How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
When reflecting on FLAIR magazine you can deduct that it's different from most fashion magazines, by leaning more into an artistic direction we created a larger amount of liberty regarding which conventions we use along with topics discussed. This being said the difficulty of creating such a product is higher, an expected result of the unusual style the FLAIR team has concocted. We were made to stand out, like a flair in the night sky.
A common trend encountered when viewing any of the flair magazines is the way we decide to present our topics to the readers, precisely and to the point. By choosing more minimalist designs we avoid the issue of pointless clutter obstructing the main message of the respective issue as often encountered in this day and age. This was achieved through not using elements such as supporting cover lines, price, qr/barcodes on the cover, this was of course a personal choice as there isn't anything necessarily wrong with having those as part of your issues however we felt as though these elements would do more harm than good when presenting our ideas.
During the research phase when we were tasked to explore and document the various conventions utilized by magazines in different genres, we, the FLAIR team took note of the fact that there were many elements we favored in our group such as the most predominant one, a more minimalistic style with little writing, this contrasts a larger amount of magazines out at the moment as many of them have a lot more waiting and different advertisements/endorsements scattered throughout their pages whilst we do not. A result of our creative decisions is making us stand out more. Another aspect worth mentioning is the emphasis on the visual information portrayed, through the minimal amount of text included along with almost no noise from adverts and such, a lot of room for self reflection and interpretation is left. I feel as though this is what gives our magazines their charm, everyone can have a different and unique experience whilst reading our articles.
The length of the editorials I have is 10, commonly encountered in fashion magazines such as Atlas Or Dazed. Some conventions that aren't present/are being challenged are those of endorsement/advertising, text length and brand representation; this is done to achieve FLAIRs common goal of creating a simple and artistic magazine that allows much room for interpretation.
The topic of my issue is addressed to any demographic that can relate to the text. I've noticed this trend of hopelessness and self doubt in almost every age demographic recently, so much is happening so fast and seemingly what's important yesterday ceases to have value tomorrow, growing this paranoia regarding the future events in people's lives. You start to perceive certain issues that are outside of your control to be your fault, thinking you're lazy when there is a quarantine but actually it's because you're stuck inside all day and not getting proper nutrition, not seeing your loved ones and a complete shift in your work environment, leading to you stressing out from this sudden change in everything which in turn kind of shuts you down. These have been trifling times, many fluctuations in stock markets, social circles, work, etc. I wanted to raise awareness that it's not uncommon to have strong feelings of uncertainty and anxiety regarding what's to come, after all we're going through this together, even though it might feel like you're all alone at times, like you're the only faulty product in the factory.
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