Youth Media Market
above photograph by Alex Perez/Unsplash
At one point in publishing there was a tremendous swelling of publications focused on the youth/teen market. Due to the younger audiences for some of my new projects it seemed exploring this demographic became relevant in the bigger picture once again. The influences that started here continue to influence my development of augmented reality experiences and game design through my observation and experience in the mass behavioral changes that were beginning when I was in this publishing genre.
Working within this demographic at that time really had a lot of influence on much of what I do now.
Seventeen Prom
I have often laughed, made a joke and smiled as I look back on the two Seventeen Prom issues that I art directed. OK, it’s the prom. You can’t spend as much as on a wedding but you want to look like you did. Cheap dresses for high school girls and all the advice and tips for makeup, jewelry, shoes, bags and hair. It was insane and hysterical. Art directing these shoots was a challenge but the team was up for it and these projects were so much fun.
CosmoGirl Redesign Pitch
Having experience in the teen market at the time, I found myself often at a dilemma. Caught in between publishers that wanted polite conservative content and the full awareness that our audience had a much more open appetite for more real dialogue about real life. When CosmoGirl launched, it was the magazine that seemed to go where the others would not and it was fantastic fun.
YM Redesign Pitch
YM Magazine, in the publishing industry, had become a hub of many strong designers,
photo directors as well as creative directors that went on to other things like Marie Claire, Time magazine and Harper’s Bazaar. During my time there I was asked to submit my vision
for the magazine going forward. This is that vision.
TeenBeat Redesign
TeenBeat Magazine was part of a group of teen/youth focused publications that all ran out of one office. There was tremendous excitement, energy and playfulness between all of the publications but TeenBeat was able to launch a more refined brand identity under my direction that pushed us to the head of the path and gave us the opportunity to lead the other publications.