Website Examples

For my website, I want to create a simplistic style that represents my magazine and also represents my target audience. In order to follow the needs of my desired audience, I needed to look at previously made websites that are made and sent out to the age category mirroring my own magazine.

One thing that I have noticed whilst looking at pre-existing websites is that they all follow a similar colour palette of; blue, white, black and grey. Therefore this has become a common convention I will use whilst creating the website for my surfing magazine. Another convention I will follow is the similar layout patterns, the style of these websites are blocks of images with overlaying text on top of the images. The images are made up of waves and sunset beach settings which makes the viewer want to read the magazine to get a better understanding of these. As a result of this I am going to attempt to take similar images to these and add them to the homepage of my website. 

The website for Carve has a different style as it has one background image and then the centre is filled with the actual website content. I like this concept because it gives the website a subverted look to the regular design of a typical website. My magazine has a subverted style to it as it's different to a regular regional magazine, therefore I may use aspects of this design in my own. The main thing I would change if I were to use this as a reference whilst designing mine would be the colour of the background image, however the content of this website seems to match the image so it could be one of the colours from their colour palette.


This is my favourite out of the 3 website examples I have looked at, The colour palette is similar to the one I have chosen for my own website. I will also insert a image montage at the top of my website and then lay out the rest of the content I have in little boxes just as Surf girl have done. I may replace the background image with a surf inspired pattern/design, however I will decide this once I have the content of my website is in place so that I can see what work best with the style of my magazine and website.

Original Images

These are the images from my beach photoshoot, I like all of these however some didn't work as well as others as a cover image therefore I had to test which ones worked will the colour palette, layout and style of my magazine.

Final Masthead & Title Choice

This is the final design of my masthead, I chose a simple sans serif bold font as this was the common convention of my chosen magazine genre. I think this works well with my main cover image because the white colour is contrasting from the blue water. I also chose this bold font because it stands out from the image and makes the readers eye draw into my magazine.

This was the title for my double page spread, I chose a different font style from the cover because I felt this font worked better with my article and the appearance of my overall page design. I also chose to keep within the colour palette and add the block of colour under the title, this was to keep within common conventions and make sure all three pages link.

Models & Shot list

I have explained the shot types I will use within the magazine in an earlier post however I didn't explain the models and equipment requirements for my images.
The photography for my magazine is quite simple as I don't require any models to pose as such all I need is to go to the beach and take images of people surfing. My ideal photo would be of someone mid wave but facing the camera, this is not the easiest to ensure however I will try my best in order to get the right shot for my articles. I will be using a Cannon 5D with a tripod set up on the beach, I will also be using a 75-300mm lens to get up close to the surfers without walking to close to the water with the equipment. The most difficult part of the photo shoot will be capturing an in focus action shot that will work as a cover image however the tripod should counteract the camera shake.

Double Page Spread Article

Big waves carry big responsibilities and Cornwall holds some of the best surfing spots in the country. Many people travel miles to come surfing however, as well as surfing Cornwall is also known for its great food and historic locations, which surround the beaches and attract many tourists. This popular holiday destination holds an annual music and surf festival known as Board masters. Which has had loads of artists come to headline the festival and people come from all over the country to join in. As well as people travelling to Cornwall, many people also travel away from Cornwall to explore different waters and try out their surf competitions. One man in particular Luke Harris has travelled around 14 countries with his surfboard and we've managed to ask him a few questions about his journey. "I've had the time of my life, I've met so many people and tried out so many different wave conditions, however I've still got a lot to learn and I believe that the best wave of your life is still out there, no matter how far you travel and how well you improve I don't think anybody will ever be able to say that was the best wave of my life as the world is changing so much that opportunities and changes are going to male things better".

Heading: Surfing The World

Pull quote: Big waves carry big responsibilities.

Masthead &Title Ideas

Magazine Masthead Ideas

• Cornwall Arts
• Creative Cornwall
• Cornwall Creates

Out of this selection I preferred "Creative Cornwall", however I still had to ask my target audience for their opinion therefore I did this by creating a survey monkey that included the question referencing the best masthead for my magazine genre. The responses varied but the most popular choice was "Creative Cornwall". After this decision I had to focus on the right typography for my magazine style so I researched pre existing magazines and worked out that a simple sans-serif font would work with my simplistic layout on the cover.

Within my magazine I have included a double page spread, therefore I had to write an article to feature on the page. I had a few ideas based on the different aspects of my magazine but I resulted back to surfing as this was the main theme running throughout my magazine. I then looked at different surf magazine DPS articles to get inspiration for my own. I decided to look at the different surfing experiences around the work and what it is like to surf whilst travelling, the title I came up with was "Surfing the world" again this would be in a simple sans serif font. I also used a pull quote from within the article which reads "Big waves carry big responsibilities".