Front page

My main idea with the magazine front cover was to have a main image almost centred, the masthead near the top (not at the top because it is not conventional for the masthead to be in that place), have a selling line and a date line. These are general conventions for a front cover for any magazine.

The band I have photographed are called Fake Fiction and I know them through their drummer, Tom. I took a variety of different pictures with my Pentax K-m (some are inserted left). The best of the amount that I took was the middle picture. I chose to use this picture as the main image because all the band members are pulling a face and on most Kerrang! covers this is what the band are doing. This shows my front cover will follow the conventions of Kerrang! and it also shows the band in a different light. I took the image while standing on a climbing frame in a children's play area. This shot works well because the three members are equally shown and they are all stood in the same position - which highlights their equality in the band, yet their clothes depict their individuality. I have used the select tool on PhotoShop to select the band members and place them on a black to white gradient background. This is so that the text is clear and that the location of the photoshoot, the playground, is not visible. As I have mentioned in a previous post, I will be producing a punk/rock magazine and Fake Fiction are a punk band. Picking a punk band for a punk/rock magazine is straight forward - you wouldn't have Mumford & Sons on the cover of Kerrang because Mumford & Sons aren't "rock".

In terms of conventions it follows the conventions almost precisely. I chose to follow the conventions because they have been proved to be successful by the target audience purchasing the magazines and through the success of the industry. Though I have followed the conventions I have adapted them to suit the overall needs of my target audience.

The masthead "High Voltage" is near the top of the page, in the conventional position. I put it in the position because it is easy to see on a magazine shelf and therefore will stand out to the target audience whilst not interfering with the page as a whole. I chose the title High Voltage because, like Kerrang, it is related to electric instruments and therefore relates back to "rock" and "punk". To make the masthead stand out more I decided to use lightening bolts for the "I" and the "L" because it is a visual representation of the masthead. The colour of the lightening bolts is white and this is for one main reason. I was originally going to use yellow, as this is the normal colour we see lightening to be, however with the black background this combination of black and yellow is the natural colour combination which symbolises danger. This is not an image I wanted to portray, so therefore I used white. To contrast the white I used red for the majority of the rest of the page and subsequently became the colour theme for my magazine. This is demonstrated well in the selling line which is above masthead and it reverses the colour scheme while maintaining the same aesthetically pleasing design. I used the lightening to separate the text so that the top of the page didn't become cramped. I thought this selling line was important to have at the top of the page because the target audience will be able to see it on the magazine shelf and it highlights the most important parts of the issue. The second selling line located below the masthead. I put the website and the slogan below the masthead is it further advertises the magazine. The colour scheme highlights this further as in the website the white highlights the magazine title and in the slogan the red highlights "best" and "you" which are the most important things in that sentence.

The coverline and the main coverline link together well as the coverline gives a sneek preview of what you will find inside in the main double page interview. The main coverline "Fake Fiction" draws the most attention because of it's size and colours. The process of designing this coverline involved both myself and the band. They initially provided me with their logo, which can be seen to the right, however I thought I could improve it and with their permission and guidance I did. You are able to see my improved design to the left. I wanted to change it because the logo they had sent me looked a bit out of place on the page and it looked cartoon-like, which didn't suit the band or my magazine. I changed the logo so the "fake" was red and the "fiction" was blue, these are the two main colours that are representative of boys.

The barcode and the price and date line are found in the bottom right hand corner so that they do not interfere with the page but they are still a necessity to have on the magazine.