FMP WEEK 10 (WC: 01/02/2021)

After creating some of my own work, I decided I wanted to research more and refine the sources that I was gaining my inspiration from. I used the information from my customer profiles that I made using my friend’s details as direct customer market research/primary research and sought out some interesting visual sources to base my research off of as these were considered very important for making a magazine. I researched into Wired Magazine, which caught my eye due to the old school style graphics which has heavily influenced the basis from my magazine; I aimed to have Sentient Magazine as a modern magazine with a retro design twist which is what Wired Magazine has turned into, mainly as they have been running since the 80s/90s. The logo in particular had me hooked as it was very different to other magazine fonts, Vogue, Elle etc have a very similar serif style thin font which would be all the same size in black whereas Wired magazine has different alternating shapes for each letter which emphasises the uniqueness of the magazine and adds a character to their logo; this improves their character of the magazine as a whole. As I had previously used philosophy Magazines as the starting point for my collages (as seen in a few blog posts ago), it made sense to research into an actual magazine which has some philosophical articles to influence my magazine and gain appropriate and relevant sources of research from.

I also researched into Analogue Magazine for similar reasons; the font was very unusual from a normal magazine that I would research into, such as Dazed and i_D, therefore it is nice to gain a different type of research. I have found that seeking out research sources that are more specific and unlike my usual sources, I am gaining more unique analysis techniques and able to get inspiration by completely different sources to my peers; allowing myself to really refine the projects that I am working on. Analogue magazine is not a fashion magazine, which is why it may have proven to be so useful for me. The content they produce is science fiction however the whole aesthetic and style of the front covers is what allowed me to create some mood boards inspired by the general design to help try and influence my own.

Another point of research for me was Toiletpaper Magazine. I was immediately blown away by the visual content, and as my market research led me to having to expand on my visual content (as everyone said they look for exciting visual content) I felt it was very appropriate to research into Toiletpaper Magazine further. The use of bright colours as the backgrounds for their shoots really emphasises the comedic and dynamic style of the content, they produce content with close ups of juxtaposing images and although I do not want to create a lot of photographic content, I find that utilising these images as the basis of my graphic design work is very important.

I created some mood boards of the visual content of these magazines, to inspire my own personal graphic design work for this course, while seeking out sources of research that were appropriate to my style and aesthetic of the magazine in the current moment. The mood boards were a good way of allowing myself to utilise small parts of other designer’s work to build upon my own style, which is why I chose the three magazines I did, as all of their styles’ individually differ far from each other, yet all of the mood boards follow my distinctive style which I have built from doing this.