I have been looking through magazine cover styles from the era of the 70s & 80s. What I've found in quite a lot of the imagery that I've stumbled upon is that the design is very busy. This is something I won't be including in my own cover design due to the lack of content, only one interview. However, certain design traits that I have noticed appear in the images above that I would like to involve in my design are:
- Bold, playful use of a headline type. There are many different typefaces I will be choosing from so I intend to narrow it down to a select few and hopefully gain some feedback on the options which will influence the final decision I make.
- There's also a tendency for these cover designs to involve quite a lot of colour, or a limitid colour but still a loud use of that limited colour palette. Examples of this in the images above that I really like are the ones on the final slide. These are from publications housing an interview alone, which is the same as mine. They also don't include any where near as much text as the other images however through design elements such as a barcode or price label it is clear to the viewer that that's what these images are. I think that adding a barcode and labelling/pricing will help to push that theme of the publication further and make it more obvious of an influence to the viewer.
- Photography seems to be the most common form of visual element in these covers. Either taking up the full page with text laid out appropriately around the image or sectioned off through the use of a colour border/set of borders. Now that I have decided to use the halftone image of Daniele Baldelli for the front cover I think it could be worked to a similar style, I will be sure to experiment with a range of layout designs.
- Previously this is the way that I was planning to title the publication: "COSMIC: An Interview With Daniele Baldelli, Exploring the birth & evolution of Cosmic Disco". However, I recently took another look at the source of the interview and noticed that there was already a title to the text there (obviously there would've been, don't know how I didn't realise...) which is:
- I think that it would make a lot more sense to use this information on the front cover. This could mean that I position Daniele Baldelli's name in a bold, showcase typeface that is the header. And then place the remaining text to follow on from that. Including a date in there, credits to the writers and possibly publishing information. Only, publishing information wouldn't be as relevant as I've created a new document for the text. Also I'm unsure whether I'd want to include the actual date it was published, as this might take away from the whole theme of it being an old magazine in its style. Maybe I could include a date and leave out the year or scribble over it to add some mystique.
It was a struggle trying to find any images of the back covers of magazines, especially from such a specific era. For this aspect of the publication I think there doesn't need to be too much design at all. Keeping it simple with a small piece of information, potentially the online source of the interview, will enable it to work most appropriately. Including a similar colour palette on the back will work to draw the two sides together and unify the publication as a whole.
