Music Magazine Cover

Research



1)

Main Image: The image hows Beyonce with both her hand in a fist, one in a punching position and the other by her hip with her elbow sticking out. It represents Beyonce to be a strong and fierce woman because she is suggesting violence which also makes the audience think that she's tough and a force to be reckoned with. This main image is linked to the taglines around the picture, for example 'getting over your ex' link to it because it takes a strong woman to get over someone just like that. 'Does work make you angry?' link to the picture of Beyonce because she looks quite angry and it looks like she punching forward as if to say that if anyone judges her (that would happen a lot because she's in the public eye all the time) she will fight back. This represents women to be independent and that they've got the ability to stick up for themselves. I will include this in my front cover and represent my female artist to have confidence because it goes against the stereotype that women are always vulnerable and oblivious by showing them in very revealing clothing and always being the 'damsel in distress'. Also because it hows a strong character if you look confident.

Mis-en-scene: 

The background is a dull brown colour. This suggests that Beyonce isn't being made out to be glamorous and it's simple, which shows that she doesn't need lots of things to give her confidence because she's trying to show that she can stick up for herself. She is also wearing a black dress that clashes with the dull brown background, which makes her stand out more. This is because she is the focus of the whole image and this makes her right in your face and draws you in because she is a familiar face that you will have a second glance at because if she's on the front cover of a magazine, you know that there is quality in the magazine and you will more likely pick it up and buy it. I will include this in my magazine front cover and use colours to make my artist stand out because it attracts the audience and makes the main subject more noticeable and in your face so the main image will be the first thing that someones eyes will go to. 



3)

Main Image: The image is showing a tanned woman looking straight at the camera, whilst touching her neck and holding on to the bottom of her dress. This shows that she's flirtatious because touching your neck is quite a sexual action and that she is looking at the audience shows that she is confident and is as if she is flirting with the audience. By her pulling on the bottom of her dress is seductive because she may be pulling her dress up or hinting that hse may do that even if she's not going to .All this also shows that she's vulnerable because her body language is representing that because she is trying to get people's attention through being seductive.  I'm not going to put this type of image on my magazine front cover because I want my artist to be very down to earth, unlike other R'n'B artists, that makes her unique and the image will be a simple pose that won't represent anything sexual.      

Mis-en-scene: The colour on her dress are the same as the colours of the text, this shows that the text relates to and is about her. This shows that she's important and is the subject of the magazine and there's also no one else on the fornt cover that suggests that they only want to focus on her. By her face being in front of the title shows that they really want her to be noticed. The text is slanted the opposite way to her head being slanted shows that there is some sort of connection between the text and her. I will use this in my fornt cover because I want to put a banner style heading on a picture that will make it obvious that it is about the picture. 

Planning:



Fonts

For my draft, I choose 2 colours to have my font as and asked people which one they thought was better, this is what most people choose. The red one was my favourite as well because it went with the black and white effect well and was a good colour to have as my title because it stands out. However, I didn't think that font was appropriate for an R'n'B magazine so I kept looking for another one and found one that was much more appropriate for the genre.





















This is the fonts I choose to improve my heading and that would be more appropriate for my genre of magazine because they stand out more. I got these from a website called 'Dafont'. 

I asked a few people in my class which font they preferred and saw as the best for an R'n'B magazine. People said that they preferred the 4th font more than the rest.






I choose to use this one because it was a popular choice and the people I asked are from my target audience, so if they preferred that one then other people will be attracted to that one a well and will like the style of the magazine and buy it. It's important for me to meet my target audiences demand of what they expect on a R'n'B music magazine because if they like what they see on the outside then they'll think there will be equal quality on the inside of the magazine. 





Photos

These are a variety of photos I took for my magazine front cover, showing my artists that I'm featuring in my magazine, I wanted my artist to show authority and confidence in the main image of the front cover because a lot of people would see the picture on a music magazine and normally you get successful, confident and professional artists on the front covers. 

I liked the light positioning in this picture because it creates a nice affect that makes the picture interesting to look at. Also, the light casts a shadow of the artists, which almost makes them look like they've got authority.



Layout

I choose this layout because after looking at lots of other magazine covers that already exist, I noticed that they were all similar to this layout, so I thought that it makes the front cover quite professional because clearly it is a successful way of laying it out because popular magazines do it like this. These layouts are with the main image in the center, the sub-heading at the bottom and cover line's around the edge with a banner type cover line over the top.






Draft

This is my draft front cover: 

I had to improve this because the colours of my fonts didn't complement eachother, so I decided to change the sub-heading to the colour of the cover line and I changed the colour of the cover line to white made the font smaller, so it wouldn't take as much focus off the artists in the image because the font was covering some of the artist on the left's body. I also movesd the date more to the right of the female artist so it didn't go over her head as much which allowed her whole head to be fully visable that is important because she is the main focus of the front cover and if her body was covered it suggests that she's not as important. Finally, I changed the size of the heading 'Christmas Edition' because it took away the boldness of the title, which should be the first thing a person looks at and it should stand out more compared to the rest of the front cover.




Final Front cover

I think this was an improvement because all the colours now complement each other and it's nicer and more interesting to look at. It attracts an audience because there is a bold sub-heading which would draw people in. Also, by making 'Christmas Edition' smaller than the title of the magazine makes the title more obvious. The main image is less covered which revelas the artists more and allows them to be fully seen with most text not covering their heads and where it is it doesn't prevent them from being seen.