So today we had one of Sarah (our tutors) friends come in named Tammy who is the editor for 'The English Garden' Magazine.
Yes you may be thinking 'How does this actually relate to Fashion in anyway shape or form', (like I did when she first started talking) BUT I was mistaken, and it is very relevant to my working practice.
Obviously Garden to Fashion is an extreme move and as literal things do not relate to each other much, but magazine work whether it be for Boating, Gardens, Fishing or Fashion all have the same principles!
Each company will obviously have their own specfic target customer, and their own market that they are trying to reach, as well as their own brand name, logos and layouts for their magazines, but all information added needs to attract a customer, needs to be interesting and informative, or fun and playful, as well as having eye-catching images, and items that relate to the reader.
Tammy first started talking about herself, and her background and then went on to talking about when having an interview within a magazine company-
- It is very important to seek out their competition, this can usually be determined by Price and by whether the magazine is monthly or weekly. Research the market. You need to know what the age group is? Look at the difference between the magazines. She said that she would be really impressed if the interviewee had prepared and brought in a mood board for the particular magazine of the customer profile, who are they creating this title for? Know your reader!
- READ ARTICLES, You can learn a lot about reading the articles within a magazine, are they by celebrities? specialists? are they written in the 1st person? These often give you a clue as to who the reader is.
- Who is advertising in the magazine? Are they expensive brands and products- Often shows that the reader has money.
Some other information Tammy gave us on magazines included-
- THE COVER: this is your billboard, it's your cover. You need to choose an image that stands out above the rest to make the customer want to buy yours over any others. It's your chance to entice and pull the reader in.
- Everything that is written within magazines have to be factually correct, as from a legal point of view, you can get in a lot of trouble. (Usually their are legal people involved within the firm for advice so you don't end up getting yourself in it). -People are always looking out for the mistakes, be careful!
- Anything you choose to dress the model in, or show as an item (whether it is clothing, jewelry etc...) has to be available for the next 4 months after the shoot, this is because magazines are usually done 2 months before they are printed, so you have to ensure that the product you are advertising will actually be available to the readers.
- As well as this if the same product can be bought in a number of stores and has a different price in each, you either need to mention the specific store you bought the item in, or say 'Recommended Retail Price'. To cover your back if any items have changed in price or are different you can also say 'All prices correct at the time of print'- This saves people complaining.
- Magazines always work a month in advance and are sent to print early, for instance March issue is released during the middle of February.
- For 'The English Garden' magazine, flat plans (these are mock up versions of the magazines, where text is, where images go etc) are already done now until the September issue, so that means they are working 5 months in advance! Photoshoots will usually be done at the last minute due to cost and prices.
- Christmas is usually a weak time for magazines, the December issue is usually about shopping for Christmas presents and the January issue is usually about Christmas day-This is because of the magazine coming out the previous month.
- Only mention advertisements in editorials if they deserve it, don't give them free advertising and don't let them get away with using you for this purpose (for instance if Tammy was wearing a certain brand clothing in her monthly picture, they might say can you mention our brand, if she does this, they manage to get a free advertisement within her magazine which would usually cost them hundreds). If magazines don't have advertisements, then they will be a goner! This is where lots of other companies have made mistakes, and eventually failed and shut down.
The magazine market at the moment is down by 25% which is an incredible amount.
People seem to be playing it safe at the moment and going with what works- layout, ideas etc.
This is a lot like the Fashion industry itself, people just want to get it right to avoid failure. Any risks could potentially lose customers and readers.
Tammy then looked through my magazine spread that I did a couple of months back as a 'mock' article that was aimed to be put into WONDERLAND magazine... (image below incase you haven't seen on my other blog)
After she had looked through my magazine spread, she said that she really liked it, and that she only had one criticism which was on the first page, where I have the quote in bold writing, that I could have cut this down a bit- and I agree, as it looks a bit too chunky and messy! But overall she seemed as though she was really impressed with my work, she also mentioned that I was the only one who used images that flowed well with one another, and used an illustration within my work. So a big thumbs up! She said from looking at this that I should deffinetely stick to the design side of magazine work as it is creative, and usually with editors work its mostly writing.
