- Colours
The masthead designs that I have collected seem to split into three themes; pastel colours that appear to be more fun and friendly, sharp & saturated colours which give the reader a professional feel, and black or white mastheads that stand out or highlight a specific word in the name. These styles can vary and be mixed together; though the choices of reds, yellow or blues seem to be the most popular. Out of the group, the orange of Dogs Monthly and both the blue and pastel green BARk mastheads stand out the most among the crowd of reds and pink. Going for individuality rather than going with the popular colours would help the magazine stand out more and feel different - it feels like a niche local magazine rather than an imitation of the paid ones. Due to the actual content of the magazines, the colours are varied and gender-neutral, appealing to a wide range of dog owners rather than a specific one - though pastels may be aimed towards younger audiences as it seems more friendly and inviting.
Going for a softer/gentler theme for the magazine would match it's genre (focused around caring for dogs in the home); therefore using pastels would be the best way forward. The specific colour used will need to match with the picture used on the cover; this could make or break the design otherwise. My target audience is younger, themed around families and how they can look after their dogs; so avoiding an intimidating masthead is crucial.
- Fonts
Looking at the fonts on the mastheads, it's clear that the use of serifs and sans serifs usually connotate professionalism vs informality; both edition DOG, Dogs Today and BARk make the use of serif fonts in order to give across an experienced and informative effect. On the other hand, moderndog, YourPet and dogster all take the inspiration of a tabloid newspaper, using their bouncy or otherwise smooth fonts to gain the audience's attention through the chaos. It's clear that capital letters do not always fall in line with the professionalism vs informality themes, as YourPet is designed with entertainment in mind while BARk is overall clean and neat. The fonts that stand out the most is actually both dogster and YourPet: dogster includes curls and bounces that go against the usual Arial-like fonts, while YourPet incorporates cute animal themes (a fish for the o, and an animal print for the e) which makes it especially attracting.
Using YourPet's capitalization and unique stylistic choices in its font may help make my brand more recognisable and cuter - as I plan to call the masthead some varying degree of "The Kennel", I could choose to avoid the use of serif fonts and incorporate kennel-themed designs to appeal to a younger and more casual audience.
- Housestyle
The mastheads and actual covers of the magazines are designed to match together. Depending on the magazine, they may make use of contrasting colours such as a blue masthead and red details, or they may follow through with a specific coloured theme entirely. Designing my housestyle and masthead with children and families in mind, I plan to take inspiration from the studied mastheads in order to create a fitting design that will catch their eye and keep the magazine fun.
The shades of colour I would like to experiment with are pastels; specifically variations of oranges, blues and greens. However, orange may not be fitting for the magazine; amber connotates warning or danger, and therefore might end up being intimidating unless the shade is specifically picked out. Blues and greens connotate the outdoor weather such as skies and grass, and are typically used for products and stories aimed for children.
Although these font examples were created using the name design of "THE Kennel", I still want to consider them as options for the piece. Although most dog magazines use Arial, that's because it works; it's rounded but bold enough to stand out as the masthead. Posterama is also round, but lacks the boldness that could be effective. Therefore, I'll try to look at a different range of fonts.
As for the capitalisation, I want to experiment with both lowercase and uppercase letters to see which would be most family-friendly; making the masthead font too formal could negatively contrast with the informal style. If designed like YourPet, it may be able to work out.
I have to be aware that the masthead needs to be designed with a light background in mind; if the pastel is too light, it may not work.
Looking over the shades themselves, a few of them stand out in particular - example 1, 6 and 7. Example 1 is clearly green, but it isn't too bold like the second example or as strangely-hued as the one after that. It's pleasing to the eye; example 6 and 7 also have the same effect. They're both appealing and definitely fitting for a younger audience. Although I never considered using a pinkish-purple colour for the magazine, example 6 actually stands out the most out of the whole set; it's unique, bright enough to go on any background, and a purple-pink theme for the magazine would have a positive connotation and could fit with lavenders. My choice on whether I want to use blues or purples is torn, so I may choose to change it depending on the cover theme; most dog magazines change the colours around
I still feel like capitalizing The Kennel would be the best option; looking at new fonts that go against what I initially suggested can give a different viewpoint.
Although I have been using Arial Rounded as a base point for my masthead font, Arial Black seems to be the most effective for the job. It's a bold font with rounded edges that keeps to a snug style, so it's clear to see on the magazine and can be easily read no matter the brightness of the cover. The last two fonts fall short due to how thin they are; they aren't easy to see, so they won't be eye-catching enough for audiences to notice. Fonts like Gill Sans are too compact which feels enclosing, even though the magazine is supposed to be open and comfortable - meanwhile Cooper Black's serif font wouldn't be as appealing to children.
Adding to the Arial Black font, it would be possible to add a dog-themed design to the masthead; although the font itself may seem silly, if added correctly, it could be an interesting idea. Other ideas include adding a kennel, pawprints or dog toys.
Upon further attempts at sketching out the design, I've decided how I would like to add the dog-bone theme - at the end of the word kennel, I want to add a bone with a red-pink bow. It should seem cute to children and gives a small logo that makes the title stand out.
Visualisations:
Cover:
Cover:
DPS: screenshot
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