Research and Inspiration

Principle 1 - Through the ‘visual practice’ of observation, collecting, studying and exploring a subject, topic or theme, this will contribute to a deeper understanding of the subject.

I understand that research is an essential part of any work, or brief, and will help me to find inspiration and knowledge around a subject. As a photographer it is important for me to carry out a lot of ‘visual practice’, experimenting with camera techniques and different media and printing. Observation is my first method of research, finding out what already exists and gaining inspiration from contemporary work. I start by finding and collecting a variety of current magazines, and analyzing their layouts, content, typography, photography etc. Collecting material provides a physical understanding of what the product should, or could look like. In this case collecting magazines gives me a firm idea of the size, feel, layout order, and design aspects of a particular magazine. It is always useful to collect pieces of work, as well as just reading or viewing online. When exploring a topic or theme, such as Birmingham, it is important to collect both primary and secondary research. Secondary research could include reading books, and searching the Internet for information and history about the city. Primary research would involve going into the city, and exploring it in person, taking photographs and gaining personal opinion.

I have shown examples of my own visual practice from pages of my RVJ above. These

show the collections of parts of magazines, looking into the content, aiming to gain ideas for our own content. I have also shown a page displaying several photos that I have taken whilst exploring the city. Before having any idea of the content of the magazine, I wanted to explore parts of the city and take photographs of places/buildings/scenarios that could be of interest.

Principle 5 - An understanding and knowledge of ‘an audience’ should enhance and focus the communication.

Understanding our audience will help give an understanding of their interests and preferences, and therefore provide us with ideas for content. Knowing your target audience can be a difficult task, and will always need some research. It is important for us to understand who our magazine is aimed at before deciding on content and layout. A way of finding or defining our audience would be to interview a vast majority of people, of whom we believe to be our target audience. We would ask questions such as what they’re favourite contemporary magazine is, and what would be of interest to read about in our magazine. The answers would help us find our ‘competitors’, being the most popular with the same target audience, and therefore provide us with a basis of what attracts that audience.

Our magazine is aimed at younger to middle aged people (18 – 30), and centred more towards the male sex. We aim to provide a very exciting magazine, not too simple, but still being very aware of structure and legibility. Having this knowledge of who our magazine is aimed at allows a more direct thinking process into the theme of the magazine. It becomes more obvious on the colours to use, the photography, the illustrations etc. Without knowing the target audience the possibilities are too broad, leading to indirect research and development, possibly ending with no audience.