Seasonal Editorial: Freedom at Last!
Text by Eshe Nelson

The first, worst and longest term is finally at an end! Christmas is upon us and a month of being ‘merry’ can finally commence.

Like you, we will all be away enjoying the break (and putting the final touches on the magazine).

The Time/Space issue of Less Common More Sense will be out on 10th January, ready and waiting for you upon your return. Expect to find an insight into some of the best student work across the university, as well as a few things you didn’t know about Alex Fury (Fashion Director of SHOWstudio) and some entertaining horoscopes for 2011.

Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanks to Coitus Magazine for putting my work in their latest issue. Lots of beautiful pictures of beautiful boys, go check it out at coitusmagazine.com!

Less Common More Sense magazine submissions are now open. If you have what it takes and would like to see your work published in print, get in touch. It might happen. We are looking for outstanding, cutting edge work. If it’s Less Common, we want to show it.

Submit your work
http://wearelesscommon.com/contribute

Until June 30th 2010. Exclusive to University of Arts London students and alumni only.

Having just set up a new fashion / culture magazine within a market where printed publications are no longer in such high demand and bloggers are becoming more and more popular and respected, Sketchbook mag have – very sensibly – brought themselves to the public’s attention in physical form on Newburgh Street (behind Carnaby St) for a month of talks, performances, debate, cake and general niceties.

The first panel talk was Print vs. Online with Adrian Shaugnessy, Clare Acheson, Susie Bubble (queen of the fashion blogs) Sandrine Maggiani and Becky Smith -  all the ladies coming from a fashion writing background and Mr S as the token graphic designer / publisher.

Unsurprisingly we still don’t have an answer to how this relationship is going to progress but it’s generally accepted that print will have to feed from online and online from print…this was accepted by the panel as inevitable for a magazine / book / newspaper to flourish. Dazed and Confused and Dazed Digital as an example of this.

Other points mentioned:

Go beyond the magazine  – do a Monacle – become a ‘lifestyle’ brand to stay afloat. Personally I think we need to get rid of them rather than add to them – business is far too incestuous as it is.

Everyone agreed that The Times £1 a day online fee wasn’t going to work unless all British newspapers did the same and left no other alternative than to pay. Good for journalists – Bad for freedom of information. The perspective of online currently being the inferior format for newspapers would also shift if this were to happen.

The nature of the amateur blogger was unravelled. The impartial and personal nature of blogs may be tarnished if corporations then started paying (SwissMiss style) to get their things featured. However this is something an average readership would probably not consider. Perhaps it should always be an amateur pursuit as in the words of Adrian S – ‘the best thing about blogging is the first person opinion away from institutions or outside influence.’

The role of the individual blogger outside of a brand or corporation is a difficult way to make a living though – unless you are Susie Bubbles and get offered a job at Dazed Digital. It may always be an amateur format because of the simplicity and freedom it affords.

It was mentioned – I can’t remember by who – that a true blog should always be free. Free from price tags and regulation as it ruins the nature of blogging – to be spontaneous in order to be influential: which is unfortunate for big brands as most trendsetters wouldn’t read anything blatantly associated with mainstream companies – they’d move on to the next hot new thing that no one had heard of. However, there are exceptions  – like the fashion blogger who designed limited edition t shirts for Gap. Collaborations are a compromise.

So why still invest in print if digital publications are quite clearly THE way forward? – if Steve Jobs says it is. It IS.

I think that ex creative director of Lula, and magazine-market trend-setter; Becky Smith, may hold the answer in the format of her newest venture – Twin magazine, which she describes as a much slower paced (hard-back) bi – annual magazine with no ads, just beautiful and intelligent editorial.

It seems that the general consensus on content is that the fast paced occurrences can appear easily on a blog or twitter now and not be used for printed content – magazines should go back to an almost book based format that readers would want to keep and collect much like an annual. (This isn’t too hard to imagine for creative types – my house is full of old copies of Dazed and Confused, Grafik and Creative Review.)

Because of the higher production quality of the printed version perhaps issues would be limited to seasonally (like Amelia’s Mag) or bi-annually (like Twin) which to me sounds like a more sustainable and healthier way of publishing than the current new-lies-every-week-to-fill-the-mag kind of journalism that is currently employed in some of the trashier magazines – maybe – fingers crossed – pray to Thom Yorke (my God) – it would get to the point that people wouldn’t even bother to print those kinds of magazines anymore and stuff it all online for readers to seek out – no longer would there be an army of Katie Prices staring out from the news stand. Hurrah!

I’m a big fan of print and literature but the even slight hope of that as the future of printed media looks pretty damn good to me.

However for the nostalgic among you here’s a wonderful quote from this month’s WIRED magazine:

“I once had the unexpected choice of spending the evening taking a gander at some 40s porno or accepting the invitation to have actual sex with a gorgeous lady I regularly delivered flowers to……With a pounding heart, I chose the real thing. That’s how I feel about experiencing a magazine’s contents on a crammed computer screen versus holding a magnificent magazine in my hands – with its surprising visual and visceral possibilities at the turn of a page.”

George Lois – Advertising pioneer

sketchbookblog.tumblr.com/

Katie Smyth

kkkkatie.wordpress.com

Visit the magazine page to view the new issue and our archive…

I love VB. She is one of my idols. I love The Spice Girls. I love her style. My friends think I am obsessed with her, I am not I just love her. Wow, that whole sentence completely contradicted my last statement but whatever I just like her, most people don’t but I do. So imagine my joy when I popped into M&S and saw her gracing the cover of Harper’s. As a true fan and magazine-a-holic I really should have known this…but I didn’t which made the surprise even better. Unfortunately, I left it at BFF’s house so I haven’t read the article…sigh. But I took pictures of the shoot, which is one of my favourites from Harper’s this year. Yes I am biased because it’s of VB but I love the imagery and inspiration behind the shoot. It’s quite dark, sexy and moody which really suits her and I love the lingerie and hoisery in the shoot. These pictures may be making an appearance a white wall in my bedroom very soon….

It’s up! The first phase of our Less Common Shopping Experience is up here as a beta – it’s taken a whole weekend of sifting to find the stash we think you’d like best, from classic movies and books, to cutting edge photography and technical manuals. As ever let us know if you want anything extra added!

Shopping via Less Common means we get a transaction free for stuff you buy that goes straight back into us making the magazine – and at no extra cost to you! So if in doubt, use our store, and we can make Less Common even better!

The shop will be embedded into the site as soon as possible, but until then, share the love at http://astore.amazon.co.uk/wearleco-21

And don’t forget, as with the rest of amazon, you can get a 5% discount if you’re a student with an NUS Extra card – apply here

Finally coming down from the massive high of Freshers, and now with all the 3,000 or so photos uploaded from my exploits with my Canon 50D and nice fast lens, I’m amazed to reflect on the numbers of students we have at UAL. All you wonderful arty types, filling up huge clubs, waves of the future of the creative industry throwing themselves around in one big sweaty mess to the sound of one the amazing bands lined up by our own Mr Dave Charlesworth. Obviously we’re all here to make amazing things, but a part of me can’t help but wonder if this side isn’t just as defining an experience. Though doubtless most think of me as some kind of bizarre face painter/club photographer hybrid, this is the first year I feel relatively confident that many of our new students will have actually met or be aware of the officers. It’s an incredible feeling for our comms to be finally working properly, to the extent where most times I went up to speak to students they answered with something along the lines of “oh, you’re Kit Friend” – as much as I’d like to think I’d done something worthy of some kind of spontaneous fan club, this was true for all the officers I think, and was undoubtedly a direct result of us having a decent SU magazine for this year, the fantastic Freshly Squeezed, designed by Less Common’s own Tatiana Woolrych. Revel in it’s glory…

Music and fashion have always been tied together, musicians often use fashion as a way to identify and differentiate themselves, and their fans do the same. In turn, fashion often draws inspiration from the music industry. Earlier this year Less Common More Sense ran a fashion design competition in collaboration with Syllabus Music and Alex Roots. Alex Roots is pop with a healthy dose of punk and a bit of a retro streak. Described as part Katy Perry and part Cyndi Lauper, she pairs 80s quirk with noughties in-your-face lyrics and solid commercial appeal. Alex is fast becoming the city’s golden girl. Tipped by the press as a big chart invader for the coming year, she has been praised by Tiscali for her storming liveshows and magnetic charisma.

The competition aimed to find a designer at University of The Arts London to design an item of clothing or an accessory for Alex to promote and to wear in a photo shoot for this issue of Less Common More Sense. We received many outstanding entries but the winner is Gareth Lewis with his very modern, classy and edgy bag, which also helped Gareth to win Accessories Designer of the Year at the Drapers Award (www.drapersawards.co.uk). Gareth met up with Alex at the RAK music studio in London in the Summer for the photoshoot.

Gareth Lewis
garethlewisaccessories@london.com

Alex Roots
www.alexroots.net

Fashion Editor (text): Giselle La Pompe-Moore | g.la-pompe-moore1@fashion.arts.ac.uk
Photographer: Abigail Rose Liparoto | www.daughtersof.co.uk
Photographer’s Assistant: Tatiana Woolrych | www.arts.ac.uk/showtime/tatianawoolrych
Syllabus Music: Gideon | www.syllabusmusic.com

This article was previously published in our communicate/collaborate issue

‘4D Glass‘ forges a relationship between an on screen, computer generated model and the actual physical object.

When creating a 3 dimensional representation on a computer programme a ‘skeleton‘ of the object is formed, known as the wireframe.

In an attempt to fuse the virtual and physical world, this wireframe has been engraved onto the surface of the glass. This concept sees the computer being used to automate a linear pattern, specific to the object itself.

www.krawczuk.it