First I made a mind map of names that I could use for my magazine. In the end I chose 'Indigo' because it is short and memorable and I think colour names work well for fashion magazines as fashion is all about colours and tones. Doing this mind map helped me when choosing my name because I explored a lot of different options and styles of names so I could be sure I had chosen the most effective after looking at lots.
After choosing my name I began developing my masthead. First I did some sketches and made some small developments on some of them. I experimented with lots of different styles, strokes, fonts, and a mix of upper and lowercase. This was helpful for when I was looking for fonts on the computer because I already had an idea of what I was looking for and looked for fonts that were similar to the ones I had drawn.
Next I found a selection of fonts using the ones I had drawn as my inspiration. I found a really wide range of lots of different styles because this helped me explore all the options so I could be sure I had tried everything and would come out with the best possible font for my masthead.
Developments
Next I chose my favourite typefaces that I thought would be most effective for my masthead and developed them further. I experimented with different strokes, tracking, font sizes, and uppercase/lowercase. Doing this development was very helpful because I ended up liking some of the developments better than the original typeface and it will help my masthead to be more creative and original and help me create the best possible outcome by exploring lots of different options.
1) I increased the tracking. I think this could work well for the masthead because it makes the text look less crammed in and will also stretch further across the top of the magazine so that it fills more of the space.
2) I added full stops in-between each letter. I dont think this is very effective because it makes the title look broken up and reduces legibility.
3) I increased the size of the first letter. I think this is quite effective because the font was only available in uppercase so it creates the illusion of a capital letter at the start.
4) I alternated the sizes of the letters. I think it works but I dont think it will be suitable for the masthead because there is no reason for those letters to be emphasised and doesn't really have a purpose.
Manus-
1) I typed the font in uppercase. I dont think it is very effective because it the typeface is not bold enough to carry this off.
2) I added a capital at the start. Although it looks fine I dont think it would work for my masthead because with this font I like the smooth and joined up look of it and this takes away from that.
3) I extended the end of the 'g'. I think this is effective because the original 'g' could have been mistaken for a 'q' so it improves the legibility.
Crystalline-
1) Made the first letter a capital. I think this could work because the size didn't massively increase so it blends in with the rest of the word.
2) Made it into uppercase. I think this font works well in uppercase as it is sans serif but I think I increased the tracking too much on this one.
3) Decreased tracking. I think this works better because it has better readability and flows better.
4) Increased stroke. I think this is effective because the lines are quite thin so it makes it stand out more and would give it more impact as a masthead, plus the design can still be seen.
5) Lowercase with decreased tracking. I do think this works quite well because it flows better than with bigger tracking.
Fibography-
1) Decreased the tracking. I think this works well because it flows better and looks more concise.
2) Thickened stroke. I dont think this was very effective because the lines are quite fine so a lot of the detail has been lost.
3) Made first letter uppercase. Although I think this looks okay I dont think it would work for a masthead because it looks a bit too unbalanced.
4) Made 'n' uppercase. I think this is effective as it emphasises the word and gives it more impact.
Sticky Things-
1) Decreased tracking. I think this works as it flows nicely.
2) Increased stroke. I dont think this was effective because the paint brush distressed detail is lost and it takes away from the style of the font.
3) Increased tracking. I think this could also work as it breaks up the lines and is probably more legible than the decreased tracking option and flows a little better.
Rope-
1) Made first letter uppercase. The uppercase 'i' in this font is a little odd so I dont think this is effective as it takes away form readability.
2) Increased stroke. I think this is effective as it makes the text have more impact and looks bolder but doesn't take away any of the detail.
3) Changed 'o' to uppercase. I was worried the 'o' looked like an 'a' so I used the uppercase version and decreed the size to blend it in and I think this looks more effective as it improves readability and takes away any possible confusion.
Needlework Good-
1) Increased tracking. I think this a bit too much and makes the letters look very detached from each other so doesn't flow very nicely.
2) Decreased tracking. I decreased it from the above development but not quite as much as the original as the letters in that were so close together they touched so I think this looks more effective as it has a better flow to it.
3) Made first letter uppercase. I think this works as the letter size doesn't change so it still flows nicely.
4) Uppercase. This font is also effective in uppercase and this is bolder and will have more of an impact than the lowercase so could be effective.
5) Uppercase with increased tracking. Although this looks fine I dont think it would work for a masthead because it is very long and spread out so the size would not be able to be increased very much before the edges filled the page so it would have to be quite small.
Neon Glow-
1) Tracking increased. I think this looks more effective than the original because that looked a little crammed so this improves the flow of the text.
2) Lowercase. This font also works in lowercase but the letters are very close together so I think tracking needs to be increased.
3) Tracking increased. I think it definitely looks better with the extra spacing as it improves legibility and flow but I think it may be a little too much tracking and I think the stroke is a little too fine and could be thickened for more impact.
4) Fill switched to stroke. I switched it so that instead of white fill the text had white stroke and I think this adds a nice touch to it with the double line but it still isn't quite bold enough or a masthead.
5) Increased tracking and stroke. I think this looks the most effective of all because the increased stroke looks bold and has a bigger impact than the original stroke and the tracking improves legibility and flow.
Prisma-
1) Tracking Increased. Although this makes the masthead slightly clearer I dont think the larger tracking works with this font.
2) Tracking Decreased. I like the visual look of this but legibility could be a problem as the lines are now connected.
3) Increased stroke. I dont think this worked as the lines are quite close together so detail is lost.
4) Increased tracking. I also tried increasing the tracking on the increased stroke to see if this helped but it still had legibility issues.
5) 'N' size increased. I think this is effective as it emphasises the word and gives it more impact.
Blackout Midnight-
1) Increased tracking. I dont think this worked at all because the text now looks very broken up and doesn't flow nicely.
2) Second font style option used. This font had another style where a border was added and the colours inverted. I think this could work quite nicely as a masthead but only if I decided I wanted a border.
3) Tracking decreased. I decreased the tracking to create this barcode style effect but I dont think it worked because legibility is lost and it just looks a bit strange.
4) Tracking decreased. I decreased the tracking and I think this works because it looks bolder and is still legible.
5) Tracking further decreased. I decreased the tracking as much as good whilst keeping legibility but I think the slightly increased tracking above flowed better and had clearer lines and better legibility.
Plakkat-
1) Increased tracking. I dont think this is very effective because the text looks very broken up and doesn't flow nicely.
2) Decreased tracking. I think this works nicely as it looks neat and concise whilst still being clear and legible.
3) First letter size increased. I dont think this works, it might if the rest was in lowercase but it just looks out of place here.
4) Alternate letters increased. I think this works to emphasise the word but not for a masthead as it doesn't flow nicely.
5) 'N' size increased. This works again to emphasise the word but doesn't look quite right with this font and just doesn't fit in nicely with the other letters.
Trying out my mastheads
Next I tried out all the mastheads I chose to develop on an image that represented the style of image I want for the front cover of my magazine. I did this to help me choose the best three to develop and try out further because I found it very hard to decide without seeing how they would look on a magazine.
From this the three I chose were 'Plakkaat' (image 7/8), 'Manus' ( image 15/16/17), and 'Blackout' (image 14). I think these were the most effective because they worked well when being placed above the image as they flowed well and blended in as part of the page instead of sticking out and looking separated like some of the others.
Further Masthead Testing
Next I chose my three favourite mastheads from the tests I did earlier and tried them out on five different cover types to help narrow it down to the best one by seeing how effective they were as a masthead and how versatile they were across different styles of covers as the cover of a magazine will change every week so they need to work across a range of styles and colours of images.
I then tested out adding boxes behind the text on two of the mastheads and using red and white as these colours are always very effective on mastheads.
Developing my chosen masthead
I tried out a border behind the masthead and used a colour scheme of red and white as these are always bold and high contrast.
I did the same with black and white because this fits better with the colour scheme and style of my magazine.
I also expeirmented with the placement of this.
I then played around with the postition and tested this on all of the images to see if this could be an option that would work in the longrun. I think this works for photography images but not the typography based one as it covers it and blends in with it.
I then made it bigger and this again works with the images but not the typography.
In the end I think I will stick with a black or white. The colour looks nice but it doesnt really suit the mood and style of my magazine, and it isnt as bold or high contrast as having it in a black or a white.
Further Development of chosen masthead
I had a go at drawing out my chosen masthead by hand to see if I could make something similar myself.
I found it difficult to get everything in line and in proportion and I dont think hand drawing it would have been very effective because the letter sizes would all be slightly different and the line would not be very straight. I want my magazine to have a professional look and although the masthead is meant to be hand drawn in style I still want it to look neat.
I decided to try going straight on to illustrator and making them by hand using the pen tool to hopefully have a neater result. I tried out different strokes and some paintbrush style brushes. I then picked the two best and tried them on one of my front cover images.
Although I think the right one in white could work it is not as legible as the font I had chosen before and doesnt blend in as well with the rest of the cover. Although I would have liked to have made the masthead myself I think the overall look will be a lot more effective if I used the premade font that I had found before.
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