An Aesthetic Investigation by Chàe Magazine

chĂ e issue I

mini magazine

summer 2020

an aesthetic investigation

ChĂ e Mini Magazine Issue 1 Cover Image Chelsea-Lee Bastable Editors Emma Jenkins Chelsea-Lee Bastable Hannah Kairuz Research Content Chelsea-Lee Bastable Designer Chelsea-Lee Bastable Marketing/Advertising Chelsea-Lee Bastable Hannah Kairuz

a student magazine | for students, by students

editors note An Aesthetic Investigation is the first of our mini series magazines which are dedicated to recording the study and research completed for Chae. This investigation was a visual ethnography, inquiring into Chaeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own audience about which aesthetics they prefer. This is an interesting read about YOU! And although you may not have gotten the chance to participate in the study, you can always let us know what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re thinking. Find out what aesthetics our audience has chosen that represent Chae and hop on the journey with them, get helpful and creative content by our loving team.

contents 16

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results screenshots twitter screenshots results

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ethnography introduction instagram stories photo-elicitation who are you

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aesthertics urban pastel vintage minimalistic neon cottagecore light academia dark academia

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introduction Welcome to Chàe Magazines mini series! This is a research reflection on YOU! Our creative director Chelsea-Lee Bastable conducted a visual ethnographic research project on our audience to find out what aesthetics you like the most! We wanted to conduct this research project to further improve the appeal of the content we are giving you! We want the aesthetics that you like most to appear in Chàe to keep you engaging and following the Chàe journey. The research we have found will further benefit our marketing strategies and content creation as we base our artistic approaches to the aesthetics you respond with most. As you have probably seen, Chae has created a fair amount of polls and posts on instagram and twitter to see which aesthetics out of the images we produced you prefer the most. This research has been ongoing from late September to now! The results are in and we’re ready to show you what we’ve found. So dive in! See what you think. If you didn’t get the chance to interact on our social media and let us know on the contact option on our website, or just DM us on instagram!

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instagram stories This visual ethnography took place on two social platforms, twitter and instagram. The instagram stories feature with polls allowed us to create a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;what appeals to you mostâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; strategy, By juxtapositioning two aesthetics against each other (the most comparative ones) the audience chose which image appeared more aesthetically appealing to them.

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urban

The urban aesthetic typically had subject matters of western suburbia and smalltown natural ambiences. Colours are harmonised warmly with red, orange and white whilst the lighting is dimmed for the reds and oranges to appear deeper. Within the rule of thirds there is typically a subject of fascination within the countrylike object of appraisal.

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pastel

The very bright luminance and lighter, dustier colour harmonisation within the pastel aesthetic knows no boundaries when it comes to the combination of different colours. As long as theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re lighter in colour, the pastel aesthetic finds different subject matters. However, whatever the subject is, the basis of the pastel aesthetic is to accentuate the colour harmonisation of lighter colours in conformity to a strategic composition.

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vintage

Rough, warm textures and aged nostalgia that typically features repurposed subject matters are the heart of the vintage aesthetic. Lighting is genuinely dimmer to enhance the shadows and depth of the associated colour harmonisation of warmer colours such as orange and red with one cooler colour, typically blue. These aesthetics give off a classic vibe of warmth and a revisiting appreciation of older mechanisms.

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minimalistic

The minimalism aesthetic is usually filled with monochrome colour harmonisations, the colour balances do not know bounds of which can be black/white or nudes/browns or other; as long as they complement one another. The minimalist aesthetic are typically more concerned with the featured subject, to focus on one given subject matter within the rule of thirds regardless of colour.

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neon

Excessive, dark negative space and a colour spectrum of reds and blues are the artistic elements making up the neon aesthetic. Clearly this aesthetic encompasses nearly no lighting and typically features glowing radiances of colour, exuding a form of majestical ambience and a sci-fi-esk. This aesthetic takes advantage of the rule of thirds and draws focus on the subject matter by vast negative space.

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cottagecore

This aesthetic once more has less restrictions on colour balance and harmonisation, this is similar to the focus on composition and the rule of thirds. Cottagecore is about valorising the subject matter of the image which is almost always an organic element of nature. Embracing the environmental fascination of the world with any colour coordination that works with the subject.

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light academia

Light academia is an aesthetic typically centralised upon both colour harmonisation and subject matter of which is both naturally toned and lighted. This aesthetic valorises any subject material under a natural lens of white, warmth and nude colours, creating a sense of organic weightlessness.

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dark academia

This aesthetic is a dark centralisation on any subject material, the same as light academia, the colour skewer of dark academia is clearly colourised with blacks and blues. The compositional strategy of this aesthetic is once more focused upon the subject material, the lighting is minimal to heighten the fascination of the subject.

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screenshots

cityscapes

clouds

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doorways

study spaces

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textures

mountains

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concerts

The aesthetics chosen for the ChĂ e audience to decide between was urban, vintage, light academia, dark academia, minimalistic, neon and cottagecore. ChĂ e made sure that we kept producing images from the same aesthetic by keeping within the aesthetic criteria outlined by Moorthey, Obrador & Oliver (2010). This included components such as hue/saturation, lighting, composition, rule of thirds, colour harmony/balance and subject.

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twitter screenshots

The results from twitter were productive at the start of the investigation, however toward the end the twitter audience started decaying in interactivity. The twitter results saw some slightly more comparative interactions than the instagram stories which is an interesting aspect to take note of. Because of this decline in engagement I chose not to post on twitter as much as instagram.

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photo-elicitation This is a method used in visual ethnographic research whereby the researcher asks the participants to provide them with a photo in purpose for the research. I did this for our Chàe audience on twitter, and YOU gave us really amazing results! Not only did the images and gifs you supplied mimic our own aesthetic findings so far, the images supplied all radiated a warming tone with natural subject matters. Not only did I reach out to the Chàe audience, I also asked the Chàe media members to give their perspectives on what they thought was a ‘chàe aesthetic’. The difference in the images supplied from the chàe members was that they didn’t only supply photos but illustrations as well. Perhaps we need to work on making this more obvious for our aesthetic to come across better.

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results We discovered that YOU like urban, vintage, light academia and cottagecore aesthetics. This means that you enjoy warmer toned images that have natural light and organic subject matters, colours are usually on the warmer side such as orange and pink however you value colour harmonisation nonetheless. Components such as large, dark negative space and excessively bright pastel colours are thoroughly disliked by the Chàe audience. However we did come to find that there is a small interest among you that are appealed to the fantastical sci-fi ambience of cityscapes and the dark allure of concerts with glaring white lights. Through this visual ethnographic research Chàe has found the aesthetic that appeals most to you, we can utilise this insight to better marketing and advertising! Not only that but we are able to produce the content you are most drawn to. Photo-elicitation unveiled that you do have a grasp on what we as Chàe are as a brand, we will continue showing you how we can create a artistic safeground for all those with a creative vision!

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who are you? Chàe can perform poll after poll and analyse post after post however we can not tell who you are and what your hobbies, dreams and values are just through quantitative data. So please let us know! Post on your Instagram story with what you’re doing and add the #chaemedia to it so we can see what you love doing! Tell us what your dreams are, what you want to do and what you love! Add #chaemedia to your posts so we can see and share what you love! Chàe is here to help support you not only as a student but as a human!

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we want YOU Would you like to be featured in the next issue of chàe magazine? If you're a student or young person who'd like to show off their talents and interests just let us know!

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