THE DIARY Research Plan 01
diary
/’dʌɪəri/ noun
A book in which one keeps a daily record of events and experiences. synonyms: journal, memoir, chronicle, log, blog
The following is an extract from her diary.
CONTENTS
The following is an extract from her Diary...
p.6
Audience
p.8
Content
p.10
FLATPLAN
p.12
Competition
p.14
Photography
p.16
Typography
p.22
INNOVATING
p.26
TIME MANAGEMENT
p.28
MAPPING
p.30
BIBLIOGRAPHY & APPENDIX
p.32
The following is an extract of her Diary...
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The Diary is a women’s fashion and lifestyle magazine defying the typical mainstream magazine, pioneering a different kind of publication. Ditching the glossy cover for a unique design, with a focus on the reading experience. The reader is at the heart of the publication, everything is created with a partnership between The Diary and the reader in mind - tailoring all content to appeal to them. The main competition of The Diary includes the popular fashion & lifestyle mainstream magazines, catering towards the same audience but offering an innovative design.
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The Diary: Client
Aged: 18-40 - reaching three generational groups. Originally, The Diary was aimed at the millennial group only, women aged between 23-38. After creating the first copy for my FMP, it was clear that by aiming towards only one age group was limiting the audience when The Diary could appeal to both younger and older targets. For the next version of The Diary, charateristics of all three generations will be taken into account during the visual design and content of the publication.
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Millennials: (Approx 22-38) - Tech-savvy - Family > work - Confident - Ambitous, achievement oriented -Educated - Concious: health, environment, social, economical - Compassionate - Diverse Generation X: (Approx 38-54) - Independent - Resourceful - Leaders - Hard-working - Investors - Artists: artistic works/crafty - Knowledgeable
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Audience Characteristics
Generation Z: Online Generation - 40% of population (Approx 7-23) - Self-confident - Independent - Environmentally Aware - Justice Minded - Work/Life balanced - Diverse - Entrepreneurial
Tailoring Content
Audience traits were the basis of the content produced for my FMP of The Diary, based on millennial characteristics. Having a ground for readership interests is a way of ensuring that content will be recieved positively by the audience, with topics that are of interest and relevant to them.
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11 Boss Women, Work/Life Balance
Education, News, Charitable, Understanding
Justice-minded Concious Compassionate
Diversity, Open mindness
Wellbeing, Mental Health, Self Care, Self Confidence, Social Media
Themes
Motivated Ambitious Hard-working
Diverse
Confidence Independence
Characteristics
Brexit and The Fashion Industry. Fast Fashion - Sustainable Lies.
Estee LaLonde (Blogger) Martine Alexander (Stylist) Hollie Race (Content/Brand Manager)
Successful women within the fashion industry - interviews:
press. (i.e Only showing support for pride at the time of event)
Inclusivity within the fashion industry - Brands being inclusive for
drinking alcohol
Cancel Culture - Blame Culture Hangxiety - Becoming anxious when
Articles
FLATPLAN
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The Women’s fashion and lifestyle magazine market is apopulated - however only few magazines match the same criteria of The Diary. Cosmopolitan, Elle and Glamour all cover the age demographic - with each of them focusing on different aspects:
COMPETITION
Glamour - Beauty Focus Elle - Fashion Focus Cosmopolian - Lifestyle Focus These magazines are The Diary’s main competition, as content will include similar topics and the same audience. However, The Diary’s focus is entirely on the readership and content they will be most interested in, based on characteristics and personality traits. The aim is to provide content that is 100% of interest to the reader - avoiding the reader flicking through irrelevant articles. Free magazines are also part of the competiton for The Diary, being part of the few magazines that have seen growth in the past three years. John Lewis Edition and Stylist magazine were in the top three ciculation within the UK in 2018. The Diary need to pursuade the audience to spend money on its publications, rather than going for the free option. To achieve this content has to be of a high level with haptics being used to convince them to invest in the product.
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UK Women’s Magazine Market Statistics 2018
(Abc.org.uk, 2019)
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Photography research
Photography is a visual exploration of research ideas, enabling the recording of information, colour, shape, form and texture (Chris Harris, 2019). The initial purchase of a magazine is led by the visuals and haptics of the product, when consumers are faced with a magazine rack stacked with different covers it is important for The Diary to stand out, leading to a purchase from consumers. Photography has been used leading up to Independent Project 1 to record the visuals of magazines of all genres - particularly those that stand out to me as a consumer and competing magazines. Taking inspiration has merged with innovating to create a magazine that will stand out to the consumer, whilst being different to the other magazines on the shelf.
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Photography Inspiration
Photography has also been an key element of inspiration for the visuals of the magazine cover, creating the front cover as a polaroid picture. This stemmed from the aesthetics that surround polaroid pictures, featuring on many blogs, Instagram accounts and Tumblr posts. A large percentage of The Diary’s audience are seeing these images daily on their social feeds - building up the on-shelf appeal of the product.
THE DIARY Entry 02
THE DIARY Entry 02
Typographic Communication
We are constanly surrounded by visual communication in commerical settings - considering the typography and graphic design we see every day. Including road signs, shop entrances, mobile apps to magazines, books and newspapers (Justin Burns, 2019). Whilst considering the visuals of the magazines, typography is an important aspect as it has the ability to tell the audience what is happening, set the theme and have overall appeal.
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In my previous project of The Diary, typography was used as a kind of imagery where appropriate, eunsuring that the font, colour and size was relevant and enticing to the article. Below is an example of an article from The Diary regarding the branding of fashion houses and the lack of originality of logos. As the the basis of the article was the typography chosen by brands, having a page of logos all in the same font had the ability to communicate the article title with the reader. Typography will continue to be a big part of design for the second entry of The Diary.
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THE DIARY : TYPOGRAPHY
For The Diary, main body text will be standard Baskerville easy to read, whilst being a classic font. A handwriting-esque font will be used on the front cover and where appropriate inside. The handwriting links to both the text written on a polaroid photograph, and the fact that it is very personal - on the inside of a diary.
INNOVATING
The majority of mainstream fashion magazines are all sharing the same template - A4, glossy, ad filled. The Diary will initally look like an A5 polaroid photograph, printed on high quality, silk finish 200GSM paper. Having a higher quality product makes it more collectable to the audience, being a ‘coffee table’ publication. It is important for the audience to feel that they are investing in art - not just purchasing a magazine that will later be thrown out.
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WHY PRINT? I chose print for The Diary because there is no limit on the creative output, with many possibilities within the design. Digital media however, is majorly restricted to the guidelines of web pages – no matter how creative the platform gets, it will still be restricted to the browser, mobile web and application design. The lack of physical touch means that online media platforms will always be distanced from the reader, the whole experience has a screen between the reader and the publication resulting in little reader experience.
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TIME MANAGEMENT
My time management plan starts before semester 2, going over the Christmas break. I am planning to take the start of my work to the first meeting with Sarah - week commencing 20th January. Spend a week on each article allows time to extend if necessary - typically I would spend 1-2 days researching and an extra 1-2 days typing up the articles. I’m aware that my layout will be trial and error - so I am allowing a full day to complete. It is also likely that once the project is over I will change the layout of the entire document.
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MAPPING
Mapping provides the ability to experience local context, the immersion leads to authority to have a discussion. Physically taking part in mapping results in a learning process that is more thorough than virtual mapping, i.e google maps, internet browsers as you become more aware of aspects that you would miss, and are also experiencing first hand what the consumer/ audience of the product are witnessing (Anne Schiffer, 2019).
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For The Diary, mapping is used to establish possible points of retail . Mapping was also conducted in the city centre of Leeds to establish where possible selling and marketing locations would be, considering the distance between them. The main shops are all relatively close to each other, however they are all in different locations and attract different audience groups - those looking for mainstream magazines and indie publications.
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references Abc.org.uk. (2019). Consumer Magazines Report - ABC | Audit Bureau of Circulations. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.org.uk/report/ consumer [Accessed 7 Dec. 2019]. Abc.org.uk. (2019). Cosmopolitan - Data - ABC | Audit Bureau of Circulations. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.org.uk/product/2723 [Accessed 7 Dec. 2019]. Ambrose, G. and Harris, P. (2017). Typography. London: Bloomsbury. Bartlett, D., Cole, S. and Rocamora, A. (2013). Fashion Media. London: Bloomsbury. Bradford, J. (2014). Fashion journalism. London: Routledge. Burns, J (2019). Graphic Design Research Methods. Lecture. Leeds Beckett University. (Delivered 29.10.19) Cozens, C. (2000). Media:Profile of Cosmopolitan. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com › media › dec › mondaymediasection1 [Accessed 20 Nov. 2019]. Harris, C (2019). Research Method. Lecture. Leeds Beckett University. (Delivered 05.11.19) Kiong Tee, T. (2014). Buzan Mind Mapping. [online] Available at: https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/260244896_Buzan_Mind_Mapping_ An_Efficient_Technique_for_Note-Taking [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019].
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Kiong Tee, T. (2014). Buzan Mind Mapping. [online] Available at: https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/260244896_Buzan_Mind_Mapping_ An_Efficient_Technique_for_Note-Taking [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019]. Print Power. (2019). How Print Became the Definition of Luxury in the Digital Age. [online] Available at: https://www.printpower.eu/ insight/how-print-became-the-definition-of-luxury-in-the-digital-age/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019]. Print Power. (2019). Spend is down but the power of print keeps rising. [online] Available at: Https://www.printpower.eu/insight/the-drumspend-is-down-but-the-power-of-print-keeps-rising/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019]. Schiffer, A (2019). Research Methods. Lecture. Leeds Beckett University. (Delivered 05.11.19)
Magazines & books used for IMAGERY: p.16, 17, 27, 29, 31 Imagery taken at Village Magazines, Leeds. p. 22, 24, 26 ELLE Magazine. (Oct 2019 Edition) p. 26 COSMOPOLITAN Magazine (Nov 2019 Edition) p. 26 MARIE CLAIRE Magazine (Nov 2019 Edition) p. 18, 24 GLAMOUR Magazine (Volume 4) p. 18 TeisbĂŚk, P. (2017). Dress Scandinavian:Style your Life and Wardrobe the Danish Way. London: Ebury Publishing. 33
Appendix 1: Paul J Nini’s Linear Approach
Phase 1
Investigation / Planning IDENTIFY - GATHER - DEVELOP
THE DIARY
Identify - Audience Women interested in fashion & lifestyle. Age 20-40 EVERYDAY WOMAN University Students Working Women Modern Day Women Mums
Identify - Market
CHALLENGES / CHANGES NEW MEDIA, BLOGS, SOCIAL MEDIA.
Identify - Competition
{
Analysing WHat is lacking? What will be different? Similarities? Artwork?
COSMOPOLITAN GLAMOUR ELLE ALLURE MARIE CLAIRE
COMPARITIVE AUDIT / ESTABLISH CRITERIA / GENERATIV
Phase 2
Development / user research CREATE - tEST - INTRODUCE - TEST
Develop aRTWORK/LAYOUT - WHAT APPEALS BEST TO THE AUDIENCE? - TESTING POSSIBLE FRONT COVERS - WHAT LAYOUT CREATES THE BEST READING EXPERIENCE? - HAPTICS? FOCUS GROUPS - AUDIENCE - TYPOGRAPHY? DEMOGRAPHICS, READER - IMAGERY? EXPERIENCE
Develop CONTENT ARTICLES APPEALING TO CONSUMER? RELEVANT TOPICS? UP-TO-DATE? FASHION/BEAUTY CONSUMER OPINION? LIFESTYLE NEWS-WORLD ISSUES POPCULTURE
VE RESEARCH / EVALUATIVE RESEARCH / EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH