Project Overview: DART Magazine by Edgar Zhang

Project Overview Feburary 7 2025

Content

Intro

Development of DART Magazine

Influence & Growth

Preview 2025 & 26

Statistics

Team & Infrastracure

Outro

Intro

DART Magazine was a personal project, started by Yitong(Edgar) Zhang in 2023.

Now, DART Magazine is an independent art & design magazine, dedicated to collecting and showcasing the art and designs that can tell good stories, from creators all around the world.

DART Magazine is from Davis, California.

Development of DART Magazine

Colorful abstract painting with vibrant reds, oranges, yellows, greens, and blues, resembling an artistic canvas.
Person kneeling in snow on a field, wearing a black hoodie and gas mask, with trees and a large satellite dish in the background.
A web page with the title 'EDITORIAL' in large black letters. The page features two articles with images and quotes, one about a village fire scenario with a drawing of burning buildings and figures, and another about an island with a painting of trees and a pathway.
A man wearing a white shirt standing in front of a black wall with blue and white tulip artwork, promotional poster for an exhibition about digital art spaces featuring Alex Simorré, with text overlay and a quote.
Abstract digital artwork featuring layered, rounded shapes with glowing green accents and radiating lines in orange and red against a dark background.
A person standing naked inside a geometric metal cage with two large metallic spheres, on a sandy surface with a hazy background, during dusk or dawn.
An art gallery with a dark interior and an open doorway leading to a sculpture on a pedestal in a spotlight.
A person with fit legs standing on a dark surface at dusk, with a large illuminated geometric art installation featuring glowing blue lights and reflective spheres in the background.
A stylized illustration depicts a young girl with a witch's hat facing a large, winged, humanoid creature with multiple arms, set against a red and dark sky background. The creature has a distressed expression and appears to be holding a red apple with a string hanging from its mouth, while the girl stands calmly with arms relaxed, facing the creature.
Two children playing on a green metal park structure near a waterfront, with boats and city buildings in the background.

In December 2023:

DART Magazine was founded, and featured the first work: DART Font, followed up with the award-winning illustration - Hidden Shapes.

In June 2024:

DART Magazine has featured over 13 works with artists from various backgrounds and different countries, with the majority from Asia. The team grew to 2 people.

In September 2024:

DART Magazine launched the EDITORIAL section, working with leading creators across industries to bring exclusive insights and interviews to the readers.

All following collaborations are done through the EDITORIAL section. For the first time, we let words be the dominant of artworks’ storytelling.

In October 2024:

DART Magazine collaborated with LOAD Gallery: a hybrid gallery that seamlessly marries hardware and software to exhibit physical and digital art, in Barcelona, Spain. LOAD Gallery represents artists like Six N. Five and Andres Reisinger who work with Cartier and featured on Forbes.

DART Magazine also worked with Keil Space: a space that offers multi-sensory experience to enhance brain function and focus through heterogeneous stimulation. Located in Florence, Italy. The article jumps into the art therapy that Keil Space is discovering.

At the same time, collaborating with previous artists to write interpretations to help them promote their work.

In November 2024:

DART Magazine featured Blude Shackles - a collaborative art installation initiated by five queer artists and created with the contribution of over 20 women. Later published their article and advertised it through DART Magazine, making Blue Shackles a project that goes beyond its reach and circle.

In January 2025:

DART Magazine collaborated with the toy designer and TED speaker from Italy: Luca Boscardin on his award-winning design: Animal Factory in Amsterdam.

Later on, DART Magazine featured BAKUI, a Japan-based cross-media artist whose work spans manga, illustration, animation, and music. BAKUI’s work - DIE IN THE SEA got over 327K views on YouTube.
After collaborating, DART Magazine pushed the featured work to 6K viewers in 2 days.

At this point, the team has reached 8 people, later more info will be given about our team.

Influence & Growth

Instagram profile of Dart Magazine, showing a black background with colorful circle logo, 44 posts, 983 followers, featuring artworks, illustrations, and magazine covers.

July 2024

Feburary 2025

Instagram profile page for dartmagazine, an independent online magazine from Davis, California, showing profile picture, follower count, and recent posts including abstract art, water feature, and a person in a dark outfit with face painted, set against various backgrounds.

Overtime, we have gain followers through 3 means:

1. Social Media Advertising

In September 2024, we started putting up ads, and in merely 3 months, we gained a considerable amount of followers with very little input.

So far, we have not yet made our own commercial, all existing ads are the works we featured.

This means, that every ad will direct huge traffic to the original creator because we will always @ their account on the post.

According to statistical analysis on advertising, on average per dollar will bring 3 followers to DART Magazine and original creators, sometimes more. *

In certain ads, readers tend to follow the original creators rather than the magazine.

*This is measured with ads using only clips from featured work, not edits or commercials.

Entrance doors to Cruess Hall with a poster on a white column between the doors, showing a black-and-white comic-style illustration and promoting DART Magazine, with exit signs above the doors.
Bulletin board with various flyers, posters, and a large black-and-white illustration of people around a table, with a smaller colored poster at the bottom.
A bulletin board with various posters and flyers, including one with a large illustration of a person holding a phone, several about events and recruitment for Fall 2024, and smaller posters about scheduling, social events, and academic misconduct.
Blurred image of a person wearing a cap walking past two posters on a wall, including a large yellow and blue graphic of a hand holding a piece of bread and smaller images below it.

2. On Campus Posters

You can find DART Magazine’s posters in many places on campus, this helped us gain a local follower base.

It has been very effective since our poster is large in size and brings people to Instagram for more content.

Collage of photos showing children playing on colorful outdoor playground equipment, with illustrations of animals and quotes from Luca Boscardin about playful design inspired by childhood fears, surprises, and happiness.

3. Collaboration

Working with influencers like Luca or institutions like Keil Space has always been a win-win.

We give them press reports as DART magazine, and they can direct traffic or forward their followers to us. We have gained follower from their regions through working with different locations.

Most importantly， collaboration has brought DART Magazine into international galleries & non-profit organizations’ vision. This gives us more capacity to forward artists, helping them make their names in foreign places.

Statistics

Locations(countries) of the people/institutions we have worked with.

Upcoming locations: Czechia, Estonia.

Locations of our followers.

Recorded in February 2025.

As you can see, we have a strong follower base in the United States and Asian countries, with the potential to grow more towards European countries.

A bar chart showing top cities with percentages: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 21.4%, Los Angeles, CA 7.6%, Taipei, Taiwan 7.4%, Davis, CA 6.3%, New York, NY 4.9%, Hong Kong, Hong Kong 4.1%, Xinbei, New Taipei City, Taiwan 2.9%, San Francisco, CA 2.5%, Seoul, South Korea 1.8%, Taichung, Taiwan 1.4%.
Bar chart titled 'Top countries' showing percentages for United States, Vietnam, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, China, Spain, and United Kingdom.

Website Traffic

Recorded from July 2023 to January 2025.

Our website is the source of our content, and the base of the magazine since we are online.

Note:

December 2023 - DART Magazine is founded.
August 2024 - Summer Break.
December 2024 - Winter Break.

Preview 2025 & 26

An art gallery interior with white walls, wooden flooring, small paintings on the walls, a potted plant near the door, and a glass door leading outside to parked cars and buildings.

A few of the upcoming collaborations:

1. HIDDEN Gallery (Prague, Czech Republic)

HIDDEN showcases artists who, despite lacking a strong presence on Prague's art scene, have a robust vision and an unyielding style that transcends contemporary trends. It's a platform dedicated to unveiling each artist, making them a little less HIDDEN.

Coupled with the space at HIDDEN Bořivojova, HIDDEN is the only gallery in the Czech Republic exclusively presenting foreign authors.

Conference room with people attending a presentation, some using laptops, facing a speaker and large screens displaying presentation slides, with plants and colorful decorations.

2. De Structura (Tartu, Estonia)

A contemporary art platform founded in 2021, a Tartu-based organization supported by the European Union and the European Cultural Foundation. 

De Structura primarily focuses on four key areas of work: collaborative art projects, network facilitation, advocacy, and capacity-building. The organization has a special emphasis on empowering emerging art professionals, individuals aged 20 to 35, engaged in diverse roles within the art and culture as well as other sectors.

Facade of the UNVEIL GALLERY building with two closed white roller shutters and a small window with blue-tinted glass on the left.

3. Unveil Gallery (Irvine, USA)

Unveil Gallery is a contemporary art gallery co-founded by Lorraine Han and Dan Yang. This endeavor is driven by the intention to nurture resonance, inspire meaningful dialogue, and extend artistic exploration beyond boundaries. 

This is a diverse platform that focuses on contemporary art, women, and community culture. It aims to provide a space for young or emerging artists who are bold in their creativity and willing to explore new artistic languages. Committed to fostering cross-cultural dialogue between different communities, languages, and cultures.

Text on a black background with white outlines that says 'EDGE ON THE SQUARE' and includes images of a parade with lion dance performers and a person viewing art.

4. Edge on the Square (San Francisco, USA)

The contemporary art hub is located at the heart of San Francisco Chinatown.

Their year-round programming is designed to bring together creators and educators for a well-rounded cultural experience. Our space welcomes Asian American artists for the twice-annual art exhibitions and the signature annual contemporary art festival, as well as music events and community gatherings that foster cultural exchange and understanding.

People standing outside of a yellow building with a sign that reads 'Third Space Art Collective' and several bicycles parked in front.

4. Third Space Art Collective (Davis, USA)

Third Space Art Collective is a group of independent artists, performers, and educators striving to further enrich the culture of our community by making the creation and exhibition of art and music accessible to people regardless of age or economic standing.

DART Magazine has a group show going to be held in Third Space Art Collective in Fall 2025.

Disclaimer: Do not consider these as official information.

In the future, DART Magazine aims to have a deeper connection with Davis and the university through faculty and departments. From the very beginning, DART Magazine has been emphasizing the sense of belonging to Davis, just like the bio of our Ins account:” An independent art & design magazine from Davis, California.”

Through Third Space Art Collective and other departments, we are taking steps to have these bonds with the Davis community and the university.

Also, in 2025, DART Magazine will publish its first print edition.

Team & Infrasturcture

All information is recorded in February 2025.

Most of our team members come from a bi-cultural background, they are able to solve problems in different mindsets and language models.

Running DART Magazine has been a challenge to every member and as a team, since all of them are full-time undergrad students.

Infographic titled 'As of Feb 2025, DART Magazine has 3 departments:' with symbols representing the departments of Visual Representation, Communication Coordination, and Executive Administration. It includes maps and statistics of people in California and Massachusetts, social media and website icons, and company details for DART Entertainment LLC.

Outro

Digital magazine page featuring an art gallery exhibit with landscape images and visitors observing artwork.
Screenshot of an online article titled "Beyond Exhbitions: Alex Simoré on Innovating Digital Art Spaces," featuring a quote and a photo of a gallery exterior with people outside.
Black and white photo of artist Mario Rodriguez standing outdoors between two large walls with a clear sky in the background

“As DART Magazine is developing rapidly, it has featured organizations that Vougue, ELLE, Forbs, METAL Magazine， and ARTJOBS have reported on, this has put DART Magazine on an international track where its potential is limitless, even though it was merely 1 year old.

At DART, we believe just like love, art is a universal language that we all can understand, we are barely the transmitter of this communication, and even as students, we are taking this responsibility as seriously as a professional, because we already see what DART has brought to people, that fulfillment is simply unmeasurable.

Thank you for reading and being a part of this. ”

——— Edgar Zhang， Founder & Editor-in-chief

Credits

By

Contact

yt@dartmagazine.org

Special Thanks

Pan Liu

Yuchen Hou

Livia Xie

kayla Xiong