When designing a magazine, one of the key elements is to stay consistent throughout designing it. Creating a style guide offers a simple way of making the pages and spreads stay in tune with each other.
Typography:
I’ve tried to limit myself to three typefaces. Sometimes, rather than changing the whole typeface you can create as much of an effect by simply increasing or decreasing the size, or by making use of capital letters.
For my headers I’ve decided on Didot, which is classes as a modern typeface. It is generally used by high-end magazines and presents a timeless, elegant and even luxurious design. Another font I’d like to use to either switch up my headers or as subtitles is Dax pro, which falls under the Sans-serif category. I think I’d opt for the Dax pro light italic rather than the regular Dax pro, as I find it provides a quirky artistic finish. Dax pro generally delivers a minimal and classy feel. Lastly I’d be using Minion pro for my general paragraphs. This typeface was created for body text, having a “simplified structure and moderate proportions.” (Robert Slimbach - 2007 - designer).
Colour palette:
Within design, the colour orange typically represents enthusiasm, youth and creativity. It’s an active colour, able to resemble health, due to its instant connection to oranges and vitamin C. By being able to depict a dynamic attitude, the colour tends to illustrate vibrancy and enjoyment. Gatorade, the sports drink, portrays this perfectly by using an orange lightning bolt as their brand icon in order to promote activity and drive. In Cross The Line’s logo, the colour orange adds a vibrant and creative look to this finance company.
I found that using orange to represent my magazine brand is a great way to echo the youthfulness, which is one of the things my magazine focuses on; people’s personalities. Another focus my magazine takes is design and current affairs. With the colour orange I’m able to add a creative touch, suggesting this magazine is different to the mainstream, as well as draw attention while promoting energy.
I decided to opt for an Analogous colour scheme. Analogous colour schemes are made up of three colours lying beside each other on the colour wheel. Usually these colour schemes are created with the same chroma level, but if you’re using the colour scheme to design either a magazine or a website, the tones, shades and tints can be adjusted in order to create more contrast.
I started off with these colours, which represents a more traditional analogous colour scheme. Although the colours may be engaging, they are too similar to be used in web design or magazines.
In order to make it an effective colour scheme that I can use, I altered the chroma level to add interest, while keeping the original hues. As well as being visually appealing, the colours are much more suitable for the design I need. The ‘Copper penny’ and the ‘Fire opal’ would typically be used for headlines. I would use the ‘Crimson’ for body text, and ‘White’ as background, or the other way around. Lastly, ‘Melon’ would be used as an accent or within graphics.
Below are a few branding mockups:
Current Edge's values:
While being both a design and a lifestyle magazine, I aim for my brand to have a strong identity. Some of my key values are:
Simplicity
Positive and uplifting
Touching on life issues and reportage
Compelling design
Trustworthiness
Transparent - sharing information but doing so honestly
Entrepreneurial - creators who are willing to try new things and challenge convention
Authentic - genuine to the brand and its values
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