Analysis of Front Cover Dafts 1-4 (Music magazine)

Draft 1

• For my first draft I used the simple outdoor location of the wall on different buildings. Although the choice is very simple, the use of the brick wall adds to the urban realism influence on the magazine. I did actually take separate photographs and converge them together to create my first draft, it seems this was unnecessary and perhaps I should have just taken the photo and edited it as a whole. 
• With this draft I tried to emphasise the loud and rebellious feature of the magazine. I feel the attitude and pose of the model does represent this however in terms of the conventional accuracy of my magazine, it is fairly weak. I will improve this in my next draft by including more cover lines and retaking my photograph (with the same model) to include more appropriate mise-en-scene. By including actual instruments on my front cover, the audience can easily identify the genre. 
• The font chosen is quite appropriate for the ideology of my magazine as it is bold and unique which identically represents the expected consumer of the magazine. For my next draft I will try to include a similar font, perhaps I will further research font styles to find a very representing style.
• I attempted to follow a continuous colour scheme of black, red and white as these contrasting colours are useful for highlighting certain texts. This was not as successful as intended as the location made the quality of the front cover quite poor and dull, not the bright and bold colours I intended to create. 
• In terms of conventions I actually included; (although of basic content) the screamer made the text "special edition" stand out on the cover, the box effect I created over the text was yellow. This colour is useful for emphasising text however does not follow the housestyle of the magazine. The layout of the screamer and text underneath should be closer together to specifically relate the convetentional items together. 

 There are many improvements that need to make to this draft although I am fairly happy with the result as it gave me a visual insight into which conventions worked and how to alter the layout of the items on the front cover. In my next draft I will include a wider range of fonts and experiment altering different images from my photo shoot and find the most effective photograph. Also I will try to make the magazine more professional and exclusive as at the moment I feel it is not up to the customers standard at the moment. 

Draft 2

• I created this draft to experiment with different chioces of poses the model could have from the photo shoot. I did not include any textual conventions on this draft as it was simply created to test the effectiveness of the layout. 
• I spent much time using the programme Photoshop to experiment using the tools Gaussian blur and spot healer (enhanceing the quality of the image). I also used  the blur tool to soften the appearance of the image so it would blend it with its future background. 
• This second draft also enabled me to roughly decide on an appropriate but simple background for my front cover, which would follow one simple theme. 
• In this draft I had a theory that the bold, black background would make all the text and the model image stand out however I did not like the use of the colour at all. The magazine and genre would have much more suited a quiet colour for example grey. Although this could appear ironic as the target audience of the magazine is bold and outgoing. I did some independent research on the background colours used on established magazines and found that is conventional to follow the tone of simplicity. I could use different shading tecniques regarding the solid colour choice in areas of the page that I feel have more importance. 
• I also experimented using a central, banner headline as my masthead as I thought it would stand out more. However this does not follow the typical conventions of a magazines front cover which is usually at the top left of the page.
•  To make my magazine look as profeccional and legitimate as possible I will follow all important conventions.

Draft 3

• Here I began to trial the different text which would be featured on my magazine. From previously analysing magazines as part of my research I really found stating the featured artists on the page is very appealing to the audience. Including this appeal also adds to the promotion of the genre of my magazine as it shows the bands which are associated with the indie music style. 
• Also I included an advertisement at the top right of the page. The content of the flash; as advertising concert tickets, again identifies to the audience the genre of the magazine giving them the opportunity to immediately decide if it suits their music taste.
• To improve this draft I will make areas of my magazine cover background darker give a more defined continuus colour scheme. Also the use of dark areas on the magazine could connote the darker rebellios aspect I am trying to promote through the magazine.
• I am still very happy with the image itself and will definitely be using it for my finished magazine cover. There is a space in between the legs of the model which is perfect for the advertisement of the main article in the magazine. The only ciritical point to make regarding the content of this photograph is that it could appear quite unrealistic as when I add a new background the pose does not work as well as previously.
• Clearly I will need to add cover lines to left third of my magazine (this is what the audience would conventionally expect).  As I have used the same font for all my text the main article and masthead does not stand out as much as is needed. Whentherefore when redrafting my front cover I will use a varied range of fonts. Also my peers have helped me identify that the sub title “James Basile” should in fact be larger that “Exclusive” as that is the article I am trying to promote and catch the audience’ interest regards the artist James Basile.

Draft 4

This is the final draft I have created in terms of the layout of my conventions and the colour scheme ect. There are very few details I need to add to this draft in making it look more realistic, I must include a price, the issue number/date and a bar code, these are simple conventions the audience would expect to find on a music magazine therefore I must include them. As stated in previous drafts I have now included different fonts on my magazine to highlight the important and exclusive headlines on the magazine. Also with my cover lines I have given the sub heading text the colour red to continue the colour scheme and visually show its significance on the page. I have also included a strap ine directly underneath the masthead to introduce the reader to the magazine establishing the genre and the music magazine it is. Also I feel this draft successfully identifies the target audience of young adults, not only from the text and layout but the colour scheme I have chosen. For example the use of red contrasting with black and grey shows the rebellious theme and the advertisement with reference to “concert tickets” shows the age group targeted. Also I have listed names of bands at the bottom of the splash which stereotypically are related to the younger generations music taste.