EXERCISE:

Defining Audience

Instructions

• Self-assemble in groups of three
• Identify the creators of a product of contemporary publishing that you would like to research further
  • Research their influences in the creation of that publication - either through interviews, deductive or speculative reasoning
  • For example:
    • If you like The Gentlewoman, look at Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom and their influences
    • If you like 032c, you could say Joerg and Maria Koch, Mike Meire or Mirko Borsche, and look at what influenced them in the 90s (Kunstforum, Peter Saville )
• Then identify a historical publication from more than 20 years ago (book, magazine, other) that has influenced who you are influenced by
• Write a paragraph about who you think the audience for the original publication is. Some questions you might answer include:
  • Who is the intended audience for the
    • Who is not the intended audience?
  • How is the audience of the original similar or different from the publication it influenced today?
  • Have any technologies changed the look and feel of the publication?
  • Can you identify design tropes that are derivative, homage, or in conversation between the contemporary and historical examples?
• Include images to help illustrate your research

Example:

• Selected publication is The Gentlewoman, founded by Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom, now edited by Penny Martin
  • The audience is for an affluent, fashion-interested, North American and European audience in their mid-20s to early-40s
  • fashion stylists, designers, photographers, magazine enthusiasts
  • The Gentlewoman is a magazine about taste: Restraint is one of its tenets; another is respect.
• A magazine that influenced The Gentlewoman’s direction
  • British Vogue in the 1980's under the editoship of Anna Wintour
  • at the time, the magazine was “deeply unfashionable,” the “absolute apotheosis of neoconservative image-making.”
  • “I wouldn’t say that our politics or our image-makers or even our tastes are the same,” - Martin
• Sources:
  • It's Nice That interview with Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom
  • Mag Culture interview with Gert Jonkers
  • Interview with Penny Martin in The Cut