Analysis of Empire - Typography

To get a much more 'authentic' look to my production piece, I first began with one of the most important aspects of any publication: The typography. The particular style that the magazine adopts can tell a lot about what kind of publication it is: Serif fonts indicate traditionality and a more formal tone, whereas bold, sans serif fonts indicate informality and modernism.

I first studied the Empire masthead: bright red font, quite thick, sans serif. However, it has interesting little touches to it that aren't like normal fonts: some parts are rounded, and some parts are pointed, with some parts with diagonal ends.

Secondly, I studied the rest of the typography on the front cover. I took one word near the top, 'Exclusive' and used that as a basis for my font search.

I first looked through Word to find similar fonts: searching for thick, sans serif typefaces.

Out of all the fonts I found, the only font that was closest was TW Cen MT Condensed.

When the two fonts are compared (I took the letter C and the letter S from both fonts), there are still a few differences.

For one thing, the Empire font seems to 'slant' at the ends, whereas Tw Cen Mt Condensed is straight. However, in terms of the height and thickness of the two fonts, they are very similar.

Overall, I think I would probably use Tw Cen Mt Condensed, as it is the closest font I have found, and bears a lot of resemblance to the typography of Empire magazine. I think that Tw Cen Mt Condensed would work well within my production piece, as it is clear and easy to read, and bears a lot of similarities to Empire's typography.