Fonts and colours.

1. Fonts and Colours
By James Borland

2. Using the right fonts and colours is important in
sending a message to your audience. It can imply
age and gender and the general genre of the
media product. The message of the font is
important as this is what attracts the potential
buyer into purchasing the magazine.

3. Analysing Fonts
“Adobe Fan Heiti Std B” – This font is very bold and slightly
curved. It is more blocky. It features some shape in it but is
mainly all straight lines showing that it is made by a computer
and making it very easy to read.
“Adobe Caslon Pro Bold”- This font is more curved and changes
thickness like when writing with a pen. This gives a smarter look
as it is thinner and slicker. It is less bold than the other and looks
more like it could have been written.
Some of these letters
have lines coming of
them to give the
impression of them
being drawn

4. Inappropriate Font
“Bradley Hand ITC”- When fully sized a font like this will be
too thin and is not easily seen on the cover. This also
realistically needs to be a block colour as an outline
would not fit.

5. Display Fonts
Display fonts are great for mastheads as they are easy
to read from a distance. They are bold and often
capitalised. This makes them extremely easy to read
from a far, this is why they are used for most magazine
mastheads.
“INDIE”- This fits the indie genre as the letters are very
square, which tends to appeal to men and is a slightly
quirky style making it fit the modern changing world of
indie rock. Due to it being capitalised it is easy to read
still.

6. Handwritten Font
“Edwardian Script ITC”- This is used to give the impression of
it being really handwritten. This style looks especially
old and therefore should be used for very few genres
such as classical.
Handwritten fonts may be used on the contents page
for the editorial. This makes it look as though it is
written directly too them. However the right
handwritten font must be used as otherwise you will be
showing the wrong genre.

7. SIZE
The size of the font is important as it makes titles easy
to see. The most important information will be in the
largest font, e.g. the title. The main cover line referring
to the main image will also be quite large. The bigger
the text the better as this means that it will be seen
from far away in the shop. This allows for clearer
advertisement and easier brand loyalty to a certain
magazine, as you can always see the magazine you
normally buy.

8. Colour
Colour is important as colours need to
go together to attract the readers eye
Many colours look bad together and
do not fit which can make a cover look ugly. The colours
also tell you about the genre and readership, whether
it’s age or gender. Some colours are more sensible for
certain genres, for example heavier rock music needs
darker colours and uses some reds or more
toxic/hazard colours like yellow or green. Indie rock
uses a wider spread of colours and many more neutral
ones to fit the style.

9. Fonts and Colours That Don’t Work
Heavy metal mag- This font is inappropriate as, for a
metal magazine you expect to see straighter, sharper font.
The colour is also wrong as it is baby blue a colour more
associated with young boys. The other colours are too
neutral for a Heavy Metal mag cover as loud colours are
needed for loud music. Darker and less ne
Hip-hop mag- This does not fit as the letters are not
capitalised and it is and old fashioned looking font. Hip-hop
is a much more modern music and therefore needs a font
to show that. The colour is too bright and is more likely to
fit a heavier rock magazine. The font comes across as
passive and not too strong.

10. Colours and Fonts Used Well
Colour is used well here as complementary colours are used
together. The colours also fit the main image of Alex Turner. The
NME font is capitalised and bold which makes it very easy to see.
It is also now very recognisable and can be slightly covered as it
has been going for years. The colours here also fit his clothing.
All of the cover lines also fit the colour scheme. Even the prop of
the record also fits the black and red colour
scheme. The colour scheme features red, black
,blue and white.

11. Mind map of Colours and Fonts I may
Use
TWANG Future Sounds
I plan on using fonts which are bold and I am considering using all capitalised letters in
my masthead. I am going to use strong block colours and simple designs. I will
probably use an black outline on my actual masthead. “TWANG” is what I am
currently thinking I will choose. Also my focus groups agreed with this masthead.
The Sound
Indie Wave
FUSION