Periódicos ilustrados independentes para a infância – Panorama e processos contemporâneos

Publications

The potential of independent children's magazines for the illustrator: a practice-based Investigation

Publication . Neto, Sofia Correia Regalado

This practice-based research study aims to identify contemporary independent children’s magazines and their traits, understand practices and roles involved in making them, and explore the potential they offer the illustrator. It was driven by an awareness of an emergence of new independent children’s magazine titles with shared traits, particularly the prominence of illustration within, in European countries, and practitioner interest in engaging with one and its miscellaneous content. This research contributes to the under-researched field of independent children’s periodicals, providing a contemporary perspective from a practitioner’s standpoint. A multi-method approach was used, with reflective creative practice at its core. Literature and primary literature review and analysis offered theoretical and descriptive understanding of the form and particular real-world examples. Interviews provided insight into individual contemporary editorial and illustrator practices. Creative practice enabled open-ended experimentation and exploration of the limits of the children’s magazine form, allowing insight into the illustrator’s process and choices. In the development of two Prototypes for children’s magazines, identified procedural and formal aspects were replicated and subverted toward finding alternative solutions and innovative approaches in making. In so doing, the illustrator’s role shifted between editorial and authorial, and the resulting magazine issues further incorporated aspects from other artforms, defying perceived conventions. This study resulted in new knowledge on the independent children’s magazine as a form, identifying specific commonalities with related artforms and disciplines, and proposing a definition. It provides new insight into contemporary real-world cases, identifying two different editorial approaches, one of which is the illustrator collective. Creative practice demonstrates how a children’s magazine’s format, use of theme and structure may be resolved alternatively. It further shows that the illustrator has the ability to take on every aspect of production, and achieve a holistic development of the magazine and its content.

2024-12Doctoral thesis

Open access