Font ideas from existing magazines

Thinking about indie clothing for my main image

Analysing Indie Magazines

This magazine is fairly simple and doesn't include much information on what is in the magazine. I do like the font used for the masthead and the choice of colour, it stands out to the target audience because it is bold and vibrant. However this magazine gives the look that it would appeal more to the female audience. I would want my magazine to appeal to both male and female. It also doesn't really stand out much either to other magazines, because besides the masthead, there is only really the images and names down the side, which would be included in the magazine. The main feature in the magazine, which is the image, doesn't have a cover story to match which doesn't give it much definition. Even though this magazine is different which is what i'm looking for, it looks to plain to gain any ideas from for my own magazines. I would want to include a lot more to make it more interesting and appeal to the target audience.

How Research has Informed my Planning and Creativity

My initial ideas

1. Masthead: related to the genre
2. Photograph: preferably main image to be taken outside, of musician/band 
3. Any other images: include with cover stories to give more of an inside to the magazine
4. Colours: suited to the genre, thinking about black and white
5. Puffs: include to show more inside on the magazine
6. Font styles: font that will represent the genre, unique/different 
7. Banner: make the magazine look too crowded
8. Main feature/cover line: main feature will be the image thats in the centre of the magazine and will have a cover story to give it more definition
9. Strapline: link to the main image to make it more interesting
10. Representation: use as many as possible so that the audience will know straight away what the genre of the magazine is, it will draw more attention to the target audience and makes it look more interesting (image that I use, colours, fonts)


Targets and Further Research
1. size of masthead, colours
3. what the images will be of, where they will be taken
4. other colours as well as black and white
5. what shapes, words to put inside the shapes, colours 
6. what font to use, colours of the fonts
9. what it will be based on

Analysing Indie Magazines

• The main colour scheme on this front cover is red, white and black
• Obvious conventions being the masthead, barcode, price
• Direct address from the model, looking and pointing at the camera
• Two puffs, one being in the corner promoting the magazine itself and the other next to the main image promoting something inside the magazine
• Main cover line linking to the main image
• Strapline '100 ways to get free music!' written in caps and placed at the top of the cover drawing the target audience to read the magazine
• Alternative special about U2 album

Overall this magazine looks quite crowded which isn't something I would want for my own magazine. It does include quite a lot of features, some of which I will probably want to try experimenting with and use for my ideas. The image has a direct address to the target audience which again I will experiment with doing, aswell as taking some photos that aren't giving that effect. I like the idea of a strapline because it draws more attention to the target audience, and encourages them to read the magazine. However I don't really like how the colours and fonts have been used and placed; the fonts look abit too bland and have no originality or representation to the genre or the image. I would want something more unique and more fancy for my magazine so it gives it more edge and it gives it some originality. This magazine isn't something I would gain many ideas from because it looks too typical and doesn't look the most eye-catching magazine there is.

Analysing Indie Magazines

Thinking about Indie music

Examples of Indie Magazines

Choice of Genre for my magazine

The genre I have chosen to use for my magazine is Indie. I am looking forward to doing this because already looking into indie bands and styles, it looks like a genre that is very appealing and something I think I will be able to use creatively to do what I want to achieve. After the preliminary task I am looking forward to trying out more of my ideas and using different ways of presenting my work. 

Analysis on 'Q' magazine

Analysis on Q magazine from joliequirke

Analysis of 'Uncut' Magazine

Analysing 'Classical Music' magazine

What draws attention to this magazine is the combination of the image and the masthead. The masthead occupies around 1/5 of the front cover which is represented by the image in the rest of the cover. Id use the style of the masthead in my own magazine because it is bold, stands out and is what you instantly look at when looking at the magazine. The cover stories don't really reveal much on the front cover. On my own magazine id prefer to make them a bit more catchy and interesting, but as this genre is classical, it is suited to it as it is simple and not something you'd find on a teens magazine. The font on the magazine suits the genre but I wouldn't use this for my own, even if my magazine was about classical music. However it does appeal to the target audience as it is simple, easy to read and is a big enough font size. 
The magazine appeals to both genders and I would say that the target audience would mainly be adults. I know this because classical music usually has a bigger audience from the older generation, and doesn't look like a magazine that would appeal to younger people unless they listen to this particular genre. 
There isn't much going on in this magazine, but with this genre it would be expected to be simple with not a lot going included on the front cover. Having too much on the particular front cover would make it look overcrowded. 
The model in the photo represents the genre of the magazine as she is holding a violin which is a instrument that is used mainly in classical music. She is looking away in the photo which gives a more peaceful affect on the magazine, because if the model was looking at the camera it would be more direct effect. The model is wearing a red dress which again represents the genre and links to the theme colour on the magazine which is red and black. The model is dressed appropriately as it doesn't look stupid and over the top. If I were to be doing a classical magazine I would probably want my model to be dressed similar, as it is appropriate and suits well to the genre. 

Reflection on the task

Throughout the task I have experimented with different colours, fonts and pictures and feel like I have achieved what I was set out to do. I have taken on board any errors or improvements I would need too use for future tasks.

Evaluation of the preliminary task

The colours, masthead and the cover stories I have used on my front cover all link back to my survey, which was to find research from my target audience. I originally wanted to use the colours blue and white for my front cover, as i thought that they would work well together. However, the colours blue, red and white came out the most popular choices in the survey so I decided that I would add red, which I think has made the text stand out more than if I were to have used my original idea of just blue and white. I think that the colours look bold and eye catching which is what I was aiming for when planning my front cover. 
I took one of the masthead ideas from my survey as it was a popular choice and gets straight to the point of what the magazine is about. Also when doing my survey I found a mixture of results that students would be interested in finding out about in the magazine, therefore I decided that putting a mixture of cover stories on my front cover would draw in more readers.
When researching other college magazines I found that using a bold and not too fancy font makes the magazine look more professional and eye-catching. Which is why I decided to use the particular font 'veranda'  which I personally think makes my magazine look more neat than it would of if I had decided to use a fancy font.
Finally the image I decided to use was a medium close up shot with a background of a classroom and the model holding an iPad. This is a representation of the sixth form itself and the facilities that are open to use. I attempted some different range shots, the photo I have used was originally a medium shot but I decided to crop and zoom to give more focus on the model.

Contents for the college magazine

College Magazine Front Cover

The photo I have chosen to use for my front cover of the college magazine

I have decided that I am going to use this photograph for the front cover of the college magazine. The reason I have chose this photo is because it looks very natural, it is taken in a classroom and is using natural light. Tilly is holding an ipad in the photo which is what I wanted for the front cover to show the facilities that are available to use in the college. However, because this is a medium shot I am going to have to crop the photo to be able to fit it in my front cover to make it the medium closeup that I need. This is something I may want to think about when doing a front cover again because cropping and zooming in on the photograph may cause me to loose some of the quality in this photograph.

3 photographs I could use for my front cover

If I were to use this photograph it is good because it is used in the natural light, so it shows all of Tilly’s face and there are no shadows. It is bright but it has a plain background, whereas my other examples are taken in a classroom.

This photograph is also taken in the natural light. It is taken in a classroom, which gives a more college scene. This isn’t as bright as my first example, which may be an issue when printing my front cover because some of Tilly’s face might look darker than the other from the light.

This photograph is similar to my last example but there is more room at the top which I could use to place my masthead.