During the time I was studying my degree at Birmingham City University, I was given the chance to work on the student magazine 'The Scratch'. The Scratch magazine covers a wide variety of topics from sport and fashion, to student life and news from across the country, so there is something for everyone. It is a magazine seen by thousands of students across all of the universities campuses and is created by students, for students. Throughout my time working on the magazine, I learnt a lot about magazine production and the amount of work that goes into working on such a large project. It was a great learning experience and I have taken a lot away from it which will be vital when working on future projects.
The Scratch, Issue 2
During the winter of 2016, I worked on the second issue of Birmingham City Universities student magazine, 'The Scratch'. At the time, I had recently been given the role of lead designer which was a pretty big accomplishment. With that being said, I wanted to leave my own mark on the magazine and slightly alter the overall layout and visual style of the magazine - one such way I did this was in creating an illustration that spanned the front and back covers - something that hadn't been done before throughout the magazines relatively short 'lifespan'. On this particular issue, the illustration is of Birmingham's New Street Station and as the magazine was released around winter time, the theme and elements of the illustration were very much influenced around that.
The Scratch, Issue 3
Early in the new year, production began on the third issue of the magazine with the intent to have it released in the spring. This issue saw a significant design overhaul to help make it a modern, student-friendly publication that would appeal to the thousands of students that read the magazine across all of the universities campuses. This overhaul consisted of a new contents page design and various layout changes throughout to add consistency to the magazine's design; something which was lacking in previous issues. I also created the illustration that spans the front and back covers of the issue, and features the Curzon and Parkside buildings of the university. Furthermore, this issue was entered into the Student Publication Awards (SPA) but unfortunately was not shortlisted to win the award.
The Scratch, Distribution Boxes
As well as working on the magazines, I was also given the task to create a number of illustrations that would feature on distribution boxes around the different university campuses. Each illustration was created specifically for the different campuses with different landmarks of the city (Birmingham) used to give each it's own, individual look.
A huge thank you to all those who were involved with the production of The Scratch magazine.
