Font Development

Moving on from image research and photo analysis I then began to experiment with different font styles and colour all in order to create a decent front cover title for my magazine.Trying different techniques and styles in order to determine what title would be suitable for a Primary School Magazine.

On the left, I firstly began with choosing what I wanted to name my magazine, and finally came to a decision of, 'The Primary Times' I then began randomly selecting, fonts and colours, so I could visually analysis each one, comparing to one another to determine which one was most suitable. Of course I wouldn't initially use any of these fonts as they would need to be developed, trying different styles and techniques in order to create different effects, for example; shadow, glow, bold, italics, heightening and so forth. I don't want the magazine to seem too formal as I want the title to match the picture. Therefore, I would perhaps consider having very rounded edges a more sans serif font opposed to a serif font.

 I then began to go further in depth with my font development and concentrate the designs onto a couple of fonts, to show how I have become focused on certain features, colours, and so forth. i especially liked the way you were able to lean the outside words into the centre word, making it more interesting to look at, very unique compared to just have all the words standing upright. I tried to incorporate this technique into most of the fonts, and most definitely want to carry it forward into my final title design. In this specific development I experimented with a couple of different colours, mainly children orientated making it bright and bold, I also liked the idea of having more than one colour in the entire title giving it variation. I briefly tried a shadow effect on one of the fonts however, I didn't like he way it made the title look as, it didn't stand out as much as I would want it to.

I then began to concentrate my ideas onto two specific designs. I initially wanted the first font at the top of this development to be my final - so I began to experiment further with this design however, I began to dislike the colours used and the overall design was not very /magazine worthy' I felt it didn't suit the style of my magazine and the individual letters seemed to blend together therefore, these too do not stand out as much as I would like them to.

I then decided that I didn't like that idea any more so completely decided to change the font and style however, keeping the slanted words. I concluded with the colour of red and yellow as they are both unisex colours and are both very bold. I used a shadowing technique, but i made it too strong and overpowering to the eye therefore, resulting in me toning it down a bit, leaving me with a slight shadow giving the title depth.

 

I then came to the conclusion that this would be my final design for my primary school magazine. It meets all the objectives of how I would like to portray this specific magazine, child friendly, bold, colourful, positive and just in general to draw the attention of the reader, so that they would be interested in what they are reading.

1st Photoshoot

This is my first photoshoot of my brother, I tried to interpret ideas of other magazines and the photos used, going by the guidelines of my research all to try and re create a good image that would be worthy to use in my primary school magazine. I have selected a few of my photographs to analyse and explain how I may edit/ improve and overall make them better.  

My first image I created, I tried to make a sense of perspective and depth by putting the school equipment in the foreground, showing some sort of creativity. I placed the camera at a lower level with the macro button switched on so that the pens were in a clear focus.I took the photos in the morning so that there was a good natural light that would bounce off the face so there would be no need for a flash as this would make the image appear very orange and false. I staged him in a way that a pupil would be at school as that is the sort of image I am trying to portray, however, the background is the only thing that lets this picture down as its clearly not in a school environment therefore, in my editing I would either have to edit the background to make it look like more of a school, or re take pictures.

I prefer this photo opposed to all the other photos I have taken, even though I said I would like to have some sort of school equipment in the picture. However, I feel as if this one is more magazine suitable as its very much focused onto one thing, and that is what I think should be the case, the reader should be drawn to one item not constantly scanning the page, therefore, this picture is very strong in terms of getting attention, its very upright, I didn't centralise him as I considered having writing down the left hand side. Nevertheless, this picture would need to be edited, as  like above it isn't a school environment so I would have to get rid of the picture and the radiator, and perhaps lighten the picture up and make it clearer. I would also try and use school equipment like the above picture to make it look more interesting with the working school environment.

This photo, I tried to incorporate the off centred image however, also try and use the school equipment, however, this photo doesn't look like it as taken place in a school, so I would either have to take the photo again, or edit the background cable, and picture. This picture I wouldn't use at all as the model is meant to be portrayed as off centre however, it doesn't look like it is in focus with the whole picture, the image has to draw the reader in and I feel like this whole picture doesn't do this.

Contents Page Research

I have now taken the investigation further into the magazine and researched the contents page of many other magazines, as I shall be including this in my Primary School Magazine, I carried out this research all to get an idea of what type of style and design I would want my magazine, and to show how much they vary.

This contents page is filled with an extreme amount of information, informing the reader on what the entire magazine includes. Its clear and bold however, the writing is very small and the reader would most probably not read the whole thing and just start from the beginning and read through opposed to selecting something to flick through, however, a contents page is essential in order for a magazine to be a magazine. It includes images related to certain pages and the way this contents page is laid out it very bold and makes everything stand out a lot more opposed to it being a black background. The rule of thirds has been included within this contents page; a very clever technique in laying things out professionally and in an organised manner.

This specific contents page is a lot simpler compared to the ones above, it uses a specific colour theme of red, white and black, the white background enables the black and red to stand out and look bold. The clever feature of shadowing the image of the yoyo gives a sense of depth when looking at the picture almost as if it’s jumping off the page. However, there isn’t much information on this one compared to the other which therefore doesn’t enable the reader to look up every individual story, article, gossip page etc. Nevertheless, is a good contents page and does exactly what it’s supposed to do and briefly inform the reader.

This contents page is very similar to that of the first image, its uses the rule of thirds in the way it has been sectioned out enabling the reader eye to follow in a systematically way, it also uses a colour scheme to link certain things together, make it very uniformed and stand out, so again the eye follows these specific colours and making the overall presentation look professional. The only difference in this contents page compared to the first one is that it doesn’t use as many images; it has the readers focus and attention on this one clearly important image. Nevertheless this is the type of contents page would like to interpret into my own magazine.