Music magazine - High Voltage (Front cover)

For this year’s media coursework we had to design and produce a music magazine which had to contain a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread. The band I included on my front cover are the main feature of the magazine and therefore I have used them for my article and double page spread. I have known the drummer of the band, Tom, for many years and arranged a photo shoot with them. “Fake Fiction” are a punk-rock band and that is why I have decided to follow this theme for the entire magazine because it wouldn’t be correct to put a punk-rock band on the cover of a girly-pop magazine. The other reason I have done a punk-rock magazine is because I am a fan of that sort of music and listen to many rock bands, while also reading “Kerrang” and “NME” which have been the main inspiration of my magazine. The final draft of the front page has followed the same concepts as “Kerrang” magazine; with the masthead at the top, the main cover line at the bottom and with the kicker at the very top of the page. There were four drafts of the front cover; this is because I believed that the cover looked boring and not very professional.

The first background was gray, it looked plain and boring so in the second draft I changed the background to black and added a gradient to it. This made it look so much better but it still needed a little more black on it. This title was in font “Goudy old style” which looked too formal for a teenage punk-rock magazine, it was also too high up the page. The picture was also too high up and was quite pixellated without being 11pix/cm. For the second draft I changed the pix/cm to 300 but it came out with 28pix/cm. The “Fake Fiction” banner was too small, it didn’t fit the entire width of the page and it looked cartoony. This first draft wasn’t very good but it gave me a lot to work on. I have already talked a little bit about my second draft. I added two new things to it that the first draft didn’t have. I added a cover line of everything that’s happening in the issue but I believe that there was too much information on this. I also added a price and date line at the bottom with a bar code but this was a little hard to see.

As I proceed to the third draft of the front cover it was gradually coming together and looking much improved but there were still six things I had change, the title being one of them. I decided to change this because the audiences focus went to the main cover line (Fake Fiction) and not to the masthead (High Voltage). I have changed the gradient on the background so it was more black than white but I still need to change it a little because you cannot see the issue number. This is because the font for this is white but I do not want to change it to red as there will be too much red on the page, therefore it is the gradient must be changed. The resolution of the picture is starting to annoy me because it will not stay at 300pix/cm, this is crucial otherwise it will be pixllated. I need to make sure that it stays at 300pix/cm. I have added 'what is in the issue' to the left hand side of the front cover. This has a lot of information on it and is a little bit 'in your face' so i have to change this by taking most of the information out of it and only focus on the main points and maybe change the position of it on the page - I might in fact put it at the top of the page like Kerrang do! Adding the date, issue number and price to the page was a little challenging but this is only because I still need to sort out the gradient for the background by making it darker in the bottom right hand corner.


Moving onto the 4Th draft the main things I had changed; the font of the title and the size of it, the information on the left hand side and I have added two things; the website address at the top left and the 'full interview inside' bit. The font of the title was very formal for a teenage punk/rock magazine so it changed from Goudy Old Style to HP PSG which I think looks just right, I think it follows the theme well. Changing the information on the left hand side was a little tricky because, at first, I didn't completely know what I was going to do with it. I then thought more about Kerrang (which is the inspiration for my magazine) and decided to put a selection of information on the top of the page. Then I had a brilliant idea to separate the small bits of information by red lightening bolts. This is very similar to what Kerrang! do but they normally separate their information with starts. Where the information used to be, on the left hand side, i have put a little image of 'Fake Fiction' with 'full interview inside' next to it. I really do not like this and neither does my audience so I must change this in my next draft. The website address at the top left is too big at font size 30 so all I need to do to this is change the font size and that will be fine and will not need changing.

My final front cover changed from the 4th draft quite a bit, I have changed quite a few things. I think the most important thing I changed was the gradient. You can now see the date line, price, bar code and website address because this was changed. The gradient is very dark at the top right and left hand corners and as you go down towards the bottom right hand corner it gradually becomes gray while in the bottom left hand corner it is almost white. This, I believe is much better and my audience think this as well. I moved the website address to the top right hand side and made it smaller because on the left hand side I put a kicker, 'voted the best music magazine by you' - with emphasis on the words 'best' and 'you' by putting those words in red, this is so it stands out. After this I changed what was the information that went on the left hand side that said 'full interview inside'. I changed this to a quote from the interview itself, '"we believe everyone in the band is equal" - full interview pages 16 and 17'. This was probably the second best thing I had changed because I did not like what it was before and neither did my audience. I have shown this to my target market and they have given me some feedback, they have given me some very positive feedback. They have said they like the layout of the page and they think the information at the top of the page that is separated by the lightening bolts was a clever idea and a good way to put information. They also liked the angle that I took the picture of 'Fake Fiction'. I am extremely happy about how this front cover has turned out!


Myroslava Terlecky

(There is an error with posting pictures onto blogger, as soon as this error is sorted out then my final front cover will be put on here)