ITAP Lecture 5: Research (principle 3: Researching the practice)

I have posted blogs about research before, it is important to research the practice in my chosen area, so I definitely know what I am doing and how to approach it, by looking at other artists work. For my research of the practice I have looked at the current magazines, in order to figure out the layouts and typeface they use. This would give me an overall idea how to professionally approach my own magazine.

The magazine I looked up is called Skin Deep. It is one of the bestselling tattoo magazines. My magazine is based around tattoos, music and skating which are part of Birmingham’s urban culture.

Considering the audience my group and me had to decide on the style, researching other magazines was a helpful tool in order to make those decisions. We could see how the media is aiming its target audience and how can we cope with it as well. The typefaces and colour schemes were carefully thought through and chosen. Obviously the media we have created has to fulfil special laws and be legible.

Looking at other practises gives us an idea of what has been done, what are conventional magazines and what aren’t. Basing knowledge on that information we can decide on how we want readers to portray our magazine. We can also see whether it's worth challenging conventions or just stick to the expectations of the viewers in order to be more "safe".