Title written research

I started my font research by creating an array of examples in some of my favoured fonts. I then chose the ones that complimented the word the best and related to the visual aspect the word produces.

‘OFFBEAT’ feels like a hard syllable word due to the ‘BEAT’ inside it, therefore it had to be a bold font with possibly bold letters to represent the tone of the word. I chose capital letters for it as it is a powerful meaning and should represent a vibe for the magazine.

Once I had an overview of various fonts I chose my favourites to increase the size and manipulate the colours to determine an idea to follow that would relate to my music magazine the best. The larger size of the ‘O’ and ‘B’ gives the title increased depth however I determined through this research that the word ‘BEAT’ should have as much effect as the rest of the word and the larger letters removes some of the attention on the words.





I decided to follow the idea of colour within the title as the magazines I researched mostly used coloured titles as their images were quite dark due to the rock genre. The colours I manipulated gave a sense of the word as I had aimed for however the colours were too false and made the title begin to look unprofessional and graffiti-like which isn’t the title I was aiming for.

I removed colour from the words and focused on the colour black yet edited it to fade out, I feel the effect is successful however on a front cover the image could obstruct it and make the title unreadable which wouldn’t be a success as it is a main feature of a magazine. 

The editing began to make the word unreadable therefore I changed the direction of blur and added a line to help show the reader where the word ends to make the title have a bigger impact visually.

These 4 examples show the process it took for me to get to my final choice, it identifies the decisions I made and the changes which helped me decide the best outcome. I tried many options however this one I feel achieves the best title for a rock music magazine.

I kept the ‘O’ and ‘B’ bigger as I discovered in my previous designs however I also maximised the size of the other letters so that they appeared better alongside the ‘O’ and ‘B’ this is an example of successful research as a change I made on a whim became incorporated in my final design.

I liked the change in colour as the letters go on however I chose the solid bold version as the colour tone of my image was unknown therefore it needs to stand out.

The font and increased tilt I used illustrates the tone of the word and relates the title with the font which is successful and was one of my main targets.  As shown as the version at the top I have changed the initial one a lot and then returned back to a similar version for my main one.

During the process of making my front cover I decided the font didn’t fit with the tone and the main image therefore I went back to my previous design and altered the font, angles and size to generate the tone of rock as I had tried to do before.

I changed my font to Calisto MT and changed the tilt to 45 degrees and change the width to 25 this made it larger and more spread out to use the empty space on the magazine. The angle was changed to be in line with the guitar so that it is visually pleasing and all in line.

This decision was made as my previous final design appeared graffitti-like when placed on the magazine. I thought it appeared rocky due to the varied angles of the letters and the bold font, however it appeared unprofessional as it didnt suit the tone of my main image. I feel the image of a solo artist needed a large title to fill the space, however my initial design was small to fit in the corner therefore it wasnt responding to the visual needs of the magazine.


This changed from my research as I had planned to use a corner title such as the magazine ‘NME’ however I did research magazines such as ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘Classic Rock’ that had titles take up the whole width of the magazine. Therefore my research helped me perfect my title and showed me that wide research allows my work to change if my first idea doesn’t work.

The final title is successful as it stands out on a dark background and is sharp and direct as rock music is without being too perfect and in place due to the erratic tone the rock genre should generate.