Friday, 29 March 2013

Creative Futures: Outline Magazine


Here is a brief overview of the events held on 23rd and 24th March at The Forum in Norwich - Creative Futures

I volunteered with the running of the event, and documented moments of the event on Twitter - in my role as President of the Enterprise Society at NUA ( @nua_enterprise )

More posts from this event to come!

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Outline Magazine - Emma

Outline Magazine ran an engaging workshop in the Atrium at Creative Futures which asked students to compile a themed magazine issue of their own. Latitude was recently announced and so students picked a band to profile/interview from the line-up. In preparation for their contributions to the issue, Emma provided industry magazines (which Outline are sent regularly) and iPads to help them research their artists of choice.

If you're commissioned to write about a band you know nothing about, you often will have under an hour to become familiar with them before an interview - so developing skills which help you pick out interesting ideas to ask about, and knowing where to look for your information are really important. A great place to start are existing magazines which you can use to scour for information on the bands or people in question.

Imagine you have 15mins to interview the band of your choice - think of interesting subjects to get your band talking. You will have to ask about their latest album and tour - but what you  really want is to get that bit more, such as personal life, anecdotes - and a good interviewer will know how to get this sought after information through a clever line of questioning, not interrogation!

As the workshop was running, Emma provided some background to her role as Editor at Outline. The independent publication has been running for 11 years, and currently only employs 2 full-time members of staff, as much of their content is out-sourced. This means that a team of writers and photographers work on a volunteer basis provide the bulk of the magazine is created by an eclectic mix of professionals, which are passionate about the subjects they cover. Content is kept fresh and varied as a result of this.

Editors need to be excellent proof readers, have great writing talent and experience, and they need art directing skills. Editors not only need to compile and quality control work, but to arrange it in a way which is visually appealing and logical to the readers. Experience in Photoshop and In Design are ideal for these 'copy-editor' tasks. When you are assembling an issue, and there are blank pages; you will need a creative mind to be able to fill them on a tight deadline!






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Robin Silcock

I am a Second Year Games Art and Design student at Norwich University of the Arts. After exploration of a number of roles in my first year, I am now looking to graduate as a 3D Artist with applicable skills in Maya, Mudbox, ZBrush and Photoshop. I understand that my skills in this field are not there yet - but I aim to achieve this goal through consistently working through the programs in my University and Personal Projects. I love to be busy - I have always had a lot of things on my plate since the age of 7 where I successfully balanced school with Ballet, Tap, Horse-Riding, French, Piano and Singing Lessons! In the same fashion, my university schedule is just as hectic and varied; I am a Peer Mentor to first year students, Student Rep for Second Year, and President of the Enterprise Society. Like I said, I love to be busy! I am a Games Hippie - so to speak - I believe that Games if designed and harnessed in the right way, will be able to help solve many of the global issues we have today - even if it starts off in a small way. Just look at the positive effects that Facebook and Twitter have already had... When navigating my blog;
  • Works in Progress - This section is a constantly running account of all my current projects - personal and for university. It will contain reference images and website links and sometimes less than coherent posts, so be prepared!
  • Finished Pieces - This is where you will find my more polished artwork. Looking for help with Maya? Check out the posts tagged "Maya How-To's"