Ray Gun magazine was first published in 1992 led by the director David Carson. He explored experimental magazine designs and went against the norm. Over 70 issues were produced for 1992 - 2000. Ray Gun was noticeable for its choices of content and subjects, for example, pop icons were highlighted way before competitors including those of Eminem and Radiohead.
This shows how he didn't follow the same conventions and he didn't have a certain housestyle. Every issue was different so there wasn't a set structure. For example, every font is different each issue. Unlike NME and SmashHits! the main title is always in the same font and colour where as here it differs each time. It tends to look more professional if people keep the same colour scheme and font continually however the reason Ray Gun may have run for that amount of time is down to the different approach used.
As you can see different aspects were used for example, the font being upside down and the pages always looking busy and edgy. Usually the mast head is the same font and colour and in the same place - this couldn't be more different.
It's good to see a magazine going against conventions and not following the same conventions as average music magazines. However, this magazine is now not running. This could be down to attitude of the magazine and the reason they did differ that maybe it wasn't as successful as normal convention following magazines but it meant that it showed that someone could have elements of success by being different.
Looking at this, it would be good to go against conventions purely because everyone usually religiously sticks to them when really, to differ would be interesting. However, this may effect the sales of a magazine because it looks less professional in some aspects and its much harder to find on the shelves because people don't know what they're looking for.
Really interesting comments, Sophie, well done.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate what you're saying with Ray Gun's (lack of) house style - it would be difficult to emulate in only a single issue.
Mind you, you can still be influenced by its creaivity and if you're after an edgy feel, look at how you can use some of its principals in your own work.
Think about how you can combine existing and established rules and conventions to form new and exciting ones!
Well done - keep it up!