Front cover first draft and feedback

This the first drafts on paper for the front cover of my magazine. I chose to do a draft to gain some knowledge as to how I should layout all the different requirements within a magazine. This would also help to see how my magazine should actually look when it is printed. This is because I need to be able to understand where potential readers may look when buying a magazine. When doing this I also, researched many other magazine front covers including “Q” “Billboard” “Vibe”, this is to ensure I understand how other well-known magazines design and layout their magazine covers. From this I was able to gain some knowledge as to how I would like my magazine to look, where all the conventions will be placed and to see if this would work accordingly to the requirements.

From this research I have decided to include many different conventions within my magazine, these include:

·         Masthead: This will be at the top of the page in big fonts.

·         Strapline: Situated underneath the Masthead.

·         Logo

·         3 cover lines: These will be situated to the left of the page.

·         Lure: This will be situated underneath the cover lines to show an insight to what is going to be inside the magazine.

·         An exclusive: This will be situated at the bottom of the page to show that my magazine is the only one who is showing that story.

·         A kicker: This will be situated at the bottom right of the page.

·         A barcode/ Price this will be placed at the bottom right of the page to ensure that this follows the rules and conventions of a magazine cover.

·         Main image: This will be to the right-centre of the page and will take the majority of it up.

 

When doing my front cover, the first important part of the magazine is the Masthead this is to ensure that potential readers know what magazine they are reading. I then put a strapline underneath the masthead this is because readers will need to be aware of what the main story is inside the magazine.  I then put 3 cover lines which are situated to the left of the page, these will tell the main stories which are going to be inside the magazine. This will have to stand out from the rest of the magazine, so I may decide to make them a different colour font or just a larger font. There will be a lure situated underneath the cover lines to ensure that the page is neatly laid out and readers can read the magazine easily. The main image will take the majority of the page up which will be situated to the right of the page. This image will link to the main story which is going to be inside the magazine. The barcode and price will be situated at the bottom right of the page to ensure that viewers can see the price and this follows the conventions of a magazine.

Feedback:

v  The image on the front cover needs to be bigger to ensure that it stands out on the page. This will ensure that the readers are attracted.

v  Make the headlines and title bigger as these particular bits of writing will need to stand out on the page.

v  Make the exclusive bigger on the page.

Barcode

Within my research of magazine front cover, it is clear that on every front cover there is a “barcode” this is an extremely important element within my magazine. This barcode allows those who are selling the magazine to be scanned which will then allow this to show how many have been sold, how many are left within the shop, this then would show whether a magazine was selling or not selling.  From this I know that adding a barcode is an important element to add to the front cover of my page.

To create my barcode I used this website: http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/index.php

Initial Ideas and final decisions

Mood board

 

 The image situated below is a mood board in which would help me with different examples of what famous magazine producers do such as using a range of different images, titles, headlines and poses from , put my mood board together from using a number of different magazine front covers. Through doing this I was able to find many different example s of text which I could incorporate into my magazine. From this I learnt that the background colour of each image reflects what colour the text will be. For example most dull background colours such as greys and blacks have red as the colour of their text. I also particularly like “Billboards” headline and logo; this is because when this is seen it is instantly recognised as Billboard which shows that they have made a brand name for themselves which means they are now extremely popular. The headline is extremely important to a magazine as the magazine will be instantly recognised by this, “Q” magazine have used white text over a red background. The Q is the largest text on the magazine which follows the conventions of a magazine.  From doing this I also learnt a lot about some poses used, I have learnt that magazine who like to show expression, use a close up shot which draws attraction to the eyes of the model. This could suggest that most magazine companies like having the image of their model bigger that anything else on the page this could be because they want to portray that the model has dominance. From having a range of different parts of a magazine cover it is extremely clear that clothing on a model is extremely important this is because, within the “ Q” magazine with Madonna the inside story is serious this is why she is dressed in black this could suggests that the colours mean something as black means  “ Sadness”. This is an example of magazines using colour schemes. This has given me an incite of what colours go together, different background colours that work and poses used to create effects throughout.

Planned photo shoot

Research of poses

Survey analysis

Contents page and double page spread analysis

LIIAR-Front cover research

Magazine_Conventions

Term	Description
Banner	A banner is typically on the front cover of a magazine which is the length of the full width of the page.
Cover Lines	Cover lines are little summaries of some the stories in which are going to be inside of the magazine. This is just a mini version of the most enticing stories.
Headline	This is the main heading on the magazine, which is usually the biggest font of a different type of text of colour from the rest on the magazine. This headline then relates to the main story which is inside the magazine.
Exclusive	Exclusive is where the magazine ensure that potential buyers know that the story inside is only on this particular magazine and exclusive only to that particular magazine.
Lure	A little part of the story or the beginning is shown on the front cover and then continued inside of the magazine, which usually continues onto the next page.
Left third	The left third consists of the main featured article; this is to show what is going to be on the magazine. This is typically at the bottom left of the magazine.
Masthead	The masthead is the main title at the top of the front cover. The masthead identifies the magazine cover for example “Billboard”.
Kicker	The kicker is used to make a story stand out from all of the others from the rest of the magazine. This is usually done through different font of colours.
Splash	Splash is the main story on the front cover, this is usually with a picture and headline. This ensures that it is clear what that particular story is about.
Strapline	The headline which is in a smaller font which is then appearing over the headline.