VANESSA KINGORI

Vanessa Kingori - Publisher of British GQ Style, Associate Publisher Fashion at British GQ

Walking into the room i could feel the warmth of Vanessa's presence, greeting every student with delight because they had come to listen to her. Seeing her in person definitely does her justice, tall and slim you would mistake her for a model. 

Talking about any difficulties she went through growing up, she was very honest in stating, the fact she went to a catholic school and being the only black girl and tall, made her noticeable, but within her favour she appreciated being an individual. 

Always having her head down and working hat on, she eventually went to university and studied management and sociology, but her genuine love in is what has allowed her to succeed in her role. 

Giving a breakdown of her life, she starts by explaining her first job in a shop: My first job after uni was in retail a small boutique in Central London, which I loved, I'm a fashion feeder so all the people coming in and buying expensive clothes I was fascinated by,  but also I had to wear the clothes as uniform so it was a bonus, you know like free clothes. I would always advise anyone that wants to go into the fashion industry definitely work in retail.

So after that I then went into events, which was really tiring planning events and finishing at one in the morning to be in and working by 9am the next day. So my friend advised me about a job as then associate at the time for an independent before getting a job at GQ, at first I didn't even realise the role existed. 

Intrigued to know what work goes into producing a GQ issue she explains the projects, the things to consider and the things: When it comes to collaborative projects it's with editorials mainly, where we have a meeting and brainstorm about the new season, plans for the next magazine, does it fit with the demographic, will it sell. These are all the questions we have to ask because our decision could make or break the product.

Thinking about whether magazines have become over saturated with advertisements: When you look at glossy magazines advertising should enhance the experience, you want to know what the next campaign is going to be. 

With the age of digital innovation, keeping an audience interested is key: Everybody always wants to learn something new, we have to keep changing the pace because we all have a shorter attention pace with the digital age and we have to keep the concentration throughout 300 pages. When looking on the boards of minis too many visuals so we have to add some writing to break it up, careful to give readers a new experience have a large demographic upmarket.

Digital challenges and balancing with advertising: digital Debate really interesting but digital has enhanced our business embracing the possibilities and what digital can open us up to, as people don't have daily access in the the place it's not just a publication it's a brand, whichever way the readers want to access the brand we are there and doing it well we say what's going in during the month and promote the content in the magazine which has been really helpful in that way. 

The brilliance of GQ: 21 international additions brilliant global footprint what's really good about British GQ is that represents the British man where your rooted in now is really valuable, trends start here. We are grateful for building a brand equity and built it into the right types of places, along the way we debated if it would work in other markets like GQ comedy night.

It's important not to allow ones self to be pigeon hold or live by other peoples labels so if you allow your self to adopt you loosing before you began, you have to push past peoples conceptions and be the best of yourself.