Kerning refers to the spacing between letters or characters, a typographical feature one must consider when creating a masthead with legible words. Factors such as color are equally important when designing a masthead to complement the surrounding colors of the magazine, evoke specific meanings, and more.
Pre-Masthead Designing:
Since I have no experience with kerning, I wanted to learn and practice this typographical feature with the Kern Type game before kerning my masthead. Essentially, the game gives words with unequal spacing for you to attempt to correct. Based on how well you evenly spaced them, you will get a score out of 100. This process repeats for the other serif and sans-serif texts in the game.
Sans-serif words:
After playing the Kern Type game, I noticed it was much easier to achieve a perfect score in kerning the letters in the sans-serif text than in the serif text.
Serif words:
As for serif fonts, I found it more challenging to kern the letters. For example, I found it difficult to space the y and v in “Yves” due to the addition of the strokes at the end of the letters. I also realized the increase in difficulty in kerning text with more letters. In other words, when there are more letters or smaller font sizes of a piece of text, I found it harder to kern them since the difference in spacing is less noticeable. After practicing my kerning on Kern Type, I found reading text closer together more legible.
Process of Designing My Masthead:
I created my final magazine masthead via Adobe Photoshop, which was a learning curve. Although I have become more familiar with Photoshop, I have not yet learned how to make gradient text. With a YouTube video, I soon learned how to accomplish my idea; I check-marked “Gradient Overlay” under “Blending Options” in “Layer Style,” which allowed me to edit the colors, the opacity, and the style of the gradient (for example).
Both of these images show how I am editing the gradient of my masthead. The image on the left is of the editing of "Ready, Set," and the image on the right is of the editing of "Bake!"
Before Editing:
After Editing:
After Editing With Placement on Cover:
I edited my original masthead to have a pink gradient, which correlates to my magazine's color palette. My magazine’s color palette of white, gray, black, and shades of pink connote elegance, happiness, and sweetness. Similarly, my recipes will imply these feelings as they will be gourmet and mostly feature desserts. The gradient starts at a shade of baby pink and gradually darkens as you read from left to right, representing the baking process (baked goods darken as they cook). “Bake!” is written in italics with an exclamation mark and has a larger font size (110 pt) than the rest of the text of my masthead (80 pt), adding emphasis. Since “Bake!” is staggered under the rest of my text, there is more emphasis on the main focus of my magazine. The serif font (Falkin Serif Bold) and its strokes at the end of the letters add depth and detail to my masthead. Not only that, but I colored my magazine's masthead with a gradient since most magazine mastheads have solid colors, and I wanted to produce a unique design. Regarding kerning, I used my knowledge from the Kern Type game and how it influences the readability of text to change the kerning of my masthead to 25. Overall, my final magazine masthead increased in detail from my original masthead after changing the color and applying my knowledge about kerning.
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