OUGD601 STUDY TASK 1

Graphic design for the real world?

What is the main argument of the article?
Design activism influenced by persuasion and visual communication.

What is the main theoretical framework for the article?
Promoting social change, raising awareness about values and beliefs (e.g., in relation to climate change, sustainability, etc.), or questioning the constraints that mass production and consumerism place on people’s everyday life.

What types of design do they critique?
Commercial design.

What might you as a designer take from this?
How to empower people to do something with good design, instead of absorb something without context or meaning.

The Graphic Thing

What is thingness as it relates to graphic design?
The approach to mental process that things only have meaning when we give them one. The difference between familiar and unfamiliar. Expanding initial functionality of a graphic design object.

What is the main argument? What can graphic designers take from the research?
How experiences of “things” and “thingness” arise at different stages
or levels in processes of meaning construction.

Can you identify a coherent theoretical framework in the article?
No, because there are too many topics and points of view. It should be about one topic, design.

The future of print design relies on interaction

How does the research article differ from the previous two?
A practice based piece of research instead of a contextually researched piece.

What is the main argument of research?
Make print more engaging to create more interest in it given the fact we have been enslaved by digital media. Apply digital theories to print.

Does the author utilise a theoretical framework?
Not really due to the practical not actually proving the topic being discussed. There was no other theory to back it up.

OUGD601 DEVELOPMENT/RESEARCH FROM FEEDBACK

After consideration my question and feedback, I decided to refine my question to something a lot more tailored to the content I was gathering for the essay. After reviewing my presentation and research it was clear to me that my direction was aimed more towards the relationship magazines have with their digital and print platforms. This has lead me to rephrase my question to 'Do print and digital magazine publishing platforms need to coexist to be able to survive?' I feel like this question is a lot more refined then my previous one, 'What is the current state of magazines and will they survive the digital era?'. This new question has given me more flexibility within my current research and will allow me to look deeper into the research I have and new items also.

After changing my question I began studying some solely digital publishing platforms to understand how and why they work. One very interesting one I came across was e-flux. e-flux journal is a monthly art publication featuring essays and contributions by some of the most engaged artists and thinkers working today. It publishes all of its content on its incredibly well designed website, which allows you to travel through it with style and ease. This format can easily reach readers all over the world for the simple price of nothing. All their articles are clear and concise, not too lengthy at all which aids to the idea that print publishing is more flexible given the fact a standard print issue mag will focus in on one topic throughout, whereas a site like this will keep its stories brief and to the point. 

In 2009, e-flux introduced a new print on demand service for their readers. This would allow them to access unique stories unknown to the online site and print them off on whatever format, paper stock or technique that they wished. They believed that “the printed page serves as an important commitment to a certain temporal conclusiveness. It may not be how content moves, but it is how content asserts that it exists, even if only temporarily.” (e-flux, 2009, journal as exhibition, e-flux journal, https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/38452/journal-as-exhibition/) This process is only used for certain stories that requite that 'conclusiveness' that they have mentioned. This has allowed them to publish an even wider variety of stories. These more full stories will encourage more readers to invest to this journal.

This decision has also aloud them to overpass the thought of deciding what kind of print magazine they would be. A coffee table mag would obviously have a certain target audience that maybe they aren't aiming for in comparison to say a broadsheet reader. This approach has aloud their audience to create the publication in whatever format suits them, be it coffee table magazine, a scholarly periodical, a broadsheet, a set of posters or unbound pages collected in a box. 

OUGD601 PRESENTATION FEEDBACK

During my presentation, I presented all of my current research that has previously been blogged about. I covered all the research into Mute magazine, Cut magazine, the ever developing mag genres and my primary research involving Eye On design. My feedback was all positive but it demonstrated that I had to refine my question and develop the practical so that they both suited one another clearly.

To push my research further I was told to research a magazine called The Face. This magazine ended up cancelling its print run due to its unsuccessful output, but after years of it being dormant, a strong rebrand bought it back to life and now continues to be a very successful mag.

Something I will now aim my essay towards is more upon the topic of 'do print and digital publishing platforms need to co-exist to be able to survive?'

OUGD601 PRACTICAL WORK INITIAL IDEAS

Following my research, I began collating several initial ideas for my practical effort towards this project. My practical work had to be a clear reflection of the written work or one of my case studies so I began taking them apart and finding the issue within each. 

My first idea was to revert back the Mute magazine and their downfall. I thought that perhaps I could go to Mute magazines website and convert their content back into print, following their roots. I'd take inspiration from their original print run which was done on a newspaper/tabloid format and printed on a modern interpretation of old pink newsprint. I'd use this format and combine it with some more modern design disciplines to make it more engaging and attractive to readers today. They designed their original print run to be new and interesting so I will give that belief a rebirth. The idea is that perhaps Mute magazine can be saved by print and that print is in fact not dead. 

Another idea I had was to play with the theme of magazine genre. In my research, I uncovered that a lot of great magazines today are developing already existing genres into more of a niche market. The result of this is more readers and magazine sales. This has been done by turning these mundane topics into more passion projects. My idea is to follow these footsteps and select a glossy mag with no effort behind it and turn convert its genre into one with a much more specific target audience. In doing this and exploring more abstract elements of that certain topic and also reflecting that in its design, I'd end up making a more successful piece of editorial design e.g Put an Egg on it.

This idea would celebrate both digital and print within one piece of work. The idea that print cannot survive without digital was fascinating to me so I thought that perhaps I could create a zine in celebration of these two practices. This could feature such things as the augmented reality app Artivive which connects the digital and print world together perfectly. I could also use QR codes to link sites to articles within the physical print.

A final idea I had was in reflection of the success of cut magazine and how it managed to get where it has done without any digital aid whatsoever. The idea was to create an online platform for cut magazine to give it that digital aid it never had or perhaps will never really need. The platform would feature small articles and features to keep a small community of readers online, giving people around the world a small insight into their DIY mag. The idea is that this would generate even more readers for the magazine.

OUGD601 RESEARCH INTO CASE STUDY 2

This second case study will be examining the effects that the digital era has had on print in magazine publishing. It will be having a look at if print is truly dead due to this or if in fact, print and digital work perfectly together in aiding both their goals. When reading (Moser, H. 20016, The Art Directors’ Handbook of Professional Magazine Design, London, Thames & Hudson Ltd) I became aware of Cut - Leute machen Kleider (‘People Make Clothes’) magazine. This magazine released its first issue with zero digital aid, no website or social media handles. They distributed their magazine throughout stockists in Europe and had their name passed around blog pages until the first issue sold out and then exactly same with the reprint. “Even without the power of marketing and advertising, the first print run sold very quickly, and the reprint soon to follow suit. The magazine was lauded in the media and won a plethora of design awards.” (Moser, H. 2003, pg.52) To this day, Cut magazine still operates within a very analogue process without any digital support whatsoever. This proves a theory that perhaps print is not dead, if this magazine has survived the last ten years of the digital revolution by sticking to its hand made roots.

In high contrast to this point, Rosa Park of Cereal magazine believes that print and digital are equally as important as each other in the great succession of a magazine. “If you’re a printed magazine, having an online presence in essential. At the very least, it’s a quick reference point for readers, and it could also be an important partner to the magazine in terms of content." “Publishing online can build a loyal readership, some of whom can be translated into customers of a printed publication” (Lewis, A. 2016, So you want to publish a magazine?, London, Lawrence King Publishing, pg.13) It is interesting to see how these different magazines function in this era and reverting back to my previous blog (OUGD601 PRIMARY RESEARCH) Eye On Design have also stated that their printed magazine run would have never existed without the help of their digital platform and the readers they gained there before going print.

OUGD601 PRIMARY RESEARCH

I attended a magazine launch by AIGA Eye On Design upon the launch of their #4 issue entitled 'worth'. Eye On Design magazine turns heads towards the worlds most exciting design and are published by the wolds largest/oldest non-profit design organisations, AIGA. They talked through the process of creating that specific issue and the mainly the topic at hand. Their target audience was the emerging design community and they wanted to educate their audience upon the value of their own work and others. This was done beautifully within their very carefully designed editorial and abstract page spreads. By simply flicking through this magazine, you can tell is possessed something more then your average coffee table mag. It was fuelled with passion and strong ideas.

After the talk was over, I had the chance to briefly ask the two editors, Meg Miller and Madeline Morley, some more specific questions that related to my topic.

Q: How do you keep your audience excited when reading they your physical matter? 

They stated that each issue they would hire a new graphic designer to create the layout and page design. This would keep the readers more engaged with the release of each issue, ensuring they wouldn't get bored of the same format every time. Once they had collected all the content, images, interviews, articles etc, they would hand them all over to the designer who would then spend a month or two generating the printed matter. The designer of this issue was David Benski. Something he included in this issue to make it more engaging was small price tags on certain pages accounting for elements of the issues production. This playfully reflects back to the topic of the issue at hand. To make sure the audience was familiar with the designer of the issue, a free 16 page zine is also included with the magazine, featuring a small portfolio of that designers work. Benski continued to use abstract layouts and typesetting, forcing the reader to interact with the publication in ways they wouldn't normally have too. One last thing they would do to the physical format of the publication was die-cut a hole on the front of every issue. This would act as a title in a sense given the fact they would not use a typical header on their covers. This would be repeated upon every cover, ensuring you knew that what you were holding was Eye On Design given the fact each issue would look so drastically different.

Q: What is the relationship between the print and digital platform for Eye On Design magazine?

They explained how for years prior to this moment they were solely an online platform for three consecutive years, publishing similar articles and stories as today. Once they finally obtained enough funding to go print they took the opportunity. At that point they had already a large audience of online readers that were soon converted to print. They believe that going print has opened the doors to in fact more readers. They expressed how their print format would allow them to be more flexible with their topics and stories, targeting a specific design discipline each issue which they believed to be unachievable via digital. They now keep small articles, stories, quizzes and other interactive elements on their online platform and the larger stories in print. This was done to help their audience understand certain disciplines in greater detail. Now, Eye On Design work within a happy medium of both print and digital. They also stated they wouldn't have gotten where they have today without the help of their digital platform. This is solely due to marketing and advertising purposes. They concluded the answer with the question 'How would our audience be aware of our print edition if they didn't see it online?' 

OUGD601 RESEARCH INTO CASE STUDY 1

WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF MAGAZINES AND WILL THEY SURVIVE THE DIGITAL ERA?

I began researching into my topic by sourcing lots of books from the library and understanding my topic. I wanted to find a magazine that demonstrated the whole life cycle of a piece of editorials rise and fall due to the digital era. This case study would prove a point in demonstrating that perhaps print is in fact dead or on its decline due to the digital age we live in. In retaliation to this I will show another side to that argument which is in fact that print is fighting back via developing its matter to create something new and more engaging.

To prove my first point in this case study, I began reading the book (Shaughnessy. A, 2008, Mute Magazine Graphic Desgin, London, Eight Books Limited) This read gives you an insight to the life of Mute Magazine between 1994 and 2008. The rapid rise and decline of this magazine is a perfect example of the digital era consuming our beloved printed matter. The summary of the book is that Mute started off creating their magazine as a retaliation to all the other magazines at the time by designing it on a format that had never been used for a magazine before. This gained lots of interest into the magazine and was a great success. Over time, the digital age effected the format of the magazine and it developed slowly over time into a more mainstream format, losing readers and buyers. After further research into the magazine after the year of 2008, I discovered that it became too expensive the make and they were not receiving enough funding or donations from their viewers. This soon lead the magazine to became a coffee table mag and then later on cancelling their print run entirely and turning fully digital. Here's a link to their current website where they still publish today. https://www.metamute.org/. In some senses they have turned full circle given the fact that their website uses the same grid system as their original issue in 1994.

On the other side of this argument, a lot of magazines today have developed the way they are being designed and considered to create new ways to read and fresh topics to discover. They have done this by creating new formats to print on, stock to use, topics to discuss and more importantly, developing their genre to suit a new generation of readers. This is something I'll be researching specifically to find out how some of these topics are changing to become more suitable for readers of the next generation. I've been reading content from some of the magazines exercising  this concept, such as Put an Egg on it, Carl's Cars and Frankie. They have all taken original topics and genres such as fashion, car and food magazines then pushed the meaning of the genre, really exploring what they stand for. This has lead to creating new topics and opening the minds to readers who would have never previously picked up a magazine. This has combated digital readers by publishing content not previously aired on digital platforms, meaning that the only way you'd have access to this is by purchasing their magazines.