After a six-year hiatus, Siege Magazine (SiegeMag) is making a comeback with a refreshed mission to build a more inclusive, artist-driven platform and a call to the creative community to help bring it to life.
When SiegeMag first appeared in 2017, it quietly disrupted the arts publishing world with a refreshing, inclusive ethos: “Artists Recommend Artists.” The idea was simple but powerful: every featured creative would introduce a like-minded artist to be showcased alongside them, breaking down the barriers of exclusivity that too often dominate the art world.
Now, after a five-year pause, SiegeMag is preparing for a comeback, and its founder, Charles George Brown, is inviting the wider creative community to help build the next chapter.
For Charles, SiegeMag’s revival is more than just a personal project. It’s the product of years of experience and reflection, shaped by a journey that took him from an early design internship in New York City – where he hosted workshops with legends like Lance Wyman and shared a BBQ with Paula Scher – to founding his own design studio, the CGB (the Contemporary Graphics Bureau), back home in Manchester.
On the magazine, Charles says: “SiegeMag was stocked from New York to Amsterdam and was shortlisted for, and won awards from, Stack Magazines. I often get asked when it’s coming back.”
Launched while he was still a student at Manchester School of Art, SiegeMag built a reputation for celebrating emerging and underrepresented artists, bridging connections across cities and continents. In its second issue, for instance, five Manchester-based artists were paired with five artists from around the globe, from California to Amsterdam, including San Francisco MoMA exhibitor Terry Hoff (one of Charles’ personal favourites).
Inclusivity wasn’t just a theme – it was the magazine’s foundation – and that spirit extended to SiegeMag’s playful experimentation. The third and most recent issue, titled Spliege, took a radical creative turn (and won the Stack awards). Charles staged a fictional “hack” of the magazine’s Instagram account, flooding it with glitchy, erratic posts, and produced a physical edition that disregarded traditional design rules.
Erratic typography, intentional spelling errors, and chaotic layouts turned the idea of an art magazine on its head. The project was so well-received that the Manchester School of Art invited Charles to “hack” their Instagram account, handing over their stories for a day.
Since SiegeMag’s last print run in 2019, Charles has continued to build an international design career, working with clients ranging from Premier League football clubs to tech startups in East Asia. But despite the success, the magazine and its mission have never left his mind.
“It is only now after learning more of my craft, from New York to Manchester, that I feel in the right place to bring it back. And bring it back properly,” he says.
The reboot promises to honour the original ethos but expand its ambition. With the ‘Artists Recommend Artists’ model remaining at its core, SiegeMag is intended to be more than a magazine with expansion planned across other platforms.
Charles hopes to create a platform that provides emerging and established artists alike with a space to connect, collaborate, and be seen without the gatekeeping often associated with the art world.
“There are so many plans on how we can push this further… but first, it is all about the ‘to-be’ magazine,” he says.
The upcoming editions will maintain a semi-annual cadence with a thematic focus on location. The first rebooted issue will spotlight Manchester’s creative community, followed by another themed edition focusing on a famed design city across the pond. Alongside the magazine, Charles is planning exhibitions, launches, and community events that will extend the project’s reach beyond the printed page.
Importantly, the magazine’s approach feels particularly timely. In an era where digital platforms connect artists from opposite sides of the globe, SiegeMag aims to highlight these new creative networks.
A recent example captures the spirit perfectly: London-based mural artist Coco Lom recommended Japanese poet and visual artist Yasumi Toyoda. Though their practices – bright, bold murals and quietly moving poetry – may be worlds apart stylistically, they’ll be in conversation through Siege.
“I think evidencing these connections is so important,” Charles says. “The art world needn’t be so elitist or hard to reach. Our world now is different. We can connect with someone on the other side of the planet. If that audience is creative, they can see it’s possible. If that audience is a viewer, they can see how deep the arts stretch.”
As preparations for the relaunch ramp up, Charles is in talks with various organisations, arts foundations, and trusts to secure funding. The goal is to build a sustainable model that supports not just a magazine but a wider creative ecosystem.
For Charles, it’s about more than glossy spreads or coffee-table cachet. It’s about creating a space where artists can recommend one another, lift each other up, and make room for new voices.
“We are about giving all artists a place they feel they belong,” he says. “We are about incubating artists. Giving them a podium and a platform.”
The new SiegeMag has relaunched its website and social channels and is well into taking submissions, with the first new issue scheduled to land early 2026. We sincerely hope that the creative community will support its revival – we certainly will!