Producing the Front Cover

The Blank Document

• I have started making my front cover with a blank A4 page. I have done this because the size of the magazine I want to make for this coursework unit is A4. The tools I used here was the new image file, then selected the size of a portrait piece of A4 for my page size.

Creating the Masthead

• I have based my masthead on the mastheads of magazines like NME. For this I have used the polygonal lasso tool and drew a box in the left hand side of the screen. Using the paint bucket tool I filled it in blue. This is so that it stood out clearly against the background without being too harsh a colour. Blue is also the main colour of the photo I will be using so this links.

• Then using the text tool I typed in the text the masthead should contain. This includes slogan, magazine name as well as price and date information. I did this because all magazine mastheads contain this information and if I didn’t use them on mine my magazine wouldn’t be following conventions and would therefore not be conventional.

Importing the Photo• The reason I have selected to use this photo is because it is bright, bold,

professional and vibrant. Using the lasso tool (with a feather radius of ten pixels) I selected her from the background. Then using the copy and paste tool I pasted her onto the front cover. This is because I didn’t have any access to a photography studio and I wanted to use a studio style shot on my front cover, so for this I had to artificially create one with the resources I had available to me. I did this because most of the covers I researched into used a studio shot on the cover. Using one made mine appear more like a realistic cover. I also flipped the photo to make it so that she was looking into the magazine and facing the inside instead of the outside. This draws the audience into the magazine.

• Below is the original photo.

Adding Pulls

• Using the text tool I have added three pulls on the front cover. These tell the audience what sort of content there is available in the magazine. Then, using the polygonal lasso tool I have underlined each pull to make it look more professional, mature and realistic. I have made them blue again because that way it isn’t drawing attention away from the main image which is attracting the audience.

Adding the box and the circle

• The circle is there to act as a plug, whilst the red is there to act as an exclusive box.

• The plug is there again for content reasons to attract audience. It’s blue so that it isn’t taking away too much attention.

• The exclusive box is red because when professional music magazines use an exclusive box they always have it in red, so having mine in red makes it appear more conventional and realistic.

• They both have drop shadows to make them stand out more and to make the cover appear more 3-Dimensional. It also makes them more eye-grabbing.

Adding main article

• Using the text tool I have added the words ‘Jacquii’. This is eye-grabbing, it’s drawing attention and it creates a link between the main photo and the magazine. This is professional of music magazines to do that. I have made it black so it’s bold and stand out, again with a drop shadow because it makes it more three dimensional, more eye-grabbing which is another function of a main article.

• Using the text tool I have added further text which gives an introduction to the article, some insight which makes the audience want to know more and buy the magazine so that they could read the article.

Adding bar code.

• All magazines have a bar code, so I have placed one on mine to make it appear more conventional and realistic.

Finished Cover (pre-audience feedback)