Designing a Magazine Cover

Introduction When you pass by the magazine rack at Wal-Mart, what makes you want to pick up a magazine and read it? The cover

Objectives By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to: Describe at least 3 design elements that should be considered when designing for a specific audience. Choose proper photos/clipart for the intended audience. Choose an appropriate color scheme for a stated audience. Design a magazine cover for a specific audience.

Design Elements Font Color Layout

Fonts Don’t overuse fonts Readable Never use more than 4 fonts. Readable Size Typeface Use Bold and italics instead of different fonts

Common Fonts Times New Roman – best for large blocks of text Arial – Good for titles: very clean Comic Sans MS – whimsical and informal Script – Small and Elegant Georgia – classy Trebuchet – Very clean

Colors As always: Use a Color Scheme Stereotypical colors work! Gender (pink, blue, pastels, gray) Industry standards (Cat yellow, John Deere Green) Age groups Country/Ethnic colors Read this about colour in marketing: https://precisionintermedia.com/color Red is known to induce appetite while blue draws strength.

Pictures/Graphics Catch the readers eye Simplicity usually works best Simple clipart – Nothing Complex Limited subjects in pictures Don’t over-enlarge small pictures See the next two slides for an example of this

Mimicry When in doubt, borrow! Don’t steal designs, but borrow from design elements you like

Some Examples The next few slides are examples of magazine covers, but feel free to browse through some on your own.