Construction

Construction of front page

I started off with a very basic font and colour with a slight drop shadow behind it. With my drawn draft I used red and green but it didn’t look right when I tried it on Photoshop so I tried several other ideas.

I changed my plans completely and opted to use a font on Photoshop called wide Latin regular having previously used a font off Dafont. I really wanted to convey to the audience that this is a pop genre so I changed the colour of each letter. The colours I chose were all vibrant and eye-catching. You can see my masthead from a long distance away and this will be helpful in attracting consumers.

I added a picture I had taken to my front cover. The picture wasn’t quite right however. It didn’t get across the message I wanted it to and it didn’t fit with my masthead. The day of the photo shoot was quite foggy and it gives the image a mysterious feel which doesn’t fit with my pop genre.

I was much more pleased with this picture. I asked my model to hold an acoustic guitar which is commonly used in pop music. I also had a microphone which has quite old-fashioned, that contrasts with my new upcoming artist Spencer. I put a pop filter in front of this microphone to make it look more professional. I placed a barcode bottom right because this is one of the essential features of a magazine as it must be scanned at checkout.

I added a dark blue banner to put further emphasis on the masthead. I also added a size 18 stroke to make it bolder and slightly more aggressive. I also altered the drop shadow until I was fully happy with it. I was now pleased with my masthead and felt it made it very clear that I have produced a pop magazine that appeals to both genders.

I added another blue banner at the bottom and the text I added made the genre clear and appealed to both genders. Gigs interest people particularly of teenage years and I wanted to make it clear that this magazine would be full of interesting content. The white text looks really good with the black stroke which I set at size 27. I tried using the same font as my masthead but it didn’t look as good as it did with the impact regular font.

I added several cover lines to entice people into buying my magazine. I have used language like "fave" to appeal to my teenage target audience who often like words like this. My main cover line is about "Spencer" who will be my double page spread artist. It is clear that this is my main cover line because of how much larger it is and it's also very clear that the image is of Spencer because of where I have placed the cover line. The other cover lines are also large and clear. I placed a small stroke on the cover lines but for the main cover line I increased the size from 9 to 14. I also placed a drop shadow on all of the cover lines.

A puff is a code and convention of many magazines. I used a black star with yellow writing because it looks appealing and it's important that an offer stands out because that could be the decisive factor that convinces someone to buy my magazine. A free CD is worth quite a bit of money and a lot of teenagers enjoy listening to CD's or adding them to their music player. It doesn’t reveal much about which artists CD it is because then people may pick up my magazine to find out. As well as this I added some red text below one of my cover lines, advertising current popular artists that are featured inside. I realise that because this is the first issue of my magazine I would need to include some famous artists to persuade people to buy it.

This is my completed front cover. I added the final touches that are some of the most vital components of a front cover. This includes the price, issue date and issue number. I wanted to make the price clear because I used my research to find out what price would be reasonable and would encourage people to purchase it. I knew from then that the consumers would appreciate me sticking to my promise of a reasonable price. I understand that teenagers don’t have loads of money to spend so have to spend it wisely and I believe this would be a purchase that would give them their value for money. I also wanted to make it clear that this was the first issue and people should pick up the first of many issues. I am very happy with my front cover and I hope it is very successful.