lou i
January 2019 / issue 1 / Vol.1 / deconstructed
1 Why choose a magazine?
5 Influences and contextual references
300 How the magazine achieves my theme Alternative culture
OVERVIEW Editor-in-chief
Of my Reasons behind choosing this method of presentation ...
Cover louie varney shot by louie varney styling louie varney
OVERVIEW Editor-in-chief
W
elcome to the second part of my a level
portfolio. In here you'll find my thoughts and annotations on the creative process behind creating the ‘LOUI’ magazine. I decided on placing all my work into a magazine because i feel it would showcase by work in a better light, a magazine is very relevant in project as i feel they have key influences in today's culture. All though a dying trade printed magazines are classics they have almost a nostalgic feel and portray almost a affluent attitude; obviously only if the magazine is good. I plan to model my magazine around modern 21st century art culture magazines like juxtapoz,PAPER and art & culture. I'll give in insight into my creative thought process, the layout and the ‘articles’ behind the artist inspired pieces Hopefully i make no mistakes and you enjoy the read thank you .
Cover louie varney shot by louie varney styling louie varney
PAPER magazine
Paper mag is a key influence into my project, they report on relevant pop-culture occurrences, interview relevant and upcoming artists and Paper, stylized as PAPER, is a New York City-based socialites. They exoob the vibe of a independent magazine focusing on fashion, popular modern social media consumed culture, nightlife, music, art and film. Past cover society. models include Kim Kardashian, Demi Lovato, Katy They also give voices to minority Perry, Miley Cyrus, Prince, CL, and Jennifer Lopez. groups and use people of high status Paper was founded and launched in 1984 by editors portray messages i the form of a Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovits (with Lucy carefully curated magazine. I plan that Sisman and Richard Weigand) as a black and white my magazine will also provide voices 16-page fold-out. Production was done in the offices and an alternative view on subcultures of The New York Times. The magazine has since not necessarily portrayed in a good light in social media. evolved into a monthly print and digital magazine.
VOGUE magazine Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine covering many topics including fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway. Vogue began as a weekly newspaper in 1892 in the United States, before becoming a monthly publication years later. The British Vogue was the
first international edition launched in 1916, while the Italian version has been called the top fashion magazine in the world As of today, there are 23 international editions. Vogue is another key influence into my project. Like paper they report on relevant pop-culture occurrences, interview relevant and upcoming artists and socialites. However there audience is a much more high class group of people, with 12.5 million readers world wide people seek to be ‘vogue’ as it exoobs an affluent lifestyle. Vogue has a simplistic attitude to its photography and the font used is very classic. The fount sticking the same throughout the years gives the impression of the magazine being eternal.
Minimalist styles ; elephant magazine Elephant aims to survey the international contemporary art scene with more energy and depth than any other magazine in print or online. Since its inception in 2009, the magazine has been dedicated to capturing the sensual pleasure of art and offers readers an ideal platform to experience it in print, pairing arresting images with original and independent research
in award-winning design. The writing is eloquent and opinionated rather than rhetorical and theoretical, favouring in-depth analysis over extensive referencing. The elephant produces perfect imagery and fits the exact vibe i hope to achieve within my work. Weather my artist responses and ideas take a drastic turn of topic i plan to keep the theme of minimalism running through the ziene.
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The chosen font for the magazine is ‘Archivo black’. This font i feel portrays a basic but affluent ‘vibe’. The curvature and line work of the font is very structured but simultaneously free flowing.this completely resonates with my project as throughout the whole project there has been structure to my work but my ideas are continuously free flowing and i think that is obvious in book 1.
Font.
Here i have tested using photoshop different colours for my background. Pink, orange, black, grey, neon yellow and blue. All of which give different effects and portray different meanings.
Pink gives an impression of health, happiness and feminine attributes but with hints of compassion and friendship. Orange gives a feeling of courage and confidence with potential hints of ignorance and sluggish behaviour
Blue depicts feelings of tranquility, loyalty, security and trust but has potential to give a cold impression as it's a very cool tone. Yellow represents a more brighter image, feelings of happiness, energy, creativity and intellect but can portray feelings of irresponsibility. Red portrays emotions such as love, energy, power and strength but could be seen as anger and warning signs.
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So for my current front cover i plan on using a musky pink. The reason being because i want my project to look approachable and pink portrays feelings of friendship and compassion all attributes which i feel will work well within my magazine. As stated previously pink is often associated with females and feminine attributes but for my cover i'm going to use photoshop brighten the pink; so it's almost musky - giving it a more muted effect potentially getting rid of the stereotype “ pink is a womens colour�. My project is also based around unstereotypical people and underrepresented communities so pink being on the front cover could encourage readers who seek to look at something unusual and creative. Also art is often associated with women but in actual fact is a male dominated industry so for me the colour of my magazine is to only portray feelings of friendship and welcome people to read.
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Here i have tested different filters on the same image. This image is the current magazine front cover i feel it encapsulates everything my project is trying to achieve. A modern, urban vibe. The reason behind testing different filters is because each filter may portray a different effect. For instance the negative filter portrays a eary harbinger and the almost muted colour image with high grain gives a old timey effect. The high saturation images also give a cool (cold) modern effect which i think is very ideal for my project.
Why ‘LOUI’ ? Why loui? So an obvious explanation would be, my names louie so i just missed of the ‘e’. The idea behind choosing LOUI as the title is because the magazine is really an insight into my creative thoughts but in an unstereotypical format of a printed magazine instead of a portfolio. LOUI is a artistic representation of myself almost another person's; bit exaggerate but that's the only way i can explain it. The magazine is almost like a part of me, but not the full thing. The way in which i think artitsitly is not what encompasses my whole character. That's why missing ‘e’ out of the title would be appropriate. My artistic thought process does not define me. The title of the magazine would have always been something to do with me. Initially it was going to be ‘LJV’ (my initials) i decided against that because i felt it was too bold and ambiguous, not very clear. I then went on to name it ‘2001’ (my birth date’ at the time i thought it was very appropriate and fitting but with the complete change to a more elite magazine i didn't feel the title and font going with it fitted so, i changed it to ‘LOUI’.
Evolution of the magazine Here you can see the progression of my cover. I originally cover started with an image of a girl with a black and white
‘urban’ style effect. I also thought the black border was a nice addition to the cover however i felt it could potentially give a ‘cheap’ and nasty. I then removed the title of the magazine at the time “LJV’, this title i first felt it was representative of me and my project as there my initials. I then enlarged the cover image to a full cover image and i felt it was quite effective the magazine was then going to be called ‘2001’ (my birth year). As my project continued i decided the layout and cover was not fitting the black and grey tones really had negative connotations. I then completely revamped my cover adding hush pink tones and a primary image (unedited) to achieve that raw look. This raw look will hopefully draw readers in as it add almost more personality to the magazine
Furthermore decided to make a second magazine called ‘LOUI ; deconstructed’ this is this magazine and it would include annotations and reasons behind the layout etc. that magazine would be completely stripped back and basic black and white with an inverted version of the original cover.