Extended Practice

The task was to come up with a concept for a new independent publication and come up with a Kickstarter campaign that could possibly launch the publication. We were given a sheet with a list of existing independent magazines and a list of categories/genres they fall under as a starting point. On the sheet was also a list of magazine Kickstarter campaigns and how successful they were to aid us in creating a strong Kickstarter.

I had a quick look at some other independent magazine covers:

There were six points to address in the workshop:
Concept
Audience
Aesthetic
Strategy
Lifespan
Progression
Working in a group of 5, we came up with the concept for the magazine..





We decided to go with the name 'untold' and we all played around a little bit with logotypes, before regrouping to see what each other had come up with.

Whilst a few of the other team members designed the logo and front cover idea, the rest of us came up with how the Kickstarter campaign video would work..


Example of how the trailer aesthetic would look (but obviously ours would be a lot more lighthearted and would show snippets of interviews):


The final cover:


For the cover of the magazine, we wanted the very front page to be a thick stock with a circle cut out of the middle. Through the circle you can see the face of a man, but you can't really tell anything about who he is or what his profession is in order to not judge him before you read about his life. Then once you turn the page, it will reveal his profession and the stories that he has to tell about his life as a taxi driver.

We presented our ideas to Alec Dudson and the rest of the group. We received quite a lot of praise on the concept behind the independent magazine and the cover that we designed. However, we were criticised on our Kickstarter campaign, which we knew we had neglected slightly as we had spent so long coming up with a strong concept and design for the cover.