How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?By Miranda Roberts

Research of the MagazineThrough extensive researching of other magazine publications, such

as Empire and Sight and Sound, we chose and focused primarily on the alternative and heavily artistic based magazine, Little White Lies. From then on, we analysed every cover we could find in the paper form and on their website. There are some example of their recent covers.

These covers mainly focus on the fan’s submitted artwork. Many just show a main character, profile or figure and the title of the film is the only text to appear. We found this challenging as we needed to ensure we had more text, so we researched some more to find covers similar to our specifications.

We analysed a cover to establish the typical conventions of a Little White Lies Cover.

The artist’s signature at the bottom right of the cover.

The main text is the name of the film. To fit the quirky design, it has used unique font that includes back to back letters and symbols rather than plain text.

Basic colour scheme of black and white draws attention. The background is simple however looks textured and well designed. We thought we could include this on our poster rather than cover as it would lessen the attraction to the main focus.

We decided to keep the logo it’s recognisable black on white.

We drew and designed our own artist logo using photoshop and the Wacom tablet.

We centered our main profile and used the glass effect which we found in Adobe Illustrator.

We were happy with the font we chose as it was unique and fitted with the magazine’s ideals. We used an off white because it looks bold when put on black. We were keen not to use the same font as we felt it was important to establish an own brand identity. We also used this on our poster to uphold this.

Research of the Poster These are the typical fonts

used on movie posters. Mainly, in capitals, distorted in some way and either involve the warm colour palette. Conventions like these are easy to stick to the horror genre as main colours like red and black are heavily linked to the genre.

The theory is also matched with the format and design of many horror film’s promotional posters. At a glance, it’s clear to see the colours, bold text and centered images.

We used the same font in both formats, creating a brand identity, we used capital letters and a heavy impact font that can be clearly read from a distance and not be distorted.

We made our billing block on Photoshop using the Steel Tongs font. This fits the conventions of a promotional poster as it is key and is always seen.

We added the tagline and coming soon release date in a different font to mix up the design.

We decided to use a pre installed font called Letterpress on Final Cut Pro X. We used this as it included all the features of a typical Horror/Thriller conventions. Picking an off white/grey colour makes it clear for the viewers to see and read, this is critical in a trailer. We also added an effect to ensure that the genre was clearly represented within. We all decided against having our main font (on the magazine and poster) as it didn’t fit as well and didn’t have the dramatic impact we saw in this font.

I think overall we have collectively researched, analysed and chosen our text to match our main product, and it works well within all our promotional products. Although we have different fonts throughout, altogether they look attractive and seamlessly work efficiently. All products have a high standard, look professional and keep the brand identity when they are presented together.