OUGD505 Brief 2 - Intern Mag, Session

Today we were joined by creator of Intern Magazine, Alec Dudson - He discussed how he came about creating the independent mag, He originially started studying in sociology and gaining an MA this was all well and good but Alec was intrigued by magazines, and editorial design, this led him into getting an internship with italian architecture mag domus, this was all well and good but no one wanted to hire him permanently so he moved on and again interned for an independent mag called 'boat' this was based on culture a different theme for each mag, but again unpaid no permanent job. This angered him that he was working for free but still not getting anything in return. This was when the idea hit why couldn't he set up his own? He had all the knowledge so he grabbed this opportunity with both hands, he called his mag intern quite simply because of his experience his magazine aims to make the intern the star of the show and pays everyone for the content.This was inspiring that he managed to start up on his own after the discouragement had previously set him back, he was still fighting for his career.

After Alec's intro in groups he set us a task to create our own independent magazine, in order we were asked to think about, concept, audience, aesthetic, strategy, life span, and progression all of these are fundamental to how an independent magazine could work.

In our groups we instantly bonded over the idea of a 'games' themed mag not just video games though but physical like, conkers, marbles, and even card games the concept was to engage with play by helping people have fun.

Our audience was to be around 20-30s although this is not restricted as your only as young as you feel! right? We felt this was age people really engage with games and play, this said this is how we picked aesthetic. We went for a simple but colourful/playful look. In stategy the magazine would be quarterly and themed so a new topic would be highlighted in each issue. In hindsight this could mean the lifespan is quite simply put forever as there are always new games and old to discuss to progress this further we could easily start producing our own games, creating events and even branding the magazine for mercy etc. The concept has the opportunity to expand.

To come up with this we researched into other independent mags such as of course the intern, offset, the gourmand, colours, the carton we noticed that there were no real competitors in the independent market for games. We saw this opportunity and went with it, I believe this would actually work.

This was a really interesting task, and beneficial I will be able to use this as a guide for creating any idea.