ANYWAY, I've been putting together a bunch of examples of covers and table of contents pages side by side so I can see which sort of tone/ color scheme I want to go for. Honestly, for any of you out there who are reading this and need any sort of inspiration, do yourself a favor and download Pinterest. I've now become an avid Pinterester (let's pretend that's a real thing) and always find myself scrolling for hours while occasionally stopping to screenshot the things that catch my eye. Sorry for this tangent I just really need to express my love for that app in some way.
So for this first combination, I really dig the simplicity of it and the uniform color scheme of pink details on a shirt and on the face of the model followed by the same pink coloring the huge block letters that make the content title. Instead of the black background though, I would instead stick with white to match the paleness of the cover page. Also, I would be using the same font for the masthead and 'contents' title to stick with the modern and sleek vibe. As for the several cover lines in the example above, I would merely include a catchy phrase introducing the model centered below her face, followed by possibly the designs she's wearing. One think I do really enjoy about it is the masthead centered over her forehead, bringing attention to the name of the magazine.
For this option, I picked these two because they are serious without being too serious. The use of lower case letters really gives it the appeal that would most fit with my ideal target audience, which is females 16-25. It also reminds me a lot of tumblr blogs way back when which would go for the pastel , non-try-hard aesthetic. I do really like the white as it makes it more spacious and puts more attention on the images, which is something really important to me as I'm going to be taking them all myself. The only problem with this table of contents layout is that I'm going to need at least 12 different topics under fashion to make the page look less empty and bland if I decide to go this route. This coverage in particular is absolutely stunning because of the simplicity of it and I think it would be absolutely doable with the right lighting equipment, (which reminds me I need to take a look at amazon because lighting is so expensive). Overall, the vividness of the images would be the main focus if I were to do this layout.
My final "mock" layout is one that is more serious and grungy. I do love the black theme as black is such an edgy and very dramatic shade which gives so much more depth to an image, as seen in the cover page example. The extreme close-up shows the models beautiful face, yet the filter used overtop is almost hazy and grainy, bringing attention to the cover line in the dead middle. I think this would work very well if I want to do something super high fashion and serious, but this would be harder for me as it would require me only using dark colors and shadowy filters. I do love the flow of closeups that these two would offer, showing the raw emotion of the model just by having the profile of her face showing. The large font emphasizes the drama of it all and this is also a potential option to keep in mind.
I love fashion magazines too. Personally, I think your genre is almost an entirely visual appeal to your audience. I think you should really focus on beautiful images of fashion even more than your content. You've got some great formatting ideas relating to font, color and position especially the relation to Tumblr which much of your audience uses. Would your audience be an international one? Or a national one?
ReplyDeleteLove the format of the blog, it really seems to fit what you want to do with your magazine. You seem to have done copious amounts of research, and it really shows on your blog. The ideas are great so far, now it looks like all you have left is to begin creating this magazine. The only criticism I could have is that in some of your posts, the ideas are a bit all over the place, so maybe focus on a central idea, stick to it, then write another paragraph (or even post) when you're done. Awesome job though! Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteI love the simplicity of your blog, it really adds on to the aesthetic that you're going for. In some of your blogs your ideas seem a little clustered at times, making it a little overbearing, but your use of media and examples, and all your research, really helps ease the content at times. I really like how you went for a fashion magazine, and relied to a simple format that many people look for. From the pictures you post i see that you want to focus on images and layout to attract a certain audience, so I'd say you should maybe play around with images created yourself and mock layouts and document that progress, which you've already seem to have done a little. good luck:)
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