Website Research

This website for the cool shop 'merci' in Paris isn't a website as such as this homepage literally is all there is to it, but I really like the style of the text and the illustration - I think using illustrations in our magazine and on the website would work well. http://www.merci-merci.com/

Ok so you will all soon realise that of the website research I have been doing none of them are fashion magazine websites. This is because I think pretty much all magazine websites are extremely boring. Why do they all have to look near on exactly the same? Who dictates this? I think we should focus on doing something a bit different that really fits in with our magazine and overall aesthetic. None of these are the perfect model but of the ones shown here there are certain elements that I really like. I'm still looking but this is all for now....

This website for the artist Fred Butler: http://www.fredbutlerstyle.com/ isn't what we would be wanting to do - it's wrong in style and a little tricky to navigate I think, but I do like its interactivity and also the way each page has stuff going on in the background. It is interesting to look at and is a bit different.

Yes, this is a website for a company that sells frozen yoghurt (completely off subject, you have to visit. It's incredible. And healthy. Wow) but I quite like the concept of the website, even if the execution is a bit simple. I also like the way they use sound on their website and it made me think we should think about using sound on ours - the sounds of Kentish Town are a massive USP... sounds from the farm, the street, the railway etc. http://www.yogyogurt.co.uk/ Another website that uses sound well is the french shop Colette http://www.colette.fr/#/home/en/cover_left/5/. Instead of random sound effects they use a play list at the top of the screen and I think this is a really interesting idea - we could do it for musicians based in Kentish Town.

On the Yog website they also have this 'cow tv' which is funny but it made me think about how we are  going to link our broadcast to our magazine... we have to show a 30second trailer on the website and as the previous comment, although the execution isn't exactly what we'd want to do I did like this idea.

I don't particularly like the style of these images for our magazine but I thought this got across the idea of building up layers etc in our pages. http://fifi-lapin.blogspot.com/

I like the Fifi Lapin blog for the way the blogger has created this unique and amusing identity of a fashionable rabbit. It made me think about 'Fox' and how we could create a character out of the Fox and make it witty and quirky.

I don't particularly like this magazine, 'Oh Comely' but I do like aspects of it... I like the idea of using polaroid images, and I like this type. Also aspects of their website are interesting... (see below and http://www.ohcomely.co.uk/)

On the 'Oh Comely' website they have one section called 'portraits'. I found this REALLY interesting. Our magazine is largely focused on people so why not have a series of portraits of Kentish Towners? It is an easy and visually interesting way to include more people in the magazine without having to seek out more lengthy interviews. Maybe these portraits could just show the name of the person and their profession - might be more powerful that way - or it could have a few questions from them about their life or what they like / dislike about K Town. And as I really liked the idea of polaroids could we do it as polaroids even? And get the people to sign their name or write one thing that Kentish Town is to them on their photograph?

This is the shop 'Toast's online scrap book - I really liked the style of it and also the idea of a 'summer book' as well as this style of photography. It made me think that one thing we need in the magazine is a 'summer calendar' of things coming up in the summer - this is something we can all research and add things to that we find along our travels / in our research.

This is Toast's summer look book that you can flick through online.

 I liked the idea of having a compressed version of our magazine that you can flick through online. http://www.toast.co.uk/indexb.htm

This is the online shop for the store Anthropologie. I really like the text used in the different tabs and think it works well with the aesthetic we are going for. The image below is also from their website. http://www.anthropologie.eu/

This website is for a project called The Shop Floor Project- have a look at the website: http://theshopfloorproject.com/. It is really interactive and a real busy mix of images which I think works well with our ideas for the aesthetic of the magazine. It is not your standard website and I love it for that reason. Do have a good navigate through the website.

On the website they have a blog 'The Shopkeeper's Journal'. I really like the idea of having a blog that is additional to the website and also the idea of it following a character to do with Kentish Town. Alternatively it could just be a blog of 'The Fox'. It could give up to date info about things going on in Kentish Town, think about the blog 'The Kentish Towner' - follow this link: http://kentishtowner.co.uk/

Libby

HOUSE STYLE FOR WRITTEN WORK

Hi Everyone
As copy and features editor it is my responsibility to check EVERYTHING that is WRITTEN that is handed in. Therefore, I need to establish our house style. These are strict rules that will earn us credibility (and higher grading) if all work keeps to it. Any mistakes will be returned to you, so please send ALL work to me using this address before sending it to Libby. Thanks.

• All names should be written in full when first introduced, then the second name ONLY should be used throughout the piece. This adds professionally and maintains a business sense to this character. First names should only be used when it is a personal relationship (i.e John on the farm). For example; "This is John Smith. Smith enjoys golf".
• Single numbers and multiples of ten should be written in full. Anything above 10 may be written in numbers. Eg. one, ten, five, twenty, 22, 678, 12345, ect.
• Currency should be written in english pounds at all times. E.g £5.40, 65 pence, £1 million.
• Italics and bold may not be used.
• Street names and stations must be written with capital letters. E.g Grafton Street, Kentish Town Underground 
• Company names must also be written with capital letters. E.g Kentish Town City Farm, Costa
• Avoid hyphenating unless it is a double-barreled word. I will go through each piece with you to determine if editing is needed on this issue. 

Now a little on the STYLE I would like:

• Each article must have an introduction that is enticing, inviting and exciting.
• Be metamorphic and descriptive. Create images in the readers mind
• Avoid being majority abstractive- remember we are writing for the community of KT not people like us!
• Each paragraph should be like unveiling a new secret
• Always begin with the biggest point
• Use full English at all times- no slang please! 
• Avoid exclamation marks and brackets 
• Colons, semi colons and commas are OK if you use them correctly

I hope this is all easy to understand. Any issues email me. I look forward to seeing drafts by THE 10TH OF MAY- NEXT TUESDAY.

Ellie 

The FOX from NYC

Greetings All,

This is quite a lengthy email, so please read thoroughly to ensure everyone is on the same page.

After our meeting with Alexia yesterday, it is obvious to see we have a lot of work ahead of us, but I am 100% confident we will rise to the occasion.

Libby:

*Working on completing articles

*Beginning efforts to create architecture story

*Beginning to work on layout of magazine, will assist Tom with Creative Director duties

*Importing footage from the farm

*Creating flat plan

*Researching magazines/web magazines

*Printing quotes due 13 May from printers near her home

Tom:

*Working on editing footage

*Helping Ellie finalize typography

*Going to film this Saturday, 7 May

*Researching magazines/web magazines

*Mock layout

Ellie:

*Selecting typography options

*Researching magazines/web magazines

*Developing target market: age, income, professions, lifestyle choices, race and gender. 

*Mock layout

*Decide on house style and relay to writers on team

Zadrian:

*Researching magazines/web magazines

*Mock layout

*Printing quotes due 13 May

3 May, 2011: Alexia Meeting

*Alexia gave Ellie feedback on food section and mentioned the Ethiopian community as a valued resource.

*Stressed development of flat plan, layout, story layout/ideas and typography for next week.  ALL DUE MONDAY, 9 MAY in the next meeting with her.

*With regards to creating textures in magazine, Alexia mentioned layering images on top of each other to show both contrast and layers.

*Suggested that the overall look of magazine should be really busy (anti-design) or clean, choose one and be full out!  I am really drawn to this whole busy concept, I know at first I wasn’t, but yesterday I saw things in a new light.

*Text should be simple and clean

*If a piece is submitted that does not really fit the objective or scheme of the magazine, It can be omitted and handed in individually.

Zadrian’s Research:

Favorite Magazine in relation to this project:

On the plane ride over I engulfed myself into about 10 different publications, thank god for WHSMITH in the terminal.  Surprisingly, the magazine I fell in love with was WALLPAPER.  (I always avoided reading this magazine, for fear of being bored, but I’m a new subscriber!) The layout is phenomenal, though not busy, and the content was splendid.  I’ve pulled several spreads from the magazine to share with the group regarding possible section and magazine layouts.  Although, the magazine does have quite a clean approach it’s a bit all over the place content wise…anything, fresh, new, innovative and contemporary is there.

Possible additional sections, if needed (things we haven’t talked about, that could be added):

*Features

*Culture

*Books

*Films

*Restaurants (Ellie might have this included, but they had an interesting layout I love that I will share with you)

*Beauty

*Zodiac (Is there a psychic in Kentish Town we can find to give us some zodiacs?)

*Travel (any spots in Kentish Town that are travel destinations, places that other Londoners would travel to just because it’s there)

Two possible sections or working titles:

*The Best of Kentish Town (It-List): Can be a collaboration of the top things/places, etc. in Kentish Town

*Tatler Magazine had a section called: “Tatler About Town…” (which included tidbits happening around Londontown and surrounding areas) maybe we could take a play on that for our magazine

Online magazine references:

Here are some online fashion magazines that we can use for reference with regards to magazine layout.  I’ve placed them in order of my favorite to lease favorite.

http://www.fashion156.com/

http://www.lumiere.com/

http://www.hintmag.com/

http://www.flare.com/

http://www.self.com/

http://www.fashionplanetonline.com/marc-jacobs-super-influence

That’s all for now.

~Zxx

Who is the Fox?

FOX: our manifesto

- Fox is a reinvention of the community magazine. It serves the same purposes as your traditional community magazine, but is presented in a fresh and trendy way.

- Fox promotes the people and spirit of Kentish Town. It is affectionate and witty. 

- Fox is homegrown, organic and rustic.

- Fox is for the people and of the people. Fox is down to earth - just like a fox is an animal of the street.

- Fox is for the working Kentish Towner - see statistics below: income bracket £18,000 and £35,000. Core target age range: 25-35, however including all people in the community so will feature people each side of this age bracket too. 

- Fox has keen eyes - it looks at things in a fresh way and celebrates things other people might ignore.

- Fox wanders the streets of Kentish Town and discovers interesting people and places

- Fox is a magazine of contrasting harmony - it gives a snapshot of the multi-faceted community that is Kentish Town.


This is Fox. So everyone, when you write your articles or prepare visuals you should all the time be thinking: what would the Fox do?

Libby

Building Kentish Town's Demographic

AGE: 25-35 (Under 30 males= 2418, under 30 females =2271 from here)
RACE: White British 6765 (Also from here)
SEX: Men and Women
RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single 53.6% (from here)
SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROUP: B ("well heeled also from here)
INCOME: Between £18,000 and £35,000. (Based on searching job offers in Kentish Town)
EDUCATION: Degree (also from here)
HOME WORTH: £357,683 (From here)

Minutes from Creative Meeting 2nd of May

2 May 2011, Monday


Present: Zadrian, Libby, Ellie

Magazine Title:

FOX

Layout of Magazine:

Outer-layer:

*Outside cover (outside) of the magazine is going to be card stock that can be converted into a double spread poster.  Possible graphic of the cover is a graffiti brick wall.  (Libby can elaborate on this concept)
*Outside cover (inside) Editor's Letter, Masthead, Contributors, Acknowledgements

Inner-layer:

*Inside: Magazine is going to be printed on newspaper paper.
*Cover of magazine (front): Fox Silhouette (Front)
*Cover of magazine (back): Fox Silhouette (Back)

The inside magazine will go into an insert of the outside layer.

Libby:

*Libby might possibly right about architecture as an addition to the magazine layout.
*All interviews completed for art section.

Zadrian:

*Confirmed interviews with Bluston's 12 May. (Possibly do a shoot of some sort)
*Awaiting confirmation for Chris Ruocco, hopefully 12 May.
*Will attend two churches on 15 May to help develop story.
*Photo Shoot: Confirmed for 20 May.  Focus is creating a girl who is a creature on the farm.  There exists a contrasting harmony.  Possibly try to book a red head.

Ellie:

Ellie has secured an interview with Earth Food's Store Manager.  Her focus revolves around the idea of homegrown/greenlife.:

*She wants to relate the community to the food in as many aspects as possible.
*Possible focus on authentic international cuisine
*Does the area promote healthy eating?
*Possible title of the section: "A Taste of Kentish Town"

Sections to write about in food section:
*Meal in Kentish Town on a budget
(ELLIE YOU CAN ADD IN YOUR OTHER TOPICS)

Pending Thoughts:

*Filming: Next date is 7 May, with Tom and Libby on the farm.
*Website

Zadrian

Meeting, 2nd May, FOX magazine concept

 

Update

Magazine

It was good today to get an update of the work everyone has been doing and plans to do. For the art section that I am in charge of I have interviewed at 2 galleries (including Rankin's gallery!) and spoken to one artist. 

I saw this building in Kentish Town the other day - you can't really see it that well from the photograph but it is such an interesting building so I plan to contact the person that lives there to potentially visit and take photos / interview for an architecture piece.

Broadcast

Broadcast is going really well. Tom and I are meeting there on Saturday to interview John and some other people who work there. Next week I will book an edit suite once we know which group we are in (A or B) to start logging and capturing the footage we already have. 

FOX

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

We have a name for our magazine!! Playing on the idea of an urban and rural fox, this is to be the name of the mag. These images are photos I took at Rankin's gallery (Image 1) and a gallery called  Leighton Space (Images 2 and 3) that I played around with on photoshop. This motif of the fox would run throughout the magazine (literally) - it would be at the start of each new section and lead you through to the next one. 

Visual Identity

I have made a mood board of ideas for the magazine's visual identity - photos of which are below. To encorporate the idea of urban vs rural, graphic, slick images could be used to embody 'urban' with sketchy, more organic feeling visuals being used to give a 'rural' feel.

 

I know Alexia mentioned texture, but rather than physical texture (too much faff and at a high risk of looking either gimmicky or cheap) I think we should focus on visual texture - layers and interesting typography. Zadrian made a good point to think about - How would an animal write? What would its hand writing look like?

Images to have a faded look (see more on printing further down the blog...)

Sketches to be included however they should be used in a professional way - perhaps contrasted against a more minimal layout so it doesn't become too busy and scrap booky.

These Charley Harper images give an idea of the simple graphic style that could be used in contrast to the more rustic hand drawn / written elements.

Image 4

 Printing 

The magazine itself will be printed on newspaper paper, so in essence it will be a newspaper but with magazine layout and content. Newspapers are of the people and this is the feel of our magazine. It is cheap but purposefully so. 

However, to make it more upmarket the newspaper will come folded in half and slotted inside a front cover or magazine jacket. This will be made of a heavier card (see 'I love you' magazine) that will have some sort of tab into which the newspaper can be slipped and secured. This will be a folded piece of card (as will the newspaper so there will be no bindings in our magazine) that will double up as a poster. 

Front covers 

The front cover of the magazine jacket will be some sort of brick wall with graffiti with FOX in bold lettering. When you open the jacket you will see the newspaper printed magazine - when you take this out the front cover will be completely plain but with the silhouette of a fox (see Image 4 but imagine in silhouette) with the back silhouette of the fox on the back of the magazine. 

When you take the newspaper / mag out you will be able to see the other side of the magazine jacket. On this will be printed masthead, contributors, editors letters etc in an interesting graphic way (possibly as posters pasted on to the brick wall)

So to summarise this our concept:

FOX

- you get city foxes and country foxes - in the same way Kentish Town is a mix of urban and rural

- this is a magazine to be of the people, about people and with a community feel - hence the newspaper

- like a fox wandering around a city the magazine will follow its journey about town to give it a flow and a direction

- if there was a heirachy of animals a fox would be a working man with ambition - in the same way this magazine is for normal people, about people but with a spark - interesting art, fashion etc but also with a 'street' vibe (think Bluston's fashion and Zadrian's piece)

Libby