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(12) Finalising IKO

Final Thoughts & Amendments

I've completely finished designing my IKO magazine and I think I'm happy with it. It does need quite a few improvements for the moment, I'm satisfied with the outcome. I would have liked for the magazine to look more "flashy" in order to appeal to a wider audience. I know that I've definitely drifted away from my brief to a great extent but at the same time, I'm happy that I did. I think that if I would have stuck to my brief, I would have ended up making something mainstream and obvious. Here are a few thumbnails of my final design for the magazine:

UPDATE:
I've just recently finished my work placement at Green Hat Design. The creative director, who used to be the junior designer for Time Out Magazine many years ago, was nice enough to give me some constructive criticism on my magazine. He explained to me that my magazine is too personalised and contains way too much white space to be considered a magazine for everyday girls. The magazine would be be best suited as a coffee table book. This meant that the book was better off as something for display and pure entertainment. 
So, I've decided to split my magazine into three parts and call it a collection of Coffee table books. Each book will be about different topics. This could be something that can be collected Separately depending on the buyers interests. Here's an example of a coffee table book:

As you can see, the coffee table book is full of white space and the content is sparse. Most of what the viewer is expected to look at is the aesthetics rather than the information. Turning my magazine into a series of coffee table books sounds like a very interesting idea. I'm going to attempt this before the deadline!

(9) Vintage

Researching Vintage Style and Design

Now that I know I want my magazine to be slightly vintage, I've been researching a range of artists, styles and font in order to gather some ideas for my new layouts. I've been looking at different kinds of layouts most of all!
Lately, I've been a very much inspired by the designs of modern art editors rather than the classic ones. I think that I'd rather have a  magazine that some vintage elements but with a modern layout. For example, I'm going to keep all of the images black and white, sepia etc and experiment with a variety of 1940-50s fonts. I've been looking at colour palettes firstly. This is so that I have an idea as to what colours will stand out on my magazine. Here's an example of the sort of palettes I've been considering:
  

The font that I have been looking at have been tall, thin and slightly condensed. I really like this look and I think it could appeal to wide audience seeing as it doesn't look too old fashioned. I'm going to try and experiment with a few of the fonts that I have found and see what happens with them. 

(8) Artists Block!

Redesigning IKO

My magazine so far hasn't been going in the direction that I want it to. So, I've decided to recreate my entire idea and design. One of the main reasons for my change in the designs is that I want my magazine to have some solid and obvious consistency. I've gone to the library a few times to have a look at some layout and magazine design books. I desperately need some new inspiration before I get started! 

I picked up a very useful book called The Last Magazine. This book has given me a great deal of ideas to try out. A lot of the designs I've seen in the book so far, look easy to mimic and recreate. So, I'm going to attempt some brand new layouts and see what happens!

(11) Front Cover Ideas?

Front Covers

I've finally made a start on some front cover Ideas for my magazine. I quite like the idea of create a front cover that isn't as clustered as modern day magazine covers. Vintage magazines all have very little wording on the front cover. The photography or illustration was usually inviting enough on it's own! That's exactly what I want from my front cover. Here are some examples of what I'm talking about:

   

I started a few experiments and quickly decided on a final cover. This was the cover that my tutors and peers thought suited the magazine best. I think the cover's quite basic. There isn't much to it and the theme is consistent throughout the front and back. You can see that I tested out the look and measurements of the front  cover on an existing A4 magazine. 

So far, I'm happy with the cover. The colours and photography give the audience an idea what to expect inside which is good. It could be a lot more exciting, but simplicity is what I'm going for. 

(10) Second Attempt!

Second Set of Ideas

I've decided to give the magazine another go and try something different. Instead of cluttering up my pages, I'm going to try and simplify things to make it look less busy. I've been trying to create pages with plenty of white space and a lot of emphasis on the layout rather than image. Here's an example of what I've started working on:

I'm going to attempt a few more experiments and see if I can form some kind of consistency or theme throughout my magazine. So, I'm feeling confident about the red strip photo but I could try and make something a bit more exciting!