Front Cover First Draft

By Tobias Pugsley, Ewan Emery Rich and Isaac Peebles

Front Cover Initial DesignsOur group also decided to draw up 3 front cover

designs. The first design was drawn by Tobi. The design consisted of the masthead ‘ACOUSTICIAN’ sprawled across the top of the page with the main image covering the whole page. The main image would be of the artist ‘Oakley Alvarez’ playing a guitar. Along the sides are two different lures (one containing a competition and the other containing a preview of an article inside). Below the lures is a subheading which is links to the main image.

The second drawing was drawn by Ewan. This includes a masthead located at the top of the page with a banner just above it. There is also a banner located down the bottom of the page next to the barcode. The main image is a mix. It has half the face of the musician ‘Oakley Alvarez’ and the other half being half a guitar. Spread down the page are cover lines which are being used to entice the reader into opening up and reading the magazine.

The third and final drawing was drawn by Isaac. This design consisted of a masthead ‘Acoustic Music’ being placed on the top of the page with the main image as the background. He had different types of lures throughout the page with also a strapline located on the bottom right.

• Ewan’s first draft design for acoustician follows a very standard colour scheme for acoustic music using orange, red, green which we are the more natural colours. The layout follows the design used on other magazines such as “acoustic” with the artist and instrument in the centre and the cover lines surrounding. The font used is Agency FB and the banner for the page is simple, with an @ symbol to represent the A in Acoustician.

Ewan’s Front Cover First Draft

Tobi’s Front Cover First DraftTobi’s first front cover design for the

magazine ‘ACOUSTICIAN’ is very similar to his drawing. He has followed the same structure as his drawing just with only a few minor changes. One of these changes is that there is a cover line located on the bottom of the page. I added this because without it the front cover looked plain and we as a group didn’t think that it would entice the reader.

Isaac’s Front Cover First DraftIsaac’s first front cover design for the

magazine ‘ACOUSTICIAN’ has been laid out in a very professional manor. He has a masthead located at the top of the page which stands out and catches the readers eye. Isaac has also placed lures near the middle and bottom of the page. He has done this to lure the reader into wanting to buy it. Located at the very top of his front cover is a strapline. The words ‘COMPETITION’ ‘REVIEWED’ AND ‘FEATURING’ are in capitals to make the strapline stand out above the masthead and the language used makes the reader want to open the magazine and start reading it.

Ewan’s comparison Of Initial and First Draft

When comparing Ewan’s drawing and first draft it is clear to see that there is a large different in design between the first draft and the hand drawn design. The image is an un-manipulated long shot instead of the heavily manipulated close ups that were the original intentions.

Tobi’s comparison Of Initial and First Draft

When comparing Tobi’s drawing and first draft you can visually see a few minor differences. These differences make a big impact on the idea of enticing the reader. The reason for this is because the group decided that the more lures, the higher the chance of our magazine being sold.

Isaac’s comparison Of Initial and First Draft

When comparing Isaac’s drawn draft to his first draft you can visually see a lot of differences. The main reason for these differences is because as a group we decided that some of the things on the drawn draft wouldn’t look very good on the actual first edited draft so therefore we listed things on what needed to be changed and edited. Located on the left is what Isaac created from his first draft.

Manipulated ImageThis is an example of the group manipulating an image. For the first draft, the full body shot was not edited and that was a mistake. The ground the model stood upon was messy and unappealing as well as the image itself being slightly stretched. Although this was still a first draft, its clear that next time something will need editing to improve the standard.

Peer Reviews:After asking our peers for their opinions on

the cover, the main criticisms was the image and cover lines. The style of the image, although typical of an acoustic magazine has a more urban background which is more associated with that of a pop or rap genre.

As for the cover lines, Oakley Alvarez should be the main cover line but because of its arrangement it is not discernible.

Also is the green text that accompanies Tom Marshton, which is not visible from its place in the shadow.

For improvements, the Alvarez cover line will be moved to a more prominent place, the Marshton description will be made visible and either a new image or a photo shopped image will be used.

Peer Reviews:Our peers gave our group some feedback on this front cover draft as well. This piece of work was given some structural feedback on top of advice we had been given on what to add. One piece of structural feedback is that the boxes surrounding the lure and sub-heading look amateur and almost ‘cartoon’ like so there for need to be replaced for something that will make it more appealing to the reader.

One piece of advice given was to add a price, issue number and date onto the front page. This is conventional on all magazines so therefore peers wanted us to add it to make it seem like a ‘real’ magazine.

Peer Reviews:

From the peer feedback, it was clear to see that there where a few major things that needed changing. One of these was the green circle. This was said a lot in the peer feedback as people believe the green takes away the effect of the magazine. To improve this people stated that we should play around with different colours until we find one that doesn’t take the effect of the whole magazine away.A second piece of feedback given was that the computers and keyboards in the background should be removed. This is because they have no link whatsoever to the genre ‘Acoustic’ and therefore spoil the atmosphere created in the magazine. People suggested removing these via photoshop.

The Final Front Cover• The next major edits changed a

lot for the front cover. The ideas used (Image, Mast head, cover lines) were all varieties of the first design, but were exceptionally more impressive. There are still some issues with the arrangement of the cover lines and the quality of the image, but overall it is an improvement