Making The Cover

I chose the name 'CROSSOVER' for my magazine. I was definite with this decision and didn't have any other options to decide with. When carrying out my research I found the word crossover used within a magazine. I automatically found it catchy yet sophisticated. I researched more within the word and discovered it was a musical term meaning ''Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes, or genres.'' After discovering this and choosing my hybrid of Indie and Pop as a genre for my magazine I found it a perfect name and suit to its crossover genre.

The first thing I created when making my Cover of my magazine was the Mast head. For this I used a font website called www.dafont.com, this gave the magazine a more realistic look with professional fonts used by other magazines, especially ones similar within the same sort of music genre.

Above shows my final choice of font to use for my MastHead, (font name-coolvetica). I chose this one as I feel it adds to the simple yet effective look I am going for, in which I feel would represent Indie-Pop, I also made the letters all in capitals. This was done purposely to create a statement and dramatic masthead, in which would become iconic for my magazine therefore having to be projected as strong and superior when competing with other magazines in distribution and sales.

 However I was very unsure about what sort of font I wanted initially and Below shows experiments of fonts I tested with the name before finalising on this one. They were all fonts that I liked, or that caught my eye on www.dafont.com, which would be a good element to have in your own masthead, usually being the most visible part to a magazine when stacked, therefore arguably the most important. But I feel the one i have chosen is most suitable and the strongest option.

One I had chosen my font, I decided to use a White colour scheme. Although I felt this lacked the splash of colour it needed yet didn't want a coloured font. I therefore decided on creating a coloured background within random sections of the letters. I chose pastel colours for this, again linking to the laid back style of the Indie-Pop genre, with more dimmed and un-dramatic colours.

I felt very happy with this as the representing the title of the magazine and used this as the starting point for the Cover page. After deciding on the Image for the Cover page in my 'Photography for The Cover' section I then put my two key starting elements together to start to build the cover as a professional magazine page.

I then felt that adding the iconic codes and conventions of a real magazine would tie together the page as a cover, and create the realistic look in which I am aiming for as my magazine as a product. For example from my research one of the most iconic things included on a cover of all types of magazine was an issue number and price. I wanted to portray my magazine as an already successful product rather than a new upcoming magazine therefore thought carefully about the issue number deciding on 521. The price was also a major element, as from my questionnaire the correlation between younger people wanting a lower price became apparent. And after choosing a younger age range as my target audience I felt the price of £1.89 was a perfect balance, a fair enough price to compete with other high end music magazine and be affordable for them yet be suitable enough to ensure profit and revenue was strong. 

I chose to put the price and issue number in the MastHead by the title of the magazine, so it is easy for people to initially see, and see  the affordable price as a lureing technique for them to want to pick it up from a stand and buy it. Also to show the on going success of the magazine, creating a good reputation for the product.

A bar code was also added to the bottom right of the page, to add to the realism of the magazine, to give it the best possible look possible. I also got the bar code of the website www.dafont.com.

 

I felt the featured article should also be manipulated as a strong luring technique on the page, being larger than the other headlines. As the artist is being portrayed to be a popular, influential and in demand highlighting this will catch the eye of an audience and engage its target audience to who would essentially want to read this. I also carefully chose the grammer used, as 'revealed' is again a major luring technique, making the audience intrigued and what is being revealed making them want to know more, therefore purchasing the magazine. The colour and font were also carefully chosen to contrast with the more standardised/ formal fonts on the page, and a bright blue colour to catch the eye of an audience and to stand out on the page as the main feature.

The final thing I added to cover was the other features within the magazine. These were carefully located on the page in the space over the background. This was to create a balance between the statement photography of the model, yet visible enough to also catch the eye for the audience to glance through and lure them in. What i included in this was again carefully chosen. After going through my research I discovered that popular on trend Indie-Pop artists at the moment included Florence and The Machine and Jason Mraz. Therefore felt it important, if i wanted to fully represent and  try to attract the Indie-Pop genre to include them in my magazine as shown to be most popular it would essentially increase the sales of my magazine with people wanted to know and learn about them.

In the first headline, i use the words 'New' and 'Reveals' to add to the luring in of an audience, also enlargening the artist name to emphasise who it is about, and representing them as a superior admired artist.

On the second i again enlargened the artists name, for the same engaging reason and to show the popular artists are involved inside the magazine, and also using the word 'Exclusive', as a major luring technique as not only does it rule out competition more yet it makes the reader want to have it as they feel special in that t hey know it first and could only get that information from there.

Again in the third the artist name is enlarged and the whole section in bold, to highlight an extra when buying the magazine, making the audience feel like they are getting more for there money and something back when purchasing the magazine, one of the most common persuading techniques on a cover page, in which i discovered through my previous research.

And the fourth a festival new update. This was to vary the content of the headlines, as i purposely didnt want to overload the cover with text, i felt it important to vary what i didnt include. Therefore just a list of interviews with artist may not have been as successful at luring in a buyer, compared to a varied which gives the idea of the magazine including more and being more interesting.

Here shows my final Cover Page, i am very pleased with this and feel the simple look represents the Indie-Pop genre perfectly and is a strong cover in which could compete with other magazines. It also gives a realistic and statement appearance, with a good colour scheme and strong luring techniques, essential on the cover for the audience to purchase.