Making my Magazine Cover

I started by choosing my favourite picture for my front cover, I decided to use this picture as I like the way Emily is positioned. It is also an nontraditional pose for a magazine as the magazine cover pictures I looked at during my research as they were full body shots were the models are stood straight. This is why I like and have decided to use this picture for my front cover.

I then moved the picture to the right side of the page as I am going to put the article headings on the left. This is something I didn't see on other magazines during my research although I wanted to use it as one of my questionnaire responses suggested I didn't follow all of the conventions of a magazine. I added a barcode to the bottom right of the cover as during my research I found that a convention of a magazine is to have the barcode on one of the bottom corners so I therefore decided to follow this convention.

I then added the magazine title to the front cover at the top of the magazine, this is the traditional position of a magazine cover therefore I followed the magazine convention of the position of the masthead is this is where it was positioned on the cover of the magazines I looked at during my research.

I changed the position of the main image to the centre of the page as I felt that this looked better. Next I took the white background off of the masthead, I put it into the position I wanted it and then moved it behind the model on the cover. To do this I used the magnetic lasso tool to select around the Emily, I then pressed control J to make a separate layer with just Emily on it and then put the layer in front of the layer with the masthead. I did it this way so that later on if I wanted to change the position of anything on my magazine cover I could do it as easily as possible. I put the masthead behind the model as I saw this done on the magazines I looked at during my research.

I then added my article headings around the picture of the model located in the centre of the page, I used the font Bebas Neue for the article headings and took them directly from the DaFont website by taking print screens and cropping them then removing the background.

I then again changed the position of the main image of Emily to the left side of the page as I feel that this looks better, after doing this I began to reposition the article headings so that they fit well on the page. I had originally planned to have the main image on the right side of the page with the article headings running along the left side but I now feel that this is the best position for the cover conventions.

I have aligned the article headings along the right side of the page with all finishing at the same point to make them look well balanced, the article headings are not in the traditional position and layout of magazines but I feel that this looks best, during my questionnaire it was also suggested that I do some things differently by not following all conventions. I have moved the barcode to the left side of the page as it is most suited here, I am still following the convention of the barcode position as it is located on one of the bottom corners. By doing this I feel that I have used the space well and have been able to create a good layout. Although I didn't see the main image on the left side of the page with the article headings to the right on the magazines I looked at during my research I feel that this looks best.

Next I changed the colour of the article titles by using variations of grey to create a gradient pattern. Doing this has made the text stand out more than it did when it was black and in my opinion has made the magazine look more professional and stand out so that readers are attracted to it. The colours I have used for my magazine still make it look like it is from the pop genre due to the bright pink background with the black, white and variations of grey for the text so that the text can be read by all users and is still suitable for my target audience of teenage girls.