OUGD401 - Project Statement

OUGD401 - Project Statement 

The research and understanding of the effect of the internet and digital medias on editorial design gained in both essays has most definitely allowed for a more informed and thought out project when it came to designing the 2 NME issues. Firstly, the first essay, which summarises a brief history of editorial design, gave context to the design process and where different influences came from and the most important source for this was Joihn Cliffords - Graphic Icons: Visionaries Who Shaped Modern Graphic Design. For example looking at the work of editorial designers from the 20th century such as Herbert Matter or Alexey Brodovitch who contributed massively to editorial design; whether its Matter’s integration of large scale bold photography, or Brodovitch’s avant-garde use of body text, it’s one thing to use these elements in a design, but its another to know who conceived these design ideas and to use them as inspiration to carry out these ideas more effectively. In a more contemporary context, this couldn’t be more true when looking at the work of David Carson as well; although inspiration can be taken from his grunge type or irrational distorted layouts, it’s more so how he broke the rules which is so admirable, however effectively it was carried out. As a result of this, when to came to designing and laying out the NME magazines, Carson inspired a certain level of design instinct and freedom, striving towards a design that looked good despite possibly breaking conventions. 

The second essay provided a context to modern day magazine design and publishing, and some of Carson’s notions were carried across to here as well. Researching interviews with him in where he talks about his music magazine Raygun imparted a lot of wisdom about expressing the feel, mood and/or style of an interview purely from its aesthetic. In his interview with Medium (2016), he expressed how he wants readers to be able to gauge this purely from opening the magazine and looking at the spread for a few seconds. This is an important principle, which, if referring back to the first essay, can be seen early in the 20th century such as El Lizzitsky’s work on Mayakovsky’s Dlya Golosa. However in a contemporary setting, this principle directly related to the NME redesign because the 2 magazines needed 2 distinct styles to appeal to 2 different readerships. Another valuable source of research was Dazed Art Director Jamie Reid’s Interview with It’s Nice That about his new approach with Dazed Magazine. He talked about increasing the value of the magazine effectively, making it a separate entity than the digital platform by adding in more fun depth interviews and exclusive contents. With the use of appropriate paper stock and bold design, he aimed to make the magazines a covetable collectable object and not simply a source of information - This was invaluable when designing and producing the 2 NME magazines.