The process and planning of my magazine pages

CoverStraight after researching some music magazine covers, I had an idea of what I wanted for my front page. I like the effect of a close up photo as the main focus of the page.

Original sketch plan

My initial ideas for the masthead are something simple but bold and sophisticated.

I want the cover photo to be full page and for it to be a posed close up shot.

I plan for my text to be all on the left side, but as you can see I haven’t thought about where the cover story text will go.

This is a very basic plan of my cover as I have not planned where the barcode will go, or where the date, price and tagline will go.

Date & Price

Barcode

Developing ideas for my cover page

Placing the tagline right under the masthead makes it difficult to miss, and more recognisable.

Date and price are important to a cover as they are necessary information to the buyer, however as they are not main features, they only need to be in small writing.I planned for the

cover text to be mostly on the left hand side, as it keeps out the way of the models face in the photo.

After completing this plan I realised I needed to do some more rearranging, as there would be a blank space.

I rethought the cover story text and decided to place it lower down on the page, under where the models face should be.

The barcode is essential to the front page, as it has to be easily accessible for the shop assistant scanning the product, and it cannot be place on the back, as usually there is an advert on the back of a magazine, and the advertising company would not want a barcode interfering with it. The barcode does not need to be obvious, so just at the bottom and out of the way.

Starting to produce a front cover

Barcode at the bottom, out of the way of the articles.

Cover photo – full page, but I chose a photo that wasn’t as close up as I did not want to disrupt any text.

I struggled when designing my title, so at first, while I was getting everything else done, I picked a basic font to just show where the title would go.

The text here is very pink, I want it to be more of a pink red colour, so it is not just aimed at girls.

The tagline is very basic, as I do not want too much going on in the front cover.

Black backgrounds on the text compliment the black clothing and dark features in the picture.

I used black boxes behind the text to separate it from the photo. This makes it easier to see.

After searching through lots of different fonts (read my earlier blog posts) I came to find Elephant, which I like due to its simplicity and sophistication. Here I have played around with the format of it.

Here I decided to put a black background behind the masthead, as it makes it clearer and bolder, and I did not like the contrast of the pink on the cream coloured background.

I have based my design on the colours black, pink and white, this gives a rock effect also, you do not want too many different colours on you front page. I have also stuck to one text, so the magazine looks more professional.

‘World exclusive’ persuasive buying techniques

Same as masthead font, style and colour, looks less complex and more corporate.

Date and Price just under the masthead, small text, but visible.

‘March 2012’ – shows the date however needs to be more specific,

I have made all the text the same font as my masthead, this makes it more sophisticated and professional.

As I’ve progressed with my media magazine, I think I’ve recognised the parts that are not as successful and parts that are. The last design I felt was too block and structured, so hereI have changed the background shape to a circle, to add something different to the cover.

I changed the text here to regular from bold, as it is easier to read and better spaced out.

I’ve moved the cover story heading and text to the left hand side of the page, as there was a blank space that needed to be filled, I think this has made the cover fuller with just the right amount of text and spaces. See next blog post for finished cover design.

I have adjusted the height of the masthead as I think the title needed to be bigger, bolder and more striking.

In the last design, I had felt that something didn’t look right. I then realised that the heading was overlapping the very top of the models head. I thought this looked unprofessional so, using Photoshop I cut out the model from the original photo background, and layered her over the top of the masthead. The masthead is still readable and identifiable as the model only slightly covers a couple of the letters.