branding techniques

There are many factors to creating a magazine that will appeal to someone looking for a magazine on a shelf. A consistent design is very important so a reader has an idea of what the cover page will look like. A reader will always be drawn to that magazine on the shelf if they were interested the first time. Pretty much all magazines will use the same masthead style on all of their issues.

As you can see above, ESPN uses almost the same masthead on each of their magazine issues so that a reader can identify the cover on a shelf and return back to it if they like the magazine.


It is also important to have a color code on your cover. The masthead and other text on the covers normally correspond with the image. For example, the Texas longhorns basketball player in the first magazine above has an orange uniform on, therefore, the masthead is the same color and the other headline are also orange. In the third magazine above, Flloyd Mayweather is wearing red boxing shorts, therefore, the masthead is also in red.