Critical Evaluation of Cover First Draft

As alternative rock is closely related to rock music, I was keen to include a slight edgy aspect to the design without appearing overly punk. I added these aspects through the font of the main cover line which is in a brush graffiti style. Also, the masthead in itself features a clear guitar silhouette, denoting at the very least a musical genre. Considering that guitars are heavily related to alternative rock, the main image also features a guitar, so the continuity is increased.

The cover lines are informative yet slightly vague, as a deliberate enticement for the reader. Artist names are mentioned to further grab the readers attention, and a pull-quote reiterates the inside content. If the reader recognises these band names, they will also realise the genre, if they haven't already gathered it from the obvious connection of the magazine's name. Perhaps I could include a byline with the phrase 'alternative rock' as an even more obvious statement.

In order to assess the readability, I asked a classmate who sat roughly 10ft away from me to read the cover lines and masthead. They managed to read all of the cover lines easily, which proves that my original theory of having white text on a dark background heightens the readability. My classmate did have problems reading the cover line 'Up Close' which is in a slighter darker colour than the other cover lines. I originally done this to avoid distracting from the main cover line, although in hindsight I will change it to be consistent with all of the other cover lines on the magazine.

As the masthead was an image file due to it being imported into the document, this meant that I had to manually fill the colour from a pure white to a slightly off white. I accidentally left the 'i' of magazine the original white colour. Whilst this is a very subtle colour difference, as the masthead is the main source of brand recognition, this needs to be perfect as to maintain a sense of professionalism. Upon closer inspection, this is also the case for the main cover line; evidently the colour change is so subtle it is more difficult to distinguish digitally.

One concern with the anchorage text to the main cover line is that it is a very subtle pink, and a slight increase in vibrancy of the colour will create a greater impact overall.

The price appears rather large, so I will consider reducing it's size and include it with the issue number and date stamp. Whilst this is vital information, a reduced size will allow more focus to other areas of the magazine such as the main cover line and masthead.

I feel that the buzz and puff aren't very eye-catching and perhaps rather vague. 'Exclusive Content' isn't as much of an incentive as the word 'free' or 'win', so I will most likely amend this depending on audience feedback.

When creating the front cover, I had intended to include a semi-transparent 'A' which hugged the silhouette of the model. In practise, this was too distracting for the overall aesthetics, and did not add anything to the publication. Because of this I decided to not include it, which while going against my original intentions, conformed to conventions.

Originally, I wanted to include a magazine which focused equally on design as it did content. With my relatively young target audience of 16-21 year olds, I needed to include interesting short snippets of information to maintain their interest, without including too much jargon which could alienate some readers. I believe I have achieved this, the content is readable and the design looks full without being cluttered. Short cover lines grab the readers attention, as do a moderately sized main cover line and masthead. Sticking to conventions such as; a medium shot image, masthead in the top left corner, most important cover lines in the left hand third, inclusion of puff, buzz, datestamp, issue number, price and barcode. Yet in order to give a more fresh and unique look to the magazine, I unconventionally placed the main cover line across the model, which as mentioned previously, will provide a focal point for the audience.

First Draft of Front Cover

Construction of Front Cover

In the document above, as well as documenting the construction of the magazine, the various choices I have made have been explored within. This document also highlights handmade elements which I have included, notably my own barcode and font.

Puff Badge

Barcode

Pre-production Planning - Cover Line Font

Referring back to the flatplan for the cover page, I had decided to feature six cover lines and one buzz and puff. The main cover line will be larger than the others and in a different font which will enable the reader to differentiate between the content. I aim to heighten this difference by using a unique font which is in a different style to the other cover lines. Considering the heavy san-serif presence, I have decided to experiment with using a brush-style serif font. I need this font to be feminine yet edgy, which emanates that of the cover star.

Firstly I completed some sketches of what I had in mind for the font. These will not be exactly copied as I plan for the final font to be more professional than what my current tracing skills could achieve. Nevertheless, the serifs and styles of my sketches will inspire my search.

These quite flowing sketches mimic that of brush style fonts, with the open 'Q' and flowing 'S' denoting quite feminine qualities.

First I looked online for possible fonts, starting with fontspace. I used the search tool to find fonts listed under the 'brush' tag, and limited my selection to just three fonts. These fonts are listed and explained below:

After viewing these fonts, I looked through my Font Book on my computer. This listed all of my downloaded fonts, and I discovered some which will also be suitable for the main cover line. As these have already been downloaded, I have lost the original source of these fonts. I presume that they would either come from fontpalace or lost type.



After considering all of these fonts, I have limited my selection further to just 4 possible fonts. My main criteria was: an edgy feel, feminine connotations, readability and brush style. I believe that the following fonts possess this, and when I come to construct my front cover I shall decide which is the most suitable.

When searching for the main cover line's font, I came across Bebas Neue from theultralinx.com, this is a 5 weighted font which will be perfect for keeping the cover lines consistent. I was quite certain that I wanted an all-capital letters font for the cover lines, as from my primary research, both Classic Rock and Clash feature their cover lines using just capital letters. Also, from doing some quick secondary research using google images, the majority of covers feature all capital letters as their font. From this, I believe it is safe to presume that capital letters for the cover lines are conventional. As the cover lines still need to make an impact, primarily using this font will suit this purpose.

Pre-production Planning - Cover Lines

Cover lines are placed on a magazine in order to entice the reader into buying the magazine. They are a small blurb on the front cover which gives a small amount of information about an article, or feature, inside. A magazine conventionally has one main cover line and several other cover lines. I have decided for my magazine to feature 6 cover lines overall, with 1 main cover line and 5 normal cover lines. This is all reliant on the image and space left on the page.

The main cover line will be directly related to the cover image, which will be solely featuring the same artist for the double page spread. As I plan for the artist, Aggie Champion, to have quite a diva-like personality, I need the main cover line to express this. The anchorage text beneath the cover line will directly reference the content of interview, which mainly focused on the negativity fame brings.

• Main Cover line: Queen She
• Anchorage: Aggie Champion on taking the good with the bad

I tried to be as inventive as possible, with 'Queen She' a play on 'queen bee'. The direct reference to royalty clearly connotes her diva attitude. The anchorage references 'taking the good with the bad' which is similar to what the artist said in her interview; "you've gotta take the good with the bad".

Ideally, I intend to have 5 cover lines which will provide insight about both the regular and feature articles. The first features a band which I constructed to be listed in the feature section. I intend to have an image of them in the contents page, but not feature in my double page spread. I have also decided to include a pull quote which will further entice the reader.

• The Coos: "We're living the dream"

The other 4 cover lines are directly related to the article list, each of which is explained in an earlier blog post.

• Getting brave with the 1975 (in reference to the Alt Challenge)
• Jamming with the Foo Fighters (in reference to the Lyric Lowdown)
• Have your say
• Up close with
• Foals
• Lorde