THE PROCESS FOR MY DRAFT

MAGAZINE COVERIn this PowerPoint, I am going to be demonstrating my

decisions in the development of my draft magazine cover to show the creative process and thought gone into this

magazine.

I set the document type as International Paper with a white background set as A4. I feel this size is a conventional approach to my magazine cover as it will fit in with other music magazines establishing the fact that this is a magazine. By having it too big or too small, it may make the audience believe there is less information in the magazine so it isn’t worth their money or that there is too much to read so are put off by this factor. Therefore I feel that A4 is a suitable size for my cover which means the contents page will also be A4 and the double page spread will be A3 so it can be folded and fitted into the magazine spine. I chose to have a white background as this what the majority of my audience wanted which I could see from my questionnaire so the magazine will appeal to my target audience. I have set my margins to 0.5cm on each side and I will position my masthead, main image and headings to these margins which will overall create a simple, eye pleasing approach. This technique is conventionally used in the creation of magazines as the overall result is very effective yet simplistic.

Setting up my magazine cover

Original image Edited image

Main Image(Including the original

image and final edited image)

THE EDITING PROCESS OF MY MAIN IMAGE

I chose this image because I felt it suited the style of my magazine but I felt the image needed to be a close up/mid shot so I decided to crop the image which I felt drew more attention to the main image as it made her face a more prominent and eye catching feature that would be more likely to catch the audiences’ attention. I then decided to adjust the lighting to around 25 and contrasted the image to around 5. I felt this simple adjustments changed the style of the image and made the model stand out. I decided to take the photographers ‘Mert and Marcus’ approach (their work is shown in my photographers research and planning) by focusing on appearance so I edited the image using the healing brush tool and the spot healing brush tool. I took this approach as it makes the overall image product more effective yet I decided I wanted to keep a realistic approach by not making the image seem flawless. I again used these tools editing stray hairs and shadows around the image which I felt made the image look more professional and sharp. I decided not to cut my model out of the image and insert onto a plain white background as I felt the slightly discolored background worked well on my magazine and I felt the white background behind the image looked unrealistic and fake.

More editing on the stray hairs was done on the image with the white background as it

made the image easier to cut out and makes the image look

more effective.

The magazine cover with the white background and the

natural background

White background Natural background

Keeping in the margins, I fitted the image to 0.5cm on either side and the bottom and I have put it to 5.4cm on the top to leave enough room for the masthead and headings. I feel that the image has been positioned appropriately as she is very central which means the model will be one of the main features of the magazine yet it still allows a lot of room for other magazine features.

Image positioning

Telegraffico font Lemon/Milk font Couture font

In my research and planning, I was thinking of the three fonts the Telegraffico font, The Lemon/Milk font and the Couture fonts and by putting them on my magazine cover and seeing which font I liked best. I have decided to use the Telegraffico font as I feel it spreads out well across the page and the other fonts are slightly too bold I feel which may take the attention away from the main image.

Masthead fonts

In my research and planning, these subheadings I felt were very effective as it gives information about the magazine in a simplistic manner. For example, the website is there as the reader may really like the style of this magazine and decide to subscribe to it and they can do this by going onto the website. This earns the company money in a simple yet effective format. I decided to make the works “Alternative rock” red as for my colour scheme of black, white and red I am having certain words as red to bring more attention to them because I believe it is important information. I believe the genre of music is important information as it will straight away openly attract the audience who are interested in this music genre. The issue number and date are information that will appeal to audience members who regularly buy the magazine and it shows the magazine progress as more issues are released. I used the punctuation symbol of the vertical bar as I felt this was a simplistic yet effective approach to break up the text to make it more readable. I used this technique as it is likely many audience members will not be drawn to a magazine if it appears there is a lot of text on the cover as it looks very crowded and unappealing.. The text was done in the Iowan Old Style Black font at size 10.97pt as I felt this font and size stood out well for the magazine cover.

Subheadings

HeadingsFor my headings, I included the artists Panic! At The Disco, Blink 182 , Rag’n’Bone Man, Catfish and the Bottlemen, The 1975 and the Kaiser Chiefs. These are all well known alternative rock artists and some of the artists’ songs are featured on my music playlist on my blog. Fireside is a made up band name (the name was created using a technique recommended by my teacher using Wikipedia random page generator in order to find artist names) and is the feature band for my double page spread and they will also be shown on my contents page. I believe it is important to have these close links for magazines as the audience will recognize for future reference when purchasing the magazine, they will know exactly what is inside. I will be featuring subheadings for my contents page including some of these artists to again show the link. I chose to include Fireside on my cover and in red as although I recognize it would be an unknown band that the audience won’t recognize, but it will bring attention to the artists and intrigue the audience members who are interested in finding new music. I feel it’s important to especially feature new artists as if magazines focused on well known artists, new artists would not get any recognition. From my questionnaire, I had a request to include “underappreciated artists” and “information and opinions on upcoming artists and songs to widen awareness of smaller artists.” By including what my target audience want, it means I know my audience will be appealed to my magazine due to features they have requested.

For my heading, I made up an artist name of Kayla Page which was created looking at various random girl names online and I chose one that I felt suited the magazine as it was short yet catchy and would be memorable. I chose to have this name as the main heading rather than Fireside because I am planning on having a feature photograph on the contents page and I feel focusing on Fireside too much will be overwhelming and giving the impression that is the only key feature of the magazine. I will ensure that I include the artist on the contents page to show continuality throughout the magazine as I personally see a lot that the front cover artist is used to get the audiences’ attention but is not mentioned again throughout the whole magazine which I personally feel is fake advertisement. I have used the Avenir Next Bold font in size 77.52 pt as I felt it was a clear and defined font that stood out well with the red text which is an effect I wanted for the magazine as she would be a new artist, it is necessary that the audience can clearly read her name.

Main Heading

BarcodeFor my barcode, I decided to position it in the bottom right corner of my image as I felt this was the best place to put it. But I do feel it’s quite small but I am unsure where else is an ideal place to put it. In the development of my final cover, I will look at different options on where to put it so it will be bigger and doesn’t look out of place. I feel where it is currently takes the attention off the main heading so I have decided I need to change the location of this so it is bigger yet doesn’t take the attention away from the other key features.

Overall, I am happy with the outcome of my draft magazine but I can see some improvements I am going to make for my final magazine. As I have said previously, I am going to change the size and positioning of my barcode but I am currently unsure where will be a suitable place for it so I will look at ideas and see in my draft feedback what my teacher says. I may consider re taking my images so I have no stray hairs and I can make the image more central because it is currently slightly to the right due to her hair and the text so I am unable to layer the text on top as it is then unreadable. I will try a few ideas and try a different set of images and see which ones I feel will work more. I believe the image should be more central as the heading is in the middle of the text and it also means the subheadings are taking the attention off the main image as they are very close. My next step for the development of my magazine cover is to evaluate my teachers’ feedback and see what I am going to change.

The Outcome