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.