Designed Proposal

Proposal

Project Title.
Visual Identity in creating a new men’s weekly lifestyle/fashion magazine.

Proposal.
Create a 50 page magazine covering fashion, grooming and lifestyle for men aged 18 to 30

Why.
I came to this decision for two main reasons. First of all I am a big fan of magazines and fashion and would love the chance to work on such a project. I also feel that the market is lacking in down to earth tasteful men’s magazines. Magazines that can be bought weekly with cutting edge design and well thought out editorials. Ones where you don’t feel like a pervert reading on the train.

Vehicle.
The form this project shall take is that of a 50 page magazine covering photography, editorials and design. I also intend to create a visual identity for the magazine which will include a specific logo and typeface, advertising and model photography.Poster design and an online presence are also a possibility.

Nuts.
Nuts is a weekly lad’s mag published in the United Kingdom. It was the first weekly lad’s magazine to be published in the UK and is sold every Tuesday. The ad campaign says, "Women, don't expect any help on a Tuesday". It currently retails at £1.50.
Created as a spin-off of Loaded, Nuts has fast become one of the best selling weekly men’s magazines in the world, despite its relatively expensive weekly price tag. It remains the UK's best-selling weekly men's, magazine, accounting for two out of every five men’s, lifestyle mags purchased. Launched in 2004, Nuts has established itself as the biggest brand in men's media. According to official ABC figures, NUTS circulated 295,002 copies of the magazine between July and December 2006 and was voted, ‘Best New Magazine of the Year’ at the BSME awards in 200. It also aims at a target audience of 18+ on paper but because there is, no age restriction on the magazine the actual audience is from roughly 16 onwards.

How.
Millions of men’s magazines are bought every week/month. Therefore the magazine has to appeal to a large amount of young males. I hope to cover a wide area of fashion and lifestyle without sounding pompous or arrogant, keeping the style within the boundaries and staying within what’s cool.

Front Cover.
As most men’s magazines have naked women on the covers, I wanted to create my own unique take on this, what else is beauty, how can I achieve the same feeling a young male gets by looking at Nuts or Zoo, without it looking tasteless? I wanted to bring in strong male influences for the younger generation, keeping it looking fashionable. I wanted to stay away from the obvious movie stars or d-list celebrities. Having men that have achieved things in their life, fashion designers, noble prize winners, designers etc. I can be partial to FHM and Nuts because of the naked women on the front, I also feel this can only have a damning effect on the young males of today, with less and less males figures to aspire to.

Presentation

Wyndeham

This is a brochure i recieved in the mail after emailing a publishing company. They publish magazines such as Mens Health. It is very interesting, I am in the middle of emailing them over a quote to produce a one of magazine.

Research Data

George Lois

Mens Magazines

Magazine Layout

Vogue

Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine published in several countries by Condé Nast Publications. the American version of Vogue, is led by Anna Wintour, a long term English resident in New York City. Each month Vogue publishes a magazine based entirely on Fashion, Life and Design. It has surpassed all other Magazines in total circulation and ads. Vogue is so named because it is said to be as a noun, Vogue suggests transient impermanent fashionability.

The current editor-in-chief of American Vogue is Anna Wintour, noted for her trademark bob and her practice of wearing sunglasses indoors. Since taking over in 1988, Wintour has worked to protect the magazine's No. 1 status among fashion publications, both in terms of reputation and sales. In order to do so, she brought the magazine down from what Time called "its Olympian heights, acknowledging that trends are as likely to start from the ground as be decreed from on high." This allowed Wintour to keep a high circulation while discovering new trends that a broader audience could conceivably afford. For example, the inaugural cover of the magazine under Wintour's editorship featured a three-quarter-length photograph of a model wearing a bejeweled Christian Lacroix jacket and a pair of jeans, departing from her predecessors' tendency to portray a woman’s face alone, which according to the Times' Weber, gave "greater importance to both her clothing and her body. This image also promoted a new form of chic by combining jeans with haute couture. Wintour’s debut cover brokered a class-mass rapprochement that informs modern fashion to this day."
Wintour's Vogue also aggressively nurtures new design talent, and her presence at fashion shows is often taken as an indicator of the designer's profile within the industry. In 2003, she joined the Council of Fashion Designers of America in creating a fund that provides money and guidance to at least two emerging designers each year. This has built loyalty among the emerging new star designers, and helped preserve the magazine's dominant position of influence through what Time called her own "considerable influence over American fashion. Runway shows don't start until she arrives. Designers succeed because she anoints them. Trends are created or crippled on her command."
The contrast of Wintour's vision with her predecessor has been noted as striking by observers, from both her critics and defenders. Amanda Fortini, fashion and style contributor to Slate argued that "during her tenure, Vogue has been enormously successful":

Annie Lebowitz - Video

Online Magazines

An online magazine is a magazine that is delivered in an electronic form. An online magazine may be online-only, or may be the online version of an otherwise print-published magazine. Today, most online magazines are Internet websites.

An online magazine that caters to a niche or special interest subject matter, i.e. a zine, is referred to as an ezine (usually pronounced "e-zeen"). An ezine that appears on the World Wide Web is called a webzine, although webzine may also refer to all online magazines. Other names include cyberzine and hyperzine. For web sites that represent an existing print magazine, the web site is usually referred to as " FHM Online", whereas an online only magazine is often titled "FHM Online Magazine".

A webzine tends to be published on a regulated basis (weekly, biweekly, monthly) and may maintain an editorial control system. A distinguishing characteristic from blogs is that webzines bypass the strict adherence to the reverse-chronological format; the front page is mostly clickable headlines and is laid out either manually on a periodic basis, or automatically based on the story type.

Today, the majority of online magazines use a website. Historically, the first e-zines were delivered on electronic media such as CD-ROM by mail; this is now relatively rare. There are some publishers that publish with an online presence that is archived on to CDs at the end of the publishing year as a volume and distributed through postal mail.

There are also subscription newsletters delivered by e-mail. Most modern online magazines use websites, and often offer e-mail subscription to either notify the subscriber of updated content, or in some cases, send the content itself.
Sometimes you can deliver them in the mail as an interactive CD-ROM.

The Lads Mag

Loaded, first published by IPC in 1994, is a British magazine for men that is considered to be the "original lads' mag".

Loaded was founded in 1994 by James Brown, a former deputy editor of the music weekly New Musical Express. In its early days, the magazine's readership was once memorably described as "50% Sun readers and 50% Guardian readers". Brown has described the irreverent comic Viz as an inspiration for Loaded (and he later bought the comic when he founded the company I Feel Good).
Loaded captured the lad culture of the 1990s like no other magazine; its glorification of British male "rogues" (Liam Gallagher, Oliver Reed, Paul Gascoigne etc.) was only outstripped by its fondness for titillating photoshoots with nubile C-, B-, and occasionally A-list celebrities. However, early covers led on male icons for film and TV - Gary Oldman was on the first cover.

The Loaded style has been cloned numerous times, most obviously by Emap's FHM, which became the biggest-selling men's magazine in the US for Dennis Publishing.

In January 2004, IPC launched the weekly Nuts, announced as the world's first men's weekly, and Emap quickly followed with Zoo.

FHM or For Him Magazine is an international monthly lad's mag. The magazine began publication in 1985 in the United Kingdom under the name For Him and changed its title to FHM in 1994, although the full For Him Magazine continues to be printed on the spine of each issue. Founded by Chris Astridge, the magazine was a predominantly fashion-based publication distributed through high street men's fashion outlets. Circulation expanded to newsagents as a quarterly by the spring of 1987.

After the emergence of James Brown's Loaded magazine (regarded as the blueprint for the lad's mag genre), For Him firmed up its editorial approach to compete with the expanding market and introduced a sports supplement. It then went monthly and changed its name to FHM. It subsequently expanded internationally.

Like Loaded, FHM arguably relies heavily on the appeal of photographs of scantily-clad women. Unlike many magazines, FHM prints photographs of women already famous for reasons other than their beauty—such as actresses and pop singers. FHM is typically stocked in the lifestyle rather than adult section on newsstands

The magazine is printed on high quality glossy paper and the photography is of high technical quality. FHM became one of the best-selling magazines in Britain during the mid to late 1990s, selling 700,000 copies per month by 1999, which was a fall by 9.6%. Towards the end of the decade the lads' culture in which the magazine thrived began to die off and publishers turned to celebrity-oriented titles to boost overall sales.

I.D. Magazine

i-D is a British magazine dedicated to fashion, music, art and youth culture. i-D was founded by designer and former Vogue art director Terry Jones in 1980. The first issue was published in the form of a hand-stapled fanzine with text produced on a typewriter. Over the years the magazine evolved into a mature glossy but it has kept street style and youth central to every issue.

The magazine is known for its innovative photography and typography, and over the years established a reputation as a training ground for fresh talent. Photographers Nick Knight, Wolfgang Tillmans, Juergen Teller, Terry Richardson and Ellen von Unwerth have produced work for i-D. The magazine celebrated its 250th edition at the end of 2004 and its 25th anniversary in 2005.
The magazine pioneered the hybrid style of documentary/fashion photography called "the straight up".

At first, these were of punks and New Wave youth found on English streets and who were simply asked to stand against any nearby blank wall. The resulting pictures - the subjects facing the camera and seen from "top to toe" - are a vivid historical documentary photography archive, and have established the posed "straight up" as a valid style of documentary picture-making.

Tipped on its side, the "i-D" typographic logo reveals a winking smiley. Most issues of i-D magazine have featured a winking cover model. i-D has also held numerous exhibitions worldwide and published several books.

In 1984, Tony Elliott (Time Out) became its publishing partner with 51% share of the company. Terry remained editor-in-chief and creative director, but he also worked on other commercial projects. In 2004, Terry - together with his wife, Tricia - regained total control of the company.

i-D's silver anniversary in 2005 was celebrated with an exhibition (i-Dentity) and guest-edited issues. Terry invited a number of creative collaborators to work with him on different issues, around the central theme of identity.

George Lois

The controversial April 1968 cover depicting Muhammad Ali impaled by six arrows appeared on the heels of his refusal to be inducted into the U.S. Army because of his religious beliefs. (Ali, convicted violating the Selective Service Act, was barred from the ring and stripped of his title.) The cover, the second of three Esquire covers defending Ali, shows the boxer martyred as St. Sebastian, a patron saint of athletes and one who was shot with arrows for his steadfast religious beliefs. This was one of the covers designed by George Lois, Esquire’s Art Director during the 1960s.



One of the most iconic of Art Director George Lois’s creations, the May 1969 cover of Esquire juxtaposed the celebration of pop culture while deconstructing celebrity. The image of a drowning Andy Warhol was a friendly spoof of the artist’s famous Campbell Soup artwork, a pervading symbol of the Pop Art movement.

Annie Leibovitz

Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz (born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer whose style is marked by a close collaboration between the photographer and the subject.

Rolling Stone’s cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono was named the top magazine cover to appear since 1965. The image was photographed by renowned celebrity portraitist Annie Leibovitz mere hours before Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980. The photo was eventually used on the cover of Rolling Stone’s tribute issue to Lennon on January 22, 1981.

Leibovitz promised Lennon he would make the cover of Rolling Stone. and she initially tried to get a picture with just Lennon alone. She would recall that, "nobody wanted [Ono] on the cover". When Lennon insisted that both be on the cover Leibovitz then tried to recreate the kissing scene from the Double Fantasy album cover, a picture that she loved. "What is interesting is she said she'd take her top off and I said, 'Leave everything on' ... not really preconceiving the picture at all. Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn't help but feel that she was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her... I shot some test Polaroids first and when I showed them to John and Yoko, John said, 'You've captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it'll be on the cover'. I looked him in the eye and we shook on it." She was the last person to professionally photograph John Lennon.

At VANITY FAIR she became known for her wildly lit, staged, and provocative portraits of celebrities. Most famous among them are Whoopi Goldberg submerged in a bath of milk and Demi Moore naked and holding her pregnant belly.

Vanity Fair’s provocative cover shot of the naked and hugely pregnant Demi Moore (also shot by Annie Leibovitz) projected the actress to even greater heights after the huge success of the movie Ghost the previous year. The cover helped firmly establish Moore as a member of Hollywood’s A-List at the time.

Demographic

Marketers typically combine several variables to define a demographic profile. A demographic profile (often shortened to "a demographic") provides enough information about the typical member of this group to create a mental picture of this hypothetical aggregate. For example, a marketer might speak of the single, female, middle-class, age 18 to 24 demographic.
Marketing researchers typically have two objectives in this regard: first to determine what segments or subgroups exist in the overall population; and secondly to create a clear and complete picture of the characteristics of a typical member of each of these segments. Once these profiles are constructed, they can be used to develop a marketing strategy and marketing plan.

Questionaire

1 .What is your age?

2 .What magazines do you subscribe to if any?

3 .How much would you be willing to spend on a magazine?

4 .Where are you most likely to read your magazine?

5 .What would you like to see more of in the magazine?

6 .Which magazines do you dislike?

7 .Would you buy a magazine just by looking at it on the shelf?

8 .Would the price of the magazine put you off buying it?

9 .Does the texture of the paper effect your judgement upon purchasing the magazine?

10 .Would a picture of a naked man/woman make you more interested in the magazine?

11 .Are magazines a chore or a joy?

12 .What is your favourite magazine?

13 .Do you buy magazines for mostly the pictures, the words or both? You can be honest.

14 .Do you feel that there are too many adverts in magazines?

15 .Would you rather buy a magazine with a gift of some sort?

16 .Would you be worried about what people thought of you if you were buying a lads mag for instance?

17 .If there was one thing, you could change about magazines now what would it be?

Combined Ethic

Perfect Binding

The craft of bookbinding originated in India, where religious sutra were copied onto palm leaves (cut into two, lengthwise) with a metal stylus. The leaf was then dried and rubbed with ink, which would form a stain in the wound. The finished leaves were given numbers, and two long twines were threaded through each end through wooden boards. When closed, the excess twine would be wrapped around the boards to protect the leaves of the book. Buddhist monks took the idea through modern Persia, Afghanistan, and Iran, to China in the first century BC.

Western writers at this time wrote longer texts as scrolls, and these were stored in shelving with small cubbyholes, similar to a modern winerack.

Publication

The various elements that contribute to the production of magazines can vary wildly. Core elements such as publishing schedules, formats and target audiences are seemingly infinitely variable. Typically, magazines which focus primarily on current events, such as Heat or Entertainment Weekly, are published weekly or biweekly. Magazines with a focus on specific interests, such as Fhm and Mens Health, may be published less frequently, such as monthly, bimonthly or quarterly. A magazine will usually have a date on the cover which often is later than the date it is actually published. Current magazines are generally available at bookstores and newsstands, while subscribers can receive them in the mail. Many magazines also offer a 'back issue' service for previously published editions.

Most magazines produced on a commercial scale are printed using a web offset process. The magazine is printed in sections, typically of 16 pages, which may be black-and-white, be in full colour, or use spot colour. These sections are then bound, either by stapling them within a soft cover in a process sometimes referred to as 'saddle-stitching', or by gluing them together to form a spine, a process often called 'perfect-binding'

Magazines are also published on the internet. Many magazines are available both on the internet and in hard copy, usually in different versions, though some are only available in hard copy or only via the internet: the latter are known as online magazines.

Most magazines are available in the whole of the country in which they are published, although some are distributed only in specific regions or cities. Others are available internationally, often in different editions for each country or area of the world, varying to some degree in editorial and advertising content but not entirely dissimilar

Catergories

Magazines fall into two broad categories: consumer magazines and business magazines. In practice, magazines are a subset of perodicals, distinct from those periodicals produced by scientific, artistic, academic or special interest publishers which are subscription-only, more expensive, narrowly limited in circulation, and often have little or no advertising. Many business magazines are available only, or predominantly, on subscription. In some cases these subscriptions are available to any person prepared to pay; in others, free subscriptions are available to readers who meet a set of criteria established by the publisher. This practice, known as controlled circulation, is intended to guarantee to advertisers that the readership is relevant to their needs: they can assure their advertisers that most or all of their subscribers are in a position to buy the goods or services advertised. Very often the two models, of paid-for subscriptions and controlled circulation, are mixed. Advertising is also an important source of revenue for business magazines.

Magazine History

The Gentlemens Magazine, first published in 1731, is considered to have been the first general-interest magazine. Edward Cave, who edited The Gentleman's Magazine under the pen name "Sylvanus Urban", was the first to use the term "magazine" (meaning "storehouse") for a periodical.

The oldest consumer magazine still in print is The Scots Magazine, which was first published in 1739, though multiple changes in ownership and gaps in publication totaling over 90 years weaken that claim. Lloyd’s List was founded in Edward Lloyd’s London coffee shop in 1734; it is still published as a daily business newspaper.

Initial Ideas

These are some initial ideas I have been thinking about for my Final Major, I have had some thoughts on a few topics.

I've been looking into creating a new magazine for a demographic which i feel is missing. I want to create a magazine which covers Design, Music and Fashion for the male market. Although there are a lot of publications for each catergory there isn't one for all. the closet magazine to those catergorys would be GQ, it is mainly a male fashion magazine which briefly covers sex music and everything in relevance. Other male magazines are high brow soft porn magazines such as Nuts, Zoo, FHM, Loaded, Maxim, Front, Bizzare and Playboy. I have the desire to create a magazine that would appeal to a different demographic without looking smutty, something you could read on the train without being stared at.






The Fifa World Cup in south Africa is also something that I am interested in. As a mad football fan it seems like a good idea. My idea would be to re-brand the competition, ranging from posters to logos. The main theme would obviously revolve around football but with an underlying theme of South Africa and the culture.

Past World Cup logos such as France 98, are very simple but have a rememberence about them, the France 98 logo is the colours of the national flag of red, white and blue. The key to a good branding project is that you appeal to your demographic, the World Cup is predominantly aimed at men and boys and the posters and logos reflect that.

In 1930, Uruguay became the first host nation and the first football world champion. Artist Guillermo Laborde created a poster, complete with abstract goalkeeper and art deco sensibility