Thursday, May 30, 2013

REVIEW: Risqué Debut

With the current halt in Stardoll magazines it is always a pleasure to welcome new magazines onto the scene. Risque magazine, owned by Hilmy, celebrated the release of their first issue on Wednesday and today the debut issue will be put to the test to see just how good it is.

Graphic Design: 7/10 Risque would have scored higher if they stuck to one graphic designer for this issue. Although variety is nice it's always important to keep everything flowing and sadly the graphic designers hired for Risque were all at different levels. Lullih made the vast majority of the images used in the magazine which were all of wonderful quality, however there were also graphics created by Jack, Khol and Helen. Helen's and  surprisingly, Jack's graphics shown in the issue were not as strong and didn't fit into the magazine as well as the others.

Fashion Editorial:  5/10 Sadly, there wasn't a real flow in the debut issue of Risque. There is no denying that the magazine boasts numerous interesting articles and graphics but none of these were shown in a set editorial, aside from  two male model graphics.

Trends Shown: 9/10 There were three pages dedicated to trends, with the main focus on shoes and peplum. There was also a feature on beauty tips which was separated by another two random graphics. Overall Risque managed to show a good set of trends, but without the flow in the magazine it doesn't show as well.

Writing Style: 7/10 There is no denying that there are some interesting articles in Risque, and I'm always glad to have some reading material in such a graphic driven magazine world, however the writing styles shown were not of amazing standard.

Overall Layout: 7/10 The overall layout of Risque was not amazing, but the magazine definitely shows a lot of room for improvement and boasts some aspects that many magazines now lack. If Hilmy can focus on the few points that need minor to moderate improvement then I am positive he can make Risque one of the best magazines out there.

How did this magazine score?
35 out of 50, at 70% or C-

5 comments:

  1. I actually like the usage of different graphic designers. It mirrors actual magazine editorials where photographers like Mario Testino (Vogue) and Camilla Akrans (Harper's Bazaar) do several different shoots alongside other photographers in magazine publications. I like to think of graphic designers as "Stardoll" photographers, you know?

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    1. I agree. While matching styles are nice, variety has charm!

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  2. Just a little thing I feel I should say:
    I'm not going to defend myself about my graphics as I can't say I'm the best designer out there but you should have read the comments on Aislin's review on SD Dirty Laundry where Jack said that Hilmy asked him to give him some unused old graphics he had. So this is why you were dissapointed in his work.

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  3. Yes I should have mentioned in the magazine that I had used Jack's old graphic (thank you helen for mentioning)and thank you for all the critique I will try improve for the 2nd issue of Risqué

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  4. I liked the different graphic designers and I actually think that Jack's graphics where pretty good! I loved the magazine over all, but I thought that the cover page needed just a little more! I wanted some more wording, but I guess that that is just my opinion! But overall, I loved the magazine and the graphics.

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