Hey everyone! So I had a little trouble finalizing my audience but now I think I got it: Young adult/college women. With that said, here are my cover designs! I believe I want to go forward with number 3, because I think this one matches the best with my target audience's tone.
Thanks!
Hey Carissa,
ReplyDeleteI think for your target audience, layout 2 works best. It's the one that popped out at me instantly.The colors are playful and the typefaces chosen work well. I question where you put "Habitat", though. I remember Coni telling us last week that the top third of the magazine cover is all that is seen when it is on a rack. So with the placement of the title now, no one would really know what they are looking at without taking the magazine out of the rack.
Carissa – I’m happy you’ve found your audience for the magazine. Good. Now, let’s think this through. College-aged women are not usually found in boots working in their gardens… in fact, most of them don’t own a house, much less have a garden, at that age. So I’m not sure the image in Layout #3 is an accurate depiction of this audience. Erica mentioned the image in Layout 2 shows your audience best. I suspect she might be right. Layout #1 contains a great image that you could consider using inside the magazine, but it isn’t connected to your audience at all, other than the masthead font. So, I’ll confine my feedback to Layout #2:
ReplyDeleteImage – I wonder if you would consider using a photo of a citrus grove in the background? The stripes don’t add to our understanding of what this issue is really about… right? So… using an image of your audience along with an additional image might be just the answer. Feel free to be creative and inventive with the background image, using diagonal photo treatments, etc. The energy that those stripes add is a good thing… can you create that energy AND give us elements that show the theme?
Masthead – Erica is correct, this masthead needs to be in the top 1/3 of the composition. I also question what the large orange oval-ish shape is? Not sure, and it sure takes up a lot of space on the page… too much for a shape that is a bit confusing. If your concept is to be bold with shapes in your design… they still need to add to our understanding of what this Habitat magazine is all about. Secondly, are you sure you want to replace the “i” with a stalk of wheat? What if next month this issue is about urban architecture, or something that has nothing to do with food? What does Habitat mean? Maybe revisiting the definition of the word will give you some ideas. Third, the cutline(s) need to be much less important than the theme of the issue. So “The Future of Foods” needs to be emphasized more than “How Our Eating Habits Will Change”. I like the “…” after that line… it helps us want to know what’s next.
Remember, this audience is quite well-informed, intelligent, and in college. But, they are also busy. So, the way to engage them is to entice with a concept that is either clever, humorous, controversial, or all 3. Take a look at some of the other covers posted this week, inspiration can be found in unexpected places!