13.01.15 - Examples of other texts: Magazine Covers

 

Yohji Yamamoto

The first magazine cover I looked at was one I found on Tumblr, A Japanese editorial on the fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto. I find the cover aesthetically pleasing due the the synergy of the Japanese and Latin typography, the black and white colour scheme and the simplistic layout of the text. The cover is unusual in that the subject of its photo is not making eye contact with the camera, which is usually a standard feature of most magazines. The mise en scène appears classic in its nature as the subject's wearing an old fashioned hat, an overcoat and has long hair

DUMMY

The second magazine cover that caught my eye was the german magazine 'Dummy'. What struck me was the emboldened typography, its effective colour scheme and the subject of the image. The colour of the the text is split into two, green and white, which are separated diagonally across the page. The image is effective as its perfectly framed and the expression on the models face matched the title of the issue 'BÖSE', which is german for bad/evil.

Esquire

The next cover that caught my attention was this cover of Esquire magazine. For a cover photo the photo used is an unusual one as it is taken out doors and has a visible background to it. Usually magazines have their subjects photo taken in front of a screen as to achieve a blank background. The cover makes good use of the 'Z1' layout and looks neat despite the background of the image they chose. The cover has a summer themed mise en scène made apparent by the yellow title, swimming pool and the model's bathing suit.

i-D

I really like this cover of I-D as it is perfectly neat and makes use of good photography. The layout of the cover is almost as simple as it can get yet it is one of the best looking covers I've seen so far. The transparency of the I-D logo looks professional and the colour of the model's jacket contrasts with the background in such a way that the turquoise almost appears luminous.

Popeye

Another cover I really liked was from another Japanese magazine called 'popeye'. This cover has a somewhat unusual colour scheme as the subject is wearing a main colour that completely contrast with the rest of the magazine. This contrast is very effective and is what I believe made the cover stand out from its counterparts. Again, there's something about the Japanese typography working in synergy with the latin typography that looks really good to me.

The Wire

In this cover of the wire the thing that caught my eye the most was the strange dragged mirror effect that works diagonally across the page. The title and part of the text is deliberately cut off at the edge of the page to  make it look as if it doesn't fit; for some reason it actually looks quite good. Despite only sticking to a black and white colour palate and using no images, this cover of The Wire was one of the more interesting covers I looked at.

09.01.15 - Preliminary Magazine 'EDUCATE'

Preliminary Magazine - 1st Attempt

In my first attempt at a preliminary cover, I decided to use a close up shot of the model as I'd decided to go with the Z1 layout for the cover. I chose the name 'EDUCATE' and decided to go with a capitalised font style to make the title stand out. Regarding the colour palate, I decided to to stick with just 3 colours; black, white and grey. This proved effective as it makes the page appear minimalistic and professional, as opposed to the cluttered approach that others attempt. 

I understand that there may be some alignment issues concerning the relationship between the barcode and the lower text 'Are you prepared?'. I plan to fix this but it's proving tricky to find the right font size to match with the rest of the page. 

For the contents page I decided to use black as the main font as it stands out nicely on the grey. It is still partially incomplete as I need to title my pages, but it is nearly finished. I decided to use some left over pictures of Cameron (the model) to liven the page up a bit. To make them look professional and uniform I added a white boarder to both photos. The contents make conforms to the same design philosophy that the front cover used, they use the same fonts, the same colour palate and they are both minimalist in their nature. The only difference is that the font colours are reversed, with white front page's font colour and black the contents page's.

09.01.15 - Preliminary Work (Taking Photos)

THE PHOTO SHOOT

After we drew our mock ups of different magazine layouts we then proceeded to the studio where we attempted to take our photos for the preliminary cover. To take our photos we used a Fuji FinePix S1500, which I found to be dissatisfactory as the colours captured by the camera always appeared to be washed out. The set up consisted of a white screen that was illuminated by three photography lights equally positioned around it. These lights were then carefully adjusted to be level with the model so his face was evenly lit. We attached the camera to a tripod to ensure it was steady so it took photos without any blur, we then levelled the camera so it was also the same height as the model. 

The First Photo

As you can see, the first attempt to take an appropriate photo for my magazine was unsuccessful. The lighting was dull in the corners and unevenly lit the model's face, who wasn't even making eye contact with the camera. The contrast was too low, making the picture look dark.. I also forgot that I needed a portrait photo for my cover, not a landscape one. 

Other Attempts 

After the first photo, I apprately adjusted the lighting appropriately and turned the camera sideways so I could take a portrait photo. I also adjusted the contrast so that the image would not appear too dark as it did in the last one. In the first two photos however, the model was framed baldy and the framing of him just didn't look right.  From then on the photo's progressively improved, but none of them were satisfactory.

 

In the two photos second from last the model's body was unevenly framed which could only be resolved by cropping them, so I decided to reposition my camera which resulted in the last photo. However in the last photo the model isn't making eye contact with the camera and the positioning of his arm wasn't appropriate for the Z1 format I'd decided to go with for my cover.

The Perfect Photo

Finally, after several attempts, I zoomed in just the right amount on the model's face so he was aptly positioned in the photo. There was slight asymmetry as the left side of his body took up more of the photo than his right side did. However this was something that could be easily fixed by cropping the image later. Apart from this the photo was sufficiently symmetrical, the model was making eye contact and his face took up just the right amount of space within the image. I decided that this would be the photo that I'd use for my cover. 

Research: What we did today

Magazine Layouts

In our lesson today we went over the different magazine layouts, these included the 1F,  1Z and 1H models. The letter of the model describes the basic shape that magazine text/symbols should form around the subject of the magazine's picture.

Mock Ups

We were then asked to create our own mock up drawings based on these layouts to plan for our preliminary photo shoot. These were to help us judge how to take the photo e.g distance, zoom, placement of the subject. They also helped us frame the model perfectly within the text of our magazine.

         

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