2. FMP Research

JOURNALIST RESEARCH
Ariel Helwani

Who is Ariel Helwani?
Ariel Helwani is a journalist who mostly reports on MMA, his official role being the
“ESPN MMA Insider” and is very well known in this community. He is often the front of
controversy for some of his views and outlooks on the sport and the way it is reported,
as well as leaking a lot of news before official things are announced for this, an
example of this being when he leaked the huge announcement that UFC had brought
back one of it’s biggest ever pay-per-view draws and legends in Brock Lesnar for a one
off appearance at UFC 200, him leaking this got him banned from the UFC and all of
there press conferences, conference calls, etc. originally for life until this was lifted
after he hosted an emotional show reporting on his own ban on his radio show at
MMAFighting.com. Ariel is now one of the biggest names in the journalism side of this
sport and has a job with ESPN reporting on everything UFC and MMA related.
His approach to his work is that he feels the need to report on everything he possibly
can, he states that this is what he owes to his fans and everyone who follows him, as
he believes everyone who follows him wants all the information possible on the sport
and therefore this is what he does, whether controversial, a standard piece of news or
results from events, Ariel will report on this and inform his audience.

Work Examples
• Most of what Ariel does comes from is social
media, mainly being twitter, as he believes
this is the easiest way to reach the largest
audience, so he always breaks his news on
Twitter.
• An example of his biggest news story/leak to
date is the leak of Brock Lesnar’s return to the
UFC. The story that got him banned from the
UFC’s press privileges.

Work Examples
• Most of Ariel’s professional journalism, that isn’t on twitter, is on
either ESPN or MMAFighting.com, where he hosts different shows
to do with MMA. He know is known mostly for his ESPN show
named “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show”, which is a podcast set up and
usually has around 2 or 3 episodes per week. This is probably where
Ariel gets his largest audience due to the platform that ESPN gives
to him. On the show Ariel usually has a few guests per week that
are relevant to what is happening in the world of MMA, for example
the episode on the 21/1/2019 features Henry Cejudo, who just two
days previous has defeated TJ Dillashaw to defend his UFC
Flyweight championship. The high profile guests that Ariel
consistently provides on this show are one of the reasons he is one
of the biggest names in MMA journalism.

Research Methods
• Design Research –
– This can be defined as critical investigation, a search or inquiry to
discover new facts and information, or the collection of old date in
order to evaluate and test hypotheses or design proposals. This would
be the study of a subject, employing the analysis of quantitative and
qualitative data. Research employs methods and schemes of testing to
interpret events facts or information and is a process of observation,
discovery and recording.
• Terms of Reference
– Design research is guided by and forms the rationale for the
development of a design.
• Design & Education
– The body of accepted knowledge that defines the discipline of graphic
design includes its history and practice, theories surrounding legibility,
written language and typography.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER RESEARCH
David Carson

Who is David Carson?
• David Carson is an American graphic designer, art director and
surfer. He was mostly known for his magazine design, which was
very unique in comparison to everything else at the time, as well as
his use of experimental typography. He was the art director for the
magazine “Ray Gun”, where he employed a lot of the typographic
and layout approach for which he is so well known.
• Carson started off his career through becoming the art director of
“Transworld Skateboarding” magazine in 1984 and remained there
up until 1988, he helped give the magazine a distinct look, and this
was where he developed his own signature style of design, using
non-mainstream photographic techniques, he also became the art
director of the spinoff magazine “Transworld Snowboarding” during
his time with the company.

David Carson’s work
• His first significant impact on the world of graphic design and typography was when he started to design “Beach
Culture”, which was a quarterly publication magazine. His ideas while working with this company were called
innovative by all sorts of audiences, including those that were not always fond of his work. The legibility often
relied on readers strict attention, for one feature on a blind surfer, Carson opened with a two-page spread covered
in black.
• After “Beach Culture” Carson re-designed “Surfer” magazine and art directed it for the next two years.
• From there he moved onto “Ray Gun” where arguably his most notable work came from, this magazine was an
alternative music and lifestyle magazine that debuted in 1992. He designed and art directed this magazine for over
three years, with no one above him approving his designs before printing, meaning his work was raw and no one
could interfere or tell him he could not do anything. A notable thing he did while working here was that he used
the font “Dingbat”, which is only symbols and therefore unreadable, for the font in what he considered a dull
interview with Bryan Ferry. This magazine helped make Carson well known and attracted lots of new fans and
admirers towards his work.
• He then left “Ray Gun” and founded his own studio, named “David Carson Design”, he attracted major clients from
all over the US. Over the next three years he designed pieces for Pepsi, Ray Ban, Nike, Microsoft, Budweiser,
Gorgio Armani, NBC, American Airlines, and Levi Jeans. From there he was known worlwide and would be used by
massive companies such as; Warner Bros., CNN, Toyota, Sony, Fox, Mercedes-Benz, MTV and so many more of the
biggest companies across the world.
• But then after all of this success, in 2000 Carson closed his New York City based studio and followed his children to
South Carolina. Currently he lives and works in Europe, California and Tortola, and lectures worldwide on creativity
and design.
• Since the closure of his company in 200 he has found himself having random spots of work here and there, for
example in 2011 he worked as a creative director for Bose.

For my audience research I have decided to create a
survey based on MMA and a magazine on this. In
order to get answers that were relevant to the topic
I decided rather than asking everyone in the class to
answer this I would post it in a Facebook group I am
in, and ask all MMA fans to answer it for me if they
could spare a few minutes. This means the data I
will collect will be more relevant to what I make,
rather than having people who don’t know about
the subject.

Question 1:
The first question was just a simple
gender question, this was to see what
audience I had answering the survey,
and it turned out to be all male. This
isn’t a full representation of MMA but
it does show that the majority of MMA
fans are male.

Question 2
This was again a simple question
based on age, to see what an older
audience would answer in comparison
to a younger audience, I could view
the respondents answers that are
older in comparison to the younger
audience.
The majority who answered the
questions were 18 to 24, with over
63% of answers coming from this age
group.

Question 3
This was a question just to make sure
that everyone who had answered the
survey was actually relevant to the
questions that I have, and for this they
have to be interested in MMA.

Question 4
This question is how often do you
watch MMA events, this will give me
an insight into the people who are big
fans of MMA and those who are casual
fans and just watch the biggest events.
This is probably reflective of most of
the MMA fan base, with the majority
either watching just the biggest events
or watching every event that they put
on.
This shows the audience could mostly
be casual fans and therefore I should
aim at these kinds of people, through
using the biggest stars of the UFC.

Question 5
This question is just to gauge how
much of an MMA audience would be
interested in a magazine that would be
based on MMA.
The answer shows that the majority
would be interested in the magazine,
therefore most fans of the sport would
be interested in this.

Question 6
This question was based on how often
people think a magazine for MMA
should be published, I think the
answers to this make sense as the
biggest events usually come about
once a month so anything less than
this would be a bit daft as there
wouldn’t be much to report on, rather
than the fight nights, which don’t
include the biggest fights and
therefore won’t have the biggest stars
and stories resulting from these.

Question 7
This question was based on what got
the audience into MMA in the first
place, this can show me what the
biggest possible draws in the sport
have been, such big draws that they
have brought people into the sport.
This shows me possible things I could
use in order to bring an audience in,
for example one answer states that
Brock Lesnar made them interested in
MMA due to the name he brought to
the sport, and with him being brought
into the sport again recently by UFC
president Dana White and lots of
rumours around his return this could
be a good story to report, due to the
massive name he has, and the
relevance of this currently.

Question 8
This was a question of the biggest news story
from MMA in 2018, as I am thinking of having
a 2018 in review as the product I design, this
will make me realise what I need to put on
the front to draw the largest audience, due to
many people believing a certain thing is the
biggest thing that happened, as well as a lot
of mainstream media knowing about what
happened in this, rather than just MMA fans.
The winner of the biggest MMA moment was
the Conor & Khabib feud and brawl that took
place after there bout at UFC 229 in the
MGM Grand. This was covered by possibly all
media outlets due to the controversy of the
story and what happened after, and now the
punishments have been confirmed the story
can be fully talked about in all detail, this
could be a good place to start in a 2018 in
review due to it being the largest story of the
year, but also the other two answers people
chose are large stories, this being Daniel
Cormier’s capture of the heavyweight title,
making him the first champion of two weight
classes to defend both of his belts, and Jon
Jones’ return, this is also a controversial topic
due to the positive tests in drug testing he
has had previous to his return.

Question 9
This question is based on what the
review should involve when it comes
to different companies around the
world.
UFC being the biggest and best there is
out there this and the main news
stories would probably make sense to
a casual fan and to draw in the biggest
audience, therefore the answer of “All
UFC PPV’s and bits of other
companies” will probably make sense
as it covers the main company and
biggest draw in MMA, as well as all the
other companies such as Belator and
ONE Championships who also have a
large audience who are more likely to
be interested in this kind of product
due to having more of a hardcore
MMA fan base.

Question 10
This question is based on what it
would take for someone in the
audience to buy a magazine, this will
make sure I know the best way to draw
in my target audience.
Most people base the purchase of a
magazine on having big fighters and
stories on the front to draw them in,
this is shown in seven out of the ten
answers, showing that I should include
many big fighters and stories on the
front of this magazine.

Front Cover
The magazine I have decided to use for my first
existing product is “Fighters Only” as I have a
subscription to this myself and it is one of the
biggest MMA magazines produced.
First I will look at the front cover of this, featuring
fighter Donald Cerrone, the use of him on the
front cover is clever, as at the minute his name is
very relevant in the sport, he has just become the
fighter with the most wins and finishes in
UFC/WEC history, as well as adding to this at UFC
Fight Night Brooklyn and extending his very
impressive record. This isn’t the only reason he is
in the headlines at the minute, another reason
being a potential match up with Conor McGregor,
the biggest name in the sport of MMA, with both
fighters seeming to have agreed to fight each
other. This all makes him a very clever choice to
use as the main selling point of a magazine aimed
at hardcore MMA fans.
As well as this there colour scheme is clear from
the front cover, this being the red and yellow,
which fits with the logo of the magazine,
everything works within this colour scheme on
the front cover.
There is also many side stories so that people
who may not be as interested in Donald
“Cowboy” Cerrone can see others they may be
interested in, they do this through the blobs and
stars on the cover.

Double Page Spread 1
This is the first double page spread I
will look at in this magazine, these two
pages being based on the late finish
from UFC Fight Night Denver’s main
event between “The Korean Zombie”
and Yair Rodriguez, where in the last
second of the fight Rodriguez hit the
Korean Zombie with a devastating
elbow to end the fight that he was
losing at the time.
I think this double page spread is done
very well as they have used the mage
of the knockout as the main point and
spread this across the two pages,
leaving the text in the top left, I
believe this is done well as it makes
the knockout the main point and really
it speaks for itself, the text is just there
to add context.

Double Page Spread 2
This double page spread is more of an article
so I have included this to show how the
magazine produces articles across a double
page spread.
I think the way they have done this is good as
they have a lot of information on one side,
this being based on the career of Ben Askren,
the UFC’s highest profile signing in recent
years, having an 18-0-0 undefeated record
after fighting around the world. This is also
an interview with Askren based on his UFC
debut, a very topical subject as his high
profile debut fight against Robbie Lawler at
UFC 235 is vastly approaching.
Despite this there is still a couple of negatives
about the way this is designed, for example
the pages don’t match up well together, the
picture becomes out of proportion with the
other one and hasn’t been placed well, I
believe this must be because of sloppy
editing and no one to double check, I will
avoid a problem like this while designing
through constantly checking my work and
making sure there aren’t any small mistakes
that could ruin designs

Inside Page
This is an inside page from the magazine, not
a double page spread just a singular page
taken from the magazine.
I have chosen to look at this page as I believe
it is very unique and I haven’t seen anything
like this done before so I could take
inspiration from such a thing and try and be
unique when it comes to some designs
included in my magazine.
The artwork and article on this page are both
done very well, comparing Daniel Cormier,
who is the heavyweight champion of the UFC
to the perfect heavyweight competitor, and
using other UFC fighters in order to do this,
the design shows Cormier’s height and reach,
which some people believe can be defining
factors in a fight and it compares these to the
smallest and tallest fighters in the division, as
well as the biggest reaches in the division,
showing that Cormier demonstrates “it’s not
always the biggest dog in the fight”.
This is also an infographic, due to using
graphics to show detail on DC and the other
people in the division, making it another
unique way of design.

Bibliography:
1. Des Bieler. (2016). UFC Lifts Ban on Ariel Helwani.... Available:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/06/07/ufc-
lifts-ban-on-ariel-helwani-following-reporters-emotional-
comments/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bc8c40fcd984. Last accessed
21/01/2019.
2. MMAFighting. (2019). The MMA Hour. Available:
https://www.mmafighting.com/mma-hour. Last accessed 21/01/2019.
3. Ariel Helwani. (2019). Twitter Account (@arielhelwani). Available:
https://twitter.com/arielhelwani?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%
5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor. Last accessed 21/01/2019.
4. Russell Beastley & Ian Noble (2016). Visual Research: An Introduction to
Research Methods in Graphic Design. 3rd ed. London: Bloomsbury. 1-38.
5. Lewis Blackwell (1995). The End of Print: The Grafik Design of David
Carson. London: Laurence King Publishing.

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