Creativity & Genre

            The importance of creativity when embarking on a new endeavor is grand. The creative process allows us to be innovative and better at problem solving. Ron Beghetto defines “creative self-efficacy" as our confidence to perform creatively on a particular task. Beghetto believes in strengthening our creative self-efficacy in order to become better problem solvers. This skill can be very helpful when starting a project such as the Media Studies portfolio project. After listening to Duncan Wardle’s Ted Talk, “The Theory of Creativity”, I was certain that Beghetto must have been correct. Wardle speaks about how humans begin to think “reductively” over time and what this means is that we become less creative. He then speaks about the lack of creativity at work, which is the place people need to be creative in order to solve problems. I believe this can be translated to students and school. Students get into these “rivers of thinking” and it hinders our ability to come up with original and creative solutions for problems (Wardle). Using the knowledge absorbed from Beghetto and Wardle, I plan on trying to be creative and confident in my creative ideas as if I was Dame Anna Wintour.  

Since 1988, Dame Anna Wintour has been a journalist and editor of Vogue magazine. Vogue is a High-end fashion magazine that is famous for its amazing images of celebrities on the cover. Dame Anna Wintour creates amazing covers with a very beautiful woman on the cover with the iconic “VOGUE” in a white font at the top of the page. When Wintour became the editor, she revolutionized the way the world saw fashion. She used her creativity to create issues that made Vogue globally known. Wintour’s creativity with her covers allowed her to make issues that controlled fashion trends due to its large audience. I want to emulate her placement of text and the images she puts on the cover as well as the number of images she includes in the magazine. Vogue has more images and not as much text in their articles, which I believe is more interesting and will keep the reader engaged. Also, I am going to have a very similar target audience of wealthy women or aspiring businesswomen. I am targeting businesswomen due to inspiration from Luisa Kroll, Forbes magazine executive editor. Luisa Kroll is a new editor but carries on the legacy of Forbes. Luisa Kroll targets entrepreneurs and businessmen probably because business is seen as a male dominated industry. However, she created an issue that featured Kylie Kardashian and how she became an entrepreneur. This issue Kroll created has a medium close-up shot of the beautiful celebrity in a suit, which makes her seem all powerful. I love this and am going to use this in my magazine. Kroll’s articles are very text heavy, so I plan on using Wintour’s number of images and text instead of Kroll’s. 

There are slim to none magazines for women interested in business. Sure, women could read Forbes, but it is uninspiring when every successful entrepreneur they read about is a male. That is why I am creating a magazine for aspiring businesswomen that features successful businesswomen. Many believe there is a lack of these successful women but there are not. I plan on using images and text styles that inspire women while still having a very informative article to help them with their business endeavors.