Blueprint

In what proved to be a fascinating talk, Blueprint magazine’s Robin Wilson and Gian Luca Amadei came in to talk to the Journalism group, plus any interested parties, at lunchtime on Thursday. Wilson spoke first, followed by Amadei and both began by explaining their educational background and how they came to work in architectural journalism. Robin Wilson started as a Fine Art graduate, went on to do an MA in Art Criticism & Theory, and then worked as an art critic for a while, making contacts and writing reviews, meanwhile becoming increasingly interested in architecture and ultimately undertaking a PhD in Architectural Theory at the Bartlett where he now teaches when he is not writing for journals. Gian Luca Amadei’s background was different again, beginning as an accountant in Italy, but becoming interested in design and as a result, studying interior design. He found that his written work was doing better than his concept designs, and so decided to follow this path! He began as an intern at Blueprint, on a 5 week placement where he made tea, coffee and photocopies before moving on to working on preview pages, and three years later, is now Product Editor.

Robin Wilson talked through some of his own past work, including articles written for the great bastions of the architectural journal world, the AR and AJ. Along the way, he offered insights into the life of a freelance architectural journalist (often barely breaking even once a site visit to Norway has been taken into account, for example) and of the traditions upheld by many journals. He was critical of some of these traditions, such as the incessant use of the 'pun title' (‘Dante’s Drive-in’, ‘Making the Earth Move’, ‘Plant Life’... the list is virtually endless) which he feels banalise the content of the article before one even reads it, and the ubiquitous ‘blue-sky and corrected perspective’ architectural photojournalists who work strictly inside the box. He explained various types of piece he had written, such as The Building Report, The Exhibition Review and The Book Review and the depth of research required for each. He also spoke enthusiastically about the angle he writes from, involving looking at the urban landscape and thinking about how we can design for processes and territories rather than just the single object.

Next, Gian Luca Amadei spoke about the history of Blueprint magazine which celebrated its quarter century last October. Showing examples, and talking through different sections of the magazine, he shared his experiences of working as both editor and writer, explaining the main issues a person in those roles must face. The challenges of never having enough space or time were discussed, as was the problem of editing someone else’s work, be it text or photography, whilst trying at all times to keep the essence of what the author was trying to say. Word counts and the nerves of a writer submitting a piece to the editor were also discussed. Amadei spoke animatedly about the process of compiling a monthly magazine and also his personal resentment of the mass consumption of the Metro and London Lite by commuters! Both men talked about layouts in some detail, addressing the content of a page, how much space images are given, the positioning of advertisements and text and they illustrated their talks well.

I think plenty more students could have got a lot out of hearing these two speakers, but to take a more selfish view of it, I felt the compactness of the group in attendance gave the talk a more intimate atmosphere, and this certainly became apparent during the relaxed and informative discussion which unfolded afterward. A definite highlight of day four!