OUGD505 - Studio Brief 2 - City Patch Project - Nature Magazine References

Nature Magazine References

For the newsletter / small magazine cover for the City Patch Project imagery was supposed to be the focal point of the cover to show off the patches, however creating the cover for the newsletter had been difficult  as the type wasn't standing out on the imagery that was being used. To help with creating the cover for the newsletter nature and wildlife based magazine covers were looked at to understand better how imagery and type were combined to create balance and contrast within the design. 

A search of nature magazines found some common factors:

- The title of the magazine is placed at the top of the page

- Imagery that is used usually has a focal point (e.g. a cropped image of a particular animal) which allows the background to be quite plain or out of focus meaning type can be placed in these areas and show up 

- Landscape imagery is usually shot with a section of sky allowing the title to be placed here 

- Titles are often white as this contrasts with any colour making it useful against an image which can have a variety of colours within it. Yellow is also effective at making key information stand out.    

The Garden Magazine by the RHS

- The Garden Magazine is monthly magazine, however has a seasonal theme within its content

- the cover imagery mainly uses close up imagery of plants which means the backgrounds are often out of focus letting the type on the covers stand out more 

- the use of a white border helps frame the imagery and complements the title which is always in white, whilst also contrasting against the colours within the imagery  

- in older designs the covers have a strip of white at the top where the title is placed, which allows the name of the magazine to be any colour, in this case the title is always coloured to match an element of the image below. This means that the title will always stand out no matter the colour used.

- the logo for the design is also adapted so that the colour always contrasts against the imagery.  

- The main story / feature in the book is placed at the bottom of the cover to balance with the title at the top, this story is always relevant to the image on the cover.

Other things to consider 

 - In the Garden magazine this is a monthly magazine whereas magazines such as Wildlife Yorkshire by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust are done in seasonal issues so issues are labelled in this way. This information is always at the top of the magazine alongside the title / logo.