Front Cover Features and Cover Layout

Here is my front cover which isn't fully complete because I still need to add other features on it. I used paint to outline the existing features on my front cover.

To begin with, I chose to place the masthead on the top left corner of the page as one of the existing 'WE HEART POP' magazine had its masthead in the top left hand corner and it was rotated so I adapted the same features into my own magazine front cover. The blue line outlines the masthead. At first, I only had the 'Spark' by itself but I saw that the 'WE HEART POP' magazine had a graphic behind the masthead so I incoorporated the same convention into my own magazine.

Most pop magazines have busy covers and many other features on the front cover so I got some Justin Bieber and Chris Brown albums, tookk pictures of them, and then photo shopped them onto my cover. I then added relevant cover lines which have been outlined with the red lines. This advice was given to me by my teacher and I thought it worked quite well as the pictures had to be original and my own so adding in album covers was relevant and unique.

I chose to place the model on the right hand side of the cover because whilst conducting research on existing Pop magazines, I saw models were usually placed on one side of the magazine and I also chose to follow my flatplan as closely as I could. The yellow outline shows my model on the right hand side and I think so far the spacing has been used effectively.

Underneath my artist, I added her name and a quote. I saw that the 'WE HEART POP' magazine had everything rotated in one direction for example the masthead, coverlines,quotes and the artists name and so I decided to follow this convention. I think my quote isn't quite relevant but it could work because I could use the same quote on the double page spread and add it to the artists interview. The pink outline shows how I have rotated the name and quote in the same angle to match that of the masthead and coverlines.

I noticed that many pop magazines have some graphics on the front cover so I added a star shaped graphic and chose not to add a fixed price because 'under a fiver' seemed more eye-catching' and I saw that some pop magazines did not have a fixed price on them. This has been outlined in green and again, I rotated the writing inside the star to make my front cover consistent. The star graphic is pink and outlined in black because it matches with the masthead graphic and makes it look consistent and the artists name is also in pink.

I added a text box at the bottom of the page because when I was conducting my research, I saw that pop magazine front covers had text boxes either on the top of the page or the bottom with the latest coverline and I followed this convention and added the textbox to make it eye-catching. My teacher gave me advice to change the colour to something different like purple and magazines usually have 2 or 3 main colours so I made it purple to make it stand out. This is outlined in black to show how I followed the conventions of pop magazines as well as my flatplan.


Last but not least, I have outlined some missing space in purple because it looked quite empty and I thought I would more coverlines to complete my front cover as well as add a barcode underneath the red outlined coverlines. Overall, I think the spacing has been quite well but I could've made it better by making it more professional because my target audience is older teenagers and adolescents. I will add a barcode and more coverlines to complete my front cover.

I first thought I would cut my model out because I was finding it hard to adjust the lighting and colour but taking advice from my peers and teachers, they told me it look quite unprofessional so I decided to just add the picture back into Photoshop and work with it. I watched multiple videos and figured out a way to blend the picture into the background and make it look a part of it. My masthead was dull pink colour which I picked up from the models flowers on her dress but pop magazines are bright so I changed the colour to a brighter pink.

After changing most of the features and colours and adjusting the light levels, I made the picture blend into the background, changed the colour of the masthead and added the artists name and a quote. I saw a huge difference as it now looked more professional and more like a pop magazine.