Finished front cover for my Music Magazine

This is my final front cover of my music magazine "Music Juice". I've changed a lot on this, I've changed the fonts of most of the page, such as the website at the bottom of the page was originally "Tahoma" and is now "Broadway". I've also added more text that would be typical in a music magazine off the shelf, such as "Win a £50 iTunes voucher, details inside!"

I've also added a price, next to the bar code, in both pound sterling, as well as in the euro, which i went on the Internet to make sure I got the right exchange price.

I've changed the colours as well, such as the blue circle on the mid-right hand side was originally a darker blue. I noticed that my colour schemes were all over the place, such as different blues being used, so i changed that, and now all the blues are the same.

I've also changed some of the information, as before, I had information on my cover that didn't apply to my contents page, like it should do.

Over-all I am really happy with my final front cover. I think I've used a lot of bright and eye-catching colour, which would instantaneously make somebody want to pick it up and read it. I think my image is good also, as it has a white back round as well as white above her head which I did purposely for the header to be put there. I've put borders around only some of the writing, where I think it would stand out more and look better, rather than outlines on everything.

More work on my front cover for my Music Magazine

This is an almost finish front cover for my music magazine. I've added a lot of colour to this, as I think the brighter the front cover, the more interested a person would be to reading it. I've researched a lot of music front covers, and I found that on the left hand side, there was always a larger set of writing, followed by smaller. I also noticed that a lot of them had their website link at the bottom of the page which I have included. It's not very bold and easy to see though, so I'll either change the colour, or put a back round colour behind it. I've also included the basic things such as a bar code as well as the date. There's still a lot more I want to do to this front cover, maybe add another smaller image, change some of the colour schemes and so on. 

This is my front cover with a bit more work on, I've now added a back round colour to my website at the bottom, as well as numbers on top of my bar code. I have also put a "win a free CD" on the top left corner, as well as moved the date onto the right hand side of my cover, instead of keeping it on the left.  

I thought that adding the stars above my image's head would also look good, as stars seem to be a popular symbol at the moment, with lots of music magazines having them, as well as people having tattoo's of stars and shapes shaven into their heads.

I know more writing needs to be put on my front cover, so I will research a lot more magazines from shops and the internet, and get some ideas on what I can put on it. I know I have a lot of fonts, sizes and colours on my cover, which rather than being eye-catching, could just be confusing, so I will change this by the time I am finished.

An almost finished contents page

I decided to go for a completely different colour scheme, to see how it would look rather than having a black back round. I've also deleted a lot of the writing i originally had on my contents page, as I thought it was unnecessary and a waste of valuable space. I've moved the "features" and "regulars" around on the page to see what that would look like too. I've also changed some of the colours of some things such as the "Win" box at the bottom of my contents page.

Although I have made a lot of changes to my contents page, I'm still not happy with it, and still feel this doesn't look like a typical realistic contents page. I think that if I change some of the colours around more, as well as where the information is put on the page I will be happy with it. I'm still not entirely sure about having a blue back round either, so I think I might change it back to a black back round again.

I've changed my back round back to black again, as having feedback from other people, as well as my personal opinion, it in fact made my contents page look tacky, rather than eye-catching. The image to the right, is an almost finished contents page, all except for images and maybe some colour changes, as well as font changes, as I have many different font schemes going on, all on one page.

I think that possibly deleting the back round image I have on my contents page now would make it look better as Ive changed the colour of it many times and i am still un-happy with it.

More work on my entire Music Magazine

I took this picture myself of my friend, Lauren. I decided I wanted her to look a little bit like Lady Gaga, seeing as I'm doing a music magazine, but didn't want her to look exactly like her. This is why I've let her leave her hair straight, but still have the well-known black triangles under and on top of her eyes. I've decided I want this image for my front cover of my music magazine. This means I can have her on my double-page spread as a singer named "Ladee Laur".

The make up I have done myself, as well as changing her nail polish colour, as originally, it was all chipped. I think that this is a good image to have for my front cover, as images similar to this, are what is usually on a typical music cover. I might take more pictures and see if I can have a better image for my front cover, but at the moment I am happy with having this one.

I might also change the hair colour of this image, or maybe take another picture of a different friend all together and see if i prefer my alternative, but at the moment, I am happy with this.

Research for my double page spread of my Music Magazine

When I researched on google images, "music magazine double-page spreads", i got a lot of different ideas. As the "Black Eyed Peas" are a well known band in the chart music industry, I thought it would be a good idea looking at a double page spread about them, and seeing what these spreads typically include. When I this double page spread, image shown to the left, I saw that it was a general interview with the band. There was also a large image taking up a lot of the space, as well as writing actually over the image. There is also larger fonts in places that are quotes from the interview also. These are all ideas I will take into consideration when doing my double-page spread. I will get a number of images, and have a play around on my page to see how they fit and how good and realistic to a real music double page spread they look.

I also looked at a double page spread including solo artist and fashion designer Lily Allen. I thought the idea of having her quoting "People think I'm an attention seeker, but I'm just honest" looked really good in the look of words all put together, cut out of a newspaper. I also like the image, as it's the first thing you see when you look at this double page spread, so you instantaneously know who the article is about.

Much the same to The Black Eyed Peas double page spread, this is also an interview with Lily Allen. This has made me decide to have an interview with my fiction singer, "Ladee Laur" on my double page spread too.

The start of my Music Magazine's contents page

This is the start of my Contents page for my Music Magazine, I've chosen a darker back round as I think it emphasises the other colours on the page more. I need to collect some more research as well as images for my contents page. When looking at contents pages on the Internet, I have found that they all contain a lot of colour. This is what I want mine to be like. I thought the heading had to be the largest part of the page obviously, as well as bright, which I have done. I've also researched the music chart's for this week (28th February) and listed the first top 5 this week, as on researching a lot, I found that many contents pages has this. I've also added a little introduction, as looking at even everyday magazine's, they all had this.

This is the second and more on the way to being finished part of my Contents Page for my Music Magazine. I think I might have too many colours going on, as usual colour schemes only have a maximum of 4 or 5 colours on a page. I also think I might have a bit too much writing on this too, so I should cut down and just put the most relevant information on my Contents Page. I've already cut down my introduction substantially, but there's a lot more to be done. I'm thinking about getting rid of the top 5 charts from this week as it takes up a lot of room and could usually be found further on in the magazine. I'm also thinking about maybe getting rid of the back round graphics all together, as I don't know whether it's just making my contents page too crowded rather than doing any good.

 

I think that I will defiantly remove the top 5 music chart from the right side of my contents magazine all together. Although it could have been a good idea to start with, I've had feedback off both my teacher and other friends on the course, and they have all said it takes up unnecessary room, where you could find the top 5 charts further on in the magazine, which would make you want to buy it. I've still got too much writing, and still too many colours, such as dark blues and light blues, which i will all change nearer the end to my finished product.