By: cathydaviesart
GDE720 History and Futures

Week 7

Week 7: Lecture – Content Review

Angharad Lewis: Head of visual communication at the Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design

I didn’t study graphic design, I studied English literature and History of Art for my undergraduate degree. That was a combined degree. I was really interested in Fine Arts but also loved writing so that’s why I chose that double honours degree in two subject areas. Then through studying literature and art I got an interest in the relationship between words and images, and that’s where my interest in graphic design came from. I then did a master’s in the History of Decorative Arts and Design.
I specialised a little bit in that in graphic design and from there, that’s where my
career in writing about design came from. I’m interested in anywhere where the verbal and the visual come together in some way.

You’ve written about graphic design for a number of years. What research do you
undertake to discover new and interesting graphic design subjects?

AIGA, Eye on Design online, I-magazine.

How do you structure an article? What’s the process that
you go through?

AL: Well I guess it really depends on the context…

…what kind of publication it’s in or what context it’s being published in, because you
might be commissioned to write a certain type of article. It could be that it’s a
feature interview, or it could be that it’s an article on a design studio, or something
that’s happening in design that’s part of a wider thematic for an issue of a
publication.


That immediately sets certain parameters, like how it relates to other content, or
word length, or what the audience is like. Think about the contents and the audience
for how you’re going to structure it. A long form article is going to be different than
say, an interview with a designer. Then the structure from there, within that, I think
comes from the content, what your research or your conversations with your
subjects, or people you are interviewing about the subjects, that sort of sets the
shape of the article in some way.

You need to know your theme well and understand your view to begin with, but that
quite often can happen in the process of writing. Drafting is certainly important to
my process. You won’t have the final shape of the article on the first draft and
sometimes you might get started in a place in the story or idea, that you are evolving
in the article, and then find that actually you need to make your point by turning it
on its head or putting it back into the middle and writing an introductory lead up to
it. But I think having a bit of pace and a kind of rhythm and a point, a crescendo, to
come to at the end, is important. And it is the classic beginning, middle and end but
you might shift those around

It’s a form of design, as well, it is actually a design process

do you have any advice for the students about conducting interviews?

have some things that you want to get from the interview. But also go with the flow as well, in the interview, and you might go off plan. And listen. Actually, really listen to what they’re saying

Looking at how publishing’s changed over the last decade, could you set out some of
the main changes that you’ve seen in your career and also maybe move on to talk
about ideas for the future of publishing?

the biggest thing definitely that’s happened in magazines is the rise of
independent publishing. Just the way that’s reinvented magazine formats and
approaches, especially with niche titles. All those things, those subject areas, that
magazines have been about for ages – like food magazines and current affairs
magazines – have been reinvented in so many really interesting ways by
independent publishers.


And you know, the downfall, in the way, of a lot of the established publishing or
print publishing worlds has created spaces for people to be really inventive.
Audiences have changed in their expectations so how many people actually buy a
weekend newspaper now compared with 10 years ago? People’s buying habits for
magazines have got a bit more book like. You might buy three or four fairly
expensive magazines a year.


SE: Yeah, but they’re content rich and they’re gorgeous. Printed Pages, recent edition is
so covetable and really interesting, lovely luxurious kind of experience isn’t it?

Webinar. Week 7 (Visual Writing, Content)