Creativity and Genre

 

I have long held several ideas about how I wanted my magazine to turn out, but I have recently been challenged by both making it original and more concentrated with a central theme or idea.  My decisions were helped along by the activities and research we conducted in class and personal reflection. 

When we watched a Ted Talk, the speaker almost immediately struck me with what he said about children and creativity.  I have heard that most people lose their imagination over time and I must say I have to agree.  He said children are extremely curious and think expansively but over time their thinking turns reductive.  This made me challenge myself to think more expansively.  Many would call this “thinking outside the box” and it is training your self to be more receptive to a wide range of ideas.  After the talk, when we did the exercise of describing yourself through a constraint, I chose books as my constraint.  This was easiest as I have many personal anecdotes I could offer relating to books.  This helped me remember my past with books, funnel my personality through books, and, most importantly to this class, realize this should be incorporated into my project.  I had an idea to do more of a literary criticism piece, but I realized that that could be boring and needed to be refreshed and combined with other aspects. 

Researching two magazines helped me think of other personal interests I could mix in as well as learn from two very well-known publications.  The first was The New Yorker , which gave me ideas for more varied article titles and content.  In my magazine I would like to encompass a bit of satire, cartoons, and puzzles or another form of intellectual engagement.  This must still be presented in a fun way.  I liked the idea of doing a piece of artwork or a cartoon as the cover, but unlike The New Yorker I would have coverlines on the cover.  Vogue, the other magazine I researched, does employ coverlines like most magazines do.  One of the main reasons I chose those two magazines was that I want my work to appear sophisticated and cultured.  From Vogue I gathered more on the significance of each image and all its parts.  Each one is loaded with meaning and sets the tone for what the words say, especially as the accompanying image is what first catches the eye.  The editor of Vogue, Anna Wintour, is someone I admired before this project. Besides being iconic, she is exceptionally elegant and purposeful, attributes I strive to be.  But how does that translate over to her work?  I tried reading the copies of Vogue I have, specifically the letters from the editor, and while I many not have employees or quite the same platform, I can still be creative and detail oriented.  I hope for my work to maintain a literary presence but also possess coffee shops and restaurants, satire, and puzzles.  These can all come together under a common theme, dependent on the issue. 

I really enjoy examining covers of The New Yorker but these are two of my favorites I have seen.  I wish to possibly capture their essence with my magazine.