OKIDO is the arts and science magazine for 3- 8 year old children. It's designed to engage young children in scientific discovery in the most fun and creative way.
Website: http://www.okido.co.uk/
I was originally meant to be interviewing Sophie Dauvois the Editor of OKIDO but I ended up interviewing Maggie Li the Illustrator and Art Director of OKIDO. She was a very interesting person and had some good opinions of the digital era and publication today. Maggie studied illustration at Kington university.
Website: http://maggie.li/#/
I recorded the interview, at doodle productions in London where OKIDO magazine is based.
Questions and Answers:
18th
November (2015)
There’s only
4 of us here at OKIDO, I do a bit of everything because it’s a small team and
you just pick up whatever needs to be done, yeah its good its really involved.
We only publish monthly, so we do get a decent amount of time to do each issue,
but then there’s also a TV show which runs along side it. The TV show has their
own department, they have their animators etc. We are the accompanying magazine
to that, yeah there’s a lot of work into having to do both. There’s lots of
different parts of doing the magazine so you sort of have to juggle.
What impact
has the digital era had on publication today?
What is your
opinion on this?
Its changed
the print world quite a lot, an interesting thing about working on a children’s
magazine publication, I think parents still want to give their kids printed
stuff, if it’s books or magazines. I think parents regard it as having
something more substantial having something print, because the magazine is for
three to eight year olds, it kind of starts very young, there’s not a huge
amount of print publication in that age range, so I think we have that unique
selling point on our side, and I think the digital side well you can’t fight
against it. There’s so many screens now, everyone’s got a phone. I think at
that age parents are still dictating what the kids see and how much screen
exposure they get. I think the print part of it is still really important, they
get this quality thing that they can kind of look over. The point of OKIDO is
that its not just something you buy and kind of do in five minutes and throw
away, its something you keep and each issue has a different theme so its kind
of creating an Encyclopedia of different subjects so kids can learn from it. So
I think its difficult, I think digital has taken over a lot of print
publications in terms of magazines, loads of magazines have probably died or
just gone on screens online, and that serves a different purpose. Everyone’s
online and people are more likely to browse blogs, then to buy as many
magazines as they used to. I think for the children’s market I think the print
side of it is still pretty strong, parents still buy books and still buy
magazines for their kids, it’s a good quality item.
How did OKIDO
start?
I’ve been
here for four years and when I joined the magazine it had been going for about
three years. Sophie (the founder of OKIDO) is a scientist, she does genetic
biology and she started doing research and then her partner Rachel is an artist
and they have a son together and when he was very young they discovered there
wasn’t a lot of good printed material for kids at the time, there wasn’t a lot
of good magazines around. So they came up with the idea of doing an arts and
science magazine that combined, early learning and science but also a lot of
creativity. That’s kind of where the magazine was born from. There’s no
advertising, its non commercial, at the beginning they didn’t really have any
money for it so they got funding from the welcome collection, which is funding
from a science fund, they give out money for educational science purposes. So
they were mostly funded by that, and it was important it wasn’t a commercial
magazine, its very much about learning and fun. Were not going for the mass
market, going for the niche audience.
Do you think
print has more value than digital?
I don’t know,
its hard because I think that he two things are both incredibly powerful. With
things moving on and the birth of the digital age you get that kind of shift
and people get very excited by the digital side of things, and you see a lot of
new digital type projects. But I think there is always that push and pull
against it. When the digital side seems to get over saturated people always go
back to print side, so its that balance really. With us we’ve not felt like the
digital side has over taken the print side not in children’s publication so
even within books that we do, the books are still your valued source and often
people want apps and games that go along with it. Digital always seems to be like
an extra thing, a side thing that supports print. Both really are going for the
same aims, it’s a different way of communicating those ideas.
Do you think
digital will ever replace print publication?
It might do,
yeah it could, lots of magazines and newspapers have gone mostly digital.
People fear there is going to be the death of the bookshop and no one will ever
buy books again and actually I don’t think that happened. The Kindle was huge
and I have a kindle, loads of people have kindles and its great but at the same
time a lot of people still buy books and the high street still has book shops
and people still value having the physical thing, so I can’t see it going
really quickly. The more digital things get the more people cherish the real
printed mediums.
What do you
think makes a good children’s magazine?
I think when
you are doing something with children its really important you think about what
benefits the kids and what they want to do because we are all adults and we
work on this publication, we get sort of sucked into it. We used to be able to
test the magazine on Sophie’s son but now he’s too old, he’s a teenager and you
don’t always get the feedback that you want and really what you need is to
appeal to their sense of fun and learning because at that age they don’t want
to be taught stuff. The idea is to teach them through a lot of activities, a
lot of play, a lot of interactive stuff. There’s no right way or wrong way of
doing the magazine, trying to appeal to them and parents obviously, you’ve got
to get them on your side. They’ve got to see that their kids are involved with
it and its not just a piece of tat with a toy on it. Its important that it has
enough engaging content. For every magazine we have to always think about new
things and how to improve it.
Do you think
the younger generation now is becoming too obsessed with technology with the
rise of apps and social media?
Yeah, I think
definitely for teenagers, I think as soon as they go to school they get exposed
to it, through friends, through parents, you see young kids that are really attached
to their parent’s phones, I think that is something that is a growing issue.
Its something that I didn’t experience when I was younger, so its hard to
imagine how to deal with that, but I think you can limit screen time and you
can limit how much they spend on apps and games and stuff. I think because our
age range is still really young, the parents control it quite well, but I think
when they get beyond eight it is quite difficult. It is important that you
don’t completely ban them because kids will always get access to these things,
if you can kind of find that balance. There are really good app’s and games
there is educational stuff out there, so if you can steer them in the right
direction, they can get a balance between using print and digital resources.
How has
social media enhanced OKIDO?
Massively, I
think before social media our network was very much like door to door local,
going to local bookshops, talking to people, talking to moms. Through Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram you can reach so many people around the world that you
would never would be able to reach, so with that the exposure is much wider.
Every company has that access now, so you have that fight.
Which social
media has given you the most exposure?
I think Facebook
actually, all the mums are on Facebook during the day time and we post quite a
lot on there and we get a lot of response. Twitter, there a lot of moms on
there too, but you are kind of lost in the sea, and you need to be on it
constantly. Facebook is a bit more kind of, its there and you post stuff and it
doesn’t go away. Twitter is just a constant conversation. We do a bit of
everything. Facebook and Instagram seem to do quite well in terms of exposure
and people seeing stuff.
How important
do you think it is for children to have a printed publication rather than a
digital one? In terms of hands on methods and interactivity?
I think
that’s how kids learn, they do benefit from having something they can hold and
feel. Its visual, they can keep it, they can put in on their shelf. Everyone remembers
children’s books that they read, I’m not sure how much kids would remember a
great app or an eBook even. The real thing exists much more powerfully in the
memory, It’s really important to still have printed matter. I think you have to
think about where things are moving, so you’ve got to take digital into
account. We really want to build the digital side of stuff but I think first
and foremost we are about print.
Has the
digital world effected OKIDO in anyway?
No, I think
its been good actually, I don’t think we have been negatively effected. I think
that more than anything we kind of opened up an new area we can expand into and
we are definitely thinking about online resources, games and apps, but stuff
that really complements OKIDO. We are not going to completely try and digitise
a magazine, its more having something that would complement, its been a real positive.
Digital is a really nice extra medium to use.
Do you think
having a print publication in your hands gives you a nostalgic feeling?
Definitely, I
think a lot of what it is is how parents feel about it too, parents see this
magazine and it has that nostalgic feeling, its got a bit of a retro style and
its quite 2D. the TV show is 3D so that’s quite different in terms of the look
of it. The look of the magazine is quite 2D its very bold, parents love that
nostalgic feeling and parents distract a lot of what the kids are exposed to.
Its something that feels like quality and made with experience. I think that
when you see a copy of OKIDO it does look different, it does have quite a
powerful visual look to it.
What print
processes do you use to bring OKIDO magazine alive?
We print it
on recyclable paper and its printed with vegetable inks, its all kind of eco
friendly, that was another really important thing for Sophie. You spend a lot
of money printing magazines that may just end up in the bin, the idea is that
we didn’t want that we wanted it to be completely renewable and hopefully that
people keep it as well, its not something that you chuck away. The funny thing
is about that is the idea that you can eat the magazine because tis vegetable
inks and its all sort of eco friendly, so the kids can chew on it and its fine,
its all kid friendly.
Pictures from the London interview:
No comments:
Post a Comment