DASH*D MAGAZINE
PUBLISHING // PHOTOGRAPHY // CREATIVE DIRECTION // GRAPHIC DESIGN // MARKETING
THE IDEA
As a part of the Live Brief I had to complete in my final year of university, I teamed up with 2 other students to create a magazine.
Dash*d is a bi-annual independent publication focusing on visuals to communicate fast life experiences through photography and illustration. It is a magazine about everything, for everyone. Offering no more than 10 words, to ensure we meet our brand promise of a quick read. The purpose of the magazine is to provide consumers with a high-quality publication filled with engaging and thought-provoking imagery that they can look through even when they are short of time. Although a quick read, it is also a publication the reader will want to keep forever - a collector's item that they can return to for inspiration or for escaping the hectic world they live in.
Issue one is about living life in the fast lane. This can be defined as “a way of living that is full of excitement, activity, and often dangerous.” “A lifestyle in which one engages in energetic, pleasure-driven, and often risky behavior.” For a conceptual approach, we carried out idea generation exercises that could evolve around this lifestyle for our content. Traditionally, the idea is all about a lifestyle with alcohol, drugs, and partying. However being aware that not all our readers would appreciate a magazine heavy with drugs and partying throughout, we looked into other ways of living life in the fast lane too. Furthermore, this led us to look at the fast-paced lifestyle of cities and the people who live in them. As well as this, we also looked at the factors in these lifestyles, for example, food that has links to being fast and dangerous. The first issue documents and communicates these different interpretations of ‘life in the fast lane’ through photography and illustration, with the intention of bringing the reader through different stories that they can interpret in their own way.
THE CONSUMER
THE LOGO
For our logo, I took inspiration from different delivery service couriers and sports brands. The crisp, clean and bold look allowed the logos to be memorable but also clear. The italic symbolizes the movement of going forward. The ampersand was used to abbreviate the ‘E’ to represent taking shortcuts, referring back to the fast experience of the magazine. The ampersand itself is traditionally used to mean ‘and’ linking back to the connotations of the dash where it is used to add something onto something else.
CREATIVE CONCEPT
VISUAL MOODBOARDS
I focused on colour and lighting within the photography I contributed to the content of Issue 1. I found it effective in communicating the dangerous, exciting, and pleasure-filled behaviors associated with 'living life in the fast lane'.
Taking inspiration from Toilet Paper Magazine and Beauty Papers, we wanted to use different scales to enhance the layout and to create more variation so that it wasn’t the same throughout.
We created mostly all the content for the first issue ourselves, as we felt this was a good way of communicating on a personal level with our readers. As well as this we thought it was a smart approach to introducing ourselves as a magazine, in terms of introducing our visual style, interests, and thought process.
These are some examples of the double-page spreads from the PDF document of the magazine.
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Find further examples of my photography for the content of the magazine at the end of this page.
MARKETING AND LAUNCH EVENT
THE MANIFESTO
We aim to deliver you a fast read when you’re limited for time, whether that be on the train, or on the bog!
When conducting primary research via an online survey, of all the options provided, 44.1% of millennials use Instagram, 32.2% use Snapchat, and 20.3% use Facebook.
Before this research finding, we started with Facebook, to link posts from Instagram to Facebook and share initial information. Despite the low user statistics of Facebook, it has proven successful in giving us recognition. We gained 59 likes/follows in less than one month.
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SOCIAL MEDIA
The Facebook page allowed all of the team to individually represent the brand on our Facebook profiles, providing a link to background information, whilst we were in the process of creating a website. We felt this showed entrepreneurship, making it clear to industry and our clients, that it’s more than a student project with every intention of growing.
Our main method of communication was Instagram, which was ideal for our visual-first magazine. Our Insights currently showed we had 230 followers within weeks of setting up the account. 66% of those were women and 34% were men, who were the consumer target of 18-24. Our top location hits are Nottingham, London, Enniskillen, Peterborough and Luton, which suggests we are communicating and promoting successfully in areas we are based in.
Regarding the DASH*D website, we tested various layouts and styles, which overall mixes minimalism to allow easy navigation, with content that is maximalist.
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References of inspiration came from It’s Nice That, and our personal connections to other start-up magazines such as Zero-Savage and Kitchen & Bathroom magazine who we later interviewed for advice on funding and next steps.
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The important element to our website, which is the shop section shows a list of current and future issues. This feature will later be developed by connecting to a Big Cartel or similar for the customer to pre-order copies. Pre-ordering was the smartest option for the team, as we need to order quantities in bulk to receive the best deal for finance and time consideration.
THE LAUNCH EVENT
At the launch event, postcards made in a ‘missed delivery’ note style were on display. This emphasized the delivery-themed branding that was implemented. There were also yellow and red branded delivery boxes, as well as a handmade branded van, to further connote the delivery style nature of the magazine. There were also stickers that consumers could take and put on their laptops or walls if they wanted to, with the intention that it would have provided more advertising for us.
PACKAGING
We decided on creating a subscription box that houses as many issues as the customer orders. Keeping to our theme of a delivery service, the packaging was cardboard to be environmentally friendly, with the colours red, black and yellow; a fashionable alternative to DHL.
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We created the slogan “Comes quicker than you”, with the aim of targetting millennials through humour. This increased the potential of being photographed for social media, which added memorable and promotional benefits.
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With this, we wanted to maximise the delivery theme by creating postcards, which was inspired by 'Sorry we missed you' slips from delivery couriers. It’s recognisable, whilst being another collectible item from DASH*D, with the back cover changing for every Issue we create. We also saw the connection between humour, with our tagline in our subscription box, to our postcards ‘place of delivery’, as it is common for typical delivery services to place our items in peculiar places, such as the roof, car-top or a plant-pot. This element was a point-of-difference, which we felt was suitable for the launch event as it ultimately acts as a receipt consumers appreciate.
PHOTOGRAPHY CONTENT
PHOTOSHOOT ONE
PHOTOSHOOT 2
FRONT COVER MOCK UPS
