When planning the images to go in a magazine, its important to have it the right size. Usually around 960 by 600 is a good size for it to be in the field of vision for its audience. You should always make sure that the human eyes in the image (if there are any), are looking towards where the eyesight of the reader would be as this draws them into the image. You should also ensure that the scope of the magazine is pleasing and comfortable. The programme 'firework' is a good way for you to design your magazine.
Most spreads are based around the image but this does depend on the style of the magazine. You should still remember the rule of thirds when taking your image if possible. It is also effective to choose an image that has a lot of space in it so you can place the text in them. You should make sure that you edit the white balance and other image filters such as brightness/contrast. The image should be stretched so that it 'bleeds over the edges' of the canvas. You should make sure that you don't distort the image or make it change shape when enlarging it though.
You should always be aware of what the house style of a magazine is as it is important that you keep this. The font, typography, type face and weather the letters are capitalised are important things to consider as they differ between magazines. Other smaller details such as weather the magazine uses the word percentage or the sign % are things to look at. It is important to look at a companies style guide so that you are aware of the way their work is produced. This guide has been written by an art director or editor and costs the company a lot of money so it is best that you keep to the way the magazine is supposed to look.
The popular two fonts that you will see magazines use or have a similar version of are:
It is evident that the font Serif is easier to read due to it creating a line for the eye to follow. The classical western script is serif which is a roman style font. San serif is a modern font like Wagner and is a classical 19th century font. Eric Gill is a famous artist and designs typography; his most famous design was the London underground symbol.
Baskerville also designed the font 'baskerville' from the enlightenment ages. Classical music would link to this style of typography.
The type of font dictates the type of signal you send out and sets the tone of the magazine. Serif is commonly used with upmarket magazines whereas san serif is more of a New York style of the industry.The visual quality of 'The Times' is all written in serif typeface all the way through it as it gives the paper a posh presentation. Whereas 'The Sun' is san serif typeface as it is a down to earth, modern newspaper. When the body text is small such as in the columns that feature in the newspaper, san serif is usually used. This makes it easier to read for the audience due to the line it creates. The Independent have their headline in san serif and their body text also in san serif as it is a younger, more designer style newspaper that likes to break the norm.
Each font has a 'casting off' that optimises its readability for the audiences at certain sizes. It is all to do with the eye, the bigger the type keystrokes the wider the column. It is usually eight words per line but this again depends on the style of the publication. it is important to understand that the letter 'n' has one keystroke whereas the letter 'm' counts for two. The name for this specific measurement is 'ens' referring to the keystrokes a word has.
There are usually 10-12 words on a line, whereas the body of the content looks better if it is written like a novel in columns. This makes a visual difference and the legibility (ease of the reading) is increased. San serif is more legible when it is larger compared to serif whereas serif is easier to read when it is in a smaller font. Motorway signs are in san serif as it makes them easy to read as the letters are obvious. Big headlines are usually in a font like san serif as they are in big block headlines with the body text in baskerville font or times which is a serif style of font.
Bauhaus is a graphic design in modernism during the 1920s-1930s in Germany. It is true that everything today looks like it whereas back then it all consisted of more of a Gothic style. Form follows function is how the Bauhaus style worked, everything looked more like tower blocks and was pleasing to the eye. They also invented bright nylon football shirts with numbers on the back of them.
Bauhaus typography was more in the jazz age and was a funky style. It was post modernism and optimised for eligibility as it was more artsy. The colour of the font can be changed but this depends on the style of the magazine. Some headlines use a drop shadow effect if the contrast with the background is not too strong. You should tighten the typography to reduce the spacing between the lines and the characters themselves. You should at the magazine itself as this will show you how tight their text style is.
Mondrian is a fine art painter from Bauhaus (Dutch) who explores painting and layout. Some magazines use this layout to add their text and images to. The body of the text is usually in 24 point but it is mainly all about the pictures especially in fashion magazines. Usually the left hand side is full of text and all the rest of the page is taken up by an image. Writing has very low status in some magazines such as fashion however in confessional interviews it does contain a higher status as it tells the story of the images. Modular vs linear is the case in some magazines whereas in others words are important.
The New York review of books reviews every single book that has been published nearly from all over the world. The London Review of books is similar to this. On the left we have publications like The New Statesmen which is usually right in what it says but ca
n be quite dull whereas on the right is The Spectator which can be a lot more humorous in what it publishes. Closer magazine for example is very modular and allows you to move around it from once place to another via its little boxes of images that make no sense. Packaging and modular layout is more downmarket whereas magazines that are more linear appear to be upmarket. They are easier to read as they work from the left to the right which is how we are used to looking at things.
The cover of the magazine is always the most important part as it is one of the main focus points for grasping the audience. When people interview you for jobs you should always concentrate on analysing the front cover of the publication you are being interviewed for. Remember to also include the barkers when looking at the detail of the cover as these are their main selling points of the magazine. Glamour magazine invented the idea of having random numbers all over their front page and throughout their magazine such as,165 ways to wear your hair, which doubled their viewers and is an important aspect to have in their barkers.
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