Blast

Brief

Relaunch Blast magazine with a focus on any area of the arts you personally find interesting or feel is missing in the market.

Your idea may translate to print, but the design must provide an engaging user experience in a digital environment. Find your own style, be experimental and make sure typography drives the overall tone.

Insight

I have an interest in poetry and so decided that I would relaunch Blast as an online literary magazine. I decided that the story behind where my interest came from would make an interesting article in itself and so the project become quiet personal.

My article is entitled 'Sea Fever and Forgettery - A journey to [re]discovering poetry'.

It is about how I came to discover through reading to my grandmother who is a sufferer of Alzeihmer's Disease.

The poem I first read to her was Sea Fever by John Masefield.

Logo Development

The analysis of poetry or prose is something most people are familiar with from having studied language in school. Words are broken down to interpret meaning. It is common to do this by highlighting specific words. In poetry, when analysing the verse metre it is common to draw in lines. I have used the elements to create a logotype for the magazine. The highlighted colour can be interchangeable and can be matched to go with the main article of any particular edition. I kept the colours gentle and sensitive. I have used a serif font which is reminiscent of novels and poetry books. I have kept it as lowercase because it feels more accessible and less intimidating - something a literary magazine might easily be.

Illustration

Poetry contains a lot of imagery and so I decided early on that I wanted to have an emphasis on illustration within the article.

I have created a pattern made up of different elements which feature within the article - imagery from the poem itself of a nautical nature, and items from my Grandmother’s sitting room. I have jumbled them together to express the confusion dementia causes, but have also created a pattern which is reminiscent of patterned china or similar decorative items which appear in my grandmother’s house.