In beginning this extensive and exciting process
of producing an original magazine complete with a cover page, table of contents
and double-page spread, I instantly felt overwhelmed and anxious. I began
thinking about everything that I would have to do; take photos, layout and
design the magazine, figure out what to write about, etc. I eventually realized
that before I could actually begin doing any of these tasks, I had to
first determine what my magazine was going to be about. This meant doing
extensive research on different magazine genres.
This was the first
website that I came across when I began researching. It features a ton of
different magazine categories and sub-topics within those categories to
explore. Having no idea what I wanted my magazine to be about, I
clicked on every single category in the hopes of discovering something that
caught my eye. Upon clicking on one of the categories, it brings you to a page
filled with magazines that fit into that specific categorization. I found this
to be especially helpful because it provided me with an abundance of magazine
publications that specialize in a particular area for me to further
explore. Below is an example of various art magazines that the website offers
access to.
As I began browsing through the dozens of categories, a few got my attention. The first was the genre of science magazines. This is probably due to the fact that I have always loved science and math, so this was a magazine that I would probably want to purchase. However, as I pondered the idea of this being my chosen genre, I began to grow skeptical of how it would turn out. The major problem I foresaw with this genre was the cover image. The majority of cover photos of science magazines consist of some amazing, ground-breaking image or discovery. Some great examples I found of this were in this issue of Discover magazine and this National Geographic one. This is the focus of the magazine issue; what makes people want to read it. Given the fact that the cover image of my magazine has to be original, and that I have not and probably will not be in the presence of some great scientific breakthrough, I found it doubtful that I would be able to capture an image intriguing enough to be the central image of my cover page. Painfully realizing this, I moved on.
I am not personally a huge fan of these types of
magazines, so I decided to do more research on them. I found a helpful website that
lists some tips on designing a fashion magazine. It includes
information on how to make interesting headlines and overall cover design. One
quote from this article that I found to be especially significant was:
"The cover of the fashion magazine is one of the most important parts and you have to design it to be attractive, because it is the first contact the reader will have with your magazine."
I cannot say for certain yet that this is
going to be my genre of choice for this project, but it is looking that way
right now. I will let you know in my next few blog posts what my definite genre
is and what content I plan on including in my magazine!
"The cover of the fashion magazine is one of the most important parts and you have to design it to be attractive, because it is the first contact the reader will have with your magazine."
Reading this caused me to become even more
motivated in achieving my goal of creating a cover that is visually
engaging and attractive.
Using this website and information I gathered by
looking at a lot of different fashion magazine brands, these are some constant
themes that I have gathered:
- The cover usually consists of one image that
takes up the majority of the page.
- Most magazines have a recurring color scheme
present on the cover page and throughout the entirety of the magazine. For
example, Vogue's color scheme for their cover lines is black and white.
- The masthead is usually centered on the very top
of the cover page and is in a colored font that makes it stand out and
noticeable.
- Most magazines have occasional special issues
that are dedicated to a specific topic.
-- The cover image is usually a close-up shot of a
well- known celebrity
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