MASTHEAD DESIGN

Every magazine, music or otherwise, has a masthead or logo. This is usually the name of the magazine written in a style that is reflective of the magazine itself and its' genre. Designers of mastheads will use font styles, colour, sizing of text, positioning and other effects to create a masthead that successfully represents the magazines personality so a potential reader will get a clear idea of what a magazine is about from the first time they see it. The best mastheads on the market are ones that are bold and powerful so they are easily remembered by and therefore reinforce the brand identity in a competitive music magazine market.
I created a few different mastheads, all drawing influences from various other magazines, and all with positive points and negative point to them, but now I have to decide which one to use.

This masthead is good because it puts across the gritty, underground aspect of my magazine with its use of cracked lettering and an un-refined splash beneath the text. However, I don't think this a memorable enough masthead and is too similar to what i had planned for the feature teasers on my front cover.

This masthead is very similar to the one i used for my preliminary task, the different letters successfully represent the construction of a music beat, in particular the use of samples in UK hip hop music. However i do not think it’s directly reflective of my chosen genre and does not put across the idea of underground music.
This masthead is good because it it is a strong, bold design which will result in a successful brand identity as it is very memorable, due to the oversized, unconventional S, which could possibly be used later for a logo or symbol for my magazine. However i think the font i used could be improved with a font similar to my first masthead.

This masthead uses the large 5 for the S as it is a powerful ans memorable symbol that is easily recognized. The text used for the other letters is gritty and raw reflecting the style of my magazine. The colours I used are dynamic yet cool, also reflecting the style of the magazine.