Bearing in mind the fact that the covers are there mainly to attract an audience, to promote sales and quite often designed/interpreted by photographers, art directors and illustrators.
The remit was quite open. I could make up the idea from scratch or take a book I already know and design an alternative photographic cover illustration taking photographs specifically for this purpose. I could also explore many areas of manipulation to complete a successful cover such as shading, combining two elements or extending areas.
Having thought about this for a while I eventually decided on a magazine front rather than a book. I completed some research on magazine design by looking at several different magazine covers and also looking at various websites which gave tips on how to complete this process. Some ideas I took on board others I dismissed as either not an essential "rule" as many professional publications did not follow them.
Magforum: The secrets of magazine cover design - part 1
items to possibly include are :
Masthead:(logo) The name of the magazine displayed in a specific typeface.
Dateline: Month and year of publication, often with the price. Most monthly publications hit the news-stands the month before the cover date.
Main image: Invariably a single image of a model or item being promoted by specialist magazines.
Coverlines: Some magazines use a lot of cover lines, which are distributed around the main image without detracting from it too much. A mistake often made with cover lines is that they run over an image that has a lot of colour changes, rendering the words invisible.
Main cover line: On the example given this is very large - taking up almost a quarter of the magazine cover.
Left third: This section of the magazine cover is very important for sales in shops where the vendors do not display the magazines full-frontage. The top fifth of the cover - usually dominated by the masthead - may be the vital part in supermarkets, where magazines are displayed differently.
Bar code: Standard bar code used by retailers.
Selling line: Short, sharp description of the title's main marketing point (for the example given: 'The world's No 1 magazine for young women') or perhaps setting out its editorial philosophy.
Six main aspects to consider are.
- what is the purpose of a magazine cover/how to reach a target audience/genre?
- the colours to use.
- the main graphic
- title/taglines/screamers
- design
- overall impression.
Was interesting to watch.
Hopefully I will take on board all these ideas and create a successful magazine cover.
A very useful site with lots of ideas to take on board.
Interesting reading.
ReplyDeleteJust got the nuts & bolts of this done today, still need to add some "ethical philosophizing" but the main bit's done.
Also, started a KAP blog, getting a bit sidetracked.
http://jxlwork.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/this-looks-like-fun/
Thank you, for stopping by :o) Your blog has helped reasurre me along the way.
ReplyDeleteNew Blog looks good...onwards and upwards to the last Assignment for us both!!
Submitted and waiting for the tutor-lashing.
ReplyDeleteFinal push, yes, should be ok for the September window.
Finish this module by April and start People & Place.
Is that the next one for you too?
Tutor-report just in.
ReplyDeleteHe was very pleased with it!
Which is nice.
Hi, am terrible at checking back on my comments! Glad he was pleased with it :o)
ReplyDeleteI was lucky to get APEL for P&P so will be either doin L2 PWDP or Social Documentary. Although I'd like to change tack and do Soc Doc am thinking will do the PWDP so I can apply that knowledge to preparing the Soc Doc images:o)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with P&P it looks fun to do.