We ❤ Piero Publishing

Born and raised in London, Jeannine Saba ’93 built a local, independent publishing house from scratch, creating stunning magazines that capture the spirit of vibrant London neighborhoods. This summer, she invited three ASL high school students into her world for an action-packed week of WorkX shadowing—bringing generations of Eagles together in the city they all call home.

“A magazine has a heartbeat,” proclaims Jeannine Saba ’93. “Every magazine, no matter the size.” The maxim that has propelled her work as an independent publisher for the past 10 years? “If you do it properly, you can create a community with a magazine.”

And community is exactly what Jeannine built this past summer when she invited students to help her build not just one magazine, but all three of the independent publications she produces through her own Piero Publishing—and then some. In early July, Jeannine welcomed three rising Grade 12 students into her Covent Garden flat, which doubles as a full-time publishing house, for a week of city traversals, shadowed meetings, and learning by doing. 

“We absolutely blitzed it,” Jeannine reports. “We didn’t stop.”

Jeannine, herself, doesn’t seem to ever stop: There’s simply not the time. In addition to her three independent publications, all single-handedly produced once a quarter—though, Jeannine is quick to point out, she commissions all writing and illustrations—she is a contract publisher for the Dorchester hotel and for a property company, and has spent the past four years volunteering as teacher of the magazine club at St. George’s Hanover Square Primary School, the only state school in Mayfair. It’s a project very close to Jeannine’s heart—but then, they all are.

Jeannine spent 10 years doggedly asking the late, legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser, perhaps most famous for his iconic “I❤NY” logo, to design a magazine cover for her, and did not stop until Glaser relented. 

“Ten years’ worth of asking!” she exclaims, until finally, in 2019 (one year before his passing), Glaser designed a bespoke “I❤CG” cover for Jeannine and her magazine Covent Gardener. “He hasn’t given his heart to anyone else,” she says, sounding still-incredulous and rightfully proud five years later. “I haven’t seen that anywhere.” 

Jeannine describes Glaser’s Covent Gardener cover as the highlight of her career—although, she laughs, “He did put a ban on me after he did it. He said, ‘Ms. Saba, you do not need to come to New York again to visit me; I’ve done something for you now.’”

Nevertheless, Jeannine will find her way back to Glaser’s own NY in November; she has been invited to speak with illustration students at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, and isn’t the type to turn down a chance to connect.

Oskar Doepke ’25 was no stranger to WorkX when he applied to intern at Piero. Summers before this one, he sat in some of London’s skyscrapers, in law offices and banks, laying eyes on the corporate world long before many of his peers will ever catch a glimpse. He thought that his week at Piero would look somewhat similar—but instead, he found, “It was really personal. We didn’t just sit in a room: We walked all around London, and used the city as a tool. We learned how to build an independently published magazine from scratch.” 

Oskar is editor-in-chief for print of the Standard, ASL’s high school newspaper, this year. And shadowing Jeannine for a week, he was able to experience the real-world equivalent of the extracurricular work that occupies most of his school-year spare time. 

“The Standard gets funded by the School, so it’s a very different model,” Oskar points out. “But this WorkX gave me a lot of insight into how independent publishing works, which will be helpful if I decide to go into that as a career. We learned about layout, print and the necessities of advertising.”

His favorite part, though, was meeting new people. “From having high tea at the Savoy, to getting to speak with a gardener at a public park,” to learning how a Dorchester bartender crafts a drink, Oskar was struck by the sheer number and variety of Londoners that Jeannine meets in a given week, and as a result, how many he got to meet, too.

Fellow intern Sherine Wright ’25 felt similarly: “Throughout the week, the three of us watched Jeannine interact with clients, partners, Covent Garden locals, and schoolchildren. She is so interconnected and engaged with her community.” 

It was the balance of, on the one hand, the infectious sense of youth and play that radiates from Jeannine’s work with St. George’s magazine club, and, on the other, the “polish and sophistication” of the magazine she makes for the Dorchester, that attracted Sherine to Piero. 

That precise interplay is central to Jeannine’s work: “This magazine I did with St. George’s—we’ve done four of them now—went on to inspire one I did for the Dorchester,” she says. “I love those sorts of connections.” And the three WorkX applicants who expressed an instinctual understanding of this when applying to intern with Jeannine were the three she selected.

Though this past summer was Jeannine’s first time hosting WorkX students, whose praises she sings at every opportunity, she has engaged with her alma mater time and again over the three-plus decades since she graduated. “I forget that actually, I’ve always stayed in touch with ASL,” Jeannine laughs. She’s hosted InDesign workshops and talks; has brought artists in to meet with students. 

During the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, when Jeannine was creative director at Diplomat magazine, she brought celebrated American pop artist Charles Fazzino to ASL, where he worked with students to create a vivid three-dimensional art piece inspired by the School and its place within London’s urban fabric.

After graduating from ASL, where she had attended from Grade 8 onward, Jeannine pursued an art foundation course and then a graphic design degree, before landing her first jobs at Tatler and Harper’s Bazaar. Jeannine worked her way up in the world of publications and design before striking off on her own to establish Piero in 2016—the name comes from a family nickname for her father, Pierre, and the logo is his signature.

For the past 14 years, Jeannine has lived in Covent Garden, about half an hour southeast of Waverley Place via the Tube; a cobblestoned hub of history and foot traffic in ultra-central London. “I fell in love with the community before I started my first magazine,” Jeannine says. As she sees it, the heartbeat of Covent Garden, and therefore of the Covent Gardener, is the community: “The cobbler; the priests (who have all the gossip); the ladies at Tesco; the local postman… It’s like a bigger version of ASL!”

---

This summer, WorkX students interned with ASL’s very own media technician, Joe Harris, to create a wonderful video about the entire program—including a brief feature on the 2024 Piero Publishing placement! Watch the video.

If you’re a London-based professional and are interested in hosting students for a summer 2025 WorkX placement, we’d love to hear from you! Email pca.workx@asl.org for more information.