Front cover development&research

 This is the development progress for my magazine cover

Research

To me I do like the type of shots that these car magazine covers take, a nice long shot or close shot of the car in the detail really directs the eye of the audience. Though as seen in the offroad car magazine cover a convention it has is that it is filled with coverlines and different colored fonts and typefaces. To me I think this wouldn't fit the jimny as since I can't do crazy jumps or run through mud with the car. Therefore I try to go with a professional, low-energy look with the jimny parked.

SKETCH #1

SKETCH I CHOSE

FIRST DESIGN

In the first picture of the sketch all I did was laying out the masthead and the cover lines that I was planning to put. Then I tested out on some type faces that would match the genre I was going for which is offroad. 

This time my teacher told me that I needed to add some broders to the cover, I did ths by adding the ruler feature to the website (canva) I was using. This made it look more structured but It wasn't really the theme I was asking for, the typefaces does not look neat and the picture's colors was too plain, I wanted it to be more orange and making the jimny the main focus. 

I color graded the image to make the background more orange and I tried to highlight the jimny just by making the image colder and the background warmer. From the vast background I took a picture of, I as well zoomed in the image to give more attention to the Jimny. Then I asked my friends next to me to decide on what typefaces should I use, they recommended to use a bold typeface for my masthead to make the audience know that "offgrid trails" is the masthead.  As well for the main coverline I tried to add a background to the text but it didn't really seem to match well with the background. Another change I made as well was to the coverlines, I made them white and a different typeface to the masthead. I think this matches better than the typeface I used on the previous picture.

I got some feedback from my teacher, I was told that I should reconsider on using a white border as It wouldn't make my magazine stand out and its not noticable. Thus I chose brown as my border color, I asked my friends for feedback and they said it matched so I stuck with the brown color.  Then I also removed and changed my main coverline to "Japanese Legend" with a yellow ish font color, also making the other coverlines smaller to make the main one stand out more. 

Finally for the first concept, I added some more coverlines on the left and right bottom of the cover image and lowered the main coverline to not block the jimny.

Second design 

A convention of a usual offroad magazine is that its filled with coverlines with different text colors and crowded with different typefaces and long shots of cars. Though I felt like that diverts away the attention I was trying to seek which is trying to mainly focus on the jimny, therefore I would subvert the this convention by going for a professional, clean design.

First of all I took a medium shot of half the jimny, to use it as my main image . Though the brightness was too bright as I took the picture at daytime during a sunny day, so It didnt really fit in with the mis-en-scene in the background.  To fix this, I used an application called Adobe Lightroom that allows me to control the color grading of the picture. The Idea I tried to portay was to make the jimny look menacing and scary, I tried to do this by highering the contrast and lowering the brightness to as well macth the mis-en-scene in the background. I also used the masking features that creates a gradient on the sides of the image , basically a dark viginette. I asked opinion from my friends next to me and I got positive feedback, in result I decided to use this image.

I proceeded to add my masthead and coverlines to the picture. I tested out loads of typefaces and asked opinions from friends around, since I didn't have canva premium, the amount of typefaces I was permitted to use was little. Thus I spent lots of time trying to find the right typeface. I tried editing the font as well such as adding an underline but It wasn't enough. And the main coverline didn't seem to stand out as much. I got feedback from my teacher that I needed to make my main coverline stand out, then he told me to dragdown the text, Increased its size and change the color. Till this point I am satisfied with my layout of the coverlines. though my teacher pointed out a detail that didn't look neat which was the spacing between the text. A text allignment feature in canva allowed me to tighten the spaces a little in the text to make it more neat. 

Finally, I found the right typeface for the masthead and got approval from both my friends and teacher. I feel like I am satisfied with the design and like the overall style that I went with

Colour research

 This is the research I did to find the right colors for my magazine

The offroad theme is associated with dirt, mud and soil ( earthy elements) I have to use colors that match these elements. A research I did was scrolling through google and finding color theories, these theories helps me identify the different emotions and meanings that colors portray. 

To still have the offroad theme I decided to choose a more brown-ish gradient to still conform to the offroad magazine convention which is to have earthy colors.  Though, I still had to get my teacher's opinion on the color selection as well from my friends that likes the automotive topic. Such as the the change I did on my contents page where the colors weren't related to earthy colors, my teacher gave me feedback to change it to a more brown-ish/darker color in order to follow the theme/conventions

Typeface research

 This is my research to find the typeface I want to use

Since my target audience are boys/men from teens to adults, I would like to have a font that's stronf and bold to attract the right niche. At first all I did was scroll through canva and just testing them one by one without really understanding that each typeface has their own meaning. This has consumed loads of my time as I kept on doing trials and errors without paying attention to my target market, just plain feeling and if it looks good  I am using it. This of course didn't end well getting feedback from my friends such as " it doesn't fit the whole theme".

https://youtu.be/sByzHoiYFX0?si=T9r3n9GO-2DvkB7s

This is a video I watched in order to gain more knowledge in graphic design. This has taught me to understand that there is deep meaning in font adjustments as well as different typefaces expresses different emotions. Such as serif fonts are used mostly for traditional projects such as newspapers.  

There are different weight classes or boldness to fonts, the lighter or thinner it is the more feminine  The heavier or bolder font makes it more masculine. Also multiple techniques that ive learned that could help the texts look neat, tracking is the overall general spacing between each letter in the word, and kerning is the spacing between specific letters. 

This was the result that have gone with, the help of the education I got from the video and feedback from my teacher. Its a sans serif font that makes it look simplistic with a heavy weight making it more masculine. Most offroad car magazines' convention has a very graphic typeface, its bombarded with colorful images and colors giving it a more energetic feeling. While ive subverted this convention I think this gives a new point of view towards offroad vehicles that they aren't just heavy duty, getting ditry machines but they are able to look professional and clean as well. Even though its different from other magazines I think it would stand out more giving a competitive advantage towards other offroad car magazines.

Magazine layout tutorial

 In this post i will demonstare some basic design skills that i learned in class

I started by sketching, it was quite difficult since it was very messy but I got the ideas flowing for some potential front cover magazine, we were only given 5 minutes to draw therefore the ideas may not be as good. 

Then we proceeded to using our devices to practice some default layouts for magazine covers that has been set up by our teacher. Firstly it was hard for me to use google draw since I had to use my trackpad on my laptop ( im more comfortable using a mouse). The results arent good since this is just practice in the future I hope I can get more creative with design making.

Then our teacher introduced to us some designing policies which are borders, hierarcchy of type , type face and colour. After this I changed my whole layout and started fresh so that I could have an idea that i can put all these factors into one. I used more colors and added borders in order to neatly structure the layout making it look more neat. I was satisfied with the result but I think I couldve done better.

Location Scout and Risk assesment

 This is my location scout and risk assesment for my photoshoots

LOCATION #1

 

Name	Name
Purpose of shoot:	Finding a location for the magazine
Media language:	Mis-en-scene: Lake, trees, grass, jimny, Sunset orange, Rocks, gravel, dark natural lighting. Camera shots; - Low angle to make the jimny look more menacing and cool -Long shot showing the whole area making the jimny look more natural -Close shot to highlight the details and features of the car
Pros of location:	The place has an amazing view of the sunset as well as the lake, the location features less buildings surrounding it which makes it seem more natural.
Cons of location:	Its usually crowded with people so it may be hard to find the right timing making it peaceful.
Alternative Location:	This is only the entrance therefore i can go even further down the dam to find anotehr location
RISK ASSESSMENT	RISK ASSESSMENT
Potential hazards:	Natural disaster such as earthquakes and tsunamis Bad weather I hope it doesnt rain so it wont damage my camera equipment and the sunset will show Cars and other motorbikes may pass by
Evaluate risks:	Since its crowded people may disturb my designated location such as people passing by
Control measures:	Find the right timing where the location is quiet and not crowded Pray that no natural disasters will happen
Implementation Timeframe:	The day after

           

LOCATION #2

                 

Name	Name
Purpose of shoot:	Location for jimny
Media language	Mis-en-scene: Jimny, rocks, gravel, grass Close shot Long shot Medium shot
Pros of location:	Easy access
Cons of location:	Crowded lots of trash
Alternative Location:	My garage
RISK ASSESSMENT	RISK ASSESSMENT
Potential hazards:	Equipment may overheat and catch fire, malfunction violently, heatstroke.
Evaluate risks:	Take breaks in the middle of photoshoot, if too hot, take pictures in afternoon before evening. Potential rain as well since the month Im taking the pictures is at February there may be chances of rain
Control measures:	Check the weather forecast before I do the photoshoot
Implementation Timeframe:	Every morning I have to check hte weather forecast and schedule my photoshoot in the afternoon to get a nice sunset

LOCATION #3

Name	Name
Purpose of shoot:	Location for jimny
Media language	Mis-en-scene: Jimny, mostly concrete, roof , trees Close shot, to show the details of the jimny such as the interior or the engine Long shot, a whole body shot of the jimny for the magazine cover Medium shot, Possibly for the content page to have more pictures of the jimny
Pros of location:	Easy access I can manage my time since the place its right next to my house
Cons of location:	Usually crowded
Alternative Location:	The road in front of my house
RISK ASSESSMENT	RISK ASSESSMENT
Potential hazards:	Equipment may overheat and catch fire, malfunction violently, heatstroke, bad weather such as rain since it cant be predicted
Evaluate risks:	If it rains I can always take cover under the roof or go inside my house, If its full of people or too crowded I can use my alternative location which is the road in front of my house
Control measures:	Check the weather forecast and inform my parents that I need to use the area for a photoshoot
Implementation Timeframe:	Before I do every photoshoot I need to check the weather and possibly the clouds. If it does get too crowded I can take the pictures at night when its dark

The problem with the locations is that, my jimny isn't capable of going long range distances. A small fuel tank and constant breakdowns, Its chasis is too weak and the parts are too old. So it was a struggle for me to figure a way to display the jimny for an offroad magazine. I live in denpasar, which is a city in Bali. Filled with buildings and barely any rough terrain or "offroad" tracks for me to do a photoshoot on, therefore I had to subvert conventions of offroad car magazines which was to have the car actually going offroad and instead I would have the jimny just sitting.  This was a major problem for me but I do like the challenge so I will stick with this idea and see how it goes