Evaluation of Front cover


Evaluation of my magazine

My front cover offers many of the regular conventions of a standard magazine, I chose to have the mast head the length of the page because I think it is more striking and fits with other magazine of the same calibre e.g. love magazine. It is not intended for a mass audience however the audience that I am aimed at is one that is ever growing, the ‘indie’ demographic whose interests are displayed on my mood board is one that has got bigger and bigger over the past few years. The mast head is big and is written in a calligraphy style, as it more artistic and relates to the creative who populate a large number of my audience. The selling line is more of a statement that gives the general themes of the magazine ‘Fashion & Music’ it shows clearly to the prospective buyers what the magazine contains a similar idea is used in LOVE magazine which writes about fame and fashion. I chose to put the date line next to the bar code at the bottom of the page rather than under the mast head the same as the price as this idea has been adopted by similar magazine DAZED & CONFUSED this also allows me to add additional information such as the photographer name, ‘volume number’ and foreign pricing.
I have not used a lot of cover lines because I want to keep the overall composition basic and stylish as this is the key to my magazine. However I have been sure to try and fill the space so that the eye is led naturally through the page. In my first attempt at the cover I put the model credit the same size as the main cover line but decided it woiuld more emphasis on the fact the ‘THE SERGEANT’ was the model that was the main cover line was referring to. I have used a striking main image in which the model addresses the audience directly and it is a mid-shot. On the whole I would say my magazine meets the regular conventions of a magazine of its type, although it is aimed at individuals I think it is important to maintain basic conventions so that it can compete with other similar magazines.
Other magazine I took inspiration from are i-D and love magazine, both of which I really like and I think they target a similar audience as my own magazine, I feel however that love magazine lacks a certain substance and direction which I think my magazine will offer as it is more directed at music and features predominantly musicians rather than ‘celebrities’.
My Front Cover
I chose the name coco as my title because it has immediate connections with the designer Coco Chanel which is a link that my target audience would make. Also acoustically it sounds good, the repeated vowel sound makes the word stick in your head, it doesn’t matter what connection the audience makes with the word so long as they do make one. I think it makes a link with the KOKO club in Camden which is a very prestigious venue where many of the people that I would be likely to feature in my magazine might have played or attend. I have chosen a cool spearmint green for the font colour because I felt my front cover did not offer enough colour (as it is supposed to be a dark soviet military theme with a gaga-esque twist) and I think this is what was needed to balance it out. I think the green is vibrant enough to catch the eye of the audience but not so bright that it seems garish or tacky I think for a sophisticated magazine it is important to find a balance of colour especially on the cover, I think I have found a balance here because the cool colour of the font balances with the warm lighting used in the photo.
The font was a classic calligraphy style used to make a link to the campaign for coco mademoiselle so that a parallel would be drawn between the two and this is a link that my audience would be likely to make. Also the free hand writing style makes the cover seem more artistic and free willed and this will mirror the attitudes of my intended audience. The size of the font is simply to ensure that the magazine can compete with other similar ones.






The main image on my cover I feel is very striking; I have used the name of the artist as a way to structure a theme for the magazine. My artist is named The Sergeant so I have adopted a military theme for the whole shoot, however last year Cheryl Cole launched a whole military image so I had to make sure that mine did not look like an imitation of this. By putting more subtle high fashion military touches to the image I was able to achieve this without it looking to commercial or cheesy. For example I did not want her in a double breasted military jacket because it seemed to obvious, instead I chose to have her wearing this structured jump suit with the high shoulder padding and of course the big military hat, by using a vintage soviet hat it was more in keeping with the theme of my magazine, rather than conforming to the commercial view of military fashion demonstrated by Cole I have made it look more high fashion, I also used the casio wrist watch as a way of making the contempory and cool. I wanted the military implications to be subtle and cool, simply because it forms a bridge between the magazine and the artist, this link is also made on the double page spread. I have put a red vest underneath the suit she is wearing because I feel that it makes the photo less about the sexuality of the model which is not the aim of the photo, it is supposed demonstrate a love of music as well as fashion, I just used the chain as a way of adding femininity to a mostly masculine costume choice, I think helps to balance the overall theme and juxtaposes the masculine with the feminine and the raw with the soft.
For the hair and make-up in this piece, I chose quite neutral tones. I felt that with the strong and dominant clothes I could not have strong make up to compete with it I think the strength of the outfit meant that too much make up would have made the outfit look more like a Halloween outfit rather that a fashion ensemble. I chose black and pink eyes with basic skin and clean lips, I felt my chosen model did not need a lot of make-up. However when it came to editing the image, I did fill the eye lashes just to make the magazine look more professional, more like the sort of magazine that you might see in real life. With the hair I chose long thick loose curls as the style which I have set with hairspray and tried to give volume to, mostly to help fill the space of the cover. I didn’t want the hair to be straight and uninteresting but I was worried that If I had the hair too curly then it would have looked amateurish I think I have found the right look on the hair by keeping it uncomplicated it does not steel focus away from the model herself and the outfit which is key to the mood of the image. I chose a light haired girl because I knew that the costume was going to be dark so I didn’t want the image to end up looking too dark and scary.
The pose of the model is again to give a subtle hint to the military theme, I didn’t want the salute pose because again I felt that it drew too much on the stereotype of military fashion something that was also adopted by commercial queen Cheryl Cole as shown. However by putting her hand on the front of her hips by creating angles with her body but being rigid it draws elements soldierly posture as well as that of a high fashion model, by using her limbs to create angles to fill the space surrounding her it helps the overall composition of the cover. By having my model address the audience the directly it makes it much stronger and much more intriguing as a purchase, as the eyes are almost piercing.
I chose Polly as my model because she is young, pretty and has a unique style which I felt transposed well into the character that I had created. She is the sort of person that would read the magazine, and she shows an interest in fashion, music and art I think this comes across in the images. To make the piece more believable I wanted to use a person that I thought would read the magazine in real life.



When shooting the images for my front cover shoot and two page spread I had intention that the front cover image would have a plain white background so that the cover didn’t look too cluttered think by doing this I have been able to create a professional cover with the a composition that I was able to consider carefully by having no background I did not have to worry about where my text needed to be and yet still be seen. I was able to choose the spaced I wanted to fill with text and the spaces I wanted to keep white.

My contents page

The photo for my contents page was one that I shot at a live gig so it was significantly harder for me to achieve an image that I wanted to use, as I was not able to direct the lighting or posing of the image, however I am so pleased with the image and by going out into the public domain to take candid photos makes the magazine much more real and much more relatable to the audience. The photo is of a friend of mine Katie, she is 22 and sings in an indie band so I thought she would be perfect representation of my target audience, because like Polly (my main artist) she is the sort of person who would be likely to read the magazine.
The fact it is taken at a live gig is something that my audience of music enthusiasts would be able to relate to and I think it gives overall diversity to the magazine as the shots are not simply studio shots that I have set up myself. After all magazines, music magazines especially don’t always feature photos that have been solely shot on studios for the magazine, often magazines will send photographers to gigs so they can see the chemistry of live acts, and the reaction of the crowed.
To create a sense of continuity from cover to contents page, I have used some of the same fonts. Obviously the font used for the magazine cover is maintained, and I have used the same colour so the house style is clear. Also for the ‘contents’ title, I have used the ‘mistrel’ font that features heavily on my front cover, I really like the font because unlike a lot of hand written style fonts it does look like it has been written free hand, I was going to hand write pieces myself and scan them in so I could feature then on the pages of my magazine, however my hand writing would not have fit the artistic style of the magazine and I think the font that I have chosen has the desired effect. I have also used this font for the Editor’s note to make it look like he has written it himself, I think by using fonts continually through the magazine it makes each page seem less detached and makes the whole thing flow more naturally. For the actual stories I have used a quite modern and computeristic I think the contrasts well with the free hand fonts used at the top of the page, although it does not feature greatly on the front cover (only for the foreign pricing and photographer note next to the barcode’. So that the contents page would not look too cluttered I have used this for all of the story headings and the information about each one. Again to maintain house style I have used the title colour as the font colour for each sub heading ‘the features, the fashion’ etc. The use of white blocking behind the text is an idea that I got from another magazine, I felt that white text against the black background still didn’t stand out enough from the black background, so I decided to stick with black and then use the white as a background. I think this is much more effective, and makes the page much clearer and easier to follow. Also the background picture is very dark and I think the whit blocks are key to balancing out this dark image, obviously because the shot was taken live I only had the stage lighting for illumination, I could have used photo shop lighting but I felt that this would detract from the authenticity of the image and that was something that I really liked.
The picture itself shows Katie singing, I like the costume for the image as she is simply wearing black jeans, black heals and a black lace top. I think the fact that the costume is lacking in colour means it is easier for me to maintain a colour scheme within the image, if she were wearing a bright coloured dress or had be wearing multiple colours it would have been much more distracting from the content of the magazine. The lace is good because it makes the costume look fashionable and the way her skin shows through the fabric gives the photo texture and makes the outfit more interesting without adding another colour to the image. The use of black clothes against the black background makes her face and hair pop out of the image because the contrast is so great. Also the image does provide colour through the blue stage lights in the corner of the photo where the light hits the floor. By only wearing black Katie’s red hair emphasised and forms contrast with the black background. The models stance is very natural and I think it helps support the idea that is a real life photograph and that’s why I think it is quite affective that she is not addressing the camera, because it shows that she is not bothered or perhaps unaware that the camera is even there.
With the editor’s note I tied it into the cover line ‘a dying breed of music’ the note credits the artists musicians and designers who haven’t lost sight of the things that are important within their field, I feel this is very poignant in a time when people chase money, vocals are auto-tunes so much that the voice is barely recognisable and censorship means artists can’t always express themselves as they would like to. As has been said I used a free hand font so it looked like the editor had written it himself. I decided to make the layout basic by separating the contents into three plain section ‘the features’ ‘the fashion’ and ‘the music’ I think this primitive style works well with a magazine which promotes vintage ideals and fashions. This is why I think it works so well in contrast with the modern aspects of the page. With the features I mostly used the cover stories as I felt these would be the things most likely to entice the reader when all they can see is the cover, a lot of these things would proabably fit into both fashion and music e.g. studio 54 and The Sergeant, so it made sense to put them here. With the fashion section I have simply chosen stories that I think would appeal to my target audience, when doing this I went back to my mood board to see what the inspirations were in my audience, as vintage clothes and cool designers (Vivienne Westwood) were both on it I thought it would make sense to include them in my magazine again I am broadening my audience, from those group A people who are likely to able to afford Vivienne Westwood and the more C1 people who would be more interested to know where they might go to find good vintage clothes. The reason I have included Orschel Read Is that it is a real designer and someone who I used to know that was studying fashion has emerged as fairly successful fashion designer. His work is sculptural/structured and very post-modern which I think would appeal to my audience as it unlike a lot of other tailoring that I have seen, again I am using vintage vs. modern to make magazine more subversive. Here are some designs from a recent line of his work, I think the his work would have been perfect to feature in my magazine, however all of the photos had to be taken by me and I was unable to shoot any of the clothing in the time the work was set.
With the music, I chose other bands whose audiences fit mine so that they are reading about people that would interest them. Also in terms of style these are the sorts of people that my audience might aspire to dress like e.g. Coco Sumner (I Blame Coco). In the bottom corner I have put a photographer not and stated who it is photographing so that the audience can see which of the stories on the contents page the background photo is in reference to.







My Two Page Spread
For my two page spead I chose to dedicate one page to a close up shot of my chosen artist and have written all the body text on the opposite page. I have modelled my layout on magazines with a similar target audience and I think the composition is well balanced and realistic.
Page 1
For this image I have kept most of the make-up, hair and wardrobe the same. I felt this have the overall magazine a sense of continuity and consistency from cover to feature. However to make a clear difference between the cover image and the feature image, I added a flyers jacket to make the clear transition from indoor shoot to outdoor shoot. This is also shown through the use of the brick wall background, I opted for the old brick wall because I felt it fit best with the vintage theme of the shoot, however I felt it was subtle enough that it does not detract focus from the model herself. Again like the front cover image I have used a photo with direct address, I think the pose exerts confidence. The eyes are captivating and they entice the reader the main reason I chose Polly as my model for because of her extraordinary facial features which makes her a perfect model for an indie magazine.




The cigarette is an important part of the image; cigarettes have been used to connote glamour for years for example Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and many other couture brands. However I have chosen to use a rolled cigarette instead of the tradition tailor made because I think it creates more of a bohemian, indie and most importantly rebellious look. Also it helps to create the character within the piece in my article I have put emphasis on the fact that my artist smokes as I think it is something that makes her easier to relate to by the audience. The most important things is the symbolism of the rebel, while cigarettes are used in glamour are often used in high fashion spreads almost every iconic rebel has been a smoker for example Amy Winehouse, Courtney Love and Mick Jagger. The key is to show that ‘The Sergeant’ is really just an ordinary girl who got lucky unlike some young celebrities who are born into their fame.
The pull quote I have used is very reflective of the artist and has great depth, which I think is important for a magazine that is supposed to be sophisticated, artistic and cultured. While in the context of the article it is just a reply to a question regarding relationships, however on its own it is an ambiguous and curious statement something that I think a pull quote should be because it encourages the reader to find out what the quote is referring to. I have used a calligraphy font because it makes it look like she has scrawled the note on the image herself it makes it seem more personal to the person who said it.
When editing this image it was important that I could make the image look almost perfect while making it look almost completely unedited. I completely smoothed the skin but I did not alter the brightness or contrast too much so that the light levels looked unedited and mostly natural. Comparing my final image to the original image each change is very subtle but have a big impact on the overall effect and make it seem more intentional and well composed.
With my two page spread I wanted to make sure I was making the page visually and colourfully dynamic so it was key that I had an interesting but not distracting background that would complement the colour palette I was already using. This is why I chose the red wall as I was using a burgundy in the best and pink tones in the face so it made sense to have the background be red, but not a garish colour so I think this is very effective.
Page 2
For the page title I wanted to maintain the military theme I thought this was a clever way of making a link between the character and the magazine, but was still an appropriate title to the feature. ‘ATTENTION’ is what a Sergeant might say to the men in his troop, but it also applied to the fact that the magazine is trying to raise people attention to this new singer and it also ties into a line early in the article ‘she commands attention on stage like on other’ I have broken the word over four lines to give it more emphasis and so that it would read the same way as it would be heard in army drills. Also I wanted there to be a white space at the top of the page to balance out the big chunk of text on the second page, so the only way I could do this with a one word title was to break it down. I chose the font because I felt it was contemporary and cool which balanced well with the vintage designs of the of photo also it needed to be a title that was simple enough that it did not look out of context.
I have done the stylist and photographer credit in the same font as the article introduction, which includes the basic information that the reader should know about the artist and if the artist is unfamiliar with them it gives them a chance to get an idea of who she is, if they had not hear of her previously heard of her.
For the bulk of the copy I have used a serif font because I have found while researching other professional magazines use one for the copy because it is easier to read and does not detract from the content of the text.
To fit the conventions of similar magazines I have not used a Q & A format for mine because these are rarely used in main articles in a magazine of my genre. However a more descriptive and informal method is used because it helps the reader to gain a better idea about the person being interviewed because the journalist can give their own view of the person and discuss body language, location, facial expressions etc. so it gives more of a narrative and personality to the piece.
I have used quite an informal tone in the piece and made an attempt at light hearted humour as I think this makes the text more dynamic, the deep and serious questions are juxtaposed with the light hearted joking questions, Although it is a sophisticated magazine it is also supposed to be artistic and free willed so I tried to get this sense of personality across to the audience from the journalist.
I would say my magazine is for quite intellectual people because to take in everything it takes an open mind, so the copy is detailed and long to give a deep insight into the day which the journalist and artist spent together. I have made it clear that it is a long spread on the contents page which shows how many pages it takes up and I have used three arrows ‘>>>’ at the end of the second page to show that the article continues onto the following page.