Final Presentation: Habitat
Magazine December 2015
Jehan Said
Webster formally defines habitat as “the natural
home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism”, informally, it is “a person's usual or preferred surroundings.” Habitat Magazine as
a publication focuses on topics that effect the readers’ environment, both
natural and preferred, and both in the present and in the future. The
publication is meant to be more informative to the reader, than entertaining,
though it is both. The design of the publication connects the content of the
issue to the audience.
Broadly the
audience is literate humans; note the informal definition only pertains to humans,
as they are beings of hedonistic choice. Specifically, the audience of Habitat
Magazine is 25-40 year olds living in metropolitan areas. The particular audience
this publication speaks to chooses to live in and prefers an unnatural manmade
habitat, the infamous concrete jungle. They get pleasure from dining out in
ambient light, rather than hearing crickets chirp and seeing stars at a
backyard BBQ. Most
city dwellers do not farm because the habitat they live in does not support it.
They prefer concrete and steel to grass and dirt, but that is not to say they
don’t care about the how crops they eat are cultivated or how the meats they
consume are slaughtered, fed, or raised. They are concerned with what goes in
their bodies, and where it comes from.
This applies to the groceries they are buying at the corner store or
having delivered to their door, the meals they are sharing on dates and the
catering spreads available to them at business meetings. The audience is health
conscious and aware. They are educated in food and life alike. They know what a
demi-glaze is. They know the difference between carpaccio and tartare. They are
progressive and forward-looking. They are innovative and imaginative. Who is
reading Habitat Magazine? The readers are people who care. They care what goes
in their bodies. They care about the environment. They care about who is
starving and who is gluttonous. They care about the latest developments in
science and technology. The readers want to make contributions to society. They are the ones that are most likely developing technologies
to make virus resistant crops; they are the ones trying insect-based foods and
synthetic meats because they are unable to slaughter the non-existent cow in
their backyard for dinner.
Urban
dwellers are always looking for ways to improve their habitat and gain a
competitive edge. They are looking
to move forward and never back and the magazine focuses on the evolution of
habitats for all.
The
primary function of Habitat Magazine is to deliver information about habitats
to metropolitan residents. The secondary function is to show how the
information is relevant and accessible to this particular group of people. Its tertiary
function is to make city dwellers care about what’s in the issue and take an
action. The primary function is satisfied in the form of a sixteen-page, 8 x
10.5”, saddle-stitched publication.
The concept is relevant to 25-40 year olds living in the city because
they care about where they live and they care about what goes in their
body. The subject matter is of
interest to them. They could be investors in tech companies and want to know
what start-ups are doing in the food industry. They could be the scientists who
are working in labs to develop meat and want to know what other companies are
doing. The departments were
specifically selected to work with the interests of urban dwellers- City
Spotlight, Game Changers, Business.
The first highlights a city and something new that has come about
there. The second deals with
shifts in current trends, in this particular issue it is with farming and food.
Lastly, the Business section addresses what’s going in the business-world. The last function of concept is evoking
emotion from the audience. The
images are the main vehicle to stir things within the audience: the cover
targets the mind- it makes the reader think and wonder (and therefore open the
magazine- success!); the young child, the heart- the reader empathizes; the
sandwich, the gut- he salivates; the apartment- for lack of a better word, the
loins- he desires.
The audience has influenced what color palette fonts, images, advertisements
and stories were selected for the issue and how the publication evolved. The initial
design was less sophisticated and grew to cater to the affluence that often
accompanies city life. The target age range and general descriptors were the
same, but the salary and lifestyle aspects were taken more into account. At the
beginning the design was more in line with the younger part of the age
bracket. As the design progress
moved forward all ages were incorporated. The color palette started out playful,
and while the same names can be used (concrete grey, sunrise red, etc), the
richness of hue and level of saturation matured to more luxurious jewel tones.
The base colors for the palette were a green, a yellow, an orange and a grey.
The
font choice for body copy and heads is simple sans serif (Avenir). It is what the audience is accustomed
to seeing on screen, as they are technologically literate and reliant. The
typeface is also meant to parallel their environment. The tall, thin font is representative of tall buildings and
vertical city spaces. There aren’t large gaping pastures and wide expanses in
metropolises. Consider Central Park, it’s big, but it’s long and narrow and
runs up and down the island of Manhattan rather than short and wide. The body copy, headlines and the
subheads are all within the same font family. The heads and subheads have
thicker line weights or contrasting colors to draw attention. They type is also
angular in structure and arrangement like buildings and city-street grids
(Boston being an exception).
Below is how the color palette and type choices shifted.
The
images are bold, thought provoking, and take advantage of the education of the
reader. The cover is made of binary covered green beans. To some it may just
look like produce, but with further investigation the viewer can see the code
on the black and on the beans. It makes the reader curious, and want to know
what’s inside the publication. The TOC looks like the water droplet is a
crystal ball. As the viewer looks in, it is seeing into the future, which is
what the TOC is meant to tell you-what you will be reading in the moments ahead. The blowing seeds also signify the
death of the dandelion, but also the new beginnings that await when the seeds
settle. The image used for “The Next Green Revolution” subtly hints at evolution;
the growing plants mimic man becoming upright. The readers support Darwin; they
aren’t the strict conservatives who deny his theory. The sandwich for “How Our
Eating Habits will Change” has sprouts and roasted peppers, it’s not a McDonald’s
and it’s not a Kraft single slapped between two pieces of white
Wonderbread. Even the grapefruit
juice caters to metropolitan inhabitants-some may consider a more sophisticated
OJ.
The
ads are answers to what the audience wants. They want to dine out (Restaurant
Week). They want to upgrade their living space (the Buckminster). They want to
bring some of nature into their lives (Niche).
The evolution of the publication- it began as something that
would be on par with The Improper
Bostonian and grew into something somewhere in between that and Time. In terms of informational content
and the stories selected pertains mostly to department articles. In the initial
design the departments were sparse in information, but there were so many
department articles that this audience would care about, and the audience like
to read so the type got smaller and the content grew. The publication became something more
than something you just look through; it became something that you read- on the train to Niche, in the Uber
on your way to your reservation for Restaurant Week, and on your couch at the
Buckminster.
So here it is...
