Magazine Project

Magazine Identity and Readership

My magazine is called Featured, and it is a monthly magazine for readers in New York City. It targets a mature audience (mostly young adults) and presents trendy and up-to-date information about city life. It features stories about noteworthy places, events, food, entertainment, etc. in NYC. Featured is a reputable magazine that exposes and familiarizes readers to NYC culture.

 

Magazine Visual Identity

Featured is a magazine with a lot of visual elements that attract the reader’s attention. However, the visual aspects of the magazine do not overpower the information and are not cluttered around the pages so as to appear disorganized. It is a magazine that speaks to the reader through both text and images, which will provide an enhanced experience for the readers as they read the articles.

 

Article Visual Identity

Because I wanted the feature spread to reflect the tone of the musical, I used a slightly more provocative image to emphasis the maturity and crudeness of Spring Awakening. With the jump spread, I wanted to familiarize my readers with the characters; so I used several individual photos of the actors, as well as a cast photo. I also wanted to emphasize the artistic element of Spring Awakening by conveying the message of the article into pictures: Spring Awakening is an exciting rock musical with many vibrant scenes and performances from gifted actors.

 

Article Design Strategy

The image on the feature spread implies that Spring Awakening – as well as this article – is meant for a mature audience. It gives the reader a general idea of what the musical is going to be about: most people will get the sense that it is about two young and passionate lovers. Upon reading the deck head, readers will understand that it is actually much more than a musical about love, but a story about the lives of maturing adolescents without excessive censorship. Much of the dark and heavy tones on the feature spread are not carried through to the jump spread. I wanted to convey a lighter and less dramatic layout for the jump spread because the entirety of Spring Awakening is not dark and gloomy. However, I used photos with darker colors because I wanted them to complement the feature spread. I stayed consistent on both spreads by using the black background and the red distorted boxes of my feature spread in my side bar. Overall, I wanted the article design to reflect the moods and tones of the actual musical in order to give readers expectations and some things to look forward to.

 

Style Sheet

·      Feature Spread Headline (Red Type): Guardi LT Std (75 Bold); 100/120; optical kerning

·      Feature Spread Headline (Light Blue Type – “The”): Guardi LT Std (75 Bold); 100/120; optical kerning

·      Feature Spread Headline (Light Blue Type – “Experience”): Guardi LT Std (75 Bold); 50/60

·      Feature Spread By-line: Guard LT Std (75 Bold); 15/18; metrics kerning

·      Feature Spread Deck Head: Caslon 540 LT Std (Roman and Italic); 15 and 18/21.6; metrics kerning

·      Jump Spread Drop Cap: Guardi LT Std (75 Bold); 100/120; metrics kerning

·      Jump Spread Article: ITC Stone Serif Std (Medium); 9/13; metrics kerning

·      Jump Spread Pull Quote: Caslon 540 LT Std (Roman); 15/17; metrics kerning

·      Jump Spread Captions: Antique Olive Std (Roman); 7/8.4; metrics kerning

·      Jump Spread Photo Credits: Antique Olive Std (Roman); 5/6; metrics kerning

·      Jump Spread Captions: Antique Olive Std (Roman); 7/8.4; metrics kerning

·      Jump Spread Folio: Antique Olive Std (Roman); 9/10.8; metrics kerning

·      Side Bar Headline: Budmo Jiggler; 22/26.4; metrics kerning

·      Side Bar Information: Antique Olive Std (Roman); 7.5/9; metrics kerning

 

Document Grid

I chose to use three columns for each page because it looked more artsy and theater-like. I used two columns in my first draft but realized it presented a more professional and standard image, rather than a creative one. I wanted there to be an appropriate amount of space for the margins because there is a lot of information and photos to be absorbed from this article. I did not want to make the spread look too busy, so I needed a system to carefully place all the photos in a way that would not take away from the article itself. I put a lot of white space within the article, such as along the invisible borders of the photos, so that the visuals did not overpower the jump spread.

 

Sources

Feature Spread:

·      http://www.aalborgteater.dk/Files/Billeder/aalborgteater/Praktisk_info/Presse0809/SpringAwakening/AT_PRESSE_SPRING_AWAKENING.jpg

Jump Spread (Left Page):

·      http://www.broadwaysanjose.com/press/springawakening/SPRING_AWAKENING_Blake_Bashoff_c_Joan_Marcus.JPG

Jump Spread (Right Page):

·      http://www.cb-pr.com/Images/Spring%20Awakening/spring7.jpg

·      http://www.broadwaysanjose.com/press/springawakening/SPRING_AWAKENING_01-5_Christy_Altomare_as_Wendla_c_Paul_Kolnik.JPG

·      http://www.broadwaysanjose.com/press/springawakening/SPRING_AWAKENING_19-4_Blake_Bashoff_c_Paul_Kolnik.JPG

Side Bar:

·      http://www.broadway.tv/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/other-photographers-for-book-19.jpg

 

Extras: Colors

Because the Spring Awakening logo is red and black, I wanted to incorporate those colors into my spreads. I stayed consistent with my use of these colors, but the layout of my feature spread clearly uses these colors more than my jump spread. This is because I didn’t want the dark colors to overpower my article and visuals in my jump spread. It was, however, appropriate for the feature spread because it portrayed the serious mood of the actual musical. I used one yellow box to highlight one of the words in the sidebar headline in order to incorporate the color of the playbill with the rest of the side bar. Yellow also represents the bright lights on Broadway, so the color reinforces the idea of watching a musical in New York City.