magazine project--overtime

1. I have no idea why there is so much space between my magazine and the following text...sorry!!

Magazine Identity & Readership
My invented magazine is a victim of my immense obsession with the NCAA basketball tournament this year. The magazine is called OVERTIME and is centered around college basketball (both female and male, but for this project I focused on just Men’s Basketball). OVERTIME is a specialized magazine designed for coaches, athletes, students, and fans. Each monthly issue would be commemorative in it’s own way, in an attempt to ensure readership and sales of the magazine. The issue I’ve made is centered on March Madness and the Final Four (cover).

Magazine Visual Identity
I think my cover in a way sets the tone for the following spreads—the background is black to create a dramatic effect, and the headlines are big to grab attention. I cut out four players from each team in the Final Four and set them on top of each other at the bottom, while displaying the other stories in the issue at the top of the cover. I used an orange gradient on the magazine title to give it some layers and also noted that it is a ‘special issue’ (as they basically all are). I tried to make my designs parallel the action from the photos showcased on the pages.

Article Visual Identity
My spreads are just the start of many pages that will preview and recaps various points of the NCAA tournament. I want the look to be bold and bright while also providing a lot of information, professional opinions, statistics, and other interesting and useful items of discussion.

Article Design Strategy
My headline and cover type is called Eurostile, and I feel it mirrors in a way the look of a scoreboard, and that is why I chose it. My body copy font is sans serif Calibri and I picked it because I think it complements Eurostile while still looks relatively professional. I went for the sans serif body copy because I think it more easily represents movement and action. Overall, my font is big and bold to balance out the photos I use. I think sports photos are one of the best genres of photography, so I made my pictures large to feature them. I used the cut out of the UCLA player on my jump spread cut into the text and I used a text wrap to create some action on the spread. In addition I’ve curved the right sides of both the feature and jump spreads in an attempt to create more movement. I use the color orange because I think it’s bright and bold, and also because it’s the color of a basketball. My sidebar module is called out by my use of the curve, and it features the other important people involved in basketball who aren’t necessarily on the court. Through my design, I tried my best to create a unified marriage of elements that works and still looks professional.

The only thing I've done for the past two weeks...

Okay, so I haven't really done very much homework since March 19. Instead, I've been on ESPN.com and Yahoo! Sports, editing and perfecting my bracket in anticipation for the most glorious sporting event in the history of the universe, the NCAA tournament. I've had plans to go to Detroit ever since SU earned a 3-seed in the easiest region and I WILL drive 10 hours to get there no problem. To sum it up, I LOVE BASKETBALL. All this nonsense aside, I decided to check ESPN while I was brainstorming for this post, and I found the perfect idea--the website itself.

This is their homepage. Note the grid, combining three columns with a larger image, etc. Scroll down a bit more, and this is what you see:

Note the same type of three column grid, now with six at the bottom. Instead, its a 6 column grid. This reminds me a lot of a newspaper, something classic like the New York Times, that doesn't have any column breakage and uses different numbers of columns simply to make it easier to find changes in articles. 

ESPN also publishes a magazine (aptly titled, ESPN the Magazine). The grid system on their website, at least in my opinion, channels that of a magazine with the strict set of columns. I think their layout works well, because they highlight the big stories of the day across all of the sports, and at the top they provide links to specific leagues (NFL, NBA, College Basketball, etc.). ESPN knows what their readers/watchers want, and they provide it at the top, as soon as their eyes grace the page. 

I think their layout is especially effective this time of the year, when thousands of people like myself are constantly checking sports websites for information on teams in the tournament that can make or break brackets. It's clear through all of the stories under the "headlines" category on the right and through the featured videos and articles that basketball is on the brain for most of America, and personally I really like it. It works well when I need to check stats/scores/info on schedules in an instant while watching a game or discussing with my friends. I probably need more hobbies.