Factory Records//

Following on from looking at The Hacienda, it only made sense to look into the visual aesthetics of Factory Records, particularly because of it's fitting name.

Founded in 1979 by Tony Wilson, Alun Erasmus, Peter Saville and Martin Hannett, Factory Records is often credited with the birth of the 'Madchester' scene in the 1980s. The first album ever released by the independent record label was the infamous 'Unknown Pleasures' by Mancunian band Joy Division.

Along with Joy Division, other bands under the Factory Records label include New Order (the follow on band from Joy Division), Happy Mondays, The Duratti Column and A Certain Ratio.

Nic.

The Hacienda//

Owned by Factory Records, The Hacienda was a nightclub and music venue big in the 'Madchester' era, between 1982 and 1997. Labelled the most famous club in the world by Newsweek, the venue - real name Fac 51 Hacienda - is synonymous with the rise of acid and house music throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, and was funded for the most part of its run by record sales from band New Order.

We began looking at The Hacienda for inspiration after it was mentioned to us in a seminar by Matt. The background for the venue is something we feel to be quite relevant to The Factory, with strong links to different areas of art culture (financed by music label Factory Records, designed by famous graphic designer Peter Saville...) and the aesthetic of the club with its red brick warehouse history.

The look and graphics surrounding The Hacienda are quite industrial, which because of the name The Factory could be worth bearing in mind for the look of our zine.

Nic.

The Factory Girl//

The Factory:

Fashion youth culture

Fashion, photography, models, hair, makeup, magazines...

Informative

Dark

Edgy

Youthful

Fierce

Iconic

Grunge

Attitude

British aesthetic

Target//

To come up with our consumer moodboard, I began thinking about the target reader for The Factory - our audience, why they will like the magazine, what they want to read about and how they want it to look.

I was thinking about all of the types of things that Amy, Kate and I would love in a magazine. And as much as we love to discover new artists, songs or films, fashion is our true love.

That doesn't mean, however, that we just love looking at clothes and catwalk shows. Our love for fashion goes much further than this, we are incessantly obsessed by the latest magazines, models, photographers, editorials, campaigns, bloggers... as well as the clothes. It seems there's no real magazine on the market that focuses entirely on fashion as a whole - both front of house and behind the scenes. This is where The Factory aims to sit.

Nic.

I Love Fake//

Shoot inspiration- I would love to shoot my little sister in this grunge collection of candid style images of Grace Small shot by Viktor Vautier
Check out his blog: http://viktorvautier.blogspot.com/ Grace is his muse.

Kate.

Photography Inspiration//

David Shamas photography- http://www.davidshama.com/
See his tumblr:http://davidshama.tumblr.com/ for more of his work and inspirations.

I met David Shama in Paris for interview devised by a friend for writes for a local magazine 'Platform'. Shama claimed natural movement and imperfections 'capturing mistakes' he likes the models 'not to wait for him' He also told us, the choice of model and the attitude of shots sets the tone. When shooting he tries to think 'go with the flow' and is open to trying anything in his work.

Shama works with stylist Dephine Delafon and also his sisters Romeana and Mighera Shama who are also stylists and creative directors at high fashion brand Chanel. Shama is inspired by Self Service Magazine, the 90's, The Face, Steven Miesel and Italian Vogue. His photography is also inspired by various visuals in films and architecture in Paris & New York.

Kate.

Tank//

This is a page from Tank magazine 'The Blonde Issue' which features a collection of images showing models showcasing various looks from the catwalk. Tank has a very distinctive look which differentiates itself from other underground fashion publications, they 'seek to be informed, articulate and original'. Every issue features various big names and emerging talent though fashion design and photography.

Visit Tank Magazine: http://www.tankmagazine.com/
Tank Blog: http://tankmagazine.tumblr.com/

Kate.

The Something Issue//

A lot of the magazines we looked at when we were trawling through our collections produced each issue with a different theme, which is something we liked. For example, i-D have recently produced 'The Lovers of Life' issue, the latest 125 is the America issue, and Nylon have done a Denim issue.

We'd like to use this as a focus for our zine, so we started thinking of ideas for different issues.

We'll have to think of some good type to go with each issue, but so far we've settled on doing a Photography issue, and an issue dedicated entirely to Supermodels. More issue ideas to come..!

Nic.

Sassy//

Whilst reading up on teen blogging sensation Tavi Gevinson, I came across one of her most recent posts on an American vintage teen mag, Sassy. She's obviously quite obsessed with the magazine and has fans send her back copies so that she can get to read them, and after looking at her post, I can see why.

For it's time (1988-94), and particularly for its teen audience, Sassy had quite an abruptly opinionated and somewhat grown up tone of voice, although this may have been something to do with its founder being feminist Jane Pratt. It featured some influential people, for example Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, and Pratt is credited for spotting Chloe Sevigny.

In this article, they've mixed up the lives and characteristics to compare Hillary Clinton with Courtney Love. This is quite a strong statement for a teen magazine to make about the President's wife and the turbulent partner of a drug fuelled rock star, and is a perfect example of the kind of content that Sassy covered.

Perhaps my favourite part of Tavi's post was her analysing this front cover.

Whilst it looks like any other American teen mag, Tavi took a photo of the caption that sits just at the bottom of the page.

I love the use of irony here, and although this probably isn't something we want to take on board for our magazine - I thought it was worth mentioning a publication that mocked the usual system. The full post on Sassy by Style Rookie is available here.

Nic.

Dead Pan Sam//

Whilst trawling through the wasteland that is Facebook, I came across a Tillate-style photograph that a friend of mine had been tagged in, with a blog address underneath. Out of pure blog curiosity, I decided to have a look, and have since been following a photographer under the name Dead Pan Sam, since January.

He runs two blogs - Long Time Dead, which bases itself around his daily musings and happenings, and Partie! Partie!, a blog based entirely on the humorous events which take place of his university town, Brighton. I admire LTD for its attention to detail - it has a very honest, youthful tone (as does Partie! Partie!), however the focus of his photographs and the stories behind them really capture the characters of the people in them.

Partie! Partie!, however, has a very crude undertone. When it comes to these photo stories, Dead Pan Sam has no shame in humiliating the drunk in all their glory - and along with some fantastic captions, there's a real dark humour to this site.

As we as a team are inspired by photography, I think it would be good to feature Dead Pan Sam - an upcoming photographer who obviously holds a lot of passion for his art, and deserves to be recognised on a wider level. After showing Kate and Amy his blogs, they agreed and so we hope to do an interview with him, and ask if he'd be willing to do produce some photographs exclusively for The Factory.

Long Time Dead

A day at the docks

Get low

Yeasayer

Sorry I was/am/always will be late

Elton John's Shoes

Partie! Partie!

Something along the lines of blondes have more fun

Pseudo knee operation toilet

Get your tit out for a free shirt

A good start

So. So. Lonely.

Nic.