The evolution of my magazine front cover

Since I have finally completed the design of my front cover, I have decided to look back at my first mock-up and compare the designs to see how I have improved. Here are my previous mock-up designs compared to my final design:

As you can see, I have definitely improved since I first designed my first cover; I am very happy with how the final product turned out.

Conventions of my front cover

I have included a lot of conventional features for my magazine front cover, so you can say that I have conformed to real media products. There are certain features which I have not included such as a pug, however I think that it looks fine without it. I think that these features would definitely attract readers because it looks eye catching, according to my respondents who I have asked for feed back.

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I think I have improved greatly since the start of the course when I first designed a magazine cover for my preliminary task; I have gained a lot more knowledge and understanding of the conventional features of a magazine and why they are used in real media products. In addition, I have also learned to challenge some of the conventions in a way that will improve my media product for the better. Here are some of the things I have improved:

Editing Software / Serif Page Plus

When I first used this programme, it took me quite a while to get used to all the functions such as colour changing, grouping and cropping. Comparing my first magazine cover and my final magazine cover, you can see a drastic change since I have a lot more features included on my final cover such as more cover lines, a wider range of font and changing the font sizes. These are all due to me learning how to use Serif to improve my work in the best way possible. I have learnt to use lots of features that I didn't know how to use before, for example cropping became a lot easier once I figured out how to change the sizes of the cropping brush, also I have figured out how to access a wide range of colours and shades to choose from. Overall, I am happy with the final product because I have learnt how to use this software to improve my design.

Fonts

I have learnt to use a range of different fonts for my magazine cover; at first I simply used one or two fonts for the front cover however, my final pages contained a wide range of fonts to convey different meanings. Some examples of fonts I have used are Arial Black, Century gothic and Verdana. My creative pages definitely look better with a range of fonts rather than just one or two.

Secondary Images

As you can see, my first magazine cover did not contain any secondary images however my final cover contain 2 secondary images. The reason I have used secondary images for my final page is to attract my target audience; my final cover definitely looks better with secondary images rather than having no secondary images. I have also learnt why secondary images are included in real media products. Overall, I am happy that I have included these secondary images because my target audience will feel more attracted to buy my magazine if they see artists they like.

Challenging conventions

Not only have I learnt all the conventional features of a magazine, but I have also learnt to challenge these conventions appropriately. Choosing not to conform to certain conventions does not make your media product bad, if anything it may be more desirable and may attract more readers. In my case, I have used black and white images in my magazine which is not a conventional feature since hardly any music magazines do this. I have done this to attract my target audience and to create a unique, creative style to my media product. In addition, I have asked a lot of respondents which colour would suit my indie magazine and a lot of them responded that black and white is suited to the indie genre so that is another reason why I did this. Overall, I am happy challenging the conventions of a magazine as long as it benefits me and the readers of my magazine.

Here is a comparison of my first magazine cover and my final magazine cover:

 

 As you can see, I have improved quite a lot with the addition of several features including more fonts, secondary images and challenging conventions. I am very happy with how my final product turned out.

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Double Page Spread - Final *Updated

I have made minor changes to my double page spread since my last update:

• I have changed the article to 3 columns instead of 4 because it looks much neater and organised
• I have changed the font to 'Gothic720 BT' because it is simple and easy to read, in addition my previous font 'Times New Roman' was very over-used and had no real potential to be good.
• I have added an introduction at the start of the article to give context to the readers before reading the article.

Overall, I am happy with the changes I made and proud of the final result.

Front Cover - Final

I have made minor changes since my third mock-up, however I am fully satisfied with the final version of my front cover.

The first change I have made is that I made the main headline "Francis Basco, Solo artist of the year" bigger. The reason I made it bigger is because I compared my front cover to other magazine covers, and I realized that it was just a bit too small for a front cover. I have conformed to the conventions of real media products since it has influenced me to make the heading bigger. I do think that it is more beneficial for the readers because it is definitely more eye-catching. There is a more likely chance that readers will spot the magazine on the shelf if the heading is bigger and bright.

The other change I have made is the size and font of the issue number and date; I have changed the font to Accord Heavy SF because it looks more eye-catching than my previous font. It would be more beneficial if the date / issue number is bigger so that the audience can identify if they already have this issue or not.

Those are the only changes I have made since the previous mock-up however I am happy with how it turned out in the end.

Contents Page - Final

For my contents page, I have included the main features that you would find in a conventional media product such as secondary images, use of colour, headings and font size. For the secondary images, I did not use any pictures of Francis since I have used him for my front cover, as well as the double page spread. In this page, I have used three other artists/cover models to make the magazine more diverse. With every image, I included the page number at the top corner so that the readers can easily locate the article within the magazine. In relation to the colours, I have kept with the same house style for my magazine which is red, black and white. I have done this because my readers will easily know that this is an Indigo magazine; I have kept the same house style for my front cover, double page spread and contents.

The four sub headings I have included are: Features, Latest Releases, News and Live. The sub heading 'Features' is a conventional feature for many magazine contents pages because it allows the readers to identify the main articles in the magazine; this is also the same reason why I have included this sub heading. For my magazine, the main article is "Francis Basco, solo artist of the year" since I have clearly shown this on my front cover so I have included this heading under the 'Features' so that readers can find it easily, with the addition of the page number obviously. The sub heading 'Latest Releases' is specific to  my magazine since I have based my magazine on upcoming artists; it is not included in many magazine contents page so I would consider it not a convention. The main reason I have included this is so that my target audience can find new upcoming artists, since I am targeting readers who appreciate indie artists and would want to discover new music all the time.

Similarly to most magazine contents pages, I have included the links to social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr with the usernames of the official Indigo page. The reason I have included this is so that the target audience can visit any of the magazine's social media accounts and find out more information on latest updates, news and events. This is a conventional feature within mot magazines so I am conforming to the conventions with this feature.

Other conventional features include the issue number and the date which is essential for all magazines so the readers know when this magazine was published.