09 Music mag front cover evaluation

In order to produce the front cover of my music magazine I looked at previous examples of successful covers that had already been published. These were frm the same kind of market and would give me an idea of what sells. This would enable me to base the kind of photography including models and poses, the colour scheme and headings around what sells the magazines.

For example this cover has the artists doing interesting poses to capture people s attention. I used a similar idea on my cover with the photograph I used where the models are posing at different levels of height with one leaning over and the other crouching. A band of 3 has been used like this meaning the band members can still be seen in detail but it adds more interest than just the one artist.

I used props on my photo with the cone being in the foreground. I used it because the cone fots in woth the colour of my house style. It also signifies that there has been an accident or there is no entry so this implies that the band are causing trouble. I also took the photo in an interesting location of a scrap yard. This meant that there was damaged cars all around creating a scene of demolition giving the band a hard image as they have entered this area.

I had trouble with the fact that the photo wasnt long enough so when the title was placed on it covered on of the band members heads. I overcame this by using my improved photoshop tools to merge the top of the picture and extend it to create a larger area of trees and sky in which text could be placed without covering the band.

In the end I didn't follow the flat plan design I had intended to use, this was because it didnt fit in with the photograph I used, as some key elements of the picture would have been covered. For this reason I changed the layout and didn't completely follow the conventions of a usual magazine. Normally the barcode is in a bottom corner but I had it going up the side to fit in with the other features. However my front cover does have the conventions of an average magazine. On my cover I included a headline which is the main seeling point, highlighting the main feature in the magazine, backed up by my feature article photo of a group of people who the reader would admire or want to be like. The mast head advertises the name of the magazine, I placed it at the top of the page, where the eye naturally falls. Below this is the banner ' We're on fire' which sums up what the magazine is all about. The kickers are in a bold font and backed up with explainatory text along with flash and secondary lead. The secondary lead is aimed to appeal to the readers if the main story doesn't for exta assurance of selling power.

The font I used on my front cover fits in with the theme of rock as in looks as though it is on fire. There are flames coming from the letters also fits in with the house styke which is fiery colours and the idea of trouble caused by the band. It backs up the name of the magazine as both smoke and fire are related to one another so it was suitable to use. Throughout the magazine I have selected and used only a few fonts to make it look more proffesional. This helps with the consistancy as if I used a wide variety of fonts they wouldnt fit in with each other and it would look less organised, helping to hold the house style.

For the text on my cover I used words that would be desireable and attract the reader, making them think that they were getting something out of buying the magazine or they would miss out if they didnt purchase it. These words were those involving exclusives and competitions.

With regards to photography I also took this photo which I used as a backgroung on the pages.

I made this image by zooming in to focus my camera which looks like an explosion of colour but is just the scratches and light on the scree. I thought it fit well with my house style and was original.