on something I think is naff and more people should agree with me.

My journalistic background started 25 years ago in the interior design industry writing copy for Andrew Martin and a host of interior design practices so I'm very fluent with the 'lingua franca' of design circles. Alot of commissions came from knowing the correct term for a particular type of fabric etc and it taught me the value of sound research before a word is written about highly specific industries.

With the average attention span for reading now set at 8 seconds, light, snappy editorial pieces are essential and fashion and beauty fit perfectly into this brevity. By definition, no one needs the lifestory of a new lipstick and when mocked-up with the right supportive images a message can be transmitted very quickly.

This article is one of thousands I've written that packs a concise punch in a visually arresting way. I design all of my lay-out and can sculpt an article to fit an image or vice versa.

Character assassination in the contemporary culture is an enduringly interesting thing and Yoko has arguably been more maligned than any other pop star's wife or artist in her own right, especially here in Liverpool. After researching her more thoroughly, I discovered a person who has probably done more for the city than all the remaining Beatles combined and deserved positive recognition for that.

The best way to review food is to eat it and each month I got to eat out at least four or five times and in return, I produced glowing testimonials for the bewildering array of restaurants in Liverpool. Great fun, except for my waistline....

I had not covered a political angle in my magazine before but the shock election of US President Donald Trump seemed too fascinating to ignore and for better or worse, he has continued to fill copy and front pages ever since. This was a light-hearted and irreverant piece contrasting British opinions with American ones and trying to find the humour in the middle.

This article was to celebrate the anticipated opening of the flagship new store in Liverpool city centre. Lush's products are such accessible and fun things, presented in a unique and customer-friendly way, it was easy to create original and engaging content for them that spoke directly to readers here in Liverpool about this thrilling new store. I designed all the supporting graphics and visual work for this and all my 1400 articles while running my e-zine 'Taste'.