Contentastic - My 500 words

After a name generation and some screen development work a masthead was created, there were two in the running, the first was Invisible Elephant, which has been mentioned in earlier posts and the second is Velvet Liaison. After some development work Velvet Liaison was the most successful and so this is the name of the magazine I am going to produce.

The article below is self written and encompasses the final draft of the magazines philosophy. This article will feature on the contents page as it also contains information about the BAFTA special edition issue of Velvet Liaison which I will be designing over the course of this module.

We Are For Creatives.

Whilst we planned the outcome of our endeavor into the printed media realm, questions started to become apparent; what do we really want to achieve, who did we really want to inform and why. We started to think about the people we want to broadcast to, a niche in film critique that we feel is under represented in editorial format. But not only this, a niche magazine does not just focus on a niche demographic or collection of people under represented in printed media but an under representation of a particular kind of content.

As creative’s we are avidly interested in film, we are fascinated by design for film. This is a massively under represented part of the film industry, the processes and creative agencies or individuals responsible for the set designs, costume designs, credit designs, advertising, the lost art of the film poster, design for post production and DVD release as well as launch parties and promotions are not celebrated in what would seem a convenient place, the film magazine. The many prestigious awarding bodies in the film industry do reflect a respect for some of these aspects of design for film with categories such as; production design, costume design and representing the work by animators in the special visual effects and best animated film categories.

Velvet Liaison is a bi-monthly magazine, dedicated to representing and celebrating design and the applied arts in the film industry through the exploration of the best in distinctive design, original typography and striking artwork. We are here to bridge the gap. We are for creative’s.

In this BAFTA special edition we celebrate and critique a selection of this years nominations in the costume and production design categories. Our features writers Ashleigh Thomas, Dan Bell, Jess Harle and Steve Pond delve into the wondrous minds of this year’s BAFTA nominees to find out how they have created some of the most innovative design for film ever seen and we get to grips with the creative process that each designer undergoes to bring us the beauty in film we so love. As well as this special insight into the work of this year’s BAFTA nominees, we also have our usual observations on everything from the lost art of the film poster (this edition focuses on the incredible work of Akiko Stehrenberger) to in depth reviews of some of the eagerly awaited films of the year and this edition of the rumour mill has gone into overload at the prospects being served up to our table. The beautiful, the scary and the fantastical are always our specialty but in this edition we see the true power of what Sucker Punch production designer Rick Carter can do and the sexualized macabre costume design from Michael Wilkinson, that not only had to be visually stunning but practically indestructible.

We love this time of year as it always brings out the best of the creative’s working in the film industry. We have wrapped it up and sent it to you; we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.