Ken Olling and Axel Haugan founded iPad-only magazine KatachiOpens in a new window in 2010, right before the iPad’s launch, with the modest goal of publishing the most interactive magazine in the world. And though the Norway-based publication has garnered adulation, winning « Magazine of the Year » at the 2013 Digital Magazine AwardsOpens in a new window for its innovative design, it took some time to get off the ground.
« We immediately ran into the barrier of technology, » says Olling, who also acts as Katachi’s editor-in-chief and creative director. The Katachi team quickly found that no publishing tool existed that could make use of the iPad’s touch interface to their liking. Ultimately they decided to create their own, native platform-the Origami Engine, a Mac OS desktop application for producing iPad publications. Olling explains that developing Katachi and Origami simultaneously « became this sort of back-and-forth where we would come up with ideas editorially, work on tools to be able to do those things editorially, and we would learn from the mistakes. »
