With the editing of my image at near completion I felt this would be the appropriate moment to divert my focus in dedicating more time to the conventions displayed on my cover (such as the text, headlines, masthead) as these were equally important methods of gaining instant attention from my audience members in question.
As a last minute substitute I completely discarded my idea of using a long shot of my model and replaced it with a close up of him instead. The rationale behind this was after viewing some 'Q' magazine covers as inspiration whilst I was altering the levels preset on my previous photo, I noticed a few (like the Jay Z publication you can see above) used carefully constructed mid shots/close ups of the artists in question who would feature as the central focus of the largest article. This led me to believe that it would suit me better, especially with my modelling the style layout of 'Q', that I used this certain standard of shot as it seemed common in the composition of the said magazine. I personally believe they rely on close ups as an insurance to ensure the audience will not overlook the artist displayed on the front cover, it therefore directly informs them who will be focused upon. As I instantly desire my target readers to be be informed of the musician in question and understandably the content and genre of my product I feel this choice was appropriate of switching the images over. As what can be witnessed in the screen shot presented above, I removed the long shot of my male model and replaced it with a medium close up of his shoulders and face, I feel this mimicks the Jay Z cover in particular nicely and I'm hoping to be able to replicate this in terms of masthead and sell line positioning of the said publication.
Since I had now already experimented with the style of the texts on a previous page, to me the obvious and most important starting point of fully immersing myself in the making of the cover was to position and decide on the correct font for my masthead. Besides from the image, the masthead is essentially one of the most important conventions of any magazine, not just a music. I want my audience to be able to distinguish my product out from all the others music themed productions if it was placed onto a traditional supermarket shelf, this made it extremely important for me that I had to perfect the masthead so it was bold, interesting and dramatic next to its competitors. My first protocol choice was to use the 'Zeronero' I had employed in the drafting stages as through agreements with my peers and college lecturer, it seemed this was the style that would work most efficiently for the 'Q' look I was aiming to re-create. I made two separate text boxes for the 'Void', one solely for the 'V' and the adjacent the 'oid', this would give me the flexibility to manouver them more easily, as I had explained earlier I desired the 'V' to be enhanced effectively in regards to the remaining text on the page, this was why two text boxes were necessary to allow me the room to make the 'V' larger. I altered the sizing to '100pt' for 'V' and '80pt' for use on the 'oid', furthermore to give more emphasis upon the 'V'. As you can identify in 'Q' it too relies completely upon a singular letter as an unusual yet effective technique to draw the readers focus in, purely because it is highly unconventional and makes the audience consider what that 'Q' stands for. The enigma that surrounds it ultimately creates the interest and therefore can persuade them to purchase the product. I may not have been relying on a single letter, rather a full word for my masthead, yet I found directing the gaze to a single letter would help provoke an immediate reader reaction as it prompts their visual acuity to be drawn to the 'V', ensuring my cover wouldn't be easily disregarded. In addition I also overlapped the 'V' with the remaining 'oid', I felt this conflict between the letters would show they were still related to one another as a singular entity despite the 'V' appearing more profound. Despite this, I really wasn't content with the representation of the masthead, the overlap of the black and red did not conotate as effectively as I had desired, in fact in all regards to me it looked very ameaturish and not an editorial technique I would anticipate to witness in a mainstream product. If I was put off with the appearance of the title then no doubts the reading public would as well, in this instance I concluded it would be more efficient experimenting more with the position of the masthead before I made an informed decision over its final outlook.
Complying with the same 'Zeronero' font, I opted to stagger the position of the masthead more conventionally, for this trial I moved the 'oid' so it was horizontally parallel with the 'V', this allowed it to be read in a straight line and made the letters more coherent and recognisable against one another, as previously they had been slightly more difficult to differentiate from one another with being in such close proximity. All other aspects remained identical such as the sizing and use of the scarlet red to illuminate the singular 'V', and the bold black surrounding the remainder of the masthead. Despite this slight changes I remained discontent with what I had produced; the name of the magazine still reverberated as 'dull', 'lifeless' and 'boring', it lacked any dramatic emphasis and i believed most of this insecurity was down to the size as it could be easily perceived by the audience to be a sell line of even a word relating to an article which is not what I intedned it to be viewed like at all. Additionally I considered the font did not suit its purpose, when you contrast it directly to the 'Q' magazine besides it (which is my main point of inspiration), the styles used on the text are completely unrelated to one another - with me attempting to achieve an identical sleek look to 'Q' in terms of fonts this realisation has been extremely detrimental to me. In order for me to correct this I feel I will have to change again the the masthead design so the style corresponds more efficiently with whats seen on 'Q'.
As per suggestion I revamped the whole composure of the masthead, this involved me alternating the style of font from 'Zeronero' to another I had previously liked in my trial run called 'Code Bold' - this was mainly opted for due to how much darker, profound and dramatic the letters were encased in compared to the previous. As you can illustrate, the title of my magazine 'Void' is slightly lighter in comparison to 'Zeronero', however I believe this to be beneficial as the individual letters can be read more easily, as before they were cramped and appeared melded together which unfortunately made them harder to distinguish which could be potentially off putting to the audience if they could not fully comprehend what the masthead says. If they cannot recognise the magazine name then the chances of a purchase are slim. With the title more accessible this was a major improvement, although disheartendly it still lacked the 'wow factor' in the assumption that it still wasn't interesting or visually attracting enough to catch the readers visual perspective. The font may have improved but for me the major correction would stem from enhancing the size of 'Void' if it was to engage that all essential audience appeal from a distance.
No major differences can be allocated here, the only change I conducted was by moving the 'V' of 'Void' slightly to the right, in this instance it overlapped the remainder of the masthead. Due to my overwhelming desire for my magazine to be as unique as what I could achieve, to me this adjustment was a good determinant to see whether I could succeed in pulling off an unconventional masthead. I felt if the letters distorted one another then this would make my production easier to identify on a retail shelf, therefore recognisable to its intended audience, but moreover how much more appealing it would perceive as it would be an unusual technique seen for a magazine to employ. Despite all the positive areas I could consider about this convention change, unfortunately I don't believe my idea was performed very well, the black and red do not seem to blend well together and personally I think it makes my cover look 'tacky' and not very well professionally implemented. If the colour scheme was different then there could be the possibility of it all co-operating efficiently, yet I am not prepared to switch the palette over just for this minor set back.
In contrast to the previous screenshot a variety of major adjustments can be identified here. As what was recommended by my lecturer when I requested feedback, she agreed the masthead was massively lacking in emphasis due to its feeble size, that was enough prompting for me to almost double the lettering with the 'V' being took to 200pt and the 'oid' 170pt, this boosted its final appearance dramatically. I decided to act as an audience member here and from a distance my gaze is initially drawn to the 'V' mostly and the cover image itself rather then the other conventions placed on the page, which I interpret to be a positive response as my masthead is finally grasping the attention it craves. However it still isn't perfected just yet and I am considering switching up the style of font again just to get the impression of what a new style would incorporate my masthead as. Until then I felt it was necessary for me to focus upon the remaining elements of my cover as I was generating my attention largely to the masthead which was understandably wasting valuable time I didn't have. I then began to construct some sell lines using the 'Blur' issue of Q as inspiration. I re worded some of the sell lines to suit my own purpose, here you can see the name of how I want my main feature to display about the model in question 'Cypher'. I liked the idea of an exclusive interview box which I was attracted to from the Q product, so I followed along similar footsteps to create one of my own. Finally I also began adding in some additional sell lines, the article in red will focus on an album review - these kind of features are very frequent in the likes of Q and NME, so I developed the understanding that maybe my product would benefit from one as well as it appeared these were the specifities or articles the target audiences in both mine and Q magazines seem to be intrigued by.
No comments:
Post a Comment