Front Page

Creating My Front Cover

I began to generate ideas for my front page by deconstructing other front pages in my scrap book. The two I deconstructed were from Clash and Vibe. By looking at these magazines I was able to see what modern music magazines tend to look like. For example, Both models on the covers are very airbrushed giving a glamorous look and the idea of perfection. This gave me the idea to give my own model a similar look. Both images are also head shots of the models, the main focus being on their facial expressions and few props have been used. This shows they're the main feature of the magazine, I therefore decided to do this with my own front cover.
The Vibe magazine cover is very plain, the main focus being on the main story about Rihanna and Chris Brown. I really liked the way in which there were no real headlines and instead just a mention of the names of the artists included in the magazine. I think this gives the cover a very modern and minimalist look, thus making it very fashionable. Since my target audience requested a neat and tidy cover I thought that I would try and include this type of layout in my own cover. However, I decided to use a variation of fonts and font sizes as well as different positioning of text around my page to make it look more interesting. Similarly to the Vibe cover, I used minimal headlines and decided to include only three, including the main story.
As well as this, I did use the feature of just including the names of artists within the magazine, but I wrote them above the masthead, giving my magazine a professional look. As well as this, since my image took up quite a lot of space, I didn't want to overcrowd the space around the image by putting too many headlines around it.

I really liked the way in which the model of the Vibe magazine's facial expression represented and indicated the nature of the story. I decided to create a similar look by making my model look moody and upset. I did this to create an image of the nature of the story. As well as this, I thought the way in which a lyric from a popular and well known R&B song had been used as a headline relating to the story on the Vibe cover was very effective and clever. I decided to incorporate this into my own magazine, changing it slightly to appeal to my younger audience by using a more recent lyric.

I also noticed from both the magazine covers that the masthead slightly overlapped the models heads. I did this on my own magazine cover because it creates a professional look as well as preventing the image from taking over the entire cover. This also prevents others from stealing the image since it has the magazines mark on it. As well as this, it makes sure you notice the headlines and masthead and not just the image on the cover.

Creating My Front Page

I started off by opening my chosen image into Adobe Photoshop. I chose this image because the shape of the model is perfect for me to surround it by a masthead and headlines. My model also has the perfect distant and unhappy expression I wanted her to have. The hand on her hip also makes her look like she's on the red carpet and therefore is exactly what I was after. I also like the way in whcih you can see the top part of her dress, making her look glamorous and showing she has dressed up, adding to the red carpet illusion. Despite this, the focus is still on her facial expression, hence I decided this was the perfect image.

To change my pictures background, I used the magic selection tool and highlighted the space around the model. I then selected Image > Adjustments > Levels. I then altered the levels so that the background turned completely white.





To make my models face look more bright and glowing I again used the magic selection tool to highlight both her neck and face and then repeated the above step (adjusting the levels).



To increase the 'glowing' and flawless look of my model, I used the eye dropper tool and clicked it onto my models face so that I would get the correct skin tone of the model. I then selected the brush tool and brushed it around my models face into the model had a completely even skin tone. I then selected edit, then fade and adjusted the dial so that the brush tool on my models face would look more natural and blended.

Again using the magic selection tool, I adjusted the levels once more, this time moving the dial in the opposite direction so as to make the models face slightly darker, helping to make it stand out against the light background. After this, I selected Image > Adjustments > Black and white.




Next, I used the magic selection tool to highlight my models lips. I then selected Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights so as to make her lips look like they have make up on them and to make them stand out more, giving her a more glamorous and 'made up' look.





To help add to this, I also selected Adjustments > Image >Brightness/Contrast thus helping them to stand out more and making them darker.








Again using the brush tool and then selecting Airbrush I used black to outline the models eyes, helping them to stand out and giving the appearance of wearing more make up. I also lined her eye lids with a light grey colour. I then selected Edit > Fade and faded the additions slightly to make them look more natural, blended and airbrushed. I decided to add the make up using Photoshop instead of putting actual make up on to the model before taking the pictures because such as the model on Vibe magazine, the make up looks very airbrushed and perfect, I felt this look would be easier and more effective to achieve using the computer.










To make my actual front cover, I used Adobe InDesign. To insert my Photoshop image into InDesign, I selected the picture box tool and dragged it across the part of the page I wanted my image to be. I then selected File > Place and inserted my photo. Next, I right-clicked the image and selected fitting > fill frame proportionally. This made my image fit into the box without stretching it out of proportion making it look blurry. Once I was happy with the positioning of my image, I inserted a text box above my models head and typed out my masthead in my chosen font. Again, I moved around the positioning of my masthead until I felt it looked best.

Next I edited the text colour to a light blue since I felt this colour coordinated nicely with the black and white as well as standing out effectively against it. It also has connotations of sadness and depression, coordinating with the models facial expression. To do this I highlighted the text and edited the colour using the colour panel. After this, I inserted another text box in the same way as I inserted the masthead. I then wrote out some of the names of the artists included within the magazine, similarly to the Vibe magazine. These artists are some of the ones that the feedback of my survey told me my target audience liked. I did these in black so that they were separated from the masthead but coordinated with the black and white of the image.


I wrote the name of the 'stars' full name in big capital letters to suggest high status and grab the attention of fans and potential readers. I made the name the same colour as the masthead so as to make it coordinate. Since the masthead is important and personal to the magazine, making her name the same colour as it suggests importance. This also makes the name eye catching and draws attention from the masthead down to the name. I placed both her name and headline below her so as to show the relevance between her and the headline. I also did this to highlight the fact that this article is the main article and to separate it from the other headlines. 'She's no broken hearted girl', is a lyric from a Beyonce song - I chose this because as I mentioned before it is a more modern lyric, appealing to my target audience whilst also having a similar effect to that of the Vibe headline. I made certain bits of the text bigger than the others to make the headline stand out and to make it look more stylised. I did this by adjusting the text options, making font of the selected words larger than others. The headline is grey so as to make it coordinate with the black white and grey image, this colour also coordinates with the blue. These mixtures of colour are also very modern and young - like my target audience.

I repeated the before step of inserting a picture box and placing the image of a barcode into the corner of my cover, making it look more professional. Beneath the barcode, I inserted a text box and wrote 'www.Blast.com' - my magazines website. I edited the word 'Blast' so that it was the same font as the masthead, helping people to familiarise themselves with the Blast masthead and logo.

I did this in grey so help it coordinate with the page and stand out against the black of my models dress, whilst also stopping it from stealing too much focus by using a bright colour.

I entered my first headline in the space around my model. I changed the font of it so that it coordinated with artists names above the masthead. I adjusted the quotation marks so that they were the same colour as the masthead so as to make them standout, making my magazine cover look more attractive and styled.
To rotate my headline I right-clicked the text box and selected rotate. I didn't want the image to be fully rotated, just slightly tilted so as to make it look as though the quote is coming from the model almost like a speech bubble.

Next, I entered my next headline, I made the '50' big so that I could fit the rest of the text around it, keeping the headline stylish and modern and making it fit into the space provided.




Using the Wingdings font I added diamonds to separate the artists names at the top of the page. I did these in the same colour as the masthead again to help coordinate the page.

I added a text box close to the '50' and edited the text so that it was aligned and near by stretching and adjusting it using the text options at the top of the page.

I edited the font for 'R&B' to give a more 'urban' look, helping it to stand out and highlighting the genre of the music magazine, helping to appeal to my target audience. I changed the font and colour of the '&' symbol to make the page more decorated and styled. This also prevents all the words blending into one and looking dull. Since my audience is fairly young, this stops the page looking boring and hard to follow. This also helps the page look coordinated and tidy.

Beneath this headline I added '...and what to expect from 2010'. By beginning this with '...' it appears to be an added bonus to the article. It is in lower case so as to suggest that it is not quite as important as the rest of the article/headline and indicating that this is only a small part of the topic.

Beneath the quote I added 'Amber's Promise' indicating that this quote is from the artist on my cover, 'Amber Martina'. This prevents the quote from looking random and as if it is a separate headline to my main feature. The statement 'Amber's Promise' gives hope to fans and suggests the positive nature of the article, contrasting to the sad look of the models face. I decided not to rotate this text like the rest of the quote so as to make it stand out. I also did it in a swirly italic font to make it look feminine helping it to relate to the artists. This font is also associated with my music magazines genre, helping to keep a running theme of the R&B genre on my front cover.

I also inserted a text box inside the space provided in the bar code. I rotated this text and wrote the price of the magazine. I decided to put this in the barcode since the price is usually found by the barcode on a magazine. Since there was space within the barcode however, I decided the page would look more neat and tidy within the actual code. I did this in black to help it coordinate with the barcode and did it in the same font as the artists names to help it coordinate with the rest of the page and separate the numbers to that of the actual barcode. I did the same for the date and issue number of my magazine, which i positioned above the bar code , giving my page a more professional look. I did this in grey to coordinate with the magazines website and to help it standout against the black of the models dress.

My final Product

The feedback I recieved showed that most people were very happy with my front page and my target audience found it appealing. My teacher suggested adding the date to my front page. This helped make my page look a lot more professional and I also added an issue number so as to make my magazine appear to have been running for quite a long time.