OUGD603 EXTENDED PRACTICE - ARMED FORCES - PUBLICATION AESTHETIC RESEARCH

Multi-Terrain Pattern
Research into the Multi-Terrain Pattern (MTP) has been vital to the development of so many assets within the finished publication. It informed the cover, the anonymous photograph, even the colours used in the infographics. Initially camouflage was intended to be used just for the cover, however it was important to create the right kind of camouflage to ensure technical accuracy, so research was undertaken into the pattern itself, how it was created (it was recently updated during Afghanistan), and the colour choices. This ensured whenever the MTP was used in the publication, it was factually accurate.
The MTP also provided a great base for the colour scheme of the publication, as it was simple and relevant but still had the varying shades to create contrast and differentiation when necessary.

SOLDIER Magazine
Whilst conducting secondary research into the Armed Forces for the infographics aspect, it was uncovered that the Armed Forces have a monthly magazine called Soldier, containing articles on sport in the Armed Forces, stories from Service Personnel, and feature articles on interesting topics within the Armed Forces.
This was a really interesting publication to discover, as it gave an insight into how the Armed Forces market themselves in the form of a monthly magazine, what their style is, and what kind of topics they talk about.
This has also been useful to ensure my publication was different to SOLDIER magazine, and not an alternative or copy, but taking on a different angle. SOLDIER magazine’s main style is promoting what the Armed Forces can do, the technology they have, and the amazing things they do outside of tours.

M1A1 Abrams Prospectus
This is an information publication on the M1A1 Abrams tank. It takes on a very stereotypical Armed Forces appearance with the typewriter style body copy typeface and the bit map photographs. The use of red also symbolises danger, a fitting element in a publication about a tank.
The layout used in this publication however is really clean and spacious, which makes it easy to read the text as it doesn’t appear overwhelming, being broken up into manageable amounts. The hierarchy in the text throughout is also really effective, and allows you to clearly distinguish each individual element, rather than just seeing it as a mount of text. This is definitely something to take into consideration for the production of the publication, to ensure each section is clearly individual.

Magazine layouts
The content of the articles layout was hugely influenced by typical magazine article layouts, in the way that they pull quotes from the article to enlarge to fill up space and to break the body copy up.
As my publication will include some quite lengthy interviews, it is essential to keep readers interested, and not put them off reading the publication due to the amount of text within it.