Comment
A dog with a rocket strapped to its back is still a dog.
The G8 was an outstanding opportunity to show what the businesses and people of Perth and Kinross could produce.
A magazine produced, edited and written by people living in Perthshire would have sent a stronger message.
Perthshire G8 magazine
First impressions
A successful magazine has a requirement to be highly visible on the shelf.
Its simply a question of being seen. The G8 Publication fails in this respect
because there is not enough contrast and colour variation between the logo/masthead
and the cover elements. The page elements are out of scale with the page.
It's difficult to discover what the magazine is about from a distance of
4 feet. Test this theory yourself with a visit to any magazine shop on the
high street and identify the magazines that compete for your attention on
the shelf.
The cover design of the magazine ignores the Perthshire brand identity. When using the logo there is only one allowable promotional strapline . The Perthshire identity demands the words "Classic Scotland" justified to the left or right side of the logo. Brand identity clearly states "never use any other form of wording with the visual identity other than Classic Scotland".The strapline of the magazine reads "your guide to classic Scotland". Cover design is sparse and gives little indication of the purpose and content of the magazine.
Inside the magazine the layout is graphical bubble bath. Magazine layout is an arrangement of the elements of design in relation to the space that they occupy according to the overall design scheme. This could also be called the management of form and space. Within a bubble bath layout the graphic elements rise to the top of the page.
There is little variation in the layout of the pages. The majority of the pages are 4 column with a graphic element placed at the top. Occasionally a page switches to a 3 column layout. Greater variation and a mixing different layouts would greatly enhance readability and visual impact of the publication.
Overuse of strong background colour text boxes distracts from the overall flow of the page and causes problems with the legibility of the words on the page. There are several occasions where heading fonts and callouts are bullied by the page elements and body text. It's difficult to flick through the magazine and realise where you are.
Loved the print quality it was the best part. Perfect bound and correctly registered. The paper stock and finish are what carry the quality of the magazine. It's an unusual achievement for a magazine to be overwhelmed by the paper stock and ink. Curiously the printer is identified as Print Squared in the magazine. This magazine was printed in Perthshire by Woods of Perth.
Content
The targets in the brief called for a broad readership of the magazine,
investment, media, tourists, day trippers, local business and residents.
The tone and content of the articles and advertisers suggest the magazine
has been targeted at the more affluent visitor. The magazine segments the
readership into the socio economic groups of A, B and C1. Large portions
of the target audience have been excluded in the publication. This magazine
has been produced as an upmarket tourist magazine. It promotes a lifestyle
that most of the potential visitors to Perthshire may never attain.
The content of the magazine is recycled. Overused pictures and images from the Perthshire tourist board website and brochures. It's difficult to read. The style of prose is dry and unappealing. The articles are loosely disguised Perthshire facts padded out to sentences.
Articles in the magazine cover the points in the brief although they fail to provide inspirational reading. It's difficult to flick through the magazine and find a story that is interesting enough to read from start to finish. The content provides facts about Perthshire that have been recycled time and time again. Kinross appears to be relegated to "a town on Perthshire's Southern Border". The writing style is standardised through the magazine. It's difficult to imagine a team of eight individual writers collaborated on the publication.
Conclusion
Overall this magazine would have been greatly improved with a different
paper size. Something slightly wider would have allowed larger column spacing
and more freedom for the content. Art direction of the photography and graphical
elements. More contrast and variation between the font sets used. Fresh
and appealing content. The brief called for a lifestyle magazine with something
for everyone. What was delivered was a tourist brochure printed on better
quality paper. High school project springs to mind.
