First draft, final draft and improvements made

This Is my final draft of my music magazine front cover.

Improvements

The drop shadow on “GIRL POWER” did not match the other drop shadowing on the other text. So I changed it so the pink was drop shadowing the white text on the bottom left.

I altered the bar code and inserted a date, price and website. This will give extra information to the readers.

I made the Polaroid effect bolder. I did this by downloading a Polaroid brush and then using the brush tool to go over it to make it bolder. This gives the magazine a grungy effect and meets the needs of my target audience.

I also had to make the image to A4 size. I did this by saving the image as a JPEG file, holding down the shift button and stretching it onto an A4 sized page.

For my magazine masthead I have used a grungy font to appeal to my target audience. My target audience are teenagers so I am using colours that stand out (pink, black and white) to attract them to buy the magazine. The name of the magazine is in black and I used the magic wand tool to fill in the white areas of the font pink. This makes the headline stand out and meets the criteria of my target audience. This font is called "green piloww" and I downloaded it from www.dafont.com. By downloading this font I feel it demonstrates how unique my magazine is. I spent a lot of time trying to find a perfect font for my masthead as it is one of the main conventions a magazine front cover has. I have created a button in the shape of a pink heart where i've placed my selling line “sex drugs and rock n’ roll” I have placed it in bold capital letters to emphasize it. I feel that it will attract a lot of people because of the colloquial language used. People will want to buy the magazine as the topic of sex, drugs and rock n' roll is a very interesting topic. The colour and shape will also attract people. I have used a white font to contrast with the magazine name. I have added the poster special because I think works really well as it is posters of the featured band so it will appeal to the fans of the band. I have used a sans serif font to show the informality of the magazine. The drop shadow sticks to my colour scheme and stands out more which will grab the readers attention. I have downloaded a brush that allows me to draw Polaroid picture frames. This gives a grungy effect to the magazine . This also fits with the kicker/explanation/list of bands at the bottom of the page. The way the list of bands is laid out at the bottom of the page is how some of the magazines I have looked at have set it out. I have used this image for my front cover because I feel it has a lot of emotion and attitude and since my magazine is a teen grunge music magazine it would work quite well. My target audience are teenagers, so having attitude ridden teens on the front cover will attract them to buy the magazine. I have used a midshot image on my front cover, so that the readers are able to see the emotion in the models faces. If i were to use a long shot, their emotion wouldn't be visible making the main image quite weak. I wanted to have a strong main image because it is one of the main conventions that attract the readers to buy the magazine. There is a  kicker at the top of the page which the reader sees this first and depending on what the kicker says, it could help attract more people to purchase the magazine. I have put the date line in a smaller font because it’s not a highly important piece of information on the magazine. I’ve put it in a normal sans serif font so it is easier to read. This is the main headline I will use on my magazine. It follows the rule of the left third and eye flow. I have put the word Right into a bigger font to attract the reader and hook and ruin in a smaller font. I feel this layout will look good. The way Right Hook Ruin is displayed could look like a boxing glove with the shape behind it. I have put the exclusive in a different colour so I can differentiate between the main headline and the subheadings/explanations. The shapes used give a grungy effect which is what my magazine is based on. This also meets the criteria of my target audience. I have used the kicker “it’s all about girl power” this explanatory text will indicate to readers that the featured band is an all girl band. I have used this kicker title because the majority of bands out there are male dominated so, a girl band may attract some new readers and teenage girls to start their own girl band. I have used a sans serif font to show informality and stick to the codes and conventions of a grungy music magazine. This also appeals to my target audience as they too are informal. I have added a barcode because it makes it look like a real magazine and it also tells the reader when it was issued, how much it is, and the website of the magazine. When taking my images for my magazine, I made sure that the background was "white" so that if I wanted to digitally add a pattern it would be easy. I decided to stick with the "white" background because it has a grungy feel as the background isn't completely white. It also sticks to my colour scheme of pink black and white.