Above is the Brief I had gone with for this project, to start with I had started doing research into magazines in general, from producers and production, releases, different genres and industries within to help give me a stronger understanding when working on my project.
I started looking at magazines publication models and how often new issues are published. It starts with weekly production, which New Scientist uses and is the most popular weekly magazine with 52 issues a year. Then we go onto monthly which National Geographic uses with 12 issues a year. Then Bi Monthly, which can be either twice a month or most commonly once every 2 months. And quarterly magazines which come out 4 times a year, such as GQ, releasing 4 times a year.
Next I started looking into the length of magazines and how many pages and articles they feature. While there is no 'Average' length for a magazine, most range anywhere from 32 to 212, provided they're divisible by either 4 or 8. One again there is no average article count in magazines, it depends on the page count, article length, production and ad spacing.
Next was pricing, in the UK the average magazine cover price as of 2021 is £4.52, with most magazines productions being able to purchase online in subscriptions for a bulk price, as well as different bundles depending on if you're buying print, digital or both. The pricing of magazines will obviously reflect how often they're published and sizing of it. Below are the subscription models for National Geographic (Monthly Magazine), New Scientist (Weekly Magazine) and Times (Bi Monthly Magazine).
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In this price it also reflects any bonuses in which the subscription offers, this normally includes access to the archive if a digital plan is bought, along with added bonus or features such as added digital only content along with unlimited web access and more.
I looked into the ways of buying, while most magazines are either bought in store at a cover price, or bought online through a subscription, some magazines are only available to purchase online, and then do not always require barcodes on the covers or have to convey the typical conventions of stuff like mastheads at the top and models making eye contact and more.
Below I had started looking at some magazines online which I thought best hit my younger audience in terms of content, readership and overall visual styling.
TIME
Below I had started looking into TIME magazine as well as looking at their media kit to help me better understand their audience demographic and get more content on the company itself. I had also found out below that the mass majority of people who read TIME get their issues from subscriptions.
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National Geographic
National Geographic has loads of subsidiary magazines focusing on different special interests which are all published under the same identity family, below is some details about that.
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New Scientist
New Scientist is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.
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BBC Science Focus
BBC Science Focus is a British monthly magazine about science and technology published in Bristol, UK by Immediate Media Company, it covers all aspects of science and technology and is written for general readers as well as people with a knowledge of science.
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Scientific American
Scientific American, informally abbreviated SciAm or sometimes SA, is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.
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Below I had spent some time looking at other magazines from all kinds of genres, production quantity and content, to see how different magazines adhere and subvert to the generic guidelines of magazine covers.
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I then started planning out my magazine in response to the brief. Im going to create a monthly science magazine, each magazine will have a key scientific breakthrough or theory as its feature. 12 covers will be made with a hopeful one full issue of the magazine. As well as this I will be creating a 'limited / special' edition which will come in the form of a coffee table / collectors edition, which will contain all 12 magazine contents in one big collected issue, which will be a more high quality and designed feature for collectors.
Magazine Context
Audience for the magazine is 18-34 within the income brackets of A-C2, this is due to the content of the magazine, my audience will need to have some existing knowledge in the sciences as the tone of voice I will achieve will be professional but still accessible to those who just have a basic layman's understand of science.
Competitors for the magazine will be 'New Scientist', 'Scientific American' and 'BBC Science Focus'. These are all sciences related magazines which all aim for a more older audience, bar BBC Science Focus who is aimed at a younger audience. These are my competitors as my magazine would sit in between Scientific American and New Scientist in the market.
Publication Schedule for my magazine will be monthly, this will allow me to create 12 covers, possibly a double issue for December if I feel like it's needed. This also allows me to have more valuable content in the magazine as in my research monthly magazines are more built up and thorough that weekly publications. This also allows me to create a bigger and more established feeling publication.
Audience for the magazine is 18-34 within the income brackets of A-C2, this is due to the content of the magazine, my audience will need to have some existing knowledge in the sciences as the tone of voice I will achieve will be professional but still accessible to those who just have a basic layman's understand of science.
Competitors for the magazine will be 'New Scientist', 'Scientific American' and 'BBC Science Focus'. These are all sciences related magazines which all aim for a more older audience, bar BBC Science Focus who is aimed at a younger audience. These are my competitors as my magazine would sit in between Scientific American and New Scientist in the market.
Publication Schedule for my magazine will be monthly, this will allow me to create 12 covers, possibly a double issue for December if I feel like it's needed. This also allows me to have more valuable content in the magazine as in my research monthly magazines are more built up and thorough that weekly publications. This also allows me to create a bigger and more established feeling publication.
Quantum
After some time spent researching and coming up with names I settled on Quantum, this is because it has that science feel too it without necessarily narrowing it down to one field, this allows me to keep the content of the magazine open throughout the scientific field.
The next decision was styling, I had two visual treatments for it, one using a condensed typeface and the other using Avant Garde and utilises some of the additional characters.
The next decision was styling, I had two visual treatments for it, one using a condensed typeface and the other using Avant Garde and utilises some of the additional characters.
Next up I spent some time working on the body copy and type setting for the magazine, I started doing some tests with sizing, tracking, leading, grids, column width, checking the character count is correct and how I had the text justified. Making sure to print each out and see how the settings looked when printed.
First up was justification, after being told not to do it at all, I did it. Using settings within indesign I changed them around to allow my justification to come out neater than before, as you can see below I have compared it to the standard justification settings, then the first settings I tried still needed some tweaking, then finally I decided on the last column which came out with the least amount of errors.
Below the type setting is Times New Roman Regular, 9.5/13
Below the type setting is Times New Roman Regular, 9.5/13
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I had then tried on a 8 column grid to allow more flexibility and the overall result was much better.
Below I had also done some tests with the text ranging left.
After more testing I decided to stick with an 8 grid and the type setting above as it gave me the most flexibility to use different compositions in different articles and sections, while allowing room for captioning and other elements that will be added.
Then to help me decide on visual styling of the magazine I had started mocking up a cover with each masthead along with some different compositions and image / illustration styles to help me decide which worked best before I moved on.
Below I had started with one of the masthead styles and started adding and changing elements of the cover to see how it all looked and worked together.
Then to help me decide on visual styling of the magazine I had started mocking up a cover with each masthead along with some different compositions and image / illustration styles to help me decide which worked best before I moved on.
Below I had started with one of the masthead styles and started adding and changing elements of the cover to see how it all looked and worked together.
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Below I had also done some testing with the other masthead to see how this one worked within the compositions.
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Then to help me get a better understand of the brand I did another cover below along with a few variations.
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I then wanted to try a cover with use of imagery instead of an illustration as in my research alot of magazines had blend of both throughout their covers.
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Below I had started working on a feature article for one of the magazines to help me get the basis for the page detailing and how a slash and other pages would look and function.
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The below ones use a different typeface and a slightly different approach to the layout.
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Since I've chosen to use a black background for a lot of this article I had experimented with different typefaces to move away from using a serif as it would have difficulties when printing at such a small size.
Below is Fraktion Sans, Light and Regular
Below is Fraktion Sans, Light and Regular
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Below is Helvetica, Light and Regular
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I wasn't liking how this was looking so I tracked back and redid this page, splitting it up into 4 character profile pages, allowing one page per person to give me more freedom and flexibility with the layout.
I had then edited how I displayed their role, so I had used the coloured box with negatived out text to allow more depth.
Below are 2 header stylings I had worked on.
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I then spent some time working on the interior identity of the magazine and how non feature pages would look. Below are two styles I experimented with.
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One of the biggest things I found in my research was magazines having a family of styles, feature articles look different to other article sections which look different to others and so on, this was tricky as I needed to create a handful of 'article' styles which all hailed from the same idea.
Below I had used the same type I had used in my masthead to see how that could look as a primary typeface for elements such as titles.
Next I had to come up with the format of the magazine in the sense of what's featured and included. Below is the outline of the magazine in no particular order.
Ive chosen these as bases for my magazine as I feel like it offers a broad reach for my magazine to its audience and allows me to feature a variety of science focuses.
- Feature Articles: In-depth articles on a particular scientific topic or discovery, including interviews with scientists and researchers.
- News and Current Events: Updates on the latest scientific breakthroughs, advancements, and controversies.
- Technology and Innovation: Reviews and profiles of cutting-edge technology and gadgets, including smartphones, robotics, and medical devices.
- Health and Medicine: News and information about the latest medical treatments, breakthroughs in research, and tips for healthy living.
- Space and Astronomy: Articles about space exploration, astronomy, and the search for extraterrestrial life.
- Environment and Conservation: News and insights on climate change, environmental policy, and sustainable living.
- Psychology and Neuroscience: Articles about the latest findings in psychology and neuroscience, including studies on memory, cognition, and mental health.
- Education and Science Communication: Stories about science education, science outreach, and science communication efforts.
- History of Science: Articles that explore the history of science, including profiles of famous scientists and groundbreaking discoveries.
- Opinion and Analysis: Editorials, essays, and expert opinions on current scientific issues and debates.
- Spotlight: Recent images relating to a scientific field or small scale articles for quick reads.
Ive chosen these as bases for my magazine as I feel like it offers a broad reach for my magazine to its audience and allows me to feature a variety of science focuses.
Below Ive shown development of the final magazine from test spreads, ideas, articles and other elements which have been tested out.
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