Rob Sidlow - Unit X

Follow the link to view the finalised publication that we have produced for that magazine. Issue is a website that allows the user to upload a pdf file that will be displayed online as a digital magazine. It really does amplify the asthstetic appeal of the mag, as well as making for easy viewing. Collectively we’re proud of the final magazine, in my own time I’ve shown it to my friends and my peers,  the feedback has been positive with comments on the layout, illustration, and the imagery. Through discussing what people thought of the magazine after reading, it’s apparent that the idea behind the magazine is communicated effectively which is great. 

Numerous days on campus later and we’ve finally managed to round off and finish the magazine we’ve been working on. Although unable to get sameples from printmakers in time we haven’t been able to get the magazine printed in time for hand in, although all of us are really contented with the way the magazine has come out. We feel as though it’s well rounded, with an appropriately humorous tone of voice that speaks the stories of collectors nation wide throughout. I’m particularly fond of the illustration that we have for the magazine because it couples really nicely with the images. The mags visual identity is recognisable among the others from the year group, which is a nice aspect of our work to reflect on.  I’ve deliberately not included all of the spreads on the blog posts because of an issue with file size, but the magazines file can be found with the rest of my submission. 

Ben, Liam and Dean have all had a really great run at attempting to visualise and create the visual identity for our magazine. For a long time we were stumped on what to do, trying our hands at illustration, typography and photographic elements to see if we could conjure something that was suitable. These randomised trails left us with the idea of using the condom illustration on the front cover. After little discussion we decided that this was the most appropriate in-appropriate thing we could do for our cover to give it some visual interest. We very nearly ended up using a photographic cover but I fell like because the rest of the magazine itself has a large number of photographs within, it would be nice to break things up by having an illustration on the front instead. 

The Kickstarter went almost exactly as planned, with the resulting video being the same as how it was preconceived. As a group we feel that it is effective because of its short, concise nature. As an advert for the magazine the video as it stands is straight to the point; like almost all other adverts. On additional thing that may need to be put in there is a definition of the word itself rather than the tagging because we haven't been using it anywhere else, not even on the front cover anymore. This isn’t much work though so for now the video is finished, as a group we need to prioritise and continue working on the actual magazine itself because at the moment that needs to be the priority. 

To enable the idea I’ve had for the Kickstarter we need a decent set of quality images that can be used on Premiere Pro with sound effects to get the desired look. To create a flat white background we bought a very large roll of cartridge paper from Fredaldous and hung it up in a room filled with natural light. Although there are some shadows that can be seen on some of the images, largely the quality o the photos has come out rather nicely.

One of the biggest challenges of creating this magazine is actually sourcing the content for it. Other than fellow students an our peers, none of us has any way of finding things to publish other than going out into the real world, so that’s exactly what we did. Our first stop was an R.S.P.C.A charity shop that’s in the Northern Quarter area of Manchester. The store was rather pleasant, with a welcoming scent as you walk through the door. It was littered head to toe in old garments and jewellery, with books lining 2 of the 4 walls inside. The shops keeper was pleasant, Rick agreed to have a small interview with us where we asked him a few questions about the store, as well as taking a profile photo for use in our magazine. The second store that we visited was the famous Affleck’s Palace, a collaboration of culture and counter culture that forms a brilliantly outfitted multitude of stores and cafe’s, ranging from Gothic decorations to a cereal only cafe. I made a point of taking as many images as needed in these different places, so that we had a good range to choose from when editing our magazine. 

Spotlight: One of the newer ideas we’ve had for the magazine is dedicating pages to publicise local charity shops, appropriate imagery and copy will be generated through visits to each store, hopefully resulting in micro interviews with the staff.   We want to get a feel for the places we visit so we can write effectively about them, so at least talking to the staff in there is a necessity. 

Today we’ve taken a trip out into Manchester to work away from uni for a change, and in doing so we’ve started to come up with a visual identity for our magazine ‘Tsundoku’. The good thing about meeting up in a casual environment is that it helps fuel positive collective thought, we’ve discussed numerous different aspects of the magazine today and have decided on a final idea for the cover, the wheel has been set in motion for the magazine to be played out and made ready for the content to fill the template.

Progress To move forward we need to effectively identify content for the first issue, discussing this with tutors has helped us to realise that the magazine itself needs to effectively identify the reasons for why people collect, as well as having insight into the person behind the collection. We feel as though this would make for a more interesting read, because people collections range from the mundane to the appropriated everyday things.

As a group we found an interesting in people who hoard things and keep them on display, mainly just because it’s curious but it also ties in with interior design nicely when the visual aesthetic is considered. The word ‘Tsundoku’ is a Japanese word that defines the collection of books without the intention of reading them. We’ve decided to move forward with this as the name for the magazine because we feel like it works well with the initial concept we have come up with. 

I found this really interesting and the whole theme of our own experience of the perceivable reality that we live in is a very striking 

Today has seen the launch of the newest part to the ever ominous Unit X project, the publishing brief. It’s a group project, so I’ve found myself in a group with Ben, Liam and Dean. After teaming up we received the brief as well as a specific word that had been selected at random. Retention is the word we have been given and it is to be used to indicate the initial direction that we went to take our outcome for the brief. It can either name our Magazine, act as a theme for the art direction or even just influence the concept. 

These are the final items that I have produced for the Topman project, including a clothing tag and tote bag that would make for effective distribution of the logo. The logo uses a serif font which I felt was appropriate to express the exclusivity of the collections featured in Topmans Berlin store. The central column of the letter N in Berlin has an been altered to have a pronounced, edged structure. This is a subtle reference to the linear architecture within the city of Berlin, which later went on to influence the composition of the launch poster. There was something I didn’t like about the previous concept for the logo, I tried numerous different uses of the logo in attempt to produce a collection of POS for the store, but after doing so I stripped everything back and started again, this time focusing on the poster after finalising a new logo.