2. Context
Thrasher is a skateboarding magazine founded in January 1981 by Eric
Swenson, and Fausto Vitello, and published by High Speed Productions, Inc. of
San Francisco, US. The magazine consists of all the top skaters of the times,
primarily of skateboard and music-related articles, photography, interviews
and skate park reviews.
The magazine was originally influenced due to the massive boom in popularity
that skateboarding faced within the late 70s early 80s, but also as a way to
make skating a viable career and to promote there new line of independent
trucks.
It was also so that all the kids over America so interested in the sport could see
pictures of all the top riders at the time learning new tricks and taking what
ever they can from the pics, at the time skating was a very progressive sport
and new tricks were coming around all over but the only way for it to become
official was for it to be shown in a magazine such as thrasher. Thrasher started
to post pics of these riders who just were blowing up across the state doing all
these new and at the time outrageous tricks naming them and even including
tips and ways to pull it all off.
The time thrasher came about couldn't’t have been any better, it was at a time
when skate was so young and fresh they could actually influence and build the
culture and styles we see today. So the way thrasher is today isn't just due to
the time it was made but just like the sport it has grown over time along side so
many faces, building its very own identity, generally being more influenced by
music and styles that show rebellion and a bad attitude, with Punk music being
a big part of the articles in the start with bands like fugazi being featured.
3. Themes
Thrasher has always followed the same themes from the start, to be
fast, angry, rebellious and all about skate, thrasher is the
embodiment of skate and a visual documentation of skate in the last
35 years.
It’s a media that influences and promotes everything skate, showing
the likes of big names in the game to featuring unknown skaters just
starting there career, it’s a very strong community based magazine
that follows many characteristics of a zine but on a big scale.
The Hall of meat
Hall of meat is a segment that has been part of the website since it was first developed, I chose
to look at this particular one as to me it really shows the crazy and angry side of skate and the
determination that skaters show towards what they love, which I an attitude the magazine also
displays.
It consists of clips of the worst and most brutal crashes in the sport, with fans all over sending
in clips of sacking a rail all the way to snapping a bone, its raw, straight to the point and brutal.
The magazine generally has had no filter and has always been on the edge between what they
should and shouldn't’t include and what may be offensive to some, the hall of meat has
become such a staple for thrasher it has adopted its own sub logo of a piece of meat with a
cleaver within it.
The segment has even had its own appearance in the game “SKATE” which was very popular
among gamers around the time it was released.
4. Use of colours and fonts
The magazine itself has never really had its own color scheme each issue tends to vary and follow a different one
each time, the magazine will take one color from the cover page and tends to run that through the mag on the
pages that require color such as the articles and merchandise page.
They don’t really use much colours to define the pages as these magazines tend to be very ad heavy, and full of
photography so choose to use the colours based around the photos used.
However for a magazine like this they do make the fonts a big part of the product, since they try to come across
as angry and fast they will use very thrashy and big fonts that are generally serif not using curved edges and
flicks, more sharp and bold fonts that you'd generally see on a metal band or at a race course.
However looking at some of the more modern aged issues, they have started to change a little bit with this and
are running more with the times. Since females in skate is becoming more popular and more are being featured
in the magazine there is more floral and curly fonts, with pastille pink and purples. Also not just with the girls but
with some of the more laid back and happy go lucky skaters, such as dan lu or Jamie foy who will have really arty
styles on there page or a psychedelic fonts you'd see on a Jimi Hendrix poster.
Visuals
As thrasher magazine tends to follow many raw and gritty themes they show this in there visuals
and text elements, through the art used within the magazine but also the way the pages are laid
out and the style of writing.
As you can see in the image to the right they tend to use trippy and older looking images and
illustrations, and as there they will draw over conservative style image in a punk aesthetic.
When reading the articles an the different elements of text scattered throughout the magazine,
they tend to use more informal and slang text and don’t really threat when using swear words
and images that may seem x rated.
To me thrashers main theme through history and the magazine tends to just come across as
angry, they always are use bold and big fonts with sharp edges that tend to be in your face a lot
of the time. Even with the photography they use it gives of this theme using obscure angles,
having the skater looking down on the reader quite a lot or having making a trick or jump look
huge by taking the image from such a far distance.
5. Articles
Thrasher magazine tends to be a very ad heavy magazine with very few
written elements apart from the few articles that come up in each issue,
that always are generally based around a skater, team or even music that is
liked among the community.
The way the articles are written is always very direct and almost seem
personal, doing this by addressing you directly a lot but also writing in a
very informal manor using slang and curse words often. However even the
articles tend to not to be to heavy on the writing and usually still use
photography to fill up the page, generally including a couple paragraphs and
then a whole load of photos and one or two pull quotes here and there on
the images.
The reason that thrasher present and write there articles in this way is
because of the target audience. Aiming for younger male adults who
generally share the angry and anti everything attitude to that of the
magazine, they know that the readers aren't all that bothered to sit and
read loads of text or just don’t have the attention span to do so. The
readers buy he magazine to look at the latest skaters and the amazing
photos within, browse the latest products and sit in ore at the cool and
funky styles that the many adverts present.
After reading through a couple thrasher issues I noticed something about
the magazine, the pages aren't really that consistent ever. Each page is
different to the last but each page is so cool and gaging, using lots of
images, colors and illustration the magazine creates this gritty collection of
art.
6. Thrasher tend to base the color
scheme they use for a
particular issue around the
image that they choose to use
on the cover.
Here they have used a black
and white image of the late
editor, therefore have chosen a
darker color scheme of pink
and black.
This issue is all about
Jake Phelps the late
editor and chief,
therefore this issue
follows a hard and angry
style. The photo used
shows Jake in his
element skating in a fast
and angry manor, then
using darker colors
matches with the image
and personality he put
across.
More recent issues of thrasher don’t really tend to use
the layout style they have here, having the main photo
within a box. However they have done this as it is a
special issue and making it more bold in the black color
helps to define this issue as a limited edition.
This advert here is an older page from the magazine, they have made the shoe that
they are selling as the key factor here. Rather then just highlighting the skater to sell
the shoe, they have used several shots of the shoe in different angles and
circumstances. Showing the shoe on, shoe on display and then the shoe on a skater to
show that it is clearly a new skate shoe and what you may be able to do in them.
7. Bibliography
Jake Phelps . (2010). Thrasher issue 1998. Available:
http://www.thrashermagazine.com/articles/magazine/january-1989/?tmpl=component. Last accessed 3rd jul
2019.
Unknown. (). Thrasher(magazine). Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrasher_(magazine). Last accessed
3rd jul 2019.
Unknown. (). Covers archive. Available: https://www.thrashermagazine.com/magazine/covers-archive/. Last
accessed 3rd jul 2019.
sinclair. (2013). Tum Yeto News. Available: http://www.b2b.tumyeto.com/news/2013/06/. Last accessed 3rd jul
2019.
Theo Lewitt. (2017). Jamie Foy crowned skater of the year 2017. Available: https://www.redbull.com/us-
en/jamie-foy-wins-thrasher-mag-2017-skater-of-the-year. Last accessed 3rd jul 2019.
