Friday 6 February 2015

Draft Magazine


Overall, I'm fairly happy with my draft work and I would like my actual magazine to look like this. However, I think that one major improvement that could be made is the image I used for the front cover. For some reason, that I can't put my finger on, it just doesn't look like it follows the same design principles as the other images that are present on my draft. The model's skin would also need to be improved with airbrushing or make-up for the real cover. For my real magazine I also need to take my own photos for the contents page as the ones used in my draft are just placeholders. However, they are similar to photos I plan to take. 

The Japanese typography utilised within my draft serves both a practical and a stylistic purpose. Practically, the Japanese typography serves the role of translating major headings and info into Japanese for Japanese readers. This is necessary as I intend for my magazine to be an international magazine, which is to be published in London and Tokyo. However the Japanese also serves a stylistic function as it makes my magazine look professional, cultured and stylish. The synergy of English and Japanese within my draft takes inspiration from Anglo-Japanese magazines such as Popeye which are published in Japanese and English. 

When it came to the design of my draft I took inspiration from magazines like Vice, Surface 
and i-D. All these magazines follow a minimalistic and bold approach when it comes to designing their products which I really like. However the biggest influence on my work was probably American Apparel adverts. They follow a really professional/neat looking design philosophy which I tried my best to emulate within my own work. American Apparel adverts also implement the font 'Ariel Bold' throughout their products, which inspired me to do the same as I think Ariel Bold is the best looking font out there.

Other improvements that I need to make are the sizes of the pages as they're not uniform. I also need to write my article for the double page spread as the one currently used by my draft is just a placeholder that consists of gibberish. It also looks a tad plain in just b&w, so I might experiment with colour in future versions. 










Wednesday 4 February 2015

Planning: Draft Magazine Photos

The Photoshoot


For the draft magazine photoshoot I used an SLR Nikon D3200 to take pictures of my model. This provided far superior quality pictures compared to the Fuji FinePix S1500 that I used for my preliminary magazine. The set up was the same as my preliminary shoot; it consisted of a white screen that was illuminated by three photography lights placed equidistantly around it. These lights were adjusted to be level with the model so his face was evenly lit. Below is a screenshot of some of the photos I took:



Chosen photos for the Front Page and Double Page Spread


Throughout the shoot I took 156 photos, most of them were okay but only a few turned out the way I wanted them to. I decided that my model looked best when he had his hair up in a mun (man bun) as this fitted well with the style and fashion that I want to implement within my magazine. The photo's I've chosen are also well framed, with the model being roughly centre. The poses that he pulls also varies which makes the photos look unique and interesting.

Editing Photos 


Because my magazine is going to be in black and white, I needed to alter the photos accordingly. This was done by using photoshop to convert the images into black and white. However, it wasn't that simple. I also used photoshop to alter the lighting levels, brightness and contrast in order to make the photos look crisper and sharper. Below is a step by step process of how I edited my chosen photos to make them look the part:


 Step One: First I had to rasterise the layer in which my photo was placed, in order to access the image adjustment tools (such as hue/saturation, brightness etc..)


Step Two: After I rasterised the layer which contained my photo/s, I went straight to the image adjustment tools and selected the 'Black & White...' function


Step Three: After the photo was converted to black and white, I then went to the 'Brightness/Contrast...' function and proceeded to alter the image to make it look sharper, crisper and more vibrant 










The End Result


Sunday 1 February 2015

Research: Magazine Design Inspiration

Simplicity and Minimalism

When it comes to magazine covers I really like minimalistic designs that are simple but sophisticated. These kinds of covers typically have very bold typography with very little text as not to detract from the images on the magazine. Great examples of this are magazines like i-D, Surface, Vice, Dummy and The Wire. With minimalistic magazine covers it's imperative that the text has clean and crisp font and that all the elements on the page are well aligned with one another to create good page harmony. Great typography is also another crucial aspect. Although it may not be a magazine, American Apparel ads are a good example of simplistic yet effective page designs, which in my opinion look much better than the cluttered approach which indie rock magazines like NME typically opt for. A key aspect of minimalistic overs is that there is only a small amount of text.

American Apparel Ads 






As you can see, American Apparel ads typically have very bold and large titles/headers that draw the readers attention to them. and when this is coupled with a crisp font like Ariel, the results are impressive despite its simplistic nature. Another feature of these ads is that the elements of the page are perfectly aligned with one another creating a seamless finish that looks professional and slick. There's just the right amount of text on each ad, which places a good amount of emphasis on the photos as opposed to the text. Another important aspect of their design philosophy is the uniformity that can be observed. They only use 2 or 3 different text sizes which makes the ads look well thought out and tidy. 


However, a perfect photo is just as important as the typography of a cover when it comes to the overall aesthetic. To pull of a minimalistic style the cover photo has to be bold and eye catching.  Otherwise it will look boring. Here are some examples of covers that utilise almost zero text but still look aesthetically pleasing due to good photography/editing.