This was the first magazine front cover that I completed, which is an Autumn issue featuring Joel on the cover. I wanted the layout of my covers to be simple and sleek, rather than being too busy and ugly. Therefore, I used pretty much only one font style throughout the cover (apart from a change of font on the buzz word to make it more eye-catching) and instead experimented with using different font sizes and colours to make different pieces of text attract the viewers attention. For example, as it is an Autumn issue, I used orange tones to match the colour of the leaves falling, and red and yellow as they are seen as quite summer colours but when partnered with the orange suit the cover. The masthead and main coverline have the largest font size so they are the two components on the cover that attract attention, which is what I intended them to do. Also, a buzz word on the cover with 'FREE' is in a bright yellow tone and will furthermore attract the audience as they will be interested in something that is free. A comment was made that the leaves being blurred were too distracting, and so I did try to edit them out but it didn't look right, and I decided that I liked the cover with the leaves on anyway. With this being an Autumn issue, school will have just started, therefore it was relevant to have the main article education-related, and acts as a guide for my target audience while using humour to attract their attention towards it. The buzz word and offer relate to the article on the opposite of the cover, as the reader may want to know what's on in the cinema, and then can go watch it for free so would want to buy and read the magazine.
For my second cover, I wanted to make use of the snow and make a Winter issue, which worked well with Gemma and Jennie wearing hats, gloves and coats. I used the same location again as it creates a nice backdrop for the cover and is natural, plus text stands out well against it. Again, I chose the same font styles and variated text size and colour; with this cover I could experiment a lot more with colour as there were more places where the colour needed to be changed for the text to be noticeable, especially against Jennie's white coat contrasting against Gemma's dark one. Using blue connoted the cold winter weather and linked well to the text in the main coverline of 'going to get cool', and also the red on the cover compliments the green background while relating to a type of Christmas-theme. If I were to re-do this cover, I would try and take a photograph that was more in focus, as the slight blur of this one can become quite distracting once you notice it. To appeal to my target audience, I included mainly social-orientated articles, especially considering that with it being winter and nearly Christmas, they'll be looking for more social things to do rather than education. It also covers the aspects that my target audience were mainly interested in (as I found from my questionnaires), which are music, film and television. Furthermore, by using a strong red tone for the buzz word 'FREE' it will attract the viewer's eye to an iTunes voucher which they would appreciate, therefore would buy the magazine to get it.
Again, I used the snow to make a Winter issue, but this cover was a lot trickier to design due to the many different colours in the background. I decided to use red and green colours for text again as they make the cover more of a Winter issue with the Christmas link, and light blues for the general Winter look. It was easy to place a buzz word on this cover, which I did in the bottom right corner, as a solid black could be used and is really eye-catching and effective, and relates to the target-audiences needs as winter is a major shopping season due to Christmas, and so they would be interested in a 15% off voucher.
Overall, I think I covered all the correct conventions for my magazine covers, including the main ones such as the masthead, slogan, barcode, price, seal of approval, coverlines etc, along with dates, website address' and so on. Using different genders on each cover also worked out quite nicely as I had a selection to chose from, so they could appeal to different target audiences. I think if I'd done a cover with a girl and a boy on similar to my second cover however, that could've made it better. I'm also really pleased with the result of them, they've helped me with learning how to apply Photoshop correctly and setting out on a shoot to compose the right shot for this brief. For my music magazine, I think I just need to check my photographs before leaving the location to make sure that they are all in exact focus and that I avoid fussy backgrounds, as this will save me a lot of time later on.
No comments:
Post a Comment