BRIEF 14: EVALUATION

Overview

The intern magazine work shop was really insightful in deciphering all the components needed to set up a magazine through considering the concept, audience, aesthetic, strategy, lifespan and progression. These are issues that haven't been considered in previous work and was beneficial to know this for future briefs.

Working with an industry professional is an amazing opportunity to find out information from someone who has experience in the field and to create connections in the future. Intern magazine is very successful and the journey of it's success was really inspiring and informative. 

The knowledge about the magazine and editorial industry is something I will take on into my practice and has helped me to gain a better insight into the production and development of a magazine.

What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

The skills obtained from this brief include the development of working in collaborative groups, this workshop enabled all members to have a say and formulate ideas to create the magazine which was really successful.

The research skills and concept development has been developed through this brief, by working in stages set by Alec. Which allowed the magazine concepts evolve through certain features that where focused on. For example when considering audience would a pink logo fit in with the aesthetic and so on. Thinking about each detail and linking back to all the stages within the magazine development helped develop my skills and these where applied through engaging in the workshop format.

What approaches / methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

The approaches to design production I have developed further is working through stages as mentioned above, this is already apart of my design practice but something I have rarely implemented when designing for editorial. Thinking of other elements apart from the design has become an important factor to consider when designing for print and has informed my future decisions through consider the lifespan, sponsors and campaign of a magazine when working within this format.

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

The strengths within this brief would be the knowledge of editorial layout and type, this will be capitalised through more research into excising publications, visits and talking to studios that specialise in this sector for my information and influence.

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

The weaknesses in this brief was that the campaign could have been pushed a lot further considering the size of the collaborative group. I think big groups of us focused on two elements of the project when only one person needed to. 

With this weakness address in future collaborative work, I will aim to consider other factors that I can contribute in and not just focus on what I find most comfortable to work in to challenge myself and progress as a designer.

Identify things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

I would spend more time on other features of the brief that have been neglected to ensure that the brief is overall strong and in doing this the brief could have been more substantial.

BRIEF 14: PRESENTATION BOARDS

BRIEF 14: INTERN MAGAZINE WORKSHOP

Today Alex Duddson, the creative director of Intern magazine came in and presented to us about how his magazine came to light and gained some amazing recognition.

Before creating the magazine Alec interned at some magazines, which gave him inspiration for the publication and drove his passion to creating his own.

Boat magazine — London
Domus — Milan

Intern — no magazine was really writing about it. written by and is for the interns. kickstarter campaign. picked up a lot of press that helped develop the magazine. Designed advertising to keep an in house style.


Workshop

After the presentation Alec gave us some details for the workshop — to design, create a concept and financial backing for a fictional magazine of our choice. The magazine should be different from whats our there already in a very competitive market.

For the workshop we were put into groups of 5—6 were we worked on communicating these themes for the brief. My group consists of Jordan, Jamie, Beth, Vicky and Sam.

Concept

To start off the process we brainstormed ideas as a group of different themes that we could consider looking further into. We wanted the magazine to have a niche audience and originality so we kept that in mind when considering things such activities, culture and trends.

From the brainstorm we highlighted our top 3 outcomes which where travel camper vans, shoes and looking at people who live off the grid. From these 3 outcomes we all decided as a group that 'off the grid' was the most interesting and would generate a big scope on what we could cover for the magazine. We then decided to refine our ideas into a solid concept which is listed below.

Audience

I then looked into what audience this magazine could appeal to, again brainstorming different words and activities associated with the target market.

I then created a defined explanation of what the 'off the grid' would be like — the off the grid consumer is someone who appreciates the earth we live on and has a taste for adventure. They spend their days growing their own produce or want to find ways in maintaing a DIY lifestyle. However members of the audience do not actually live off the grid, like the people featured in the magazine, they are interested in the culture and the associated lifestyle. 

Aesthetic

In regards to aesthetic we felt that an organic and hand rendered feel would be most beneficial for the context of the brief. I create a mood board of design ideas of what the magazine could possibly represent or look like alongside with Sam and Vicky whilst Jordan, Beth and Jamie looked into creating a masthead.


— Mood board

— Imagery

Looking into Antoine Bruy photography who travelled the world to see people who lived off the grid and the houses and facilities they made.

— Binding 

I looked into Japanese and stab stich binding as it has a real tactile quality to the design and was what we wanted our publication to represent due to the nature of the content. The content suits a bi annual format as it has a lot of content and is well researched.

Strategy 

Another thing we focused on was the strategy of how the magazine could be advertised and gain financial backing through a kickstarter campaign, sponsors and other printed promotional material. Below is a brainstorm I created of the potential ideas.

Due to the nature of our content we decided that national geographic would a suitable sponsor or associate for our magazine as they share the same ethos. Our magazine would be the younger version of the magazine that the audiences can grow up with and move onto national geographic as they get older. On looking into the National Geographic website we found a prime example on who our magazine was about — Mick Dodge.

Video Links

For the campaign we would show clips of people living 'Off The Grid' like Mick, to audiences to show how the other world live to gave a small insight which would grab their attention and want to find out more.

Lifespan

In regards to life span we had to consider how many issues of the magazine would come out and the longevity of the content. With this in mind we estimates on the magazine lasting for 5-10 years due to the dfferent communities around the world of people who live off the grid.

Progression

For the progression of the magazine, we expect to go internationally not only in content but also in sales through the growing interest in sustainability and DIY lifestyle culture that people are really starting to relate to.


Final 

 

Overview

The presentation of our idea went down really well with the rest of the class and Alec, I think he liked how individual and unique our idea was and creating a niche human interest magazine was a really good idea. I really enjoyed this session due to working in group with like minded people and thinking of some really cool and innovative ideas. We all contributed equally and I think we made a realistic looking magazine and concept in just a day!