Making a magazine is a new project on the way for this trimester. Before we jump in and start making a magazine, first we visited the library to study how magazines work and how they are different to one another. Whilst there I noticed the type of magazines I feel I didn’t want to make, such as the ones with writing all of the front page, and advertisements through them. Whilst I understand the reasoning why they have them this is something I wanted to steer clear for my forthcoming project.
Attracted more to the “extreme” sports area of the magazines, I like how simple their covers can be and lots of writing on the front isn’t needed, as people into these sports are going to get it either way. For this weeks analyze I was drawn in by the Slam magazines. At first, it’s their mastheads which stand out, usually embossed into the thick page of the cover. This is usually backed up with a bright border around the front image to the magazine. This was what attracted me to this magazine at first as this brightness is something I want to incorporate for my own project. This is a different way for skateboard magazines to go about it as others in this category are usually grittier and have an urban appeal to it.
With the slam magazine, the main function they are trying to accomplish here is like most other skateboard magazines, the appreciation and exposure towards skateboarders in Australia. As there is plenty of foreign skateboard magazines, this consumer based would be largely focusing on Australian readers who are interested in skateboarding and the culture.
As stated earlier the masthead is what drew me in first, this is consistent throughout their other magazines as seen in the image above, they use vibrant colours either as a background (as seen in the first cover shown) or with the mast head itself. By doing this with the border look in their magazines helps make unity throughout each issue. Another factor with this is the simplicity of the magazines where theres not much information throughout the covers, where you can see the difference between the two covers shown in this article only one has note at the bottom of what the magazine is. The selling point to this cover is utilised through the use of professional photos of a skater performing a trick in a urban environment, this is consistent throughout the issues. The size of this is quite normal for these extreme sports magazines which is a A4 size, which I believe is a nice size as its not too big or small for the consumer.
When delving deeper into the magazine you see the column system used throughout all sections are a simple grid system, never going past a 3-column grid as seen in the images below. This helps each section have similar visuals and tone to each article. As stated about the cover, the bright colours are continued with the borders throughout each article to contribute with unity.
Whilst reading these magazines, the tone of each one felt very similar and that’s with the help of colours, grids and same fonts of handwritten/brush for headers mixed with a sans serif font used for body and some headers. By doing this it has helped harmonize each issue together and push forward their own idea of a skateboard mag, where they can still be street but have a bit of class and fun with it whilst doing it. This is a magazine brand I will be referring to for when I get to my own magazine as I do feel this is an effective method of publishing.
