Creating my music magazine cover...

Before creating my design on fireworks, I have created an outline of what I imagine I would include on my front cover. I may choose to add more as my cover progresses. This has helped me to see how I could possibly lay out my cover page.








I have named the magazine 'Berry' as it was the most popular title from my questionaire.
The genre of my magazine is chart music.

I have used a dark purple font for my title as it is semantic and connotes what colour an actual berry would be. I have made the writing quite plain but I find this effective as it will be easier for the reader to know what magazine it is. I have placed two small pink stars on top of the two rs to create a "girly" effect as my magazine is aimed at female teenagers. I also think it finnishes the title off well without too many effects.



















This is my draft of the layout of my magazine I made the image of "P!nk" on the cover slightly over lapping the title as I found when researching magazine covers, most examples did this. I think the background colour contrasts well with the font colour of the magazine title as they are both "girly" colours. The title font is darker than the background colour which makes the title stand out more effectivley.

On the right is my original photograpgh that I edited for my magazine cover. I manipulated it on photoshop by cutting around the image to delete the background.
I decided to wear sunglasses and spiked up hair to create the image of P!nk to make it look more realistic. I also used a silver jacket as I found a picture of the real artist P!nk and she was wearing a jacket similar to this.

I have made the title font bold as I found most magazine cover examples also did this. I used the colour pink for my background as it was the most common vote for a background colour on my cover questionaire. This can also be comparedwith examples of other magazines as the examples I looked at all had bold coloured


backgrounds which made the font and images stand out a lot more.










For my sub-heading, I have considered how the other music magazines have set out their headings. I have used 3 words to describe my main feature in the sub heading as this is what other magazines have tended to do. It makes it more interesting as it is not giving much information away.

I have used white rectangles for underneath the writing to make it stand out more. Examples that I looked at also tended to do this. It also creates the effect that they are going to be the main topics of the feature.

I have used bullet points for my extras to list what else is in my magazine as this is what most of the examples of music magazines that I looked at did.
I used blue circles for the bullet points as the colour contrasts well with the background making it stand out a lot more.
I used a pink star with the word "extras" in it so that it brings a girly effect to the cover. I also used a darker pink for the star as it matches the background colour well. I think having a rounder star rather than a sharp edged star is effective as it makes the star seem more girly.

I have decided to "re-vamp" my magazine cover as I feel it was not working and it would be hard to create a house style for it. I have decided to use the music magazine "Mojo" to influence my style, font and layout.



The font I have used is "Viper Nora". I decided to download my fonts as I believe they look more realistic than a font that you would find on a computer programme. It also gives a casual effect to my magazine as the writing is not neat but sort of worn out.

I think this works well as I want my magazine to have a laid back out look on music.





I have used the influence of "Mojo" for the information at the top of my cover. I have used rectangles of colour behind the font as this is what "Mojo" tends to do.
I have still kept the same colour fonts and background as this is what was popular on my questionaire.
I have made the colours more girly than Mojo as my magazine is aimed at girls.

I have used a new image for my cover feature. I used a more close up photo of the face as it was easier to create a face expression to give the artist a certain look and expression on their face.

I used a sort of "attitude problem" face on the photographs as this is what the artist P!nk is mostly know for on her photos. It also hints that some of the interview with P!nk may be on serious topics from the facial expression on the front cover.

This photograph just didn't stand out as a cover image. I may use this image on my contents page to advertise the main feature.


I think I looked bored on this photograph which is not good for advertising a magazine.















This photograph also does not have enough attitude. I don't like the fact that I am sort of leaning to the right a bit and I think the photo has to be looking straight forward for it to have a more intense impact especially to show attitude.










This is the image I chose out of the three that I took. I think this one works well as the face expression is the most dominant out of the three.


It also says "attitude" more than the other two as it is looking straight out at the camera which makes it have a more powerful impact.










I then edited the photograph on photoshop by cutting around it for my cover.




















I decided to move the advertisement of the feature (P!nk)to actually be situated on the photograph which I think looks more effective as it now looks joint to the image. It now creates more space to the right for me to add more features.

I have used the font "Billo" to create the effect of a "trademark" font for P!nk.This looks effective as it is totally different from the other font I have used for my other writing.

Also, instead of having the font purple like on my prievious cover I decided to change it to pink as it works well with the name of the artist (P!nk).



I am going to add a small image of a band to the top right hand side so that my cover has more than one image. It also shows that there is more content in the magazine.
I am going to use an all girl band to state clearly my social group-teenage girls.
I have named the all girl band "The Star Girls" to connote the "girly" genre of the magazine

I took pictures of 3 girls posing on a bench to give a more realistic portrayal of a modern band.

I made laura, Natalie and Amy strike natural poses and go "free style" to suggest that girls dont always have to have a "poser" sort of image for a magazine and it also portrays girls as casual and laid back rather than prim and proper.


As Mojo I feel has a casual attitude to music, I wanted to include that in my magazine as Mojo is mostly aimed at males so I basically wanted to create the female version which is showing that girls can be as casual and as laid back as boys.














I ended up using the 3rd image which I manipulated on photoshop and made it smaller with a high contrast so that it would still draw attention even though it was small. I used the 3rd image as I feel it was the most natural of the three.



I used a block colour background to suggest the use of a photoshoot as most magazines tend to hold photoshoots for the bands and solo artists that they are featuring in their magazines.
I wanted the girls to look like they were having a good time to add to the laid back feeling I want in my magazine. The fact that they look happy would make people more likley to read the magazine than having girls that look miserable.



















I added extra features down the right hand side of the cover in bullet point form as most examples of the music magazines I looked at did this, including Mojo.
The fact that it is in bullet point format also helps with the casual, laid back feel of the magazine as it is not in full sentences making it look less formal.
I have used informal language with a slight chatty style to appeal to my audience as you wouldn't normally put formal writing on a magazine for teenagers.

I added an extra feature of a competition, using another girl band to draw attention to my genre (teenage girls). I did not state how to win the tickets on the cover as it will make people actually open and read the magazine to find out more.

I made the word "win" be placed on a slant as it gives the impression it has been thrown on the cover casually as an extra feature.

After completing my article page, I decided to use a different image for my cover so that it matches with the article. I decided to change the image as I feel that the images I took for my article page were better than the ones that I took for my cover.











I like this image better than the other as you can see some of the clothes and accessories that I am wearing. This is better as they blend in well with the colours I have used on my cover. It also gives "P!nk" a sense of style which is one of the main topics of conversation in her interview.
I dressed in a casual top with a beaded necklace to show P!nk's casual attitude to fashion. I chose to wear colours that will match in with the colours of my housestyle.





I think this version is definitley an improvement. I have kept the layout the same and I have just changed the image. I personaly think that having some of the clothes that the artist is wearing on show works well because the colours of the cover and the clothes work well together.





I am very pleased with my front cover.After experimenting a few times with different layouts and images, I am now happy with the finnished result.