BRIEF 13 - THREAD - LOGO AND COVER WORK

After researching into magazine covers, I began to draw out some possible logos and covers for THREAD. 
 

I sketched my initial ideas and then chose my favourites and digitised them. 

My initial idea that I digitised was the split type. This is a very popular concept at the moment, usually paired with an image in between the two elements of the type. It is quite a trendy and effective cover but there isn't anything very unique and recognisable about it.

The second idea that I digitised was the random cascade of letters down the page. I used a 35 square grid as the basis for my design at this point as it provides me with a structure I can manipulate. I do like this design, however, I think the randomness is too random. Although the random layout/choice of which square to put the letters in, could be changed with each issue, I prefer more structure and consistency.

As I wanted more structure in the cover, I digitised another of my sketched covers. This one was more readable due to the hierarchy on the page, with the letters flowing from left to right and top to bottom. I connected all of the letters together using a line. The inspiration for this came from the name of the magazine - THREAD. To me, THREAD has two meanings; one, a physical piece of thread that can be used to tie or sow things together and two, something continuous, a stream or flow. I visualised this by connecting all of the letters together with a line, approximately the same thickness as the pointsize of the type. The content of this cover idea only uses the central five rows, leaving the top and bottom row free for issue relevant content.

This cover also allows for variations. For example the letters can be removed leaving just the lines. This can also be changed by removing the lines, just leaving the letters.

This concept again plays with a similar concept to the previous idea in that it uses a line to represent thread. The split in the word also has relevant meaning in that the break creates the word read. This is appropriate as the publication would obviously be read. The possible problem with this cover is that instead of being read as thread it might be read as 'th-reed'.

A similar concept here, however, this cover idea covers the whole of the page. To me this cover is too bold and takes up too much of the page. The covers would obviously have more information and some imagery, I am just getting a better visual idea at the moment. 

Another trend at the moment is to have text at an angle. Here I place each letter so the word read from top to bottom and left to right but at approximately 45 degrees. For this cover the letters of THREAD would be over an image, leaving the bottom space for more content specific information. 

For this cover I was playing around with the concept and the meaning of the word thread. I was trying to connect all the letters together using a single line. This is a cover that needs to be developed and designed more precisely to gain a better visual idea of its potential.  

The final logo that I digitised was simply the letters of thread turned on a 45 degree angle. This was one of my least favourite logo ideas but I thought I would include it to show the rest of the group and also to see how it looked when it was digitised. 

At this point I decided to choose my favourite cover ideas and develop them, adding images and issue relevant content.