Practical - Alternative Magazine Research

For part of my research I began looking at other alternative magazines and their logo designs; the size, colour, typeface and situation on the page among others. I found some interesting examples in 'inside magazines: indpendentpopculturemagazines' edited by Patrik Andersson and Judith Steedman'.

One of the first magazines I looked at was Re-magazine, I thought the bold, capitalised letters worked well on the cover, emphasised by the box. This was a style I experimented with as I thought it had striking impact. The serif typeface for the subheading especially created a nice juxtaposition and monochromatic colour scheme seemed to be serious and 'important'. Perhaps for a modern feminist magazine it would need to have more colour to seem appealing, particularly with the intersectional/diverse focus the colours should seem bright and not too confined.

I then looked at Purple magazine, made in Paris during the 1990s. Purple is photo-orientated in order to 'accommodate the inhabitants of a world freighted and immersed in pictures' and this creates a strong visual style for the magazine. There was originally three purple magazines and one of which was the 'purple prose' shown on the left. I particularly liked the experimental covers of these, with the coloured text and the use of placing text behind the figure in the foreground. This really makes the image of the boy pop from the page and is something I also experimented with.

Very is a current magazine based in New York, 'the Very design offers simply the bare essentials in the attempt to enhance the original art-work while leaving it mainly untouched. Very subtly ignores the customary rules of the periodicals and instead sets the tone of an open global creative mix.' This simplicity is something of a testament to the magazine's pride in the work they show, they don't need to dress it up or layer the pieces to keep the reader interested.... they strand alone! This gentle minimalism is something that resonates with me and could be an interesting aesthetic to experiment with for 'Headstrong'. It shows strength in restraint.

Below are two magazines that also employ minimalism for effect. 'Sec' magazine on the left shows an image of delicate ornamental birds with an accompanying sans serif header. This juxtaposition feels strong and united as a composition. This is something 'Headstrong' should be able to accomplish too. The second magazine is Re-magazine, as mentioned above. This has an interesting use of annotation within the pages of the magazine, which adds depth to the composition and also adds a certain 'self-awareness' which could be useful for a tongue-in-cheek tone.The page dividing lines also create an orderly and composed effect which may be useful for bold and stand-alone ideas'