Liv Siddle talk

In cohesion towards my interest in editorial design and its practice, Liv's talk was highly influential. Gaining a greater insight into how Liv left University in order to pursue a written design career at 'it's nice that' was highly insightful as it promotes that once leaving university you do not necessarily have to go through the traditional route of 'designing'. This allowing Liv to be part of the creative industry without actually creating stuff.

After leaving 'it's nice that', she got a job at Rough Trade, designing a monthly magazine, with a turn over of only two weeks. This was largely where my interest lied, as I thought that this kind of job would be something in which would interest my future career. 

She discussed how she gained all the content herself and began to make a grid system in which the information may slot, making the turn over much more efficient. She also suggested that if you run out of budget then you should simply do it yourself. 

As I had not previously heard of Rough Trade, research was undertaken in order to have a visual representation. 

The 'punky' attitude was said to mimic the record shops aesthetic, focusing on the bathroom whereby customers and staff alike had drawn upon the walls. Making for a visually engaging, grunge look. 

In order to benefit from the talk, I had an individual tutorial with liv afterwards, whereby I discussed my COP practical feminist magazine. 

As the content, I have currently gathered is highly political/intense, I wanted to counteract this with other elements traditionally represented in magazines. Promoting the idea that you can be intelligent, adore pink, and laugh at an agony aunt section. When discussing with Liv what matters might be interesting to include, she suggested a horoscope section (you can believe in horoscopes and be intelligent), an embarrassing moment's feature, a music section, and an agony aunt. 

I then went on to ask Liv how she thought I could aesthetically produce a feminist publication, counteracting the traditional women's magazine. She suggested that using a range of photography may be a starting point, with disposable cameras being a starting point. She then went on to suggest that collage may also be an effective method. Within Rough Trade, Liv also suggests that images were often drawn over in bubble writing and that this may also be a key factor in which to include. 

Finally, she suggested that I should think of the magazine as if it were a person, emphasizing its content through a visual aesthetic.