Refraiming ALL DESIGN magazine by giulia barra

INDEX

THE TEAM

ABSTRACT

INTRO

METHOD

BUSINESS MODEL

INTERVIEWS

BOOKSHOP RESEARCH

SURVEY

MAGA ZIN E COM PARISON

FOCUS GROUP

INSIGHTS

FROM INTERVIEW

FROM BOOKSHOPS

FROM SURVEYS

FROM FOCUS GROUP

PUBLIC TRENDS

BENCHMARK

G E N E R A L I Z AT I O N S

OUTPUT GUIDELINES

S T R AT E G Y

BUSINESS MODEL

SYSTEM MAP

PERSONAS AND CUSTOMER JOURNEY

WEBSITE

AT TAC H M E N T S

REFERENCE

INDEX

THE TEAM

We are a group of italian students coming from Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. Our major is Product Service System Design and we are now spending one year in Shanghai thanks to the program Politong, an international double degree exchange program. We are now following the courses held by the Design&Innovation Department of Tongji University, Shanghai, China.

THE TEAM

VA L E R I A

ANDRE A

ADANI

CARLON

LUC A

C AR M ELO

D IEG O

F RANCE S CA

GI U LI A

COZZI

FE R R ER I

DAL I A

T E RZI

BARRA

THE TEAM

ABSTRACT

The aim of the project is to develop new strategies for All Design Magazine, a magazine published by the Design & Innovation Department of Tongji University, Shanghai,China. The developed research had these aims: -understand the situation of design magazines in China -understand the development of design in China -investigate about the actual and the potential targets -analyze the organization of the magazine -analyze the competitors in the field (international and not) -study the ongoing trends in the publishing and press area

ABSTRACT

Some quantitative and qualitative data has been collected using different methods: direct interviews to students (undergraduate and post graduate/ chinese and international), professors, professionals (chinese and international), magazine bookshops assistants and bookshop customers, surveys (online and offline), competitors analysis and web research. Other strategies used were observation of customers behavior through shadowing (inside specialized bookshops and libraries) and focus groups (with students).

The outcomes of this research were mainly related to some problems of the magazine in terms of distribution and availability on the territory. Another big problem is about the lack of investments and financial resources of the magazine and the absence of a fixed and professional staff. This factor affects directly the quality and the variety of the contents of the magazine itself. All these factors strongly influence the composition of the readers audience of the magazine. Another important element that comes out in different part of the research is the lack of use of the internet channel and its huge power as communication media; internet is more and more becoming an important and fundamental resource for designers. Some general guidelines are given to head towards the project in order to elaborate some effective strategies for the future of the magazine; they are mainly related to the creation of an internet/ application platform, to the use of some elements of the crowdsourcing philosophy, to the application of some new strong strategies for financial fundraising, to the definition of an editorial staff that selects the contents of the magazine, in order to build a brand that has credibility also in the professional environment outside Tongji Univeristy and in China.

ABSTRACT

INTRO

All Design Magazine has been published since 2005 by the Design & Innovation Department of Tongji University. It is now distributed in a number of 3000-3500 copies and the main audience consists of design students and professors; even the main contributors for the contents of the magazine are students and professors. They collaborate to the magazine voluntarily for free. The magazine does not really have a fixed editorial staff, but there are more or less 6 persons (mainly Tongji professors) that follow the editorial process; the magazine it is also lacking of a real studio/office. The magazine was founded by the Shanghai Light Industry Sci&Tech Intelligence Institute,Shanghai Industrial Design Association and the Department of Design & Innovation of Tongji University. At the beginning the main financial backer was Shanghai Industrial Design Association, while now the only financial sponsor is Tongji University, even if the ownership and the copyright are still of external private companies. The current situation is characterized by a lack of funds and financial resources, an element that strongly affects different and important aspects of the magazine. The weight of advertising on the finance is limited, almost paltry: every magazine has less then the 4% of the total pages of advertising and are often given for free.

The cost of the magazine is 20 yuan/30 HKD, that represents a good price for a normal magazine in China, but does not provide an adequate contribute to the revenue stream and does not permit a consistent investment on quality contents. The magazine is scheduled to be published every four months, but because of the informal organization of the editorial staff and the lack of funds, it does not really follow a determined schedule and every release is not always predictable. The distribution of the magazine is also affected by difficulties: the magazine is distributed directly in an informal manner from the offices of the Design and Innovation Department at every release. This kind of distribution is not satisfying because does not permit to reach the potential audience in a proper way; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interesting to underline that some informal efforts to potentiate the distribution using ecommerce platforms, has been done from a student. The situation about the lack of investments affects directly the contents of the magazine itself; the contents are often characterized by a low quality and many topics are treated in a superficial manner; frequently the articles are written by not authoritative or trustable authors (for examples some articles are written by random students).

THE MAGAZINE CONTENTS ARE ORGANIZED IN DIFFERENT SECTIONS:

ALL VISION.

P R E S E N T I N G I M P O R TA N T I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E C E N T E X H I B I T I O N S O R FA I R S .

ALL FORUM.

FOCUSING ON ACADEMIC RESEARCH.

ALL NOTE.

MORE FOCUSED ON NEW ART A N D D E S I G N A R T I FAC T S A N D I N N O VAT I V E P R A C T I C E S

ALL STYLE.

I NTERVI E WS TO D ES I G N PROFESSIONALS OR PROFESSORS.

A L L S TA R .

FOCUSED MORE ON THE PROCESS OF DESIGN AN D H ISTO RY O F DESIGN.

ALL STUDYING .

INTRODUCING DESIGN COMPETITIONS AND WORKSHOPS.

ALL NEWS.

ABOUT FORTHCOMING EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS

INTRO

10 I N T R O

The choice of the topics is even a vague issue: the themes threaten are variegated and it seems there is not “fil rouge”, a common path that links all the different arguments and topics; the final result is that the magazine has a lack of coherence and is missing of a strong, recognizable identity. When leafing through pages it looks difficult to understand the hierarchy of the topics handled and the relative importance given to the different articles: sometimes student’s articles and projects are juxtaposed with important designer’s researches and products. In this way, the information given seem not filtered and quite heterogeneus. Even if improved in the last years, the layout of the magazine is lacking of attractiveness and quality; the cover image is not always very appealing and persuasive and the paging layout is characterized by incoherence and randomness. It is easy to discover also that sometimes the quality of the images presented is not high in terms of quality and resolution. Another element that is missing is the website, that represents a big handicap because nowadays internet can be considered one of the most important media, a fundamental element of every designer’s daily routine and a big and easy opportunity to catch more audience. In conclusion, the magazine is characterized by evident problems in terms of distribution and

availability on the territory: the magazines was not well knew outside the college and even there is not well distributed. Another problem is about the lack of investments and financial resources of the magazine and the absence of a fixed and professional staff. This factor affected directly the quality and the variety of the contents of the magazine itself, that seems to be too superficial, heterogeneous and too dependent on the D&I college environment.

1 2 5

L ACK OF FUNDS AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES

I T D O E S N O T R E A L LY F O L L O W A DETERMINED SCHEDULE AN D E VERY R ELE AS E IS N OT A LWAY S P R E D I C TA B L E

THE MAGAZINE IS D I S T R I B U T E D D I R E C T LY I N AN INFORMAL MANNER

3 4 6

CONTENTS ARE OFTEN CHAR ACTERIZED BY A LOW Q UALIT Y AN D MAN Y T O P I C S A R E T R E AT E D I N A SUPERFICIAL MANNER

THE MAGAZINE HAS A L ACK OF COHERENCE AND IS MISSING OF A STRONG RECOGNIZABLE IDENTITY

COMPLETE ABSENCE OF A WEBSITE

I N T R O 11

METHOD

12 M E T H O D

In order to start the development of a new strategy, a research has been arranged. The research was held using different design research tools, in combination between each other in order to cover all the different aspects related to design magazines and their audience. The combination of the different elements and tool has been scheduled in order to make the research grown step-by-step in an homogeneous way and in order to have a constant verification of the insights found (triangulation). To reach these design objectives data have been collected using different methods; for the first part, in particular, many quantitative data were required and the main methods used were direct interviews, surveys and web research (online and offline). To compare the different magazines on the field a systematic database has been developed to collect quantitative and qualitative data of local and international magazines present in China. For the collection of qualitative data the main methods used were: face-to-face interviews with editorial staff, students (undergraduate and post graduate/chinese and international), professors, professionals (chinese and international), magazine bookshops assistants and bookshop customers. Other strategies used were observation of customers behavior through shadowing (specialized bookshops and libraries) and focus groups (students). Focus groups, beta testing and co-design were the

main methods applied in the second part of the research (testing phase). As a group of research completely constituted by foreigners, we had to adapt to a research strategy that can avoid the problems connected with the difference of language. We tried to translate some parts of the tools (survey) but the research was mainly held in English because it has been done directly from us (focus groups, face-to-face interviews). Even the comparison database has been developed mainly analyzing magazines which present English text or double language text (English/Chinese). This communication limit strongly influenced the research and his development. First of all we had the consciousness that using only English as a language we would have a partial vision of the situation and a not exhaustive comprehension of the context and of the behaviors. Secondly, using English as main language, implies that our research focused on only one segment of the audience, that is the restricted group of English speaker. Besides, the use of a language that is not the mother tongue could represent a difficulty, a filter in the expression of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thoughts and ideas; the risk could be that the results could be not genuine or totally trustable. For these many reasons the analysis of the data collected has been organized considering this important and influent linguistic factor.

AIM AND FIELDS PA RT O N E A I M

A N D

F I E L D S

O F

U N D E R S TA N D

I N V E S T I G AT I O N

TH E D E VELO PM ENT OF DESIGN IN CHINA

A N A LY Z E

THE INFLUENCE OF WESTERN DESIGN ON CHINESE DESIGN D E VELO PM ENT

TH E CO M PE TITO RS I N TH E D ES I G N AND LIFEST YLE MAGAZINES FIELD ( I N T E R N AT I O N A L A N D C H I N E S E )

T H E S I T U AT I O N O F DESIGN MAGAZINE IN CHINA

I N V E S T I G AT E

ABOUT THE ACTUAL AUDIENCE

HOW THE MAGAZINE I S O R G A N I Z E D ( S TA F F/ CONTENTS/PLANNING/ FINANCIAL RESOURCES)

TH E CO M PE TITO RS I N TH E D ES I G N B LO G S AN D WEB S ITES FI ELD

STUDY

THE ONGOING TRENDS IN THE PUBLISHING AND PRESS AREA

ABOUT THE POSSIBLE ENLARGMENT OF THE A U D I E N C E ( N AT I O N A L LE VEL)

PA RT T WO B A S E D O N T H E I N S I G H T E X T R A P O L AT E D F R O M PA R T O N E

TEST

THE FIRST DESIGN IDEAS

COLLECT

FEEDBACKS AND OPINION

A I M A N D F I E L D 13

SCHEDULING

14 S C H E D U L I N G

WEEK

2 3 4 5 6

WEEK

RESEARCH ON WEB

RESEARCH

TREND RESEARCH RESEARCH KIT MAGAZINE RESEARCH SHADOWING INTERVIEWS SURVEY

DESIGN

ANALISYS

FOCUS GROUP

C R E AT I O N O F I N S I G H T S C R E AT I O N O F G U I D E L I N E BRAINSTORMING

DESIGN WEBSITE DESIGN SYSTEM DESIGN PROTOTYPE

S C H E D U L I N G 15

BUSINESS MODEL

16 B U S I N E S S M O D E L

The Business Model Canvas by A. Osterwalder is a strategic management tool, which allows to analyze All Design Magazine’s business model and develop, in a subsequent step, new strategies to improve it. At the moment, the customers segment results a kind of niche market, in fact readers are only those one who have a link with Tongji Design&Innovation Department. This restricted target has brought to the formation of a “ghost community” of professors and students that is not very involved in any type of discussion or confront about the theme treated. What is evident is that the ones that are not part of this group, do not seem to be really interested to purchase the magazine. Distribution is one of the reasons of this closure. To find “All Design” out of the Campus is very hard: you can reach it just in the bookshops or in the libraries inside TongJi area. Moreover, to find it in design bookshop around the city is impossible. The economical part of the BM is not well balanced: costs result higher than revenues; the investments in All Design editing and printing are high but, due to a problem of distribution, the revenues from selling, are not those expected. Furthermore, sponsors presence is not so impressive. At the moment, one of the most interesting aspect results the volunteer collaboration of students and professors in editing. Volunteers help the magazine to hang over, reducing consequentially the cost of editing; on the other side, this aspect could be a deterrent: customer will feel less involved in buying and reading it, because of the quality of the contents and for the way to treat the arguments (cases written by students).

“BM AS IS” KEY PARTNERS

KEY ACTIVITIES

VALUE PROPOSITION

“Sponsors + Design Schools Abroad”

(Editing, Printing, Distribution)”

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

“Elitarian Academic Community”

“Design & Innovation College : Professors & Students”

ESIGN

ALL D

IG S E D ALL

KEY RESOURCES “Volunteers publishers and copywriters : Professors & Students”

INFO CHANNEL ABOUT DESIGN

COST STRUCTURE “Printing + Distribution + Maintenance of appliances”

CHANNNELS “Direct Selling at TongJi University”

ESIGN

ALL D

REVENUE STREAMS FAPIAO

888 ¥

“Selling + TongJi Fundings + Sponsors”

B U S I N E S S M O D E L 17

INTERVIEWS

18 I N T E R V I E W

Interviews was one of the main tools in the the research because it was the most suitable to investigate audience’s behavior. First of all, interviews were the most direct method because they were based on a person-to-person, linear communication; at every question it is required a pertinent answer. At the same time if the answer given is not satisfying, thanks to direct communication, the interviewer can guide the interviewed and asks for more explanations. The human contact is one of the main element of face-to-face interview: the interviewer can adapt to the situation, model the questions, involve and inspire the interviewed in order to have better results. It’s important to notice also that with face-to-face interviews many insights can be extrapolated from the non-verbal language: a person and his ideas could be better understood thanks to their gesture and attitudes. Interviews permit also to have a certain level of freedom that is not possible to have in surveys: the structure can be changed or enlarged and usually many spontaneous questions can be added to the initial nucleus of questions. First of all we developed different interview’s canvas for the three different audience’s categories we wanted to target: students, professors and professionals.

This choice was taken since we were thinking that these 3 groups have very different needs, behavior and attitudes; secondly, in a more practical level, these 3 groups have different approaches to the interviews: students have more time to spend and they can treat us in the same level, while professors or professional might have shorter amount of time and a different approach toward the research team. Even with their differences, we tried to develop 3 different interview’s model maintaining a certain coherence in order to have the same categories of insights. In order to target this aim we developed a “research interview kit”, that was distributed to all the members of the research team. We have to notice that a interview’s model has been developed also for the Editorial staff of the All Design Magazine, but it has never been used because of the complete lack of a fixed editorial staff; the interview was practically totally inappropriate in our context of use. Interviews to professor and students were mainly held inside Tongji University campus (Design&Innovation Department offices, Aalto Design Factory, Caup) while the interviews to professionals where all held in their own studio. The interview team was usually created by 3 person: one interviewer asking all the questions, one person taking notes and controlling the questions and one person

recording video and taking photos; some interviews were also held in teams of only two people. Interviews always started with a quick introduction of the project by the interviewer and then it was asked to the interviewed to introduce himself, his major and his job. Then the interview moved to the questions related to situation of design in china; after that we had the group of question related to the use and consume of design magazines and the habits related to that. Then we had a group of questions on All Design in particular; during this section we were giving to the interviewed a copy of All Design magazine to consult. Then we had a part of interview focusing on the comparison of All Design and the other knew design magazines and a section about the contents of design magazines. The last part was related to the use of different media apart from magazines, the use of technological devices and the interests to design events in China

I N T E R V I E W 19

D AY

STUDENT

PROFESSORS

INTERVIEWS SCHEDULE AND TEMPORAL DIVISION OF THE INTERVIEWS.

20 I N T E R V I E W

# #

5 6 #

7 8 9 10 #

1 2 #

D AY

15 16 19 11 17 18 20 21 10 12 13 14 #

DESIGNER

BOOKSELLER

D AY

2 3 4 #

4 5 6

DESIGN MAGAZINES WHICH MAGAZINES TRANSLATION/COPY OF INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINES A RT/DESIGN/LIFESTYLE MAGAZINES A RT&DESIGN SCHOOL MAGAZINES

DESIGN IN CHINA

北京

BEIJING

PURCHASING

DEVELOPING CHANGE

上海

TRADITION CULTURE

SHANGHAI

YOUNG

DOMUS WALLPAPER AXIS FRAME FORUM AD INT DESIGN ABITARE

FAST 200 DESIGN UNIVERSITIES C OMPANIES ARE READY FOR IT NOW

C OMPANY/UNIVERSITY

SHENZHEN

DEAL WITH BOOKSHOP

DIRECTLY AT BOOKSHOP BORROWED

INFO SEARCHED

CONTENTS

TRENDS

ONE TOPIC/DEEP MANY/SUPERFICIAL

NEW DESIGN PRACTICES INSPIRATIONS I NNOVATIVE APPROACHES STRATEGIES CASE STUDIES

I N T E R V I E W 21

BOOKSHOP RESEARCH

SURVEY

In order to have an complete view of the design magazines environment, it has been decided to investigate and analyze the place where the design magazines are sold. Precious insights were hidden in the way the shops themselves are organized and in the direct experience of the shopkeepers. Two set of questions were developed, one to analyze the bookstore and their content, the other to interview directly the shopkeepers.

SCOPE Among the different methods that we selected for our research, we also included an on-line survey. With 32 different questions, covering interests and opinions, our aim was to reach as much design students as possible and understand their knowledge, preferences and opinions about magazines available on the market. Considering that All Design is edited and distributed only inside Tongji University, we needed to understand how many students knew and appreciated it, in order to identify the catching area of the magazine. We needed also an anonymous opinion about it in comparison with other well-known magazines and a view on future expectations on the magazine they might have had. The purpose of the survey was to investigate

22 B O O K S H O P R E S E A R C H

to whom the magazine can be addressed, how (understanding media preferences), what kind of contents should be included and in which percentage. Opinions about other well-known magazines in the design field has been investigated too in order to get an idea of the possible competitors depending on the interviewed interests and attitudes. Therefore while designing the survey, we asked some main information about the interviewee (major, job, gender, age), which media they use to stay informed, how and why, in order to figure out their behavior and choices. About magazines we asked which one they know, to understand their knowledge and the kind of magazine that are more attractive to their eyes; which ones they read and how often. We were also interested in knowing how often they buy them and where, to get to know the purchase process and understand who is really spending money on magazines and keeping them. We asked which aspects are their favorite among graphic, contents, interview, pictures and so on, to get to know their personal taste. Then we questioned if they knew and read All Design magazine, if they liked it and knew someone working inside it (knowing than this element can sometimes influence the final opinion); we again asked the purchase method of the magazine (to detect the differences with the others) and the kind of contents they likes the most (articles, interviews, concepts, projects..).

We finally asked a quick comparison with the magazines mentioned before and their concept of the perfect design magazine, in order to get some opinion about their expectations and desires.

WEB RESEARCH Web research had the main aim of giving directions to the other part of research and define the context where the research had to be conducted. Its aim was to obtain data that otherwise were difficult to obtain through primary research, for example in order to indentify publishing trends that are a big global phenomenon. In addiction web research has been used to grab some information about China and Chinese design.

S U R V E Y 23

MAGAZINE CO M PA R I S O N The magazines that we did analyze were: Domus, Ottagono, Abitare, Case da abitare, 360, Wallpaper, Interni, Frame. For each magazine a set elements has been analyzed: subtitle, price, provenience, language, number of pages, format, foundation year, current issue, amount of published issues every year. Then it has been analyzed the physical quality of the magazines: colors, materials, print and images quality and empirically analyzed the image/text ratio. Then it has been described the way the magazines are conceived:, how is the structure and which are the issues, the different sections, their weight and the balance between each of them. It has been analyzed also the internet website related to each magazine, the website sections, the networks (links, platforms, etc), the eventual virtual store and applications, the possibility to access to digital material (articles, digital magazines, etc).

24 M A G A Z I N E C O M P A R I S O N

ABITARE CASE DA

MAGAZINE

SUBTITLE

DESIGN, INTERIORS AND LIVING

LANGUAGE

1997

GOOD QUALITY

IMAGES

VA R I O U S S I Z E S

131

NETWORKS

FACE BOOK

STORE

MAGAZINE BOOKS

A P P L I C AT I O N

TEXT IMAGES

ABOUT

NONE

LIFESTYLE AND MORE FOR PEOPLE WHO WA N T S A N I N T E R N AT I O N A L LO O K O N T H E WORLD OF INTERIORS. IN EACH ISSUE, HOUSES AND FURNITURE ARE SHOWN T H R O U G H E XC L U S I V E F E AT U R E S , I N T E R V I E W S , R E P O R TAG E S F R O M T H E W O R L D T O G E T H E R W I T H A N A LY S I S O F I N D U S -

ISSUE

EACH NUMBER HAS ARTICLE ABOUT ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN AND ART DIFFERENT SECTIONS

I N T E R N AT I O N A L A P P R OAC H , B U T AT T H E CHINESE NUMBER

N째37

IN CHINA

NONE

S A M E T I M E W I T H A G R E AT AT T E N T I O N TO R E C O U N T I N G I TA L I A N E XC E L L E N T . C A S E DA A B I TA R E S P E A K S TO B OT H A N I TA L I A N A N D I N T E R N AT I O N A L A U D I E N C E , F O R T H I S R E A S O N , E AC H I S S U E F E AT U R E A N A P P E N DIX IN ENGLISH.

T URE

SECTION P E R C E N TA G E

A RCH

ITEC

200x297 cm ACTUAL N째

CORRIERE DELLA SERA A S S O C I AT E D W E B S I T E .

IS THE MAGAZINE OF DESIGN, INTERIORS,

STRUCTURE

~ 140

F O R M AT

F O U N D AT I O N YEAR

C O AT E D PA P E R

WEB SECTIONS

TRIAL DEVELOPMENTS. ALL WITH A MORE

CHINESE

N 째 PAG E S

M AT E R I A L

LOGIC

ITALY

PROVENIENCE

NEUTRAL

IMAGES/TEXT R AT I O

30 짜

PRICE

COLORS

NUMBERS PER YEAR

INTERIOR

DE SIG

DOMUS M O N T H LY M A G A Z I N E O F ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN AND INTERIOR

98 ¥

PRICE

LANGUAGE

WEB SECTIONS

M AT E R I A L

DULL PAPER

ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, A R T, I N T E R V I E W, V I D E O , MAPS.

NETWORKS

FACE BOOK , T WIT TE R

STORE

A P P L I C AT I O N , M A G A Z I N E , & BOOKS

A N D A R T. FO R OV E R 8 0 Y E A R S I T H A S

CITY

VOICES IN THE FIELDS OF ARCHITECTURE

PRINT IMAGES

IMAGES/TEXT R AT I O

STRUCTURE

CHINESE AND ENGLISH ISSUE

~ 200

N ° PAG E S

D O M U S I S A M O N T H LY M A G A Z I N E O F CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN

BIG DIMENSION PICTURES A P P L I C AT I O N

TEXT IMAGES

B E E N O N E O F T H E M O S T A U T H O R I TAT I V E

A N D D E S I G N : TO T H I S DAY I T R E M A I N S A N

ARCHITECTURE GUIDE

I N T E R N AT I O N A L LY R E C O G N I S E D P L ATF O R M O F E XC E L L E N C E F O R I N N OVAT I V E

MAIN THEME EVERY NUMBER MAIN ARTICLE AND C O R R E L AT E D S M A L L E R ARTICLES

MAIN ISSUE

DOMUS IN THE WORLD

050 029 021 011 CHINA

ARABIA

SECTION P E R C E N TA G E

200x297 cm

F O R M AT

HIGH QUALITY

THINKING, INFLUENTIAL CRITICISM AND LOGIC

ITALY

PROVENIENCE

BRIGHT COLOR TITLE

RUSSIA

ISRAEL

C O M P E L L I N G I N T E L L E C T U A L D E B AT E . D O M U S I S E N T I R E LY B I L I N G U A L - I TA LIAN AND ENGLISH -, AND HAS A CURRENT C I R C U L AT I O N O F 5 1 , 0 0 0 C O P I E S , H A L F O F W H I C H A R E D I S T R I B U T E D G L O B A L LY I N 8 9 COUNTRIES TO SUBSCRIBERS, LIBRARIES AND THE BOOKSHOPS OF THE WORLD’S MAJOR MUSEUMS. THE LAST FOUR Y E A R S H AV E S E E N T H E B I R T H O F F O U R

DE SIG

R IOR

SUBTITLE

ABOUT

COLORS

IN T E

MAGAZINE

NEW FOREIGN-LANGUAGE EDITIONS OF THE MAGAZINE: THE CHINESE EDITION,

1928 26

ACTUAL N°

945

NUMBERS PER YEAR

ARCHITECTURE

L A U N C H E D I N J U LY 2 0 0 6 , A N D R U S S I A N F O U N D AT I O N YEAR

ART

O N E I N I T I AT E D I N A P R I L 2 0 0 8 . 2 0 0 9 A L S O SAW TH E B I RTH O F AN AR AB I C ED ITI O N OF DOMUS. DOMUS’ EDITORIAL OFFICES A R E L O C AT E D I N M I L A N , I TA LY.

INTERNI

MAGAZINE

SUBTITLE

L A R I V I S TA D E L L’ A R R E D A M E N T O

10 ¤

PRICE

ITALY

PROVENIENCE

LANGUAGE

COLORS

NEUTR AL LOGO COLOR

WEB SECTIONS

M AT E R I A L

SHINY PAPER

EVENTS, GUIDES, EXPO 2015

NETWORKS

NONE

STORE IMAGES

VA R I O U S D I M E N S I O N PICTURES

IMAGES/TEXT R AT I O

TEXT IMAGES

F O U N D AT I O N YEAR

ACTUAL N°

1954

609

GUIDE&MAGAZINE

ARCHITECTURE, EDITED BY MONDADORI’S

NONE

G I L DA B O J A R D I , I N T E R N I H A D C R E AT E D

FREE ONLINE

READING OF THE CURRENT NUMBER

STRUCTURE

DIFFERENT SECTIONS AND TOPIC S

G R O U P, B O R N I N 1 9 5 4 . N O WA DAY, U N D E R T H E D I R E C T I O N O F

N U M B E R S , AT TAC H E D M AG A Z I N E , G U I D E S AND EVENTS. P O I N T O F R E F E R E N C E F O R C R E AT I V E P E O PLE AN D CO M PAN IE, IT’ S TH E MAGA ZIN E T H AT C O N T R I B U T E O N R A I S I N G T H E VA L U E O F F U O R I S A LO N E D I M I L A N O . G AT H E R ING IN ITS GUIDE HUNDREDS OF EVENTS

NONE

B A S E D O N I T.

SECTION P E R C E N TA G E

DE SI

200x297 cm

F O R M AT

M O N T H LY M A G A Z I N E O F D E S I G N A N D

AN ENTIRE SYSTEM BASED ON SPECIAL ACCESS

MAIN THEME AND OTHER SECTION

ISSUE

~ 120

A P P L I C AT I O N

LOGIC

I TA L I A N A N D E N G L I S H

N ° PAG E S

HIGH QUALITY

ABOUT

NUMBERS PER YEAR

INTERIOR

A RCH

ITECT

URE

WALLPAPER

MAGAZINE

SUBTITLE

PROVENIENCE

SHINY PAPER GOOD QUALITY

IMAGES

F U LL PAG E I M AG E

75 ¥

IMAGES/TEXT R AT I O

TEXT IMAGES

ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, A R T, I N T E R I O R , FA S H I O N , A R T, T R AV E L , C A R S , L I F E STYLE, TECH, EVENTS

NETWORKS

FACE BOOK , T WIT TE R

STORE

D I G I TA L A N D P H Y S I C A L MAGAZINE, SPECIAL EDITION

ENGLAND

LOGIC

DIFFERENT THEMES

STRUCTURE

ARTICLES ARE NOT LINKED EACH OTHERS

ISSUE

NONE

A P P L I C AT I O N

INTERIOR

SECTION P E R C E N TA G E

200x297 cm NUMBERS PER YEAR

1996

144

FASHION

C T URE

ACTUAL N°

ARCHITE

F O U N D AT I O N YEAR

ABOUT WORLD’S NO. 1 GLOBAL DESIGN DESTINAT I O N . I T D E L I V E R S T H E C O R E VA LU E S O F

EVERYDAY

I N S P I R AT I O N A P P.

~ 220

F O R M AT

WEB SECTIONS

L AU N C H ED I N 1 9 9 6 , WALLPAPER * IS TH E

ENGLISH

N ° PAG E S

M AT E R I A L

ART

LANGUAGE

NEUTR AL LOGO, DIFFERENT IMAGE

DESIGN, INTERIOR, FA S H I O N , A RT & LIFESTYLE

PRICE

COLORS

DESIGN

M O D E R N L I V I N G TO A N E W G E N E R AT I O N O F U R B A N N O M A D S . A I M E D AT A N I N T E R N AT I O N A L A U D I E N C E , I T C E L E B R AT E S T H E B E S T I N D E S I G N , FA S H I O N , T R AV E L A N D T E C H N O LO G Y.

FRAME

SUBTITLE

T H E G R E AT I N D O O R S

89 ¥

PRICE

LANGUAGE

~ 225

F O U N D AT I O N YEAR

1997

ACTUAL N°

DULL PAPER

THE BEST QUALITY

IMAGES

DIFFERENT SIZES & CUT

ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, A R T, I N T E R I O R , FA S H I O N

NETWORKS

FACE BOOK , T WIT TE R , LINKEDIN

STORE

B O O K S , D I G I TA L A N D PHYSICAL MAGAZINE

ABOUT FRAME IS THE WORLD’S BAROMETER OF INTERIOR DESIGN. THE MAGAZINE SHOWS YO U W H AT ’ S H A P P E N I N G A N D W H E R E TO F I N D I T. T H E L AT E S T I N T E R I O R S

LOGIC

STRUCTURE

ISSUE

A P P L I C AT I O N

TEXT IMAGES

NONE

AND PRODUCTS, SPICED UP WITH SOME A R T, S H O P W I N D O W S A N D S E T S : T H AT ’ S THE ESSENCE OF FRAME MAGAZINE. WE G AT H E R T H E M O S T I N T E R E S T I N G W O R K

MAIN THEME AND DIFFERENT SECTIONS

RE-USE

NUMBERS PER YEAR

EDITORIAL FORMUL A

MOST OF THE ARTICLE ARE LINKED BY THEME

SECTION P E R C E N TA G E

200x297 cm

F O R M AT

M AT E R I A L

WEB SECTIONS

FRO M AROU N D TH E G LO B E AN D PACK-

CHINESE

N ° PAG E S

NEUTR AL LOGO AND COLORED FR AME

IMAGES/TEXT R AT I O

NETHERLANDS

PROVENIENCE

COLORS

ARCHITECTURE

MAGAZINE

DESIGN

IN T E

R IOR

FRAME IN THE WORLD

VISIONS STILLS FEATURES GOODS

FROM THE D R AW I N G BOARD

AG E I T I N S I X TAC T I L E I S S U E S A Y E A R .

PORTFOLIO OF PLACES

LIKE TO ‘READ’ IMAGES, THE MAGAZINE

PROJECTS IN PERSPECTIVE M AT E R I A L M AT T E R S

I TA LY, S P A I N , C H I N A , G E R M A N Y, R U S S I A , TURKEY

S I N C E W E B E L I E V E T H AT O U R R E A D E R S ARE FIRST AND FOREMOST VIEWERS WHO

FOC US E S O N PH OTOS AN D D R AWI N G S . WE D O N ’ T N EG L EC T T E X T, H OW E V E R . I N FAC T, WE PUT A LOT OF ENERGY IN FINDING THE STORY BEHIND EACH DESIGN WE PUBLISH. W E W R I T E T H E S E S TO R I E S I N E A S Y-TO U N D E R S TA N D , D O W N -TO - E A R T H E N G L I S H . LOADED WITH NOTHING BUT THE BEST IN CONTEMPORARY DESIGN, FRAME IS AN INSPIRING AND INDISPENSABLE REFERENCE

FOR PROFESSIONALS IN INTERIOR DESIGN A N D OT H E R C R E AT I V E P U R S U I T S .

ABITARE

MAGAZINE

SUBTITLE

DESIGN, ARCHITECTURE AND ART

LANGUAGE

~ 130

GOOD QUALITY

IMAGES

VA R I O U S S I Z E S

F O U N D AT I O N YEAR

ACTUAL N째

1961

510

AG E N DA , R U B R I C A ,T I P S AND SPECIAL NUMBER.

NETWORKS

FACE BOOK , T WIT TER , YOUTU B E, RSS

STORE

MAGAZINE BOOKS

A P P L I C AT I O N

TEXT IMAGES

STRUCTURE

DIFFERENT SECTIONS

ISSUE

NONE GN

SECTION P E R C E N TA G E

DE SI NUMBERS PER YEAR

ARCHITECTURE

IN T E R

IOR

A B I TA R E I N T H E WORLD

BEING FREE

A B I TA R E I S A N I TA L I A N M AG A Z I N E F O CUSED ON ARCHITECTURE, INTERIOR

T E C H N I Q U E S . I T F E AT U R E S P R O F I L E S O F PROJECTS AROUND THE WORLD, INTERVIEWS WITH TOP DESIGNERS AND ARCHIT E C T S , I N F O R M AT I O N O N N E W P R O D U C T S , A N D C O M M E N TA R Y.

023 011 CHINA

ABOUT D E S I G N , A N D I N N OVAT I V E C O N S T R U C T I O N

RENZO PIANO

EACH NUMBER HAS ARTICLE ABOUT ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN AND ART

200x297 cm

F O R M AT

C O AT E D PA P E R

LOGIC

CHINESE AND ENGLISH

N 째 PAG E S

M AT E R I A L

WEB SECTIONS

I - PA D D OW N LOA D

ITALY

PROVENIENCE

RECOGNIZABLE

IMAGES/TEXT R AT I O

30 짜

PRICE

COLORS

BULGARIA

360째

MAGAZINE

SUBTITLE

CONCEPT AND DESIGN MAGAZINE

LANGUAGE

M AT E R I A L

D U LL & S H I N Y PA P ER

GOOD QUALITY

IMAGES

DIFFERENT SIZES

STRUCTURE

ISSUE

~ 190

F O U N D AT I O N YEAR

2007

ACTUAL N째

NETWORKS

NONE

STORE

NONE

A P P L I C AT I O N

TEXT IMAGES

ABOUT

NONE

THE FUTURE, MAKING OUR LIFE MORE C O L O U R F U L . D E S I G N 3 6 0 I S A N A L LR O U N D D E S I G N M AG A Z I N E D E D I C AT E D TO I N T R O D U C I N G I N T E R N AT I O N A L A DVA N C E D DESIGN CONCEPTS, ORIGINAL WORKS, OT U S TA N D I N G D E S I G N E R S A N D P R E S T I G IOUS DESIGN INSTITUTES. IT COVERS AR-

EACH NUMBER IS ABOUT A SPECIFIC COUNTRY ALL ARTICLES ARE REL AT E D T O T H E I S S U E D COUNTRY

A COUNTRY

SIGN, INTERIOR DESIGN, GRAPHIC DESIGN, D I G I TA L D E S I G N , FA S H I O N D E S I G N , E TC . , B E I N G A N I N F O R M AT I V E S O U R C E F O R S T U DENTS IN ART AND DESIGN ACADEMIES, PROFESSIONAL DESIGNERS AND AMAT E U R S A L I K E , W H O TA K E G R E AT I N T E R E S T I N I N T E R N AT I O N A L D E S I G N T R E N D S .

ART

SECTION P E R C E N TA G E

200x297 cm

F O R M AT

WEBSITE OF THE EDITOR

C H I T E C T U R E , A N I M AT I O N , I N D U S T R I A L D E -

CHINESE AND ENGLISH

N 째 PAG E S

WEB SECTIONS

DESIGN INFLUENCES THE WORLD AND

LOGIC

CHINA

PROVENIENCE

GRAPHIC BASED

IMAGES/TEXT R AT I O

45 짜

PRICE

COLORS

NUMBERS PER YEAR

GRAPHIC

DE SIG

FOCUS GROUP Focus group had the main aim of search deeper, more complex and more contextualized information about the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s audience, that was the weakest segment, from the point of view of the results, of the interview phase. The focus group provided us accurate information while helping us to establish an open dialogue with the students. The focus group has been done with a group of 6 students that were supposed to be half boys and half girls; the number of students had been chosen dependently to our capability to handle this kind of research. In order to assure the right outcome, we planned a Dual moderator focus group which means that one moderator ensures the session progresses smoothly, while the other ensures that all the topics are covered. The session has been done in three parts: introduction, lifestyle research and trend research.

32 F O C U S G R O U P

INTRODUCTION Double side presentation: presentation of the project to the students and studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presentation; this was done in order to collect all the basic datas necessary for the analysis of the results.

F O C U S G R O U P 33

2 LIFESTYLE RESEARCH Planned to understand the habits of the interviewed, to ask them what kind of use they do of technology, medias and interactive tools. This session had been divided in:

SELECTION OF THE TECHNOLOGY TOOLS OWNED

SELECTION OF THE MEDIA USED

VOTE THE ACTIVITIES YOU LOVE THE MOST

D E S C R I P T I O N O F T H E D A I LY ROUTINE

34 F O C U S G R O U P

3 TREND RESEARCH We ended up the session asking some suggestion on the guidelines we could follow during the redesign phase. To do this we used the last part of the tool-kit and then we offered to the students interviewed a small lunch and we discussed with them how to change the magazine. This is the list of the activities done:

POSITIONING FAMOUS MAGA ZIN ES

CHOOSE ONE MAGAZINE AND A N A LY Z E I T

A S S O C I AT E FA M O U S P E O P L E A N D BRANDS TO YOUR IDEAL MAGAZINE

F O C U S G R O U P 35

TOOLKIT The aim of the toolkit were many; first of all, we wanted to avoid the communication problems that encountered during the interviews: it had been designed in the most playful way as possible, using pictures, visual elements and tags. Moreover we preferred to give them a new piece of the toolkit at the begin of every step in order to have enough time to explain them how to use them and what they were asked to do. The participants had been invited to draw, co-operate among them and take some decisions in group or couples. To each person it has been assigned a color and has been provided an identity card that they had been using during the whole process. This identity card has been used as folder where to put the work they were doing step-by-step.

J UDY

36 F O C U S G R O U P

V I VI

L IDIA

LU N A

3 3

S EAS O N

F O C U S G R O U P 37

INSIGHTS

from INTERVIEWS Interviews result were really useful for the development of the process, even if the results from studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interviews where not satisfying. That happened mainly because of the language barrier, and because many students tend to be really shy or not selfconfident. Moreover it was really difficult to interview male students and that happened because the research team was not aware of the cultural boundaries that can be encontered. The best results were provided by professors and professionals and can be divided in different categories. DESIGN IN CHINA The main adjective used to describe the situation of design in China were, first of all, DEVELOPING; the design industry is growing and the consciousness of the people in confront to the topic is growing as well. The second word is CHANGE: design s changing because the entire context is changing and evolving: society, economy and culture are changing in a more and more tough environment. Another word mentioned is TRADITION: China has a 5000 years tradition of design and there is the consciousness that that tradition has to be preserved

38 I N S I G H T S

and used in order to develop a “chinese way” of design. China represents a huge market, that is characterized by strong diversities, different needs and different behaviors from the western markets. The Chinese Design has to find a peculiar approach that has to fit the cultural aspects and satisfy chinese’s people needs. DESIGN MAGAZINE It came out that many of the interviewed are interested in design magazine and they are habitual readers but many of them are also interested into innovation and business magazines, especially professional that are employed in design companies. Another common element coming out from interviews is that many design magazines are no more totally focused only on “design” strictly speaking, but they are spreading their focus more and more into the direction of “lifestyle” magazine. Everyone that has been interviewed reads International magazines, or Chinese version of International magazines. It seems that Chinese text is considered more comfortable but if a magazine is presenting only English text, that is not considered a problem. It has been underlined that most Chinese design magazine are considered not professional and I N S I G H T S 39

the contrary, that art, architecture and lifestyle magazines are considered more interesting. In fact it has been pointed out also that many Chinese lifestyle or fashion magazines often include some interesting design oriented articles. In general the most interesting and lively sector in magazines area in China is the one of art and photography magazines; thanks to the effort of some enlighten editors the trend is to have more and more good quality in contents and layouts (for example Mstyle, O2, LifeMagazine, The Outlook Magazine) Another element pointed out by the interviewed is how important is the personality, the character of the magazine in order to be considered attractive or interesting; this element is often determined by the presence of a strong and influent chief editor that guides the magazine providing a peculiar point of view (see for example Monocle or Wallpaper). As the same time the brand is also considered an important element to rate the trustability and appeal of a magazine (see for example in this case, Domus)

40 I N S I G H T S 24

from INTERVIEWS PURCHASING Many interviewed said that they do not directly purchase the magazines that they read but is often the company where they work that buy them and make them available to its employees. Students often buy the magazines and they often share them with other students; they also use the library to access to magazines too. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interesting to notice that because the design magazines are not so easy to find in the kiosks and newsstands in the city, many interviewed have a special deal with bookstores. They order in advance the required magazines asked by the clients and sometime, they deliver them at home. MEDIA Internet represents the most used media for professional use and also for personal use in terms of time and frequency of use. Internet is always the first medium used when interviewed have to seek information about design, especially if they have to develop a research of if they are looking for inspiration. The use of design magazines is always integrated with other media especially Internet; usually if one topic I N S I G H T S 41

founded on the magazine is considered interesting it is explored deeper searching info on websites or blogs.

I N F O R M AT I O N S E A R C H E D Interviewed mainly look to magazines to research about trends,new design process and inspiration. Professors are also interested into professional and academic writings, while professionals are more interested into case studies, innovation practice and strategies. Actually what is searched in magazines are often inspirations and trends that are not strictly related to the design field itself but also from different fields (art, technology, economy,etc); thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s way lifestyle magazine are considered very interesting and important as design magazine.

OPINIONS ON ALLDESIGN MAGAZINES What strongly comes out from the interviews is that almost all the audience of AllDesign Magazine is consisted of readers but not buyers. Magazines are given to professors for free by the department every time the magazine it is published; even students can find many ways to have the 42 I N S I G H T S

magazine for free. It comes out that distribution is the main problem, also because in the last 2 years the time schedule for publishing the magazine was not rigid. The audience is not really informed when the magazine is going to be published and they can not manage to get it if they are not part of Tongji environment. What can be seen is that the magazine is really suffering and it has lot of left-overs every time.

HOW IS ALLDESIGN MAGAZINE

The common opinion is that the kind of info it gives are sometimes very superficial, the magazine gives â&#x20AC;&#x153;bird viewâ&#x20AC;?and it does not exploit deeply topics and issues. The magazine is lacking of a strong, appealing image: sometimes the layout is too vague and it presents too many different styles. The contents are also perceived as not so good: low image resolution and low quality of the pictures and of the texts. What has been told mainly from professors is that sometimes the contents are not perceived as

interesting because they are conceived and develop inside the Design&Innovation Department, that is a well-knew environment for them. Anyway many interviewed agreed on the fact that the magazine is still interesting because it gives the possibility to be updated about the Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s activities and projects.

I N S I G H T S 43 11

INSIGHTS

from BOOKSHOPS We were able to perform the interviews only to the shopkeepers who were able to talk in english (at M50 and Bridge 8). Most of the bookstore, especially the most recent, have a coffee bar inside and a section of design gadgets and gifts. Usually the gadget area and the coffee areas are inversely proportional of the book section. If they “sell a lot of books” or “have a lot of space” the gadget/coffee area will be small or absent. The most interesting and furnished design bookshop that sells design magazines, were in creative parks(M50,Bridge8) or Fuzhou Lu area. In this specific bookstore, the foreign magazine ratio on the whole were of about 10% According to the opinion of the shopkeeper interviewed the chinese magazines that sells the most on the design area are: Frame, Abitare, Case da abitare, Art in china; while among the foreigns magazine : Wallpaper, Monocle, Mark. Wallpaper and Monocle sells particularly well. Students don’t usually buy magazines. The main market is between 20-40 years old of professionals. According to to the opinion of the shopkeeper, at least 25% of their client are foreigner, and at least the 50% of the whole audience is able to speak english Double language magazines are uncommon by the way.

44 I N S I G H T S

CONCLUSION 1. The design magazine it’s an experience. 2. It’s a moment of break, a moment where you also drink a cup of coffe/tea with a friend or look for some cool gadget. 3. It’s a moment where you stop and get in touch with the news and the new ideas of your field, then it can considered a learning process. 4. It’s a stimulating, and multi sensorial experience. 5. The design magazine is also an excuse to go to the bookstore, to get out of the office/studio/home, to get in touch with the world

I N S I G H T S 45 11

INSIGHTS

MEDIAS TOP CHART BLOG

WEBSITE

46 I N S I G H T S

AZIN BOOK

MAG

share the newest information rapidly easy no paper fast design projects from all over the World information is more specific and professional

from SURVEYS Once we got enough responses (80 students answered the survey we submitted) we started getting some insights and conclusions by analyzing the results. The majority of the responses came from design students, as we wished, both male and female between 22 and 25 years old. The most used medias in order to stay informed are websites (94,1%), followed by blogs (76,5%) and in third place, a bit distant, magazines (47,1%) and books (41,2%); they mostly combine these channels (81,2%). That suggests us that the virtual information is becoming everyday more popular and accessible, the first tool to use when looking for fresh news, but this still doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t steal importance to the paper information, which is somehow differently valued; indeed the reason why the interviewee choose virtual media over others is about speed, quantity and freshness of the information, although is also matter of easy accessibility and free source. But some of them also assure that the contents of paper media are more professional and trustable. The most renowned magazine is Domus (76,5%) an Italian architecture publication with a long and strong history that presents a Chinese version, followed by Frame (58,8%) trade magazine about interior and product design, Wallpaper and Time & Architecture (47,1%). We can see from this results how the knowledge

DESIGNERS STUDENTS FREE LANCERS PROFESSORS EMPLOYEE

65 % 76 % 12 % 9% 3%

80 USERS

ARCHITECTS STUDENTS FREE LANCERS PROFESSORS EMPLOYEE

25 % 82 % 5% 11 % 2%

OTHER DEGREES STUDENTS FREE LANCERS PROFESSORS EMPLOYEES

10 % 65 % 1% 0% 34 %

MALE 41,2 % 18-21 Y 22-26 Y 27-40 Y 41+ Y

18-21 Y 22-26 Y 27-40 Y 41+ Y 16% 37% 42% 5%

16% 37% 42% 5%

FEMALE 58,8%

of a magazine is relied on its strong identity and peculiarity and, in the case of magazines like Domus and Time & Architecture, for the importance they have inside their field and the quality of the information provided; in the case of Wallpaper, a very commercial magazine, the reasons of its notoriety might be seen differently. Just few people knew about AD (35.3%) and 360° (29,4%) an honk kong based design magazine. The 70,6% of interviewee buy just the numbers they’re interested into. They have access to them by using the library (52,8%) or buying them from the usual bookshop (47,1%) and the 47,10% of the ones that buy them usually collect them after, which confirms us how the magazine “life” might have an importance on its own, it can become part of a “personal library” of information to keep for private interests or

someone from inside the staff; the 70,6% usually read it but just the 29,4% really likes it! The main access to it (41,2%) is by library and (41,2%) by having it borrowed, which means almost no one buy it. The top three aspects that people prefer about it were design project presented inside, followed by graphic and design concepts. But when asked for a comparison with the other magazines, AllDesign reach a quiet low/middle level about appeal and attractiveness, and an even lower level about the deepness of the contents. What they want to see are mainly new projects, followed by new materials, inspiration articles and new trends both from china and around the world (62,5%). The 81,2% declared that would prefer a bilingual magazine (both chinese and english) and would be interested in a virtual version of the magazine

professional ones, more than virtual sources. The 76,5% knew about AllDesign magazine and know

(56,2% why not?, 18,8% cool!). I N S I G H T S 47

colors wallpaper domus frame monocle interni arkitecture 360Ë&#x161;

others

48 I N S I G H T S

MAGAZINE PREFERENCES 2% 20% 30% 26% 4% 3% 1% 10% 2%

65% JUST SPECIAL NUMBERS IN WHICH THEY ARE INTERESTED IN

HOW OFTEN DO THEY BUY THEM? 18% ONCE A WHILE 12% OFTEN 5% ALWAYS

The kind of information collected were quite useful, but mainly they confirmed what we already supposed, so that the few changes that we had already foreseen for the magazine could be really taken in consideration. After making sure that the bases we were starting from (knowledge of magazines, appreciations, preferences and desires) were right, we decided to go for more specific and qualitative information, to answer the new questions that the survey results raised and to understand better the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behaviors and the reasons of his/her choices; this were done using the focus group.

I COLLECT THEM 47%

BOOK

MAG AZIN E

I THROW AFTER READING 29% I SWAP THEM 7%

APER NEWSP

ONCE YOU BOUGHT IT, WHAT DO YOU DO? E N I AM GAZ

LIBRARY BOOKSHOP NEWS KIOSK BORROWING ON THE WEB

33% 27% 8% 13% 19%

AZIN MAG

READ IT WROTE FOR LIKE IT

LIBRARY

APE NEWSP

76% 71% 8% 13% 41% 17% 0% 42% 0% ABOUT ALL DESIGN MAGAZINE

graphic contents pictures interview news writing style

design projects graphic design concepts BOOKSHOP NEWS KIOSK BORROWING ON THE WEB internationalpictures news chinese news interviews WHERE DO YOU PURCHASE ADM? extras writing style BOOK

BOOK

WHERE DO YOU PURCHASE THEM?

KNOW IT

I SHARE THEM 17%

ASPECT PREFERENCES 15% 20% 30% 10% 4% 11%

CONTENTS PREFERENCES 22% 20% 9% 16% 4% 4% 10% 2% 6% 11%

I N S I G H T S 49

INSIGHTS

10 I N S I G H T S 50

from FOCUS GROUP

CONNECTIVITY

T H E S T U D E N T S A R E A LWAY S B R I N G I N G W I T H T H E M A T E C H N O L O G I C A L T O O L T O S H A R E I N F O AT E V E R Y T I M E O F T H E D AY. T H E O N E S T H AT D O N ’ T H AV E A S M A R TP H O N E U S E T O B R I N G T H E C O M P U T E R A LWAY S W I T H THEM.

SIMPLE ROUTINE

T H E D A I LY R O U T I N E S O F T H E S T U D E N T S W E R E R E A L LY SIMILAR, THEY ARE SCHEDULING THEIR FREE TIME IN T H E S A M E W AY A N D H A V E R E A L LY C O N V E N T I O N A L INTERESTS.

READ AROUND

E XC E P T F O R FA S H I O N A N D OT H E R FA M O U S M AG A Z I N E S , N O B O D Y B U Y S F R E Q U E N T LY A D E S I G N /A R C H I T E C T U R E / TR EN D MAGA ZI N E . TH E Y U S E TO R E AD TR E AD M A G A Z I N E I N T H E L I B R A R I E S , AT S C H O O L O R I N T H E OFFICES THEY ARE WORKING FOR.

S I M P L E TA S T E

T H E I N T E R V I E W E D D E M O N S T R AT E D P R E F E R E N C E S F O R R E A L LY S I M P L E L AY O U T S , B I G P I C T U R E S , F E W T E X T PA RTS A N D N O A DV E RT I S I N G .

FLOCK THINKING

W H E N W E A S K E D T H E M T O A S S O C I AT E S O M E B R A N D S A N D FA M O U S P E O P L E TO T H E I R I D E A L M AG A Z I N E T H E I R CHOICE WERE ORIENTED ON VERY COMMON ONES.

I N S I G H T S 51

INSIGHTS

PUBLISHING TRENDS The publishing market is experiencing radical changes in these years, mainly defined by the growing importance of the digital medias such as Internet and the mass diffusion of technologic devices such as computers, smartphones and tablets. Technological changes are effecting the everyday behavior of consumers and defining new patterns in the publishing and press field. We can highlight 5 main ongoing trends in the publishing area.

52 I N S I G H T S

publishing trends SCREENING

Moving from being people of the book, text and scriptures to being people of the screen. We are surrounded by screens (e.g.. taxi, stores, elevators etc.). This is the context now and then we have tablets, phones, computers that are part of our routine. We are in the era of visualization and transmediality.

FOCUS GROUP

I N S I G H T S 53

publishing trends INTERACTING

Interaction with digital objects is becoming part of our daily life and the importance of interacting gesture is becoming a pervading issue in different disciplines. The action of reading will expand its meaning, to become a body gesture based media; other dimensions are going to be involved like voice ,audio, music. New technological features will make our reading experience more involving and satisfying (as examples the use of cameras that tracking the eyes of the reader can adapt the text to his needs.)

54 T R E N D S 24

publishing trends SHARING

Reading can become a more social activity, no more only a private activity. Now it is peculiar how things are hyperlinked and how many items are interconneted to create a big document, that represents a big â&#x20AC;&#x153;libraryâ&#x20AC;?; as for example wikipedia, that can be considered as a big book with 27 million pages. Social reading is moving then into the direcion of social writing: we read socially and we write socially and we increase the value through sharing.

I N S I G H T 55

publishing trends ACCESSING NOT OWNING

We are attending to an important shift: people has now more and more value in accessing to something rather than owning it. This trend can be seen in those kind of businesses that are moving from a object-based business to a service-based one, as for example netflix.com or lastfm.com.

56 T R E N D S 24

publishing trends FLOWING

Our real life is more and more connected in real time to the digital world in a constant stream of data and information; things are flowing in real time and our digital profiles are constantly updated. The paradigm is moving from “ file/folder/ desktop” to the idea of “stream/tag/cloud” to arrive to the social concept of “now/we/data”. This change is affecting the publishing system as well, stream is everywhere and always on: between the author and the readers, the publishing house and the readers and among the readers themselves. It has less and less sense for the books, magazines and newspapers to “be completed”, so every items has to be thought in a bigger system where the act of publishing and printing is just one step.

I N S I G H T 57

INSIGHTS

BENCHMARK Nowadays design is a profession that is spreading in all the fields and directions; as a reflection of this ongoing trend, all the design magazines, even the ones that were born as specialized magazines, have now enlarged their horizons, touching topics that are not always directly related specifically to design, but that can be considered inspiring for design professionals and but also for the people looking for a “design oriented” lifestyle. Another conclusion that we reached after this analysis is that good design magazines have got a strong and well defined identity, that usually is driven by the editor’s personality. This means that all the contents, the images, the graphic style, every single part of the whole magazine is coherent and representative of the magazine’s value proposition. A big opportunity comes from the very high price of the foreign/imported magazines, they have a big appeal but they cost 5 to 10 times more then the local ones. Might be interesting to have a cheaper and more

58 I N S I G H T S

frequent issue, since students have low budget, and the design world updates fast. Since half of the customers speak english and half only chinese, a double language magazine might be appealing, and an interesting opportunity to link these two culture.

I N S I G H T 59

G E N E R A L I Z AT I O N S

R E L AT I O N S H I P BETWEEN R E S U LT S The results extrapolated from the research where quite homogeneous even if we can notice strong differences in terms of behaviors and needs between students and professors/professional. Professionals, seem to be more aware consumers while students seem to be way more naif in their approach to design magazines, with a low knowledge about them and with tendency to follow the main stream taste. The opinions on All design Magazine are also very homogeneous: lack of quality and originality, big problem in distribution and in availability, serious problem related to the purchasing phase. Anyway even if the situation seems to be very problematic the magazine is recognized a good resource for the University, a tool with a lot of not exploited opportunities. For what concerns design magazines it comes out that they are more and more going in the direction of being more lifestyle magazines and of containing different info, from different fields G E N E R A L I Z A T I O N S 61

This is a trend that can be seen looking to affirmed and famous design magazine but it is also a demand expressed by the audience. Internet and digital media are concepts that are mentioned in different parts of the research; in particular if we combine the ongoing trends in the publishing area and the audience’s behavior, it appears clearly which is the current state of the art: people is spending a lot of time on Internet, using it for social purposes but also as a professional and study tool. The “consumption” of information, data and ideas is now mainly related to the web, through blogs, websites, social network, e-commerce and so on. It is clear that offline media need to compare with online media, trying to find out a good way to combine, so they can take advantage one of the other. Chinese design is a tough environment, a dynamic world where finding your own way is a challenge, a growing sector that is going to be fundamental in the future of China development, a changing area where it will be required soon to find a “chinese way”. In this context, a good design magazine can become a guide, a “lighthouse” for the young generations, a point of reference for the professionals, a point of aggregation for the sector, a lively platform that permit a positive exchange of opinions.

62 G E N E R A L I Z A T I O N S

O U T P U T/G U I D E L I N E S

1 3 5 7 9

STRONG IDENTITY + G O O D L AY O U T .

F I X E D E D I T O R I A L S TA F F REQUIRED

BE A GURU!

POWER OF CROWDSOURCING AN D SOC IAL B LO G G I N G

B E L I E V E I N A P P L I C AT I O N S

2 4 6 8 10

RIGHT MIX OF DESIGN AND OTH ER DI FFER ENT SU B J EC T

S T R O N G A N D C A R I S M AT H I C C H I EF ED ITO R R EQ U I R ED

U S E W E B P L AT F O R M C L E V E R LY T O C R E AT E M O R E VA LU E

B E C O M E P L AT F O R M T O C O N N EC T C O M PA N I E S , STUDIOS AND STUDENTS

R A I S E F O U N D S ! A DV, SPONSORSHIPS AND EVENTS.

O U T P U T / G U I D E L I N E S 63

S T R AT E GY

64 S T R A T E G Y

As result of the research we developed a new strategy starting from the Business Model previously analized. We defined the whole system around the magazine, taking in consideration the main value guiding Alldesign strategy: the capability to become representative of chinese design and, at the same time, to turn into a passage towards international design, an exchange and inspirational platform to guide designers. As this main assumption was made, we defined all the other aspects of the new strategy, such as the key partners, the activities which are not just editing, but include a wider range of experiences for the customer, the resources and, most important, to whom the magazine is addressed and which is the customer relationship that we want to build with the final user according to the media and channels used. The magazine network and consequently its catching area are enlarged thanks to an online platform enabling designers, chinese and international, to exchange projects and news. In this way the magazine is more accessible and present in the daily routine; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the center of a wide system including not simply the website,

BM TO BE KEY PARTNERS

KEY ACTIVITIES

“Creative Hunter, Smart Shanghai, Louder.cn, Design Studios & Companies”

“Editing Trendsetting Event www + Community Distribution”

WWW.

VALUE PROPOSITION

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

“Design Guru for Design Community”

“Students, Professionals, Companies, Design Studios, Design Addicted”

WEBSITE

ESIGN

ALL D

KEY RESOURCES

SIG E D L AL

“Community, Tongji Professors, Guru students, Other Universities, Professionals, Studios, Brands”

CHINA IMPORT EXPORT DESIGN

WWW.

COST STRUCTURE

CHANNNELS “Website, Social networks, Microblogging, Events, Magazine, Bookstore”

WWW.

ESIGN

ALL D

REVENUE STREAMS FAPIAO

888 ¥

“Sponsors, Sells magazine online & printed

S T R A T E G Y 65

S T R AT E GY

JOURNALISTS

CHIEF EDITOR

ALLDESIGN MAGAZINE

MONTHS

SELLS BOOK SHOP

KIOSK

LIBRARY

developement, but also a forerunner and a pillar for everyone that wants to know about design.

PROFESSIONALS 66 S T R A T E G Y

AZIN E

EDITORIAL STAFF

MAG

but establishing a community, a database of portofolios and companies with the opportunity to enable new possibilities for both design studios and design students, apart for being an interesting source of inspiration among professionals. Four different design and lifestyle blogs are set up by four “gurus” aiming to keep constantly informed the community about the latest news, trends and lifestyles occurring in the design field and not only. Regarding the printed magazine, it’ll have a fixed staff, led by a strong personality (the chief editor) who’ll give it a peculiar identity, becoming not just a witness of the design world and

35%

DESIGN STUDIOS

30%

PROFESSORS

25%

STUDENTS

10%

MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE STAFF

SYSTEM MAP

EMPOWER

50%

CITY EVENT PLATF

30%

DESIGN JOB PLATF

20%

60%

STUDENTS

LEGENDA

40% GURU STUDENTS

100%

WEBSITE

COMMUNITY

SECTIONS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

MAGAZINE

GURU PDF

짜

USERS ACCESS PROFESSIONALS DESIGN LOVERS G P W

G access to GURU blogs P access to PORTFOLIO section W access to WEBSITE contents

PROFESSIONALS

20% 10% 70%

G P W

PORTFOLIOS

APS

2 Mo. 30% 20% 50%

DESIGN STUDIOS STUDENTS G P W

50% 20% 30%

G P W

10% 60% 30%

S T R A T E G Y 67

PERSONAS

TRADITIONAL READER

Within the strategy we also defined the users to whom the magazine addresses, including them inside the Business Model. Afterward we used the technique of creating personas in order to identify different kind of readers and understand the customer journey they will have inside our system.

ARCHITECT & TONGJI PROFESSOR - 50 He loves to read and collect magazines, that are an important source for his work. He reads the whole magazine in a very brief time and he loves to improve his reading going in deep with the on line contents.

TECH EAGER D E S I G N S T U D E N T- 2 2 A geek on Earth! He is always linked to social networks and follows with witty attention the latest news from the the community. He usually download a Copy of All Design Magazine on his e-Pad and collects the most interesting articles in his folders. 68 C U S T O M E R J O U R N E Y

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

ALL DESIGN MAGAZINE

PURCHASING VIDEOS

USER 1 READING

GOING IN DEEP

WE B WEB SITE SITE

INTERVIEWS PHOTOS

USER 2 ALL DESIGN WEB SITE

DESIGN CONTENTS

WE B ONSITE LINE MAGAZINE

CURRENT ISSUE CREATE YOUR MAGAZINE PAST ISSUES C U S T O M E R J O U R N E Y 69

PERSONAS

THE WEBBER FREELANCE DESIGNER - 28 For him Design is an open world with no boundaries. He loves his job but he is always ready for new challenges. He trusts in web power and web communities, where he find new jobs and meet professionals.

V I R T U A L R E L AT I O N E R ECONOMIST IN DESIGN OFFICE - 35 She is a column for her office and is always careful to the last trends and about what happens around. She is in charge to find new talents to recruite in her team and she is very able to find always the best. 70 C U S T O M E R J O U R N E Y

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

USER 3 ALL DESIGN WEB SITE

INSERT YOUR PORTFOLIO WE B

JOB OFFERS

MOST VISITED

PORTFOLIO AREA SITE

LAST ADDED USER 4 ALL DESIGN WEB SITE

FIND MATCHES

WE B JOB OFFERS SITE

POST A JOB

PORTFOLIO AREA

READ OFFERS

C U S T O M E R J O U R N E Y 71

PERSONAS

DESIGN ADDICTEDT A R T & L I T E R AT U R E S T U D E N T - 1 9 Studying is her passion but, in front of a cool article of clothing she looses control. She spends her spare time on fashion blogs and styleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s magazineS, but there is nothing better than All Design Fashion Guru.

72 C U S T O M E R J O U R N E Y

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

USER 5 ALL DESIGN WEB SITE FASHION & PHOTOGRAPHY LOG IN

WE B GURUS AREA SITE

JOB OFFERS

PRODUCT & GRAPHIC DESIGN ARCHITECTURE & INTERIOR DESIGN

C U S T O M E R J O U R N E Y 73

ALLDESIGN SITE

74 A L L D E S I G N W E B S I T E

We created an internet site for alldesign magazine, since we think that nowadays Internet can be considered one of the most important media, a fundamental element of every designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daily routine and a big and easy opportunity to catch more audience. In the main page of the webpage there different articles related to design, architecture, interiors, art, graphic design and lifestyle. We decided to give to customers the possibility to download the magazine and to assemble their own pdf aswell. In the portfolios section users will have the possibility to upload their works, in order to be viewed and commented, and noticed by studios looking for young talents. The site has got another section where all work announcements in Shanghai are displayied on the map of the city. We decided to have another section called Alldesign gurus, a triad of blogs about design & graphic, fashion & photography and architecture & interiors.

A L L D E S I G N W E B S I T E 75

AT TAC H M E N T S

interiview text E D I TO R I A L S TA F F

01. Could you please introduce yourself? 02.Which is your role/job inside AllDesign? 03.For how long have you been working in AllDesign?( Did you eventually change your job position in AllDesign) 04.Could you describe AllDesign in 5 words. 05.Which are the mission and the vision of AllDesign? 06. Who is part of the editorial staff? - journalist or designers? -employed or freelance? -professionals or student? 07. How many persons work in AllDesign? 08. Who does decide the themes of the magazine? Who decide the articles? - teams - director -chief editor -staff/comittee 09. Can you describe the decision making process? 10. do you have any special number/special edition/insert? 11.Why same article are in english and some no? 76 A T T A C H M E N T S

12. Who is your typical reader? - designer? - architect?

23.Which is the role of the designer in the creative industry? 24. Which is the relation with european design?

-student? -professionals of the sector? -other( investors, design lover, etc) 13. Why do you think they buy the magazine? (inspiration, to be update, etc)

american design?other asian country design? 25.Future perspective of chinese design and chinese designers.

14. Do you want to enlarge your audience?which kind of readers do you want to catch? 15. Why? ( more profit, become more popular, etc) 16. Do you have any ongoing strategy about this? 17. How many copies do you sell? 18. Which channels of distribution do you sully use?Why? 19. Do you have a web platform?Which is the purpose of it? 20.Which are the main competitors? 21. In which term? - number of copies sold - price -themes -kind of audience 22.Can you quickly describe the situation of design in China?(in 5 words)

26. Forms of financial entries. 27.Budget for every number of magazine 28. Budget for every article.

interview text PROFESSIONALS Personal info: name, major, job and interests 01.could you describe the situation of design in China?which is the role of the designer in the creative industry? 02.Which is the relation with European design? American design? Other Asian country design? 03.Do you usually read design magazines? 04.Which ones? (Chinese or International?)How often? 05.Are you a faithful follower of some of them? 06.Do you prefer Chinese/international ones? 07.Why? Which are the most evident differences between International and Chinese magazine from the content point of view? A T T A C H M E N T S 77

08.Do you know any Chinese design magazine with double text (Chinese and English)? 09.Do you know any Chinese version (translated version) of an international magazine? 10.Do you usually read Alldesign magazine? 11.Do you buy it? How often? 12.Where do you purchase it? Is it easy to find? Do you need to order it? 13.Do you buy it for professional purpose or personal interest? Do you buy it for yourself or share it? 14.In a scale from 1 to 3 about appeal/ attractiveness where would you position Alldesign compared with the other magazines that you read? 15.In a scale from 1 to 3 about the deepness of the contents where would you position Alldesign compared with the other magazines that you read?

18.Apart from magazines, do you use other channels to find information? Which ones? Why? 19.Do you combine these channels? How? 20.From a professional point of view which one do you use the most for your work? Which one is more efficient?

21.Have you ever collaborated with a design magazine? If yes which one? 22.Do you have a blog or a webpage where you publish design info? 23.Can you quickly describe the situation of design in China? 24.Which is the role of the designer in the creative industry here in China?

interiview text

STUDENTS

16.Which kind of information do you look for in a design magazine? Professionalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; point of view, new projects, new techniques or methodologies, new materials, new trends, professionalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, inspiration articles 17.Do you prefer wide and superficial range of topics or few ones but deeply explained? 78 A T T A C H M E N T S

Personal info: name, major, eventual job and interests. 01.Could you describe the situation of design in China?which is the role of the designer in the creative industry? 02.How is the relation with International design? 03.Do you usually read design magazines?

04. Which ones? (Chinese or International?) How often? 05.Are you a faithful follower of some of them? 06.Do you prefer Chinese/international ones? 07.Why? Which are the most evident differences between International and Chinese magazine from the content point of view? 08.Do you know any Chinese design magazine with double text (Chinese and English)? 09.Do you know any Chinese version (translated version) of an international magazine?

10.Do you usually read Alldesign magazine? 11.Do you buy it? How often? 12.Where do you purchase it? Is it easy to find? Do you need to order it? 13. Do you buy it for yourself or share it? 14.In a scale from 1 to 3 about appeal/attractiveness where would you position Alldesign compared with the other magazines that you read? 15.In a scale from 1 to 3 about the deepness of the contents where would you position Alldesign compared with the other magazines that you read? 16.Which kind of information do you look for in a design magazine? new projects, new techniques or methodologies, new materials, new trends,

inspiration articles 17.Do you prefer wide and superficial range of topics or few ones but deeply explained?

18.Apart from magazines, do you use other channels to find information? Which ones? Why? 19.Do you combine these channels? How? 20. Which one is more efficient? 21.Do you have a blog or a webpage where you publish design info?

LIST OF DESIGN EVENT IN CHINA Shanghai Design Biennial (16-18 sett 2010) The First Beijing Internation Design Triennal www.bidt. org (28september-17october) 100% design, Shanghai w w w . 1 0 0 p e r c e n t d e s i g n . c o m . c n (3-5 november) China interntional building & interior design festival www.design-festival.net (29 march-1 april) IGDB6 Internation Graphic Design Biennal,

A T T A C H M E N T S 79

REFERENCES

http://www.publishingtrends.com http://www.toccon.com/toc2011 http://www.wisniewski.net http://trendwatching.com/trends http://www.innovationjubilation/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k08xsjjlNc Tim O’Reilly, “The Future of Digital Distribution and Ebook Marketing http://www.flickr.com/groups/probes Business model generation Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur Selfpublished, 2009 Design Research: Methods and Perspectives Edited by Brenda Laurel MIT Press, 2004

80 R E F E R E N C E S