Update Cover Page - Music Magazine

For my final product I have changed alot on the layout and font of my font cover for my music magazine. I decided also to re-arrange the placement of some of my text and icons as I wanted to replicate the professionalism of real authentic music magazines. I also added in more cover lines to correlate with my contents page.  

I started off by deleting all my previous editing at the bottom half of my cover page. I then went on to DaFont.com where I searched for alternative, funky typefaces which would stand out for my main artist image. I then found a font called "Visual" - I then edited the text because of it's certain layers consisting of black and white into my colour scheme of red, white and black. Immediately this made the text stand out as well as run with my house style. This is an element of my cover page which i really like. I then began to add in more text and cover lines so my cover page looked fuller and more authentic, they are all in the same typeface of "Euphemia Ucas" which i used for all the text on my cover page. I highlighted these by making them different colours, adding in shadows and highlighting them. I also added in a plus sign ( + ) - I had seen this used in some magazines which I analysed and thought it was a cool concept which my target audience would appreciate.  

I then began to highlight the main feature text "Luna Ford" with a white background, again to make it stand out predominantly. I then rearranged the positioning of my barcodes, one simple for payment in retail, and another which could be accessed through smartphones, this was an element that I believe must be included to keep up with new advancing technologies, also in small print i added in four social media icons, again to gain more readership and make my readers feel more involved within the magazine. 

This is my final design for my COVER PAGE for my Music Magazine.

Audience Feedback on all three products

I printed out onto A4 colour all of my three products I then asked my fellow media classmates to comment and give me feedback on my cover, contents and double page spread. 

1. Love the cover page. Barcode is cut out at the bottom, can’t see part of the bottom. Make an issue number. Love the masthead on the contents page. Spelt changes wrong on DPS. Large image should be on the other side and the intro should be in a different colour to make it stand out. Another image on the DPS to show variety. But its unreal, well done!

2. Cover page is good. Maybe add another colour into contents page to make it stand out. Add another image into DPS. Overall it is really good.

3. Cover page- very good use of photo editing, picture is amazing with the use of the bright red lips really stand out

Contents- perhaps have the arrow more clear, the number on the top of the image is hard to make out.

Dps- nice use of different colours that match well with the colour scheme, very easy to navigate around.       Well done very professional looking magazine.            

4. Too much white space across all pages possibly more text and colour

Front cover – make barcode more visible

Contents – change black font

Dps – love it, wouldn’t change anything

5. Clear house style, good quality images

Love the layout of DPS, clear to follow

Cover: make barcode more visable

Good front cover, good colour scheme, lots of infor good images

6.Really nice images! And I like the pull quote but I think the question font on the dps should be different to separate the question from answer even more.

Muisc Magazine Cover Construction

For constructing my magazine front cover I used the image that majority of my audience feedback liked the best. I used Photoshop as the software to construct my magazine. This is my first draft...

I took my main image and began to alter her lips and eyes, as these are the features that I wanted within the image to stand out. I did this by simply using a magic wand tool with the shift key to highlight all the area around her lips I wanted to make more vibrant. I then used the same tool for the eyes and made the contrast and brightness a little lighter to make the whites of the models eyes stand out. 

I then went online and searched for LDC Fonts, I was able to find the font I wanted and using the command, alt and 4 key I screen grabbed it and put it straight onto Photoshop. I then altered the colour, out glow and noise of the font and placed it using the move tool top the top right corner of the magazine. I also added in small lines in the form of a heart beat to correlate with my slogan - 'it's all about the beat' behind the red text.

I then added in two barcodes for the magazine which i placed on the bottom right hand corner (smart device code) and the other vertical on the left hand side. I then looked at the LCD Font i used for my masthead and incorporated that into my slogan. I altered the text slightly by using the magic wand tool and the key shift to highlight all and use the FX option to make the text have a slight  outer glow to make it stand out from the image behind. 

I then got more fonts from online and manipulated them to be different colours and set them all around the image. I then decided to make the masthead the whole way across the top of the cover and also add in some social media icons for marketing the magazine. I then continued to get different fonts and add them in. I wasn't completely satisfied with the outcome of my magazine as it did not have the professional seamless look I was going for.    

I then undertook more audience feedback by asking my fellow media classmates on their thoughts. The majority said the image was great however the crazy use of bright colours were distracting and different use of fonts was slightly tacky and childish. I then went back to Photoshop and began re-editing my whole cover design. I decided to go with my feedback and stick to four main colours - white, red, black and grey.

  Second draft of my magazine front cover...

For re-drafting my second cover page, It was much simpler as I only had a few things to change. I decided to make a change within the font of the mast head, I did this because the new font i have chosen 'rexland' is far more professional and slick looking compared to the robot like LCD font I originally chose. I also changed the entire colour scheme to be based on white, red, black and grey. This will help achieve the seamless look I desire for the magazine. 

I kept the same ima but made it larger so it would fit the whole A4 cover page. I then added in my new masthead font and made the text go across the whole page. This draft I also added in a skyline, I received feedback from my target audience that this would grab their attention more if it were stacked in a shop therefore it only seemed appropriate to add one in. I stuck with the 'heartbeat' theme as I believe it correlates well with my masthead title and the slogan. 

I then began to add in more text to fill up my magazine cover. I decided to keep the font of my slogan in the LCD font as in some aspects I wanted to keep to my original plans. I then added in boxes behind my cover lines, I think it makes the text easier to see and more eye catching, I liked this feature as I was inspired by a cover created by Q magazine who also made use of the coloured text boxes. I then added in my barcodes and social media icons on the bottom left hand side vertically standing as I didn't want to follow the normal codes and conventions of having the barcode plain and horizontal at the bottom right hand corner.  

This was my end result.