Photography Magazine Design Research
FACT MAGAZINE
> Bringing together analogue, sound, music and design into one publication
> Has a futuristic aesthetic that is done in a simple, effective way
> Photography takes prominent focus throughout, with type choice and specific directions in layout elevating this photography and working with it side by side
> With the limited time of this brief this direction is the best way to go
> Choose specific layout design decisions and use this as the staple aesthetic, something which will present the right tone and mean it can be done well and quickly
Golgotha: In Corpore Sano Magazine
> "hand-drawing feeling, mixed with 3D and eye candy CG imagery"
> Layering of additional 3D elements above text and visuals
> Can distract from photography below
> Depends what the client wants in relation to her photography and its presentation
> Use of 3D and shiny textures always reflects this sense of futurism and space
> Also prominent in the photographer's work going in the book
David Benski - Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist 2030, David was invited to design a poster around what the future will feel like. An apt and interesting project given the current state of pandemic, back then, David was keen to explore how our visual systems may change. The exhibition aims to show how different people from an array of countries and contexts will experience the future, and with this in mind, “the poster deals with the future of visual language by cutting down communication codexes,” explains the designer. The colourful experiments reinterpret formal means of communication like the alphabet, and he jumbles up shapes and patterns so they possess only a small hint of recognisability, but a potent one nonetheless.
David Benski - Gira Magazine
> Interaction between the imagery and the text is interesting
> There is a collage element to the way the photographs are treated in the layout
> For a Nike campaign this works very well as the stamped text across pages creates a packaging aesthetic
> This also makes me think of the branding of NASA and spaceships, with numbers and texts and codes
> Could I utilise or subvert design elements from such technology space companies?
> Layout is what could be used
> I like the way how the text is connected to the imagery, this gives a strong scientific, precise analytical quality that connotes to the viewer something possibly futuristic
> Elements within the drawings of the blueprints could also be taken out and placed around pages to give that wireframe technological aesthetic
Colour textures and abstract forms
> She said she likes use of colour
> What if instead of a clean cut, minimal aesthetic the magazine took on a more experimental colourful approach?
> This would still be paired with refined, more simple layouts that feels editorial to provide their photos the focus they need
Hagihara Takuya
In August 2016, a graphic glitch took over at It’s Nice That. Some kind of computer malfunction worked its way onto our screens, where colourful smears and abstract shapes were presented before us as if they were composing a message sent from the future. Well, this futuristic voyage is back
> As the client's photos are based on technology and the future this is an important connection to make in the design direction
> Not just giving a future aesthetic, there should be references and hints to technology as well
Wanwai Shum
> Their work follows a strong monochrome direction, but adapted in different ways
> Her direction follows a similar monochrome, minimal aesthetic
> Lots of focus on type, abstract imagery, grid formatting between both elements in either a very digital way or using collaging
> Interesting use of similar monochrome approach with high thresholding to create this eerie black and white moulding together feeling
> Additional play with pixel type that creates a strong technological aesthetic
> Very simple layout, interesting break in paper stock/colour
> Need to ask for her budget on printing her book to know what additional printing processes can be used eg. foiling, debossing, paper stock
Desmond Palmer
> Highly thresholded imagery seems to work well for a futuristic ambiguous aesthetic
> This aesthetic uses bright, vivid colours and repetition in imagery or shapes to connote something futuristic
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MOODBOARDS for 2 IDEAS
=> MINIMALISM, MONOCHROME, TYPE FOCUS, METALLIC COLOURS
=> COLOURFUL, MORE HAND MADE OUTCOMES DIGITALLY MANIPULATED, ABSTRACT IMAGERY
Call with Photographer:
- Digital publication for now, printed when facilities open at after her deadline on monday 18th
- Photos theme around transhumanism
- Will we go too far with technology and incorporating it into our body?
- Down for layering on top of photos and having a mixture between prominence in her photos and details with layered 3D images and collaging
- Love the abstract colourful shape pieces by Takuya
- Edits of photos themselves like face mapping and a digital aesthetic to be done later once whole publication is done if there is time
- Same for ideas on production of publication eg. paper stocks
COVER
- Abstract colours, should we just have that on the front?
- Think that photos will engage a viewer faster than just colours and shapes
- Combine both these ideas: Abstracted photo with colours and shapes in background, these shapes and colours will merge off onto back cover
TIMETABLE
Monday
> Create a few spreads using her photographs and aesthetic plan and show her
> Receive feedback and plan pages
> Complete 5-6 spreads
Tuesday
> Complete 7 more spreads
etc.
Transhumanism is a philosophical movement that advocates for the transformation of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies able to greatly modify or enhance human intellect and physiology.
DAZED BEAUTY
We are creating another dimension, another human nature before our eyes. The speculative design studio Imprudence explores future beauty products with their online store selling items ranging from cat eye DNA, nano filter make-up to a skin scanning soap. Face filters are a key illustration of the viral desire for wearing 3D makeup as seen in Ines Alpha’s recently launched collaboration with the fashion brand Bimba y Lola. Through her digital creations, digital artist Ksenia Trifonova engages with a future where images will be projected onto our faces and give us the ability to transform and communicate data, style, social media posts on our skins.
Western philosophy makes an absolute distinction between the living and the non-living. We presumed that humans were the only thinking things but now machines think, they will sense, feel, reflect, even have a sense of self, through avatars like Josefin Jonsson’s virtual humans, cyborgs and humanoids. As we use advanced technologies to push the edges of humanity, machines are becoming like us. The question now is, where do we end and where do they begin? And is this a true advancement for society?
IMMORTAL CARBON
> Physical production of this zine on transhumanism is interesting with the notion of packaging like you do with manmade objects
> Production of this publication could be a whole other brief to do after her deadline
> This has a consistent aesthetic throughout which is very dark and ominous concerning the theme of transhumanism
> I want to take a more playful colourful direction than this, but the grid layout of this works well with the association to technology
> Thresholded imagery and the use of a bright colour acting as a glow on darker colours creates this alien other wordly feel
> Grid textures suggests ideas of a different planet
> This spread reflects ideas of transhumanism but is not necessarily designed that well
> The use of overlaid type I've seen before and will look to use in this publication as it reflects this sense of dual beings being combined, humans and machine
PHOTOGRAPHY PUBLICATIONS
> Wanted to look at the specific design of publication design for photography
> There is not necessarily a link between the brief I have been given and what I have seen in the research
> Most photography publications place the photography first, giving it the space and layout to take prominence on the page, letting the photos speak for themselves
> The brief and conversation with the photographer follows more of an experimental direction and gives freedom to play around with the images
DISTA
> Presenting the beauty in the mundane
> Fashion photography magazines however have a much more experimental direction than most conventional photography books
HOW I-D INFLUENCED FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY
> Collaging, layering, playing around etc.
> Giving space to important images for focus on them and experimenting are two important directions to get a balance between in the direction of this brief
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