JOURNAL
Monday 7th March Today was the day we were meant to go to Brighton; however I unfortunately missed my bus and therefore did not get to go. I am highly disappointed about this as I was in fact really looking forward to going. I went to the train station to try and catch a train so that I could meet everyone there however due to being inexperienced with trains, the route seemed a bit baffling to me. Therefore I ended up catching the bus home and doing my own research. I began to explore the subcultures that I learnt about whilst watching Quadraphenia and I really feel like this would be a good topic for me as I am interested in youth style and culture through history.
Tuesday 8th March Today I continued my research into subculture. I have decided I would like to do two magazines based around youth subculture, comparing older youth subculture with what we have today. After watching Quadraphenia I realized that the ‘Rockers’ featured in the movie highly reminded me of the ‘Greasers’ of 1950s America. I have always been highly interested in the Greasers as I have grown up with movies such as Grease and The Outsiders. I would therefore like to focus one of my magazines on the Greasers and then compare them to a modern day subculture in my second magazine.
Wednesday 9th March Day off.
Thursday 10th March Today I continued my research into the greasers that I would like to base my magazine around. I found out some really interesting facts about where their name came from. I always thought it was purely due to their greasy hair that they adopted this name but it also originated as a derogatory term for Mexicans that used to grease carts in the 1800s. This is something that I never knew and therefore I found it very interesting and would be keen to include this information in my own magazine so other people can learn new things too.
Friday 11th March Today I began to ponder about what theme I would like my magazine to follow. I know that I already have quite a good idea of what I wanted to actually do but I did realize that I don’t actually have a conceptual theme to my project which is something I found worrying. I began thinking deeply about my chosen subject and after more research into the Greasers I realized that they were very obviously trying to convey a certain persona with their subculture. I found this to be an interesting concept and therefore decided to follow it up as my projects theme. What were these people trying to CONVEY through their subculture and why were they doing so? And how does this conveyance compare to that of the modern day subcultures? These are all questions I would like to find out through my project. That will be my concept or ‘theme’. Conveyance.
Saturday 12th March Day off.
Sunday 12th March Day off.
Monday 13th March Today I thought it would be appropriate to start looking into starting my magazine. I therefore began researching into various artists and magazines that would potentially help me with my own design. I found this beautiful designer travel magazine called ‘CEREAL’ which I absolutely fell in love with. It had stunning visuals with extremely clean layout. It made great use of negative space and I noticed a lot of white surrounding visuals and articles which gives a beautiful, elegant and classy look to it. I presented my findings in my sketchbook doing so in a very minimalistic way with lots of space inspired by the magazine itself which I felt really worked well and made my sketchbook look very aesthetic. I would like to implement these design aspects into my own magazine as I highly favour the minimalist, clean look.
Tuesday 14th March Today I began actually creating my magazine. Obviously I started off with the front cover which took a lot longer than I was hoping. I found a picture of a greaser which I then edited in photoshop, removing the greasers face in order to represent the subculture rather than the person. This was inspired by Baldessari’s use of coloured circles over faces to remove identity. I decided to use a font called ‘Brandon Grotesque’ to run through the magazine as I love its clean yet unique style. It has quite a vintage feel to it which I feel will fit my brief well. I also decided to use colour on the magazine, using illustrator to draw outlines of the pictures and offset them for an interesting look. It took me much longer than I would have liked and it has made me realize how much I need to pick up my pace.
Wednesday 15th March Day off.
Thursday 16th March After pondering over my magazines cover, I have decided that I do not really lie it at all. There is simply too much going on with it. Too much imagery, not enough blank space and an overuse of typography. Although still fairly clean in appearance it simply is not CLEAN ENOUGH. I want it to be as minimalistic as possible so I am going to work on that. I would however like to use the image I created for it inside my magazine as I am really proud of it. Other than this, I did start working on the inner content of the magazine. Once again I used Baldessari’s techniques by placing circles over faces, and I feel it worked really well with the magazine. It achieved the job of removing identity of the literal and showing just the subculture whilst at the same time creating a clean graphic look.
Friday 17th March Today I returned to my magazines cover and went back to basics. I decided to take inspiration from CEREAL and use just a simple basic image with lots of white space around it. I also began researching into VICE magazine which I noticed tend to use analogue style images which would work really well for my vintage looking magazine. I ended up using a polaroid image of a greaser and implicated the title into the picture to make it look like it was the writing on the image. I chose the title ‘SUBCULTURE’ as I thought it was simple, memorable and covered both magazines well. I am very happy with how the cover turned out. It looks so much better than my original concept as it now has a lot of negative space and more straight clean lines. Simplicity is beauty in my eyes and I believe this is something I captured well with this cover.
SUMMARY OF TERM BREAK Unfortunately, due to the fact I was in holiday for the majority of the term break I was not able to do nearly as much work as I was hoping to do so. I had a great holiday in the Lake District with my family and it was a nice opportunity to relax, however I am greatly disappointed in how little work I managed to do. It means I have a lot to catch up on. However, what I did manage to do was some more research. I found a few other artists and magazines which will really benefit my own magazine and I have presented my findings in my sketchbook. Although I did not get as much done as I was hoping, I will say that I am ready and raring to go and can’t wait to power my way through this project. I have lots of great ideas and I am looking forward to seeing them materialize.
Monday 4th April Today was the first day back at college and I already knew from the get go that I had a great deal of work to catch up on after my relatively unproductive term break. I started by immediately researching the rest of the content I need for my first magazine. I have decided to split my magazine into different style and culture based segments. For the Greasers I will have a segment on basic subculture, clothing, a segment on hair, a segment on music and also a segment which will conclude my findings and explain what I have learnt about the conveyance of the subculture. I plan to do a similar content structure for my second magazine so I can adequately compare the two.
Tuesday 5th April I spent all of today simply writing out the content for my magazine. It took me long time but I wanted to have my definite content and research ready to be put into the magazine. That way I can structure the magazine around my content and make everything work cohesively. Today I managed to write out all of the content for the clothing segment of my magazine. This is going to be the largest segment of the magazine so I am glad that I got it done. Today’s research included the shirts greasers wear, the jeans, the leather jacket and the accessories such as the glasses, belt and shoes. I wanted to write this in a professional manner and felt I was fairly adequate in doing so. I am looking forward to laying this information out in my magazine.
Wednesday 6th April Day off.
Thursday 7th April Today I managed to finish off the writing of my magazine content. This included the segments on hair and music as well as my concluding piece. Through research I discovered that the greasers were trying to convey a rebellious nature in order to build themselves up in society and make a name for themselves. I found this not only interesting but understandable as I know how much youth struggle in society. I also started experimenting with different layouts and use of cooler, and I have ultimately decided that the best way to do this magazine will be to go as minimal as possible whilst using bold colours and graphics to create a real visual feast.
Friday 8th April Today I was meant to do a screen printing workshop but after going down to the studio we found that there were some previously unknown complications which meant that – much to Martins disapproval – it had to be called off. I must say I was also disappointed about this because I was looking forward to learning how to screen print and feel it would be a useful tool for me.
Saturday 9th April Day off.
Sunday 10th April Day off.
Monday 11th April Today we were presented with a second chance to do our screen printing workshop. We were only allowed limited numbers in there however I was one of the people allowed in which I was pleased about. I was really quite surprised at how many steps actually go into the art of screen printing. I earnt that you have to put a ‘dot’ on photographic images in order to print them and that overall the whole process is really quite complex. However, I was amazed at how solid and vibrant the colours and images produced actually were. I couldn’t believe it was a print as it looked so solid.
Tuesday 12th April Today I set about presenting all my content in my magazine. I decided to designate a certain colour to each segment which I feel actually worked really well in distinguishing each subject I was focusing. Today I managed to finish the spreads for the subculture segment and clothing segment which is the longest of all of them. It was a lot of work but I used a lot of found analogue style images which worked really well at creating a certain authenticity. I used a lot of shapes in block colour for my spreads which I also feel worked very well with the minimalist design and clean arrangement I chose to use through the magazine. Everything is looking very aesthetic so far.
Wednesday 13th April Day off.
Thursday 14th April Today I finished laying out the hair segment and music segment of my magazines. I chose to use a mustard sort of colour for the hair segment and a bright red for the music segment and I thought that both of these colours worked really well in conjunction with eachother. I have managed to continue the clean minimalist design inspired by CEREAL which is looking great. This combined with the vice style images is making for a really stylized magazine which I am loving.
Friday 15th April Today I finally finished my first magazine. I concluded it by presenting my ‘Authors note’ (my concluding findings about conveyance) and polishing it up with a back cover. I chose a very minimal back cover featuring just the title in small text in the center of the page with ‘volume 1’ placed beneath it. This was the perfect touch to a minimalist magazine and I have to say I am extremely happy with how my magazine has turned out. I managed to combine aspects from CEREAL, VICE and artists like Baldessari to create a unique stylized magazine that I feel appropriately fits its content. I am very pleased.
Saturday 16th April Day off.
Sunday 17thth April Day off.
Monday 18th April I only have 11 days left until I hand my project in so it is time to start getting a move on. In my previous magazine I used all found images so for this one I wanted to use some of my own photography. I decided that I wanted to base this magazine around the skate subculture of today as it is one of the most prominent modern youth subcultures and one that I can identify with the most. Therefore I thought it would be a good comparison to the Greasers. I bought a disposable camera so I could keep with the vice style of imagery and I brought in some supreme clothing and other skate clothing to get my friends to model whilst I photographed. This was a fun experience and it was liberating to do something outside of the Mac room for once.
Tuesday 19th April Today I got my pictures developed. I was very happy with how they came out and they did have a certain VICE feel to them which I was particularly proud of. I found that taking pictures using the flash in dark areas is a particularly effective method of achieving nice photos and the ones taken using this method were some of my best. Unfortunately I got my fingers in some of the pictures which was a disappointment however I am sure I will be able to make use of them.
Wednesday 20th April You may have noticed from reading through my journal that my Wednesdays and weekends have been fairly unproductive which is a big fault of mine. I tend to get lazy on my ‘days off’. However, now that the deadline is approaching I am feeling the urgency and starting to put work in wherever I can. Today I started researching into magazines and artists which would support my second magazine. I wanted to go for a slightly more modern feel to go with the modern subculture and I managed to find a few magazines and artists to support that. Two of which include ‘DAZED’ magazine and Bauhaus design which I have included in my sketchbook research. I also set about doing my research and writing my content for my magazine. For this magazine I am using a similar structure, including segments on subculture, clothing, hair and my conclusion. However instead of music (I feel this isn’t particularly relevant to skate culture) I chose to include some brand studies which closely identify with the skate culture.
Thursday 21st April Today, after intense work, I managed to complete writing the content for my magazine. I discovered that rather than rebelliousness like the greasers, the skaters are trying to convey a more chilled out carefree persona. I found this interesting and I thought it provided a nice contrast to my first magazine and feel that the content of the two compare very nicely. I also found out that the purpose of this conveyance is actually very similar between the two subcultures which I found interesting too, that purpose being recognition.
Friday 22nd April Today I began laying out my magazine with the content. After some searching I managed to find a polaroid of a skater that worked well in achieving the same format as my first magazines front cover whilst still relating to the content. I also scanned in my photos and they look absolutely fantastic in the magazine. Unfortunately they didn’t scan strait however the slightly crooked placement gives a sort of scrapbook feel that I really like. It also turns out that the mistake of putting my fingers in the photos turned out to work really well with the magazine, giving it a really authentic rustic feel.
Saturday 23rd April I managed to get a 30 day free trial of InDesign at home which I am able to use in order to complete my magazine. This was a great benefit as it meant I could get the work done quicker. I decided to use a much more illustrative and graphic style for this magazine and featured art from Mark Gonzales and Leon Karssen who are very prominent in skate culture. This illustrative style as well as the bold bright colouring is achieving a very nice modern look. I am however making sure not to stray away from the minimalist design.
Sunday 24th April I FINISHED MY MAGAZINE! It was such a relief to know that I finally managed to finished both of my magazines, leaving me with a complete final piece. I am really happy with the outcome of both magazines. Today I worked mainly on the typography of my second magazine. I wanted to get a bit more fancy with it to achieve a modern look and this worked great. I still managed to keep the minimalist and clean design and am overall very happy with both magazines. Although I must say that I do prefer my first magazine as it is in my opinion more minimal and
Monday 25th April Today I worked on laying out my magazine spreads ready to be printed on A0 to be exhibited. I originally started to do this in Photoshop however I found it EXTREMELY confusing. I struggled with all the different layers and tools and as Photoshop is my weakest of all of the Adobe programs it is fair to say that I was utterly lost. However, Simon suggested that instead of using Photoshop I use InDesign for my layout which I found to be MUCH easier. This has however clarified to me that I really do need to work on my Photoshop skills!
Tuesday 26th April Today I finished laying out both my magazine spreads in InDesign. Although I did find it easier than I found it to be In Photoshop, I must say that I still struggled to get everything the exact same size and position. It took me a few more hours than it should have. I was angry at myself for wasting so much time however the end result was very nice and I must say everything looked very clean and cohesive.
Wednesday 27th April Today I went into college to polish up my spreads and get them printed. Upon re-examining I found some spelling mistakes which I am glad I spotted otherwise it would have been a disaster If I had gotten them printed. I exported them as high quality A0 JPEG’s and too them to Terry on a memory stick to get printed. I chose Matte 240gsm paper for my prints as it was the most clean and high class looking for my magazine in my opinion. I will go in to pick up these prints tomorrow morning.
Thursday 28th April I was extremely angry when I went in today to find that my prints had not worked. Something went wrong with the format and they came out all blurry which was extremely frustrating to me. I therefore had to go back to the Mac room and re-export everything and then take everything back to Terry to get printed. This was a he waste of time and I found it very frustrating. I also intended to print and bind two finalized copies of my magazines but I found out that it would cost 96 pounds to do so which is why out of my budget. This was so frustrating to me as it meant that I had to publish everything on ISSUU instead of printing them. I was extremely disappointed at this and overall today has been a horrible, very stressful day.
Friday 29th April TODAY IS THE DAY. I used my final day to finish of key bits of writing. I completed my evaluation and polished up Unit 9 ready to be handed in. I must say that I am experiencing liberating sense of relief now that this project is coming to a close. This has probably been one of the most stressful projects I have gone through and has involved a lot of sleepless nights and unhealthy doses of caffeine to keep me functioning. But I guess that’s the life of an artist isn’t it? My Final Major Project has been a real emotional journey and admittedly one that I am not sad to see coming to an end. However, I have learnt a great deal in the process of it. I have learnt how to deal with major setbacks, how to manage my time better and how to keep a cool head in stressful times. On top of that I have managed to produce what I feel is an extremely high quality piece of work and one that I will be proud to show off for time to come. I want to thank UCA for everything they have taught me so far and I am extremely excited about my future journeys. As of now, I need to hand my project in as we have finally reached the deadline. So this is Darragh Morgan, signing out.
A documentation of my FMP Published by Darragh Morgan