Magazine Inspiration.

Front Cover Inspiration- 'Fantastic Man'

The inspiration for the Front Cover of my music magazine was Fantastic Man. This is a semi-annual men's fashion magazine which was launched in 2005. It presents men's fashion by detailed interviews with male celebrities and intellectuals from many different backgrounds. The actual content of the magazine is quite the opposite to my own, however I felt the style of the cover suited my genre ideally. 

I wanted to keep my magazine minimalistic, but at the same time avoid a simplistic and rushed looking magazine. Therefore I felt using Fantastic Man as my inspiration I felt I was able to achieve this. I also believed that the style suited my Indie genre and the minimal style fitted the 'do it yourself' tag associated with Indie. 

Originally I didn't have any great inspiration for my cover, apart from the covers I had analysed of other music magazines, such as Kerrang and NME. So my first attempts don't look very authentic, unlike I believe my Fantastic Man impression does. 

1. My first attempt involved using a photo were the colour was muted enabling me to work more with the fonts and the rest of the covers graphology. The masthead font was the same as was used on the masthead of the Lily Allen NME double page spread simply becuase I liked it. However looking at it now it really doesn't fit my genre and looks cheap. Whilst the font used for the strapline isnt very clear and is also too big. Finally the actual image itself is quite boring so doesn't attract much attention. 

2.  My second attempt also involved using a photo were the colour was muted  (like on the John Lennon NME cover) enabling me to work more with the fonts and the rest of the covers graphology. I used a funkier font for the title but again this was in black and white as I wanted my text to be clear, but it just made the cover appear dull and uninspiring. As with the first attempt the barcode and price were also too big, so the publication looked unprofessional. Finally, again the actual image itself is quite boring so doesn't attract much attention. 

3. My third attempt involved using a coloured image in which the brightness was increased which I liked, creating a lively and current feel suiting my Indie genre. Although I changed the name I used the same font as the second attempt, which did work well as the black was clear on the light blue background, but again the actual font looked quite basic and boring. This made the magazine look scrappy and lack any authenticity. 

4. I changed the image for this cover to something that I felt was more interesting and looked more authentic. Whilst I also made the masthead bigger for a minamilistic effect but at the same time it looked a bit basic and cheap. I also put the "SPECIAL EDITION" in a gold font and underlined it to make it clear and it also contrasted nicely with Emily's red hair. In addition I reduced the size of my barcode, price and issue number increasing the covers authenticity. Finally I put a hashtag in front of the issue number to give it a current feel, I felt this suited my genre. 

5. For the final attempt I reduced the size of the masthead and used a classier font, which made the cover more stylish and further suited the genre, as well as the minimalistic style. I also moved the barcode to the right hand size of the magazine and rotated it vertically and again reduced the size of the price and issue number. I felt this added authenticity to the cover of my publication. Finally I took the bold of the gold text on the left hand side and matched it with the mastheads font and added more text. All because I felt this added authenticity and made it minamilistic and stylish, but not cheap and simple. 

   

So as I have said for my final draft I used Fantastic Man as my inspiration  which I feel has significantly helped to make my cover far more authentic and professional than any of the previous attempts, which in retrospect look basic and cheap. 

The first thing I did was to position my masthead centrally at the top of my front cover and to use a classy, stylish and clean font. Making the magazine cover easy to read and clear to view. I chose to put it in black as I wanted to use a coloured image. This is the opposite to the David Beckham example, but the principle remains the same, as to not overload with the colour. Because this would make the cover over complicated and messy, losing the stylish feel. 

The second thing I did was to place the image in the centre of the magazines cover and enclose it with a border. Although the border doesn't feature on my style model, I felt it looked good and also it fitted the 'do it yourself style' as it looked like a man made photo album/frame. I chose to have the image in colour, as I wanted it to stand out, which was important as it didn't fill the whole of the cover. Finally I enhanced the images brightness to make the red hair stand out, as well as the green watch and contrast between the white shirt and black camera. 

In addition I chose to put "DRONE PIXIES" underneath the picture and not over the top of it, as I wanted the picture not be encroached. I also wanted to use coloured text therefore it wouldn't be clear over the coloured image. This is why I haven't followed my inspiration, as on there it worked due to the black and white image. The reason I put the text in colour was because it wasn't as big as the masthead but I still wanted it to stand out. I chose the light green as it was the same colour as the watch, so it created continuity. But it is also different but on the white background isn't glaring and therefore can be read easily. I feel this works well. 

I chose to put the other text body below the main text, as I felt this space could be used to success. I reverted to black text, as to not overkill with colour and being smaller it stood out so can be read easily in black. As well because the image is separate from the rest of the cover I was able to include more text in the other space than on normal magazines, without the cover looking crowded. I kept the text simple, just to the names of artists featured in the magazine, which are separated by full stops. This kept it simple and minimalistic but I also felt was stylish. 

I placed the barcode on the left hand side, rotated vertically lengthways as on my style model, feeling this made the most of the covers space outside the image. I then also rotated the price, issue number (these two were larger as they are more important and prominent to the magazines sale), web address, twitter name and  photography credits. I did this to effectively use the space and also as I felt it looked stylish, as well as being a technique which had worked well on my inspiration. 

Contents Page Inspirations- 'The FADER' & 'Esquire'

The inspiartion for my contents page, came from the styles of two magazines and the features that they use on their own contents pages. The first of these is is Esquire a monthly mens magazine launched back in 1933, published by Hearst and is currently circulating at 721,399. The second magazine I used as inspiation is The FADER, a bi-monthly magazine.The FADER aggressively covers a wide breadth of topics, bringing some of the most underground artists to the forefront of the mainstream. The magazine is credited with giving exposure to top artists months ahead of mainstream recognition, including Kanye West, Bon Iver, Outkast, Nicki Minaj, The Strokes, Drake and The White Stripes. 

I aimed to maintain the minimalistic feel my Front Cover had created, but again avoid  a simplistic and rushed looking Contents Page. Which is why I felt these stylish magazines would help me to achieve this successfully and professionally. But would still create my own unique design, so using two inspiartions on my Contents Page gave me lots of ideas to work with.

To start with I struggled to find any inspiaration for my Contents Page, as magazine Contents Pages such as NME, Q and Kerrang were just to busy and frantic, which didn't fit my attempt at a minimalistic magazine style. As well I felt the styles and layouts didn't fit my indie genre or continue the feel my magazine was developing from the Front Cover.

  

Therefore when I found the Contents Pages of Esquire and The FADER I was immediately struck by their stylish, but also simple features and layouts. As a result I decided to use these as my inspirations to create my magazine as professionally as possible. 

Esquire

I used a couple of features from the contents page of Esquire in my own piece as I felt they fitted well and added to the aesthetics of my page, but didn't copy many conventional magazines. The first of these was to adopt the rotated contents feature on the right hand side of the contents page. I used this as I felt it added a different dimension to the contents page, and the different style set it apart from a more conventional Contents Page. I also used the idea of adopting two colours in this section, using the black and the green, like the black red used in esquire. I however used mine on the word "CONTENTS" unlike on the date as Esquire had. I also included more information, such as the issue number, website, Twitter name and photography details, all in order to add as much credibility to my magazine as possible. Like with Esquire I kept the font simple and clear to read, which is important as being rotated you wouldn't want to add another effect as this would over complicate the feature. 

The other feature I adopted was to position and style my image similarly as to esquire. I put the image to the left of the page, filling the majority of one half of the page. I felt this made the image prominent but not so much so that it dominated the page detracting from the text within the page. I also feel the image being placed here attracts attention first and then the text takes over, this way everything is focused on equally, so the audience misses nothing and their is no feature of the Contents Page that is unnoticed/useless. In addition I put the caption for the image upon the image in the corner. My caption was in the bottom right corner, as opposed to the bottom left corner in Esquire. I did this as it suited my image as their was space in the image here and because it was clear her, not going unnoticed. As well I kept the same font to create continuity in my magazine, whilst used a black font continuing this, but also it stood out clearly but didn't detract attention from other more important features. 

The FADER

I again used two features from the Contents Page of The FADER in my own, as I felt they both suited the genre, as well as the minimalistic but stylish style that I wanted my magazine to convey. Firstly I admired the way the image on the Contents Page was in a black frame and would have used this feature, however it was too similar to my (Fantastic Man impression) Front Cover. It could be argued doing this would create continuity, but at the same time variety is needed and it would have looked desperately similar and devoid of ideas. Therefore I kept the idea of using a black frame, but only displayed half of the frame. Therefore resulting in continuity being restored, but a varied style was also offered. I also feel the frame offered minimalism but also kept the Contents Page structured, a bit like a border, making it clear and easy to navigate for the audience. Also the picture frame kept in with my Indie Genre. It also kept up with the 'do it yourself' Indie style, so suited my genre and didn't just look stylish otherwise it wouldn't have been included. 

Secondly I took the idea of having the main text body in columns as is done in The FADER Contents. I felt this made the page look organised and tidy. The columns also meant that no lines had to be included to divide sections of text, as were used on the Esquire contents. which could have made the contents page appear far more cluttered and busy. This would of removed the minimalistic feel of the magazine and the continuity would have been ruined. Furthermore I cerrtain items of text in the contents, such as the page numbers and the headings in bold to make them stand out more. With the further explanation below without the bold effect. This is the same as in The FADER Contents and without changing colour yiu can still differentiate the different sections through the bold text. Unlike in Esquire when a colour change is used to do this. The only time I did use colour on the magazine contents text was to highlight "DRONE PIXIES". I did this as it continued on from the style on the front cover and was something I also did on the Double Page Spread in order to create continuity and identity. I also felt it was essential it stood out as it was the main article, which is why I also underlined the word "EXCLUSIVE" afterwards to further emphasise its importance. 

Double Page Spread- Inspirations

I feel the Double Page Spread is the weakest element of my magazine and believe this is because I had no real inspiration when designing and creating it, as I had come across no styles that really suited my genre specifically or in the way I wanted to achieve.

The only part of the double page spread that came from another magazine was how the image was positioned in comparison to the text and how the image also combines to form the background for the article. This idea was taken from a NME Double Page Spread featuring Lily Allen, where the same technique with the photo is used (As shown below). 

The makeup for the rest of the Double Page Spread was all my own creation and ideas, I just tried to stick to magazine conventions to enhance credibility and not try anything too different from the rest of my magazine to continue the continuity. 

Therefore I used the same font for my headings on the Spread to continue this continuity and similarly used the green colour on "DRONE PIXES" to create continuity. I felt this created authenticity and made the magazine look professional rather than being mismatched, with sections looking out of place and not fitting the publication. However this did have it's issues. The headings look somewhat detached from the layout and the sub-heading crosses the fold of the page therefore when the magazine would fold it would be harder to read which is important considering it is an important section of text. 

In addition I just tried to keep the continuity going with the article, although I did change the font to create some differentiation and to make the text clear as it was quite small which was intentional considering it was an article. I also put a bold effect on the questions in the article to make them clear and to put more emphasis upon them, as I had done on the main text in the contents. Consequently I further established continuity.

Finally the image was quite similar to that of the Front Cover and Contents Page images, I felt this created continuity, however it doesn't offer much variety to the magazine and looks a bit samey. Therefore this is something I would look to change in the future to improve my magazines authenticity.