Publication Project - Format and Cover Ideas

I really like it when a magazine or book has a slightly unconventional format. Little White Lies is slightly shorter than A4 but also slightly wider. I decided that my astronomy publication should be quite a bit smaller than a standard magazine. Making it A5 would mean that I can print out mock spreads on my home printer in colour, which is definitely a bonus. Also, I spoke to Ripe Digital, a printer in Corsham, and they print at "Super A3" size, so an A5 magazine would be printed four pages to a sheet, making it cost-effective.

I didn't want standard A5 (210x148) though, so I played around a bit before settling on a page setting of 200mm x 148mm.

During my last tutorial, I showed Teresa my proposed cover photo, which she loved, and came up with the title "Don't Look At The Sun" on the spot! It just seemed to really work with the image and it also reinforced the DIY backyard feel. So I set to work on some ideas for the cover...

This is my first attempt at the cover. I think the title font, American Captain, is really rather nice. It looks a bit Star Trek, which is evocative of the sixties, a time where people were wrapped up in the space race and increasingly fascinated by the universe around them. The subtitle "A Celebration of Backyard Astronomy" is set in OCR A Std.

This title is in Dubiel Italic, which I think also has a very sixties feel to it. I am not sure I like it as much as the previous one though. I have rounded the corners of the photo on this one, making more like the sixties surf mags that inspired me.

Not so sure about this one. The typeface is Designer Block, which is pretty nice but I am not sure it really works for my magazine. I have also tried moving the content summary text to beneath the photo for balance but I don't think it is successful. All part of the process...

I really like this one. It is a very delicate retro typeface called Across The Stars which I think works well in all lower-case. This is definitely my second favourite after the first one in this post.

This is called Droid Regular. I like the fact it is condensed as it really seems to balance the page. It's also very sixties in style. I still don't think it's quite there but it's not that far off.