Draft 1 of research

1. RESEARCH
Ben Dix

2. EXISTING PRODUCTS:
FORGE ISSUE 16; PERSPECTIVE

3. Description/ context of
■ FORGE is a quarterly art magazine based out of NewYork
City. Each issue has a compilation of photographs,
illustrations and words centred around a singular theme,
mainly relating to personal issues and or existential
emotions i.e.. Trust, fate, paranoia etc these are then
visualised on the inside cover by artist KendraYee
Gatefold.The aim of this fanzine is to give exposure to
young artists and celebrate the work of artists making an
impact on their respective fields via direct interviews and
displays of their art-work. Since relocating to NewYork
City, FORGE also has a strong focus on the Brooklyn DIY
music and art community. In edition to publishing the
magazine every three months, FORGE also publishes
individual zines by several emerging cartoonists,
photographers, and writers. FORGE is entirely run by
Matthew James-Wilson, who is a student at Parsons
School of Design.

4. ■ The cover here is a piece of art from an artist featured later in the
zine (Haley Dawn Muir in this case) as the art on the cover is
stylistically different not much can be said about the zines
aesthetic as it is not constant however, having the subject of the
piece have abstract proportions, inconsistent patterns and
scratchy and fuzzy colour style (as well as primary colour
scheme) conveys the sense of individuality and an ”indie”
aesthetic . Doing this would allow the audience to relate to this
as the individuality applies to the media theory of the explorer
psycho graphic as they seek individualism and value the
difference between more mainstream brands. I would like to tap
into this audience for my project and would do so by having an
effect of the cover art being painted to an effect . Another more
unconventional feature that makes it feel ‘indie’ is the lack of any
traditional magazine cover features, i.e. no cover lines, strap
lines or headlines. In doing this the creators of the zine give a
sense of exclusivity in the sense that only the reader knows
what's happening inside which directly relates to the uses and
gratifications theories need for personal identity in the sense
that it allows the reader to be apart of an exclusive group.The
last thing I see of note within the front cover is the lack of a non-
conventional masthead; non-conventional in the sense that its
within a button , off to upper left third and is only about a size 35
bubble font.This gives it a very light one and heavily plays into
the indie aesthetic previously mentioned.
Front cover

5. Double page spread
Layout- The Lay out of the double page spread is clearly ordered in a clear uniform manor.
This can be seen in the minimal visual content (one text box, headline and image) being placed in the centre of their
pages. I see this as beneficial to the page as it doesn’t take focus away from the purpose of the page (which is to
interview the artist). Having the image take up an entire page signifies to the reader that the person pictured is
important and gives them a good look at who the article is based around.
Typography- Forge is a fanzine based around artists so having the headline being a shaky hand drawn font fits the
natural and human motif of the fanzine, which makes it feel more personal which I will consider for use within my
fanzine; this is then matched by the sans serif font used through out implying modernity and formality.The use of bold
text as a way of segmenting the question and answer without having the Q:… A:… format; this use of bold will be
something to definitely consider for my fmp
Colouring-The colour
scheme features a very
,limited colour palette
with white blue and
black being the main
contributors;The lack of
an extravagant colour
scheme could be to not
distract the reader from
the article. Body and the
use of a grid pattern
reflects that
Target Audience: The target
audience for this piece would
be 15-20 year old's (backed up
by the simplistic design
philosophy ;how the blue
squares on a white
background seem similar to
math's exercise books and the
headlines content and styling
mentioned earlier)

6. AUDIENCE RESEARCH:
SURVEY

7. A majority of the people that were interviewed were females aged 17 to 19, from this I will be able to
recognize where the answers from the remaining questions are based on as well as being able to
tailor my product to a more something that might appear more traditionally feminine for example
the colour scheme

8. This question was asked in order to gather the
range of my influence (that being the northeast
of England) as well as to work out the
geodemographic of my target audience and
tailor my piece to reflect that. I have marked this
on the map below to give a visual representation
of where my audience lives.

9. From this question we can see that the most important thing to my audience when
browsing for fanzines is if the front cover is appealing and if the content inside is worth
their time, showing us that this is a key area for me to focus on. It should also be noted
that my audience doesn’t take the style of the zine into consideration, meaning they
would be interested in any visual style.We can also see that they have a disinterest in the
brand of a fanzine, showing that they are part of the explorer psychographic which
implies a need for individualism which my content can be tailored to.

10. This question is a little more self explanatory and just affirms that the social media side
of the product should use Instagram as a basis, which I believed would already be more
effective for promoting a print-based service.As for the two that voted for twitter it
could be assumed that these were choices based more on personal preference, so they
should most likely be viewed as anomalous results.

11. This question was used to gauge my audience's interests in the premise of the fanzine, with the
majority vote appearing largely positive (64%) affirming that the idea would resonate well with
my audience. With the information that people find learning about this topic interesting; I will be
able to appeal to the uses and gratifications theory’s need for information

12. With this question I know that for my written content my audience would prefer a good mix of
factual and personal contentThis can be done using a mix of literary techniques including
personal anecdotes; direct address and first-person mode of address appealing to the
personal side; and to appeal to the factual side more literal facts and statistics could be
mentioned as well as having the opposite writing style of the personal themed written
content.

13. These questions were tailored to
determine the colouring of the
fanzine that would best appeal to
my audience.The first one dictates
that I should have the colours be
lighter, which would corelate to a
traditional feminine colour scheme
which should appeal to my audience
which is mainly female.The second
question was made to see directly
which colour scheme the audience
would be most interested in; of
which red, grey and purple were the
top pick.This will be an easy thing to
tailer the assets and back grounds of
my fanzine to.

14. This question was made to gauge what
my audience would think of my desired
visual style. Of which 78% gave the
aesthetic a positive response.This could
be achieved in my project by using visual
filters/ affects on certain images, if not all
of the visual assets with slightly differing
styles to create a sense of individuality
between the different pages.

15. BIBLIOGRAPHY

16. ■ Ben Dix (2021) FMP Survey. available from:
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=tuqM6noqsUiQN1uMegK40Uxh1EZvB4VKisVJDnTbuENUM1FEVzQ4Uk
1QSlNCVUZUUlFZT0VQREJHSi4u [Accessed 22 July 2021]
■ Matthew James-Wilson (2017) FORGE. Issue 16 available from: https://issuu.com/forgeartmag/docs/issuu16