Critique: Magazine Prototypes

I just finished revamping my magazine prototypes for tonight's presentation. I am much happier with the overall package of my magazine so far, but I'm still struggling with my department page.

While redesigning my cover, I was looking at a couple of magazines that just happened to be next to my computer on my desk. Then, I remembered what we learned last semester in Mag Editing - that there are words and numbers that trigger people to look at a magazine cover. I included lines such as "DIY," "15" and "Help!" to catch people's attention.  I played with my color palette and decided on a handful of fonts that were more modern and less playful.  I changed my logo a bit - I made the "M' totally inside the blue box with no outer bleed towards the "o" so that, as one of you so gracious suggested, it could be used as a smaller, stand-alone logo. I also changed the color of the "i" and I dropped the navy from my color palette all together. I changed my font for "Reclaim your space" from Orator STD to Arial Bold, because Theresa mentioned that it looked to computer-y (okay, that wasn't her exact word) for a modern magazine.

I'm still not totally sold on my department page, but I think that it's more where I want it to be than my original, and I think that it serves the reader a greater purpose, while still allowing for use of white space. I added a paint splatter on the bottom (that fell into my color scheme) and added text inside. I also added a list underneath the two products so that the information could be easily spotted and pulled from for the reader. I deleted the bold line across the span of the top of the page, and added a small, colored box so that the reader could easily distinguish between department sections while flipping the page.

For my feature, I mainly kept the left page the same, but played with my typography a bit. I took Jan's suggestion and found a vibrant photo of bamboo and nixed the color overlay.  I deleted the white text box and made it more of a glow box that is somewhat opaque throughout.

I'm overall satisfied with the aesthetic appeal of my package, and I hope that my group feels the same way! Let me know your comments on the changes that I've made, and feel free to continue to add comments and suggestions to my improved designs.