1. Creating my Masthead By Theresa Kuhn

2. Deciding on the typographyWhen making a masthead for my magazine there were many things to consider. With my magazine intended to be called TONIC, I want to revolve its appearance with this and the genre of my music magazine. To start I thought about what my music magazine represented. As an indie magazine, its all about being fresh and original, so a typography with an edgy and different appearance was what I wanted. I also thought outside the box, branching out further than just indie music, and taking inspiration from indie style and fashion. 3. BRAINSTORM Skinny jeansMen with long hair, beards, rugged lookBow collars, bow ties Hoodies Band t shirtsStatement jewelleryDouble denimBangles, chunky bracelets, lots of jewelleryIndie Fingerless glovesShorts and tightsTie dyeSatchelsDip dye hairWoolly hats/ beany hatsAztecSnap backsDr martins, loafers, creepersLong straightened hairPrinted fabricConversesLabelled clothingtriangles Vintage/ retro styles Bow collarsInstagram editing, edited pictures, filtersWedge heelsFloral patternsNative American patterns 4. Something that stood out at me at the moment was the current trend of Aztec pattern on anything from dresses, to rucksacks and even phone cases. All over high street shops products with this design dominate the trends and really prove popular in style. Therefore I thought influencing this into my designs would prove popular, making it clear this was the genre on music my magazine was offering. 5. Therefore I looked up Aztec fonts that would make a starting point for ideas for my masthead design. After looking on Prezi.com I came across iamthelab.com that displayed a lot of different fonts and their creators:Parqa and section interception- by Marco Oggian I liked this design as it looked very Aztec inspired, with an upper and lower-case addition that could make any upper-case letters in dominant and exciting within text 6. Marina by Angelica Baini This was a great font, that took a traditional serif and remixed it into a very graphical and bold typeface. Very much like the first one, it includes extra lines and triangles that make it almost like a jigsaw for your own creation of words.Attitude by Emil Kozole With an extended range of letters and symbol this font almost looks like a historical choice of writing. I liked how this took simple shapes to make into letters that makes it easy to read and not too extravagant. 7. Nomed Font by Medness I really liked this font too with its cooperation of lots of triangles to make each letter individual yet work as a collective. Another indie trend is the fascination with triangles, and is another popular iconic symbol that features on clothes, shoes and even in music videos( e.g. Ke$ha's Die Young video, with special effects that distort the image into triangles , with the knowledge of what it represents.) As a masthead, it might be quite hard to read because of its geometrical complexed arrangement, but it will still provide inspiration for my design.Magico by Marco Oggian This was slightly different to the other fonts that I chose as the individual letters are constructed by different objects. I thought this was a creative way to write each letter, and even though it would be too much to make the whole masthead in this font, I think one letter with more creativity would look intriguing. 8. My initial designs After looking at each of the fonts collected I started creating a few preliminary designs to test the look of each font on the word TONIC. This gave me a basic idea as to what worked and was readable from a distance, as well as what stood out and would relate to my magazine. This worked the best a an Aztec font yet looks a bit over the top if all the letters were fancyI like this one in the black font, but when looking at it further away it becomes unclear as to what is says so I will not be using this fontThis one looks good on the dark background as it makes it clearer, so when creating it id have to make a black banner to go behind it For this one I tried to incorporate a serif edge to the ends of each of the letter to see its appearance However this came out too formally and almost looked Gothic instead, which wasnt what I intended and would not suit my magazineFor these two versions, I incorporated the fonts of the 3rd and 4th lines. These were my two favourite as they were clear to read and was influenced with the Aztec design. Therefore I chose to extend my designing onto these designs. 9. To start with I places it on a black banner like I had preferred previously. This looked good but the lettering was too thin, making me then create two other designs adjusting the thickness of each letter and its height and width. I consistently used the t looking like a plus(+) sign as I thought It worked well with the title: tonic being something that makes you better and this plus sign confirming this, therefore relating that reading this magazine will do you good. This was originally going to be the basics of my final design, however, after collecting feedback from showing this to at least 10 people, they said it was unclear as to what the title said with the 't' being a cross rather than a usual shape. They also said the 'c' was too curved and almost looked like an 'o', making it look like the masthead said '+onio'. This feedback lead me to readjust some of the font of letters that would make it amend these problems. 10. I then experimented with the shape of the 't'. I took inspiration from my first font designs to see which worked best. The first one didnt match as the thickness of each smaller line didnt work with the rest. The next two made the 't' fatter so it was top heavy. Although this may have worked I then thought it would be best to just use a normal 't' shape, as most of the other letters were complex in design. So to make it not look over the top I kept this as a usual 't'. to amend the 'c' I spread out the ends of it to make them wider apart. This didnt chance the design dramatically but kept the Aztec appearance and was easier to read.In terms of width and height I chose the longer thinner but chunky approach that would span across the top of the front cover nicely. In this design it looked more compact and organised and would be more appropriate as a masthead. 11. These designs then let me figure out how I wanted it to be displayed, with a banner or just black or with a line to define the edge. Each letter is 3cm long and 3cm high and the thickness of each line was 6mm, so each one is identical and was easier to compare: This one was good as it was bold against the background but may not work with my pastel house design which I wish to incorporateFor this design I used one of the many pastel colours as part of my colour scheme, and used it with a black rim (2mm) around the edge. This one worked the best as it is clear to read, fits with the house design, is interesting and runs along my Aztec theme. Therefore I have decided to use this as my masthead design for my magazine TONICThis one made with block colour of black was bold but maybe not adventurous enough. It lacked any connection with my house design so didnt seem really appropriate, but was clear to read.For this one I decided to go all just one bold pastel colour without any black outlining. Although when put into Photoshop it might be more visible it currently was very hard to read at any distance. My choice of pastel colour may contributed to this, but I intend to keep this colour scheme so this wasnt an option in masthead design. 12. My Final DesignI am very please with how my final design came out, as a masthead for a magazine. it is bold and clear to see and will most certainly catch the attention of the public when on a shelf. Because it incorporates the Aztec design into some of the letters it make a hint to the theme of the magazine and so will stand out as one of the only indie music magazine. It may not be as complexed as some of the initial designs I created but this way it will not clash with the bold main images I will use on the front cover. Also the colour will depend on the main colour in the main image and so will change each week. I will then put this into Photoshop to create a digital copy that will be used when creating my front cover.