Students get creative with Magic Castles magazine
A group of GCU students have been reflecting on their final year project, which gave them the opportunity to develop their creative skills for the future.
Sumera Hussain, Connor McLeod, Kirsty Shearer, Megan Merry and Katie Hutchinson joined forces to develop their very own concept that develops a UK-based company's brand identity, both to their current and target audience.
They joined other 4th year students on the BA (Hons) International Fashion Branding programme in creating their very own magazine and communications pack for Magic Castles, a clothing and accessories retailer based in London.
We sat down with Sumera, Connor and Megan to hear more about their work around the subconscious mind and how it’s developed them as young professionals.
Tell me a bit about the initial task you were all given?
Connor: “It’s the same project each year but every year group works with a different brand, I think last year was Nike and in the past students have also worked with Macy’s. We were given Magic Castles, a UK streetwear brand.
“The world really is your oyster with it – we didn’t have to worry about budget or anything like that. We basically got to come up with a full creative proposal focusing on an extension of their brand identity, and how we would communicate that through marketing and promotion. That’s then combined with the magazine which is the culmination of it all. We got that printed and then show it off as part of a final presentation.”
Sumera: “It’s a project that everyone gets really excited about. We’d heard about it when we started the course so we all knew it was coming. It ties together every skill we’ve learned throughout our four years. We got the chance to learn about Adobe and Photoshop, which I think, really built towards this entire magazine project. We’ve also created a communications pack as one of our previous modules, which was something we had to do for this. I think all of that prepares you and makes you more confident for actually doing the final project.”
Did you know much about Magic Castles before the project?
Megan: “No-one knew too much about them because they are quite niche. They’d done a collaboration with Sub Club before and their whole thing is sub-culture combined with techno/house music. Their shirts are quite psychedelic but sell really well. It’s mainly unisex but probably more catered towards males. They’re based in London and actually have their own radio station there, but their owner is Scottish.
“We had to do a lot of work around their target market. Maggie from Magic Castles came in and did a full presentation for us which acted as a really good base to go off.”
Connor: “We’d discussed within our group what we might focus on after first impressions of the brand. I think we were lucky that Magic Castles ended up really working in our favour because we really connected with the music side of the brand. Once we got a chance to speak to Maggie we got our concept really quickly.”
Tell me about the concept and what you guys focused on?
Sumera: “We focused a lot on sub-cultures and the subconscious mind, which is why it’s called the ‘Subconcious Edit’. It basically focuses on how we have our best ideas when we’re completing mundane tasks, like taking a shower or doing the ironing – that influenced everything we did, especially the editorial side.”
Megan: “Our concept also focuses on involving the community. That’s something Magic Castles are really keen to develop. Our whole idea was that people would send work that would then be featured in the magazine.”
Was it challenging to actually create a magazine?
Megan: “It was difficult but I think we were all so excited about doing it that it didn’t feel as much of a task. We had a class with someone who was a newspaper editor so he was giving us lots of tips and tricks around how to create the magazine.”
Connor: “We’ve all been involved in graphic design projects over the last couple of years so we all had a strong knowledge around the scope of what we wanted to do to have it at the elevated level we wanted.
“The magazine was 36 pages in total, so a lot of effort went into it. We sat down in a coffee shop one day to decide the different topics we were going to focus on. A lot of the content is from our friends and creatives we know. We reached out to them with a written prompt and kept it very vague around creating whatever they wanted in relation to the style of Magic Castles and the subconscious mind.”
It wasn’t just about the magazine though, was it?
Megan: “No! We also had the proposals for posters, a live event, a community workshop and social media (website and Instagram).
“All of our posters were going to be based in places we thought our target audience might see them, like the underground in London.”
Sumera: “It was basically a way of justifying your symbolic brand strategy, what ones you liked most and why you chose them. We had to really justify our work more so than we’ve ever done before and why we chose the strategies we did.
“Our live event was going to focus on jazz because we thought this would be a way of attracting a different type of music-lover away from the techno scene that we’d been originally aiming for. It linked into our strategy by targeting a different type of audience.”
How did it feel when you finally got access to the final magazine?
Connor: “I was very lucky that the magazines got delivered to my house, so I got first dibs of getting to see them and recorded my reaction unboxing them. It was very satisfying because it had been six months of grind. To finally have it physically in front of us was amazing.”
Tell me a bit about the presentation you had to do?
Connor: “It was a Powerpoint presentation and then we had to provide the communication packs and the magazine to them, along with some extras like stickers. We presented for 15 minutes to two members of staff from Magic Castles and two of our lecturers. It was basically a summary of our 60-page communications pack. They got the chance to read through the communication packs and magazine in their own time.”
What feedback did you receive about your work?
Megan: “They absolutely loved it! We’d all been so nervous before it and one of the girls wasn’t able to make it because she wasn’t well, so I think we did feel a wee bit of extra pressure.
“They were really pleased and impressed how everything was backed up. The guy from Magic Castles actually said he could see the company taking on our concept so it was exactly what we wanted. I think they really appreciated that we’d stuck with their original brand values.”
Sumera: “I think it felt like a lot of pressure because we’d done so much work to that point and wanted to do ourselves justice with the final part.”
Has this experience given you a confidence boost for the future?
Sumera: “I definitely think so. Whatever path we go on, whether it’s graphic design, whether it’s marketing, I think it’s good to know that we actually created a lot of fun stuff that’s developed skills we can use in a job. Each of us have come from different backgrounds in terms of expertise but we’ve all enhanced ourselves overall. This is a piece of work we can actually take forward to job interviews because we’ve all played a part in creating it.”
Megan: “My Adobe skills have increased massively just through basically being forced to do it. Even my academic writing has also benefitted in terms of being a lot more confident around what I’m writing.”
Did you ever see yourself getting the opportunity to have these experiences and develop the skills you have at the start of your degree?
Connor: “I know myself that I really got into the graphic design side of things throughout the project. That’s definitely more the path I see myself going down now and I’m really keen to build a personal portfolio of design – that wouldn’t have been possible without my involvement in the magazine.”
Sumera: “We have so many skills from this course that tie into other courses – we really have learned so much. I’m not sure if I’ll go straight into fashion but there are now things I want to try that I’ve learned about throughout our course and this project.”
Megan: “I don’t even know if I’ll go straight into fashion, I think I’ll maybe go into marketing and do the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) course. I want to stay in Glasgow and it’s difficult to get a job here. The main thing is that I now feel confident enough in my abilities to potentially go into a career in marketing – this project has played a massive part in that. I think the course in general for me has been amazing because I’ve had the chance to explore the creative side of the fashion world.”
Find out more about GCU’s International Fashion Branding course here
By Ross Clark
Got an SHLS or GSBS story? Email me at Ross.Clark@gcu.ac.uk or message me on Twitter