Analysing Music Magazine Covers

Part of my Media Studies coursework is to design a Music Magazine cover, contents page and double spread page. Before i can go ahead with the designing, i first have to analyse other music magazine covers. I randomly picked out two covers from two different music genres - Rock and Classical - Two genres that are totally different to one another. I chose these two genres as i wanted to see the different techniques that were used to attract two different readers and the impact that the designs have on the reader. As you can see from the scanned image above, i annotated the designs and gave my views on the overall design.

With the Rock magazine cover, 4 different font colours have been used including Pink which could possibly indicate that the rock group are going against the stereotype of Blue being for Boys and Pink being for girls. The image of the rock group is the readers main focal point and the fact that they are pictured as a group rather than individually indicates that they are dominant and could also indicate that they are ONE. One of the band members is wearing hand cuffs which could also reinforce this as well as shows that they are rebellious.

With the Classical magazine cover, a free CD is distributed with every issue as well as a free 'Best live music guide'. This attracts more customers into buying the magazine and also, by having an image of a famous classical individual - myleene klass as the magazine main focal point, more customers will be willing to purchase the magazine just because a famous face is 'plastered' over the cover.

A suitable colour scheme of White and Red has been used as well as the same style font which shows consistency throughout the cover. The colour of myleene klass dress as well as the colour of the CD background also fits in within the colour scheme which reinforces the consistency.

Both magazines have used different layouts and styles for their target audience. With the rock magazine, its over crowded with strap lines, rock styled fonts and the actual magazine itself is targeted at rock fans whereas, with the Classical magazine, its not as over crowded and a neutral colour scheme has been used which could be connected to the peacefulness of classical music. Its targeted at classical music fans.

After analysing both magazine covers, i have decided to base my magazine on the genre of classical. I have chosen this music genre as i believe that other genres such as RnB and Hip Hop are quite competitive in the music industry and so, if my magazine was to be published, it would have difficult competition to deal with as well as high standards to live up to. Whereas with the genre Classical, it is a well known music genre but yet not as competitive as other genres making it possible for my magazine being in a chance of selling a large number of copies as apart from 'Classic Fm', there ain't as many other competitive classical magazines.

Now that i have chosen a music genre, I'm now going to research a bit more into the genre as to gain inspiration for the 'theme' of the cover. I have decided that i want a 'figure' as the main focal point but I'm yet unsure of 'its' position. That is why I'm going to watch various classical music videos as well analyse various copies of the magazine 'Classic Fm' and other classical music magazines. Hopefully, this would provide me with inspiration and ideas for the design of the cover.

Evaluation of Cover and Contets Page

My completed design of my magazine cover and contents page can be seen above. For my cover, i had decided to use bold colours as well as eye catching strap lines which would engage the reader into purchasing the magazine. I had gone for a retro design and had tried to show my photoshop skills in the actual design - As after all, it is a magazine designed to help new photoshop users.

I had manipulated the image of the girl on the cover to emphasise the retro theme and had chose an image that i felt that, when enlarged, would be the main focal point of the magazine.
I had tried to ensure that there was consistency throughout the cover and contents by using the same font, font style and colours. For the style of the cover, i had gotten my inspiration from pop art and 90s magazines. For the contents page, i wanted it to be simple but yet elegant and not too over powering with colour.

As you can tell from the title, my magazine was aimed at Photoshop Beginners. My magazine appeals to mainly students but if it was to be published in a public outlet, then it would also appeal to older age groups. I had decided to make my magazine a free edition as, i felt that it would allow readers to get a feel of what each edition contained and, if my magazine was to be published publicly with it receiving positive feedback, then i would possibly, with later editions, charge a reasonable price of £2.00-£2.50 per issue. On the cover, i ensured that i used strap lines that related directly to the reader and included a competition to attract more readers.

Throughout the whole development of designing my cover and contents page, i had improved on my skills of using photoshop and became more comfortable with using tools such as the 'magic wand' I had learnt about the style of different fonts and how different fonts appealed to different readers. E.g - Fancy fonts appealed more to girls than Boys. That is why i ensured that i used 3 different types of fonts that appealed to both genders. I had used a digital camera to take my images and applied different camera shots in order to take good quality pictures.

If i was to advertise my magzine publically, then i believe that the best place for my product to be distributed would be in a newsagents or supermarket as i believe that it would be easily noticed by the large number and also variety of people who shop there.

Overall, i believe that i have produced a good design but could have made a few improvements. On the contents page, there is a blank space which is an eye sore to the reader. On the cover page, the image looks a bit stretched so if i were to re produce my design, i would change the size ofv the image.

Analysing School Magazine Covers

Before we were to begin designing our magazine cover layout, we were asked to analyse and give our thoughts on four different school magazine covers designed by previous students. As you can see from the scanned images, we annotated the photocopied covers and gave our views on the overall design.

With the covers, i felt that boring and non-appealing font(s) had been used. The same font and font size had been used and despite there being consistency, thee was a large amount of white space which made the cover look plain and 'ordinary'.

With my magazine cover, i want it to be appealing to the reader and not off putting. I also want there to be consistency running throughout and have the image positioned so that it becomes the readers main focal point.

For my magazine cover, i want to be able to use bold colours and also include a various number of strap lines that would contain a bit of information on the articles that are to be published inside the magazine. For my cover, i want to be able to link together all parts (strap lines, images etc) and hopefully produce a professionally designed cover. Finally, for my contents page, i want to be able to use consitency from the cover to design a more simpler but origional layout design.

Magazine Cover - Draft

As part of our coursework, we were asked to design a Magazine cover as well as a contents page using Adobe Photoshop. After a short while, I had decided to design a magazine cover advising and giving tips to new Adobe Photoshop users. I chose my magazine to be based on photoshop as it would allow me to present my photoshop skills in the actual presentation of the magazine. I first drew out in pen a rough sketch of how I'd like my finished design to look. When designing my actual cover in photoshop, i might change or alter certain parts of the layout and, as you can tell, i haven't fully decided on all of the captions and headings that are to go on to the cover. This will be decided upon during the final stage of designing.

As you can see on the scanned image, i have drawn out lines coming out from the centre. These lines represent retro waves that will be covering the magazine. I have decided to base my design on a retro theme. This would allow me to use bold colours as well as experiment with different thresholds especially on the outline on the silhouette.

Around the 'waves', i want to have a film strip going right across in curved position and on the actual strip, i want to use retro images. For my design, i got my inspiration from pop art images and also pre 1914 war magazines. I want to be able to have the contents page and cover page linking each other by using similar colours, fonts and effects.