Final Front Cover

This is my final front cover for my magazine. I feel it has been succesful in the sense that I have achieved a product that is very close to my planning and mock ups. Furthermore, in the production process I have learnt valuable skills which will help me in future production using photoshop and creating similar products to a magazine front cover. Throughout the project I feel that I have managed my time effectively so that I left myself enough time to create a good looking product while still ensuring I have backed it up with good written work and research. Also very importantly I have really enjoyed all processes in the production leading to the final front cover from researching into costume ideas for my artist to playing with different ideas and techniques on photoshop.

Draft 6

In this draft, I experimented with using the adjustments on Photoshop to see how I could play these onto the model. I liked the colour scheme of the purples and pinks as this straight away will connote individuality to the reader as it is not common to see these colours on a front cover. However, I have not stuck to specific colour scheme and I feel this therefore makes the colours not look effective as they could.

Draft 5

Draft 4

Draft 3

Draft 2

Here are the first experiments with having a colour onto the background behind the model other than white. At this moment I wanted to keep my masthead black so I also experimented with having a white box around it.

Production Process - Draft 1

 

 I uploaded my original image from my magazine, cut out the main model.

 

 I then applied the black and white adjustment as planned in my mock up using found images with the image of established artist MF DOOM. The shadow on the left side of the face has also been enhanced through the effect of lowering the brightness and increasing contrast.

 

 I then placed the circle for the competition behind the model so that I could adjust its size in comparison to the rest of the elements of the front cover instead of having to try and fit it in at the end. I feel this was effective and saved problems occuring later in the production process.

 I placed the word "BOY" a simplistic three letter word in the desired font, just to give myself an idea of how the masthead will look and to focus on sizing as at this point I had not decided on a final name for the magazine.



 Here I have now changed the masthead to 'MOB' after deciding on this for my masthead. In this slide I have also placed a block where I will put my skyline, in red to stick to the conventional and current colour scheme of Black, White and Red. Furthemore, I placed the black block along the bottom of the cover where I can put '#COMMONERS' so consumers will recognise my magazine straight away.
I have also inserted a '+' symbol to the left of the model in which I will put a list of extra artists to connote the magazine has a good quality for it's price as it has a lot of content for just £2.00. I moved the circle for the competition to the right of the artist instead ot the left as this way I will have more room for the main headline storys to feature.

 

 In this stage I have inserted the pull quote for my artist which will be in relation to the article included on the double page spread about the mask that the artist wears.
I have inserted text into the skyline, showing information about free gifts included. I have tested an idea of including three hashtags to the right of the masthead, however this may make the magazine look too 'busy' when I insert all of the other main content onto the cover.

 Here I have put four names of artists within the local area and within the alternative genre that would not fall into the mainstream category, therefore enticing my target audience.

 I found a scan code for smart phone on "dafont.com" which can now be seen on most popular music magazines within any genre.





 This is the barcode I will use for my front cover from "dafont.com"

I have inserted in the bottom right corner the barcode, scan code and placed the price and date just above them in small text, fitting to conventions of magazine front covers.

Masthead Ideas - Fonts for MOB

These are some examples of fonts from the retro font genre from "dafont.com". I want a retro style font for my masthead as I feel this will connote what I want from my magazine front cover, an individualistic, alternative proffesional looking cover.

These are also some examples of retro font ideas for the word PSYCH.

Masthead Ideas - Magazine Title

"Dictionary.com" definition of psych - to prepare psychologically to be in the right frame of mind or to give one's best (often followed by up ): to psych oneself up for an interview.

I felt that this would promote a positive image about my website from the start, showing the magazine as in the right frame of mind to give the best that it could. Furthermore, the word psych has associations with the psychadelic sub-genre within my alternative genre that my magazine has, letting the audience know straight away what the genre of my magazine is. Famous bands within the alternative genre of my magazine use the word psych also, below is a link below to an NME article with Tame Impala, a band I used on my inspiration mood board, explaining the top 5 'psych tracks'.

Tame Impala's Top 5 Psych Tracks

"Wikipedia" defines the word MOB as Mob commonly refers to a crowd of people (from Latin mobile vulgus, meaning "fickle commoners").

I felt that this would create a feeling of togerthness within the audience. The audience would feel loyal and proud to become part of the 'Mob' that supported the magazine. Despite the word's latin meaning being 'fickle commoners', I felt that it would create a sense of community and that the audience were proud to be this group. Another idea I had with this definition is starting up a 'hashtag' for readers to use on their social networking sites as they are proud to be part of the 'Mob'. For example '#COMMONERS' or '#FICKLECOMMONERS'

Double Page Spread Conventions

 

These 3 examples are taken from established, existing products. The image of the artist is the most dominant on the page. Conventionally this will overlap over both pages, so that the double page spread is not simply just a picture and text, the overlapping image looks a lot more effective. Another convention of double page spreads is to have a pull quote from the artist in large text across the page. A good example is the quote from Jimi Hendrix on the middle picture.

For my double page spread, I will include both of these elements with my main image overlapping over both pages and also a pull quote from my artists. For my main image, I plan to have the artist in the lion mask seen on my front cover, surrounded by other animal masks scattered across the floor. Furthermore, the pull quote that I will use will have the same message put across by MF DOOM in his red bull interview that I posted onto my blog, when he argues that the publicity given to artists should purely be due to their talent and what they sound like, not what they look like.

Contents Page Conventions Analysis

Images from front cover photoshoot

These are a selection of the final images that I took for the front cover of my music magazine. I set up a key light to left of the model and used only this light to leave one side of the mask in light, and the rest in shadow. I felt that this enhanced the mysterious look of the model wearing a mask, enticing the audience to find out more. I did this because my artist on the front cover believes that popular music is becoming too much about what the artist looks like and not what they sound like, and that audiences are too used to being able to judge whether they will like an artist simply by how they look. My artist wants to break these barriers by wearing a mask, so that to the audience, it could be anyone under the mask.

Mock Up (using found images)

This is a quick mock-up I did using found images to show the ideal colour scheme and to look into the logistics of actually creating the front cover. I encountered problems because the main image on the front cover is a close up, therefore I needed to make it bigger to fit it onto the page. I will use a medium-close up instead as this is more conventional to magazine front covers and also will mean that I will have more room to include other content like headline stories.

I took the inspiration for my colour scheme from the NME front cover I used on my mood board, showing a black and white image with other content in red on the front cover therefore they stand out and will catch the readers eye on the shelf.

I also took inspiration from the NME front cover by having the information about a competition in the magazine inside a coloured bubble, in my actual front cover I will make this smaller as I feel it is a little too dominant on this mock-up front cover.

Practice Shots

These images are before I adjusted the lighting in the room, they show the contrast and effect of the lighting.



Location/Mise-en-scene

The location and mise-en-scene that I use for front cover will need to be iconographic of the genre of music that my magazine represents. With my magazine falling under the ‘alternative’ genre, the location and mise-en-scene needs to also be unique compared to other genres. For inspiration, I tried looking at album artwork of a few of my favourite artists within this genre. While doing this, I found that I enjoyed the majority of album artwork for a band called ‘tame impala’ and that they were all in a similar style. I researched further into their album artwork and found that they were done by an artist called ‘Leif Podhajsky’. I found that he is an artist that has created album artwork for the majority of ‘tame impala’s music and for a lot of other artists that I have listened to in the past. Instead of having a clear location in the background of the model, I could edit the image in a 'Leif Podhajsky' style manor so that it becomes unclear, therefore showing my magazine's alternative style. The actual logistics of this idea may be a problem however, as 'Leif Podhajsky's' work is actually at a professional standard and may prove extremely challenging to make my image look anything close. Furthermore, if the background of my image is too extreme and confusing to the eye, it may become hard to read the text placed over it. Here is a link to his page, showing his recent work. To see all recent work follow this link, a splash page will appear showing his most recent work, simply click anywhere on the page and his portfolio will appear. http://www.leifpodhajsky.com/

Mood Board & Editing Ideas

Costume Ideas - Mask

MF DOOM, an artist famous for wearing a mask reveals why he wears his mask in an interview. He believes that music should not be about what you look like and that the coroporate idea of trying to make what the artist looks like appeal to an audience to make it sell is wrong. He believes that music should be about how it sounds and the artists 'straight skills' as he puts it. What he liked about the idea of a mask was that it could be anyone behind the mask, no matter what gender, 'race' etcetera, which I find inspiring and therefore my idea of my model wearing a mask has been confirmed. Furthermore, in my article for my double page spread, I could have my artist talking about why they are wearing the mask and say similar things to MF DOOM.

Costume Ideas - Inspiration

One idea that I have found simply while watching a music video, was one of artists wearing masks, particularly of animals. This is an idea that I haven't seen used often, making the artist stand out from the rest. Here is a link to the music video that I found this idea in, 'About You' by 'XXYYXX'

Costume Ideas

As

alternative music artists are usually trying to break some kind of boundary, which is what makes them fall under this genre, their costumes/style of dress usually reflects this also. A good example of this is when ‘Tyler, the creator’ appeared on the front cover of NME magazine during the time of the royal wedding. On this front cover he is shown wearing two crowns, one around his neck and another slanted on the side of his head. This is clearly an unconventional way of wearing a crown and this connoted his carefree attitude towards the royal wedding, going against the social norms of the majority at this time. A pull quote from the artist says “I don’t give a sh*t about a royal wedding”, I will use a controversial pull quote from my model on the front cover as I feel it is effective in catching the readers attention and enticing the reader to find out more. Therefore as my magazine would fall under the ‘alternative’ genre, my model on the front cover will need to break some sort of social norm, i.e. do something that isn’t conventional for a model to do on a front cover while sticking to conventions of a music magazine to make it look professional.

Reader Profiles

NME Reader Profile

Readers of NME are predominately male. This means that the majority of content will not be based around subjects stereotypically aimed at women like what would be in a women’s magazine for example ‘Cosmopolitan’ or ‘Grazia’. Instead, content will be more strongly aimed at men with most reviews written by males and with NME’s first female editor only starting in 2009.

The median age of readers in the magazine is 23, which makes a large percentage of reader’s students at 42%. This can relate to my music magazine as my magazine is within a similar genre of music and also has a similar target audience. With my audience being predominantly of the younger generation, most will still be in full time education and therefore will not have too much disposable income.

Readers of a music magazine at this age will be considering going to the year’s music festivals therefore adverts and promotions for these are effective in NME.  Furthermore including these festivals and big names means that it will be in the consumer’s interests to find out more about the festivals and therefore makes the audience of the music festivals, the customers for NME.

I could also incorporate this idea into my magazine as I could also include information or even competitions with respect to the music festivals in the country, possibly widening my target audience.

MOJO READER PROFILE

MOJO is seen as a High quality magazine, with expert opinions on both new music and all-time classics. The highest percentage of readers comes from the age 35-44 range, meaning that the majority of readers will be earning a steady income, years into their career and therefore a higher wage than the younger generation and will have more disposable income. Therefore, MOJO’s audience can afford to pay extra for a higher quality magazine.  MOJO has achieved this status with a 20 year heritage.

Content is also aimed at this age range, as the magazine contains the latest news on older, classic bands that the majority of are retired. This is because these bands will have been most popular around the time that these readers in this age range were young.

Source(s):
-NME Reader Profile
- www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/31/nme-first-female-editor
-http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/mojo

Front Cover - LIIAR ANALYSIS

Double Page Spread - LIIAR ANALYSIS