Magazine Cover: Part 1


  • Clean design, minimal clutter.
    • The cover only dedicates a rather small amount of space for anchorage.
    • Focusing on using symbols and images on my cover rather than inundating my potential reader with text and buzzwords.
    • Smooth, modern sans-serif fonts.
      • Proxima Nova and Open Sans - used by Twitter and Google, immediately came to mind when I saw Popular Science's covers.
    • Simple color scheme of 2-3 colors, which adds to a minimalist and modern tone.
  • Audience
    • Millennials and older teens
      • From experience, young people like the style of the websites they use most frequently, i.e. Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. I used this to build off the Popular Science conventions previously analyzed in order to try to target even younger people like me vs. just older audiences.
        • Light and spacious cover allows a narrower focus on new discoveries in science and engineering or controversial issues with emergent technologies.
  • Research in Application
    • Analysis of multiple issues of Popular Science magazine's covers, spreads, and tables of contents.
      • Brand research allowed me to determine magazine's identity and what I should aim for and add on.
      • Blog posts articulating design conventions and elements better consolidated understanding of them.
    • Group presentations
      • Mediated a broader look at science magazines in general in shorter the time.
      • Ideas for the borrowing of other elements, i.e material design in practice, artistic elements of magazines like WIRED or National Geographic.
  • Symbolism
    • The Popular Science cover with the red skull containing crazy and interesting harmful things showed me the power of images.
    • I chose the cover image because of its unique symbolic elements in conveying the power and awe of science (lighting, facial expressions, interpretive potential). 

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