Project Statement
Throughout this project I have explored the impact that mainstream journalism has had on the development and reinforcement of gender stereotypes. The initial research for this project involved looking into mainstream magazines and the way in which they present both men and women within their cover images, articles and extras. This showed me that there is a lot of gender stereotyping and not only to do with what people are wearing but also about how they should act, live and even appear sexually to the opposite gender. This lead the research in the direction of how these stereotypes are impacting people and especially the younger generation to feel they need to conform and reach these gender specific ideals in order to be achieving in life. I then started to look into the influential brands such as John Lewis and H&M that had already made steps in the direction of a more gender fluid approach to fashion. These were important movements in the right direction that also influenced others to follow in these footsteps. Researching brands such as this lead into the practical side of COP and the creation of my gender neutral zine.
The creation of a gender neutral publication was a harder one to take on than I had initially expected due to the difficulty of making sure no stereotypes were included down to the small details of colour and even typography. The research was very important in the outcomes for my practical work as it helped me to realise ways in which I could make sure that I kept a completely gender fluid approach to the design in the same way that these well known brands had to tackle the task also. The outcomes of the design followed a similar stance taken by those seen in my research by using colour that were relevant to the images and keeping the designs very clean and neutral in order to remove any well known gender specific stereotypes which could affect the final piece. The research that I have done has suggested that fashion may be going in a more gender fluid direction with well known icons making statements such as Alexander McQueen stating 'It's a new era in fashion - there are no rules.' This is a positive outcome for my COP as I feel that the research is very relevant in todays current affairs and the direction that mainstream journalism may be heading in the near future.
Thursday, 26 April 2018
Wednesday, 25 April 2018
OUGD501 - Evaluation
Evaluation
The zine design successfully respond to the brief as it is demonstrates the concept of a more gender fluid future within mainstream journalism. The photographs came out at a decent quality and the combinations of clothing used within the imagery remove the stereotypical gender specific ideas of what people should wear. Unfortunately when printing, the printer wasn’t working properly so in the actual print out of the publication the colours were slightly distorted and had marks across them. This meant that the final outcome was slightly disappointing due to the quality of the print. An improvement to the zine would be to consider the use of more quotes and illustrations throughout. This would help to give a larger impact on the reader as the message within the publication would be more powerful due to the use of more quotes from influential people.
The zine design successfully respond to the brief as it is demonstrates the concept of a more gender fluid future within mainstream journalism. The photographs came out at a decent quality and the combinations of clothing used within the imagery remove the stereotypical gender specific ideas of what people should wear. Unfortunately when printing, the printer wasn’t working properly so in the actual print out of the publication the colours were slightly distorted and had marks across them. This meant that the final outcome was slightly disappointing due to the quality of the print. An improvement to the zine would be to consider the use of more quotes and illustrations throughout. This would help to give a larger impact on the reader as the message within the publication would be more powerful due to the use of more quotes from influential people.
OUGD501 - Production
Production
The zine was digitally printed. This is because it allows for consistent mass production of the same product as they are hoping to be given to as many people as possible to get the message out. This is also a cheaper method of mass producing. It was printed onto matt paper in order to once again keep the costs down and allow for easy mass production. It was then cut down to size using the crop marks.
Finally the zine needed to be bound. It was bound using a saddle stitch and was designed with this binding method in mind. This was the most practical binding method for the zine as it keeps the pages together as needed and is an easy and quick way to bind. Once again this will help with mass production as it wouldn’t take a huge amount of time to put lots of the zines together. It was then bound with black thread to compliment the black front cover and the darker colours within the images.
OUGD501 - Further Development
Further Development
Below are the front cover once it was edited to black. The name of the publication is ‘Fluidity’. This is to demonstrate that the content is all based around the concept that gender is not necessary within fashion. The publication also involves quotes from people such as Alexander McQueen to promote the point that important people within the world of fashion believe it should be going in this direction. In the design development stage it was mainly experiments with the layout and the places of text and illustrations. I added the illustration of a label on some pages within the zine. It made a more interesting aesthetic to involve relevant illustrations in order to make it clear what the zine was about but also to make the zine more eye catching. On pages like this one, the open space was filled with a colour picked from the clothing in one of the images on that page. This meant that it complimented the images and solved the issue of choosing a colour that would have no connection to a specific gender. I also had a few different experiments of the text placement on the double page spread in the middle. I felt that it was important for these pages to have an impact as they are the centre pages of the zine.
OUGD501 - Design Development
Design Development
Once the photographs were edited the initial designs for the publications started to come together. It was decided that the best way to use these photographs to project the message needed would be the creation of a zine. One of the most challenging parts of creating the zine was making sure that the colours used would not be related to a specific gender thus meaning the other gender would not be interested in the publication. Below are the experiments with the front cover. After these experiments however it was decided that they came across a little garish and therefore unappealing. The front cover ended up being simple and black as it gave a professional finish and left no influence of a certain gender either way.
Once the photographs were edited the initial designs for the publications started to come together. It was decided that the best way to use these photographs to project the message needed would be the creation of a zine. One of the most challenging parts of creating the zine was making sure that the colours used would not be related to a specific gender thus meaning the other gender would not be interested in the publication. Below are the experiments with the front cover. After these experiments however it was decided that they came across a little garish and therefore unappealing. The front cover ended up being simple and black as it gave a professional finish and left no influence of a certain gender either way.
OUGD501 - Initial Ideas/designs
Initial Ideas/designs
To create a zine that removes any gender stereotypes.
I therefore chose to do a fashion zine by using models and dressing them in clothing that was supposedly specific to each gender. By doing this it removed any gender specific stereotypes and allowed for a fully gender fluid zine.
To create a zine that removes any gender stereotypes.
I therefore chose to do a fashion zine by using models and dressing them in clothing that was supposedly specific to each gender. By doing this it removed any gender specific stereotypes and allowed for a fully gender fluid zine.
The initial ideas for the designs consisted originally of conducted a photo shoot. The photo shoot was of a man and a women but wearing a combination of clothing which was specified to each specific gender. The aim of the photo shoot was to display that people can wear whatever they want, a man could wear a ‘ladies’ top and a women could wear ‘male’ trousers and still look fabulous. The photo outcomes from this shoot can be seen below.
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