Editorial: A love letter to Massive
The 2025 Massive team — minus a few xx
Every time I see the word ‘massive’ anywhere, I imagine what it’s font would look like on our magazine covers. An ad from Briscoes shouting ‘MASSIVE SALE ON NOW’, political posters advocating for ‘massive’ change, or literally any writing describing something as ‘massive’. As I wrap up my time as editor, I wonder how long it will take for this to stop.
After two years as the boss lady, and two years before that as a newsie, my frequent thinking about Massive doesn’t stop with logos. Getting a magazine we're proud of to stands each week takes a lot. ‘Low budget’ is a common theme for us. Compared to the other student mags, we’re allocated the second lowest percentage of our uni’s student services fee. But massive things can happen with a little.
Photoshoots were DIYed. Costumes were hand sewed, props painted. We spent two weeks crafting our own mascot head of Fergus the Ram. And when we wanted to take it for a spin in a paddock of sheep, we drove around rural Wellington and knocked on a stranger’s door. Multiple covershoots have taken place in my flat. And when we were low on models, staff stepped up in balaclavas and sheep masks.
Writing stories is fun, but hanging out with the students who write, illustrate, and photograph them takes the cake. The team has competed in a $2 shop Olympics, taken turns whacking a Fergus the Ram piñata, painted portraits of each other (aw), had a mechanical bull riding battle, collaged with leftover mags (we enviro friendly out here), AND we all pretended to have nits for April Fools.
I hope my constant style guide comments stay with them:
Job titles are lowercase except for the Prime Minister (Jessie and Leonie, pay attention now).
UK spelling please not US (Lee, do you hear me?).
Full stop outside of quote mark for partial quotes (I’m looking at you Maisie ;)).
Don’t blame me for these preferences, blame Massey’s Journalism department which first gave me my degree. In particular, James Hollings and Carla Gray, who have been incredible mentors throughout my editorship. They’ve helped me through the trickiest of stories with wisdom and patience – even when I didn’t have much. And before them, there were my own Massive editors, Mason Tangatatai and then Leila Lois, who gave me a platform to go wild.
Behind those guys are the people that give Massive the moolah: Te Tira Ahu Pae. As a student, I was always a little bit scared to go into the student association office. But now, it’s an everyday trip across the corridor. When it comes to the association’s designer and comms lead Kara Glasgow Keene, maybe we should hate each other. But instead, she’s my sounding board.
Maybe designers have a knack for this, because Massive’s designer Luka Maresca isn’t a bad person to sit next to five days a week. No matter how good any of our content is, it would be nothing without him laying it down beautifully. But Luka doesn’t just lay shit on a page. We’ve recorded sheep ad lids together for a Fergalicous parody. I’ve watched him cut our logo out of cheese (smelt terrible and guess who cleaned it up). We co-bought a pregnant mannequin to display the Fergus mascot head on. When I was too caught up with the mag to trim my fuck-ass-bob before graduation, Luka did it for me. We've spent countless late nights ordering Uber Eats in the office, with security asking when the hell we’re going home. But I will say, I won’t miss his Adobe InDesign crash outs.
And lastly, thank you to Massey University (I’ve gotta say it). Regardless of all the roasting sessions, I really do love this university. This year, if you picked up a mag to read the Horoscopes, wrote a story, sent in a complaint, DMed some Fergus fan art, or made an anonymous Sexcapade confession, thank you.
Now, my fingertips are stained from the ink of the magazine pages, my laptop and drink bottle are covered in branded stickers, and my ‘Massive Memes’ Pinterest board is getting a little bare.
These days when I look at the word ‘massive’ anywhere, I won’t imagine the font as a logo on my own covers. I’ll get to imagine a completely new magazine. And I can’t wait.
Buh-bye Massive (even though my contract doesn’t actually finish for another month). It’s been positively massive ;)
Love, Sammy.
