Masthead Design

Personally, I believe that besides a cover image, a masthead is one of the most important elements of a magazine: it stands out on the cover page, helps the target audience recognize a publication, and contributes to a magazine's overall aesthetic. In fact, when I observe a magazine cover, the magazine element I often observe first is the masthead. Just recently, I finalized my masthead design, and I am glad to say that I had a great experience! Not only did I learn how to use Adobe Illustrator—the application I used to create my masthead—but I had SO much fun in the process!

While researching and planning for my masthead, I learned about kerning, the spacing between individual letters or characters that create readable, visually appealing text. I learned about it on Kern Type, an online interactive game that allows users to test their kerning skills! First, it presents a word with improperly spaced letters, and the users' goal is to appropriately distribute them. Then, they are scored depending on how close they are to perfection. Below were my first three attempts!

LEFT IMAGE: Original improper kerning RIGHT IMAGE: My alteration of kerning!

LEFT IMAGE: Original improper kerning RIGHT IMAGE: My alteration of kerning!

LEFT IMAGE: Original improper kerning RIGHT IMAGE: My alteration of kerning!

Creating my own masthead!

Creating my masthead was something I've always looked forward to, so I was very excited to approach this stage in creating my magazine. As previously stated, I have already planned to create my masthead on Adobe Illustrator, so I decided to stick with this plan!

Please watch the video below, which demonstrates the creation process of my masthead!

FINAL PRODUCT

	First half of masthead: "A Taste of"	Second half of masthead: "Asia"
FONT	Letter Sseungi	Snell Roundhand
COLOR	Black	Red

I am very happy with how my masthead turned out!