My music magazine

Here is the start of my front cover. I called it billboard as I though of the billboard too 100 and thought it was appropriate. I used the navy with a white spotlight background as I though it would be a good background to help my masthead image and straplines stand out when put on. 

Music magazine

This week i started my music magazine. I went on Google and analysed the top music magazines to see what ideas I could get for my magazine. 

Like this well known best selling music magazine called "XXL". This is an urban/rap magazine which publishes a new edition every week. As u can see on this cover, the Masthead is pretty small and yet stands out as it is in a red box. There isn't many strap lines either on the cover which maybe suggests the artists the magazine get to pose on the cover are ultimately selling it. The main negative of this would be that not all the targeted audience will like the the artist on the cover which will probably mean that the sales will be up and down every week. On this cover the image covers the masthead which means that the audience will probably know the magazine anyway as it is popular and that the magazine can afford to block part of the masthead. 

Whereas on this cover of "the source" there are many strap lines aswell and a big image to attract the audience. Judging by the image on the cover of this magazine I would say this is a very rap/thug music related magazine as the rapper on the cover has various tattoos and is holding a gun to himself. Adding to this the fact that the strap lines are in red and bold. Red is said to be the colour of danger. 

School magazine improvements

This is my improve magazine front cover. I imported a picture in from Google as I didn't have any decent picture for my cover. Again I put this picture on Photoshop and cut out the background so it fits on my front cover exactly in the hotspots which is the ultimate place the audience will draw their eye to. 

School magazine

This is my school magazine. I've used several strap lines which will try and draw in my audience. I used the name 'ambition' because obviously everyone in school has a career ambition so they can relate. 

I used the colour scheme of yellow and blue because that's the colours of Hamstead Hall Academy. 

Pictures taken

Here is a picture I took in the car park of school. This is a medium shot. I edited this using photoshop. I different effects on it and I will use it as the background picture on my contents page inside my magazine. 

Ideas stage

In this draft I decided to go for a big bold masthead and a attractive image which will effectively draw my audience in with very few strap lines down the sides. I chose this idea as I think when effective it works wonders. If a image is powerful enough to draw readers in then the less strap lines will give less away to the aidience about the content. Hopefully the audience will want to buy it to find out.  

I specially liked the idea here of a smaller image and more focused upon strap lines to sell the magazine. Again with a nice big bold masthead the smaller images will take affect when the audience pick up the magazine or buy it but what will catch the eye is the strap lines of how words are being used and played with. 

As shown in these pictures here using my research I sketched out a few rough ideas of how my front cover could potentially look and what I've liked from my research. There are 3 different idea that I put together to make what I have in the pictures. 

 

School magazines analysis

Here on this front cover of a school magazine the masthead is in a reddish burgundy colour, this to me represents sporting kit and cheerleading. This is probably as it is a American college magazine. The strap lines that really catch the readers eye, are in a bold font and draw the audiences eye. The girl

In the middle of the cover, suggest that this would mainly be a females magazine and adding to this, her head slightly covers some of the mast head this means that the masthead would be well recognised by it's audience that they know what it says anyway. 

Whereas this masculine magazine uses a bright yellow masthead on a black background. This could be to stand out or could maybe be for the colours the college is associated in. Similarly on this front cover, the main image covers the masthead also. The strap lines are also very similar as yet the strap lines that stand out are mostly in a different colour in yellow, and are in bold to catch the passing eye. Yet at first glace the guy on the cover doesn't really look like a college student until the eye catches the books in his hand. 

On the other hand this front cover, seems very simple and to the point. It's definitely about science due to the image of the female in a science lab, and the content of the strap lines. The mast head unlike the others is very spaced out across the whole page in a bold font portraying a quality magazine and the white colour of the masthead portraying purity. Adding to this the strap lines on this magazine are fairly small in comparison to the other two covers yet again on this cover the key points of the magazine are in bold. 

Background research on images used

As shown here in this magazine the image is a girl in a science lab, this probably shows the audience straight away without having a read this is a science magazine. 

Adding to this the fact that the image is of a girl could primarily detear males off the magazine as it could be deemed females only in a school or college. 

Background information

When researching and looking at past magazine front covers I gathered good information. 

I looked at how the masthead was positioned and what colour have been used and what they have represented. For example white masthead would imply purity as white is deemed as quite a pure colour. Adding to this also looking at what types of fonts represent. For example a big bold font and title would imply that the school is very strong head and that the magazine is quality. 

Such as the masthead on this magazine front conver is implying purity and quality.