I placed my chosen main image in the centre of the cover since this is where it is almost always put in other magazines. I then cut it out from the background and added effects to make the image look more professional.
As I have found from researching other magazines, the coverline is often put in the bottom right corner. I decided to have the last name in large, bold lettering so it would stand out from the image. I then had the first name in a more cursive font in a lighter colour to seem more effeminate and fragile. I placed a drop shadow effect on both pieces of text to make them stand out further. I decided to just use the name of the person as the coverline to emphasise how well known she is as people will assume everyone will recognise her name.
I changed the colour of the last name to fit the colour scheme and because orange clashed with the background colour. I also added a subheading under the coverline which I have found is often done on magazine covers. In this case it is used to explain who the person is for anyone who does not follow the TV show she has found fame from. I added the masthead to the top of the page as this is the first place people would look so before knowing anything about the magazine, they will see what it is called meaning more people will have heard of it over time even if they have never read it.
I added more effects to the masthead because it looked too simple and would not stand out to people when they walked by who weren't necessarily looking for it. I thought the colour was slightly too bright that could be thought of as trying too hard to catch someone's eye. I feel that having darker colours that are more subtle will attract more customers otherwise they would think the creators were trying too hard. My original plan was to include more images on the cover to attract people who weren't necessarily convinced by the main story. However I thought this would not fit with the subtle/slightly darker image that had been created so I decided to have a newspaper style layout for the other coverlines. As well as appealing more to an older audience for this, the font choices were more professional looking to fit with the newspaper theme with easy to understand language so that younger people would not be intimidated.
After adding the final coverline, I decided that the colour of the coverline was too similar to the colour of the background so I changed it to a lighter pink. This meant that the use of yellow and pink would appeal more to a female audience whereas the bold font and dark colours would make it neutral enough so that males would not be put off buying it. I also added the barcode, date of issue and price as these are essential conventions for a magazine. I had to have the date and price under the masthead as there was not enough room above it without making the masthead look less symmetrical. This also allowed some spare space to be filled without making the cover look overcrowded. I then moved the top left story down slightly as it was too close to the masthead and therefore drew attention away from it.
After making the contents page, I came back to the front cover and decided that the red background was slightly too 'in your face' and so changed it to a lighter red/ pink. I also changed the colour of the masthead slightly as I thought it stood out too much on the new background. I also changed the colour of the other coverlines slightly for that same reason. I had to delete the main image and start editing from scratch as I realised I had cut too much from between her neck and hair. I also put less effects on it this time so she looked more natural. I put a drop shadow on the image so that it had a light border that also filled in the gap between her hair and neck as it looked slightly unrealistic without that part filled in.
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