Producing the magazine front cover

After creating my masthead and editing my front page photo, I started creating my front page. I used my original drawn designs as an idea for another design. You can see these designs scanned onto the computer on an upcoming blog. When I was happy with how my design looked, I opened Microsoft Publisher to make the magazine cover on as I knew this would be the most suitable program to create it on. I first inserted the front page picture of me and my friend, with the blue and white background. I made this image fit to the size of the page so that we were focused in the middle. Next, I inserted the Urban Beat title. I had a little problem doing this as when I opened it up in its original program and copied it onto Publisher, I realised it did not have a trasparent background and the white background behind it made it look unproffesional. I then copied it onto Microsoft Word and made the background transparent with a picture tool. I copied it back onto Publisher and it could now be moved around the screen without a background. I placed this on the top left corner of the page, to the left of my head and leaving a little space above it for my banner. I then opened a text box and put it across the width of the very top of the page and gave it a black background. I wrote in the text box 'BRINGING YOU THE BEST MUSIC NEWS SINCE 1990' in white writing to stand out. I put this there as it was a typical part of most magazines. I then started to create the 'sticker' which was a 3D looking sticker with 'Free iTunes Download p45' written on it. This was also a very typical part of most magazines and I realised it was something that would not only attract a readers attention but would also allow them to relate to it and take it a little more seriously. A free music download was a feature my questionnaire participants said would be the most appealing to them. As iTunes is a popular medium of download, this was why I chose to use that.

Next I made the semi-transparent banner that runs across the bottom of the page on a slant. In here I promoted 'Battle of the Sexes' issue. This was written in a big font which stood out and I also wrote '09' on the right of the banner along the length of it. This made the whole feature stand out on its own. Small features were promoted below the 'Battle of the Sexes' title with a small black star between each individual one. I had realised in my evaluation of magazines that there was usually a common shape between them all (most commonly an arrow) which would make certain words and features stand out more. This is why I adopted the stars idea.

Inserting the rest of the words were no problem, there were only two more to do. I wanted to keep it as minimal as possible while still making it stand out. This is how most music magazines look. On the right hand side of the page, roughly in the middle, I wrote 'JJ & DJ DANNY EXCLUSIVE' to explain who the people in the picture were and on the left hand side I wrote 'TOP 40 CHARTS'. The 40 was written big as it is also a common convention amongst magazines to have a big number feature on the page somewhere. My '09' at the bottom also applied to this.

I next created a barcode on a program called Adobe Fireworks and inserted this into my publication. I placed this on the top right, next to the mast head. Down the side of the barcode on the inside I wrote the issue number and the price. Underneath the masthead I wrote the date in a month and year format. This was in a small font, as was the issue no. and price.

I was then happy with my front cover. I done a rough test by showing it to people of my target audience age in my family and to friends. My general feedback included:

• 'The colours are really cool and well chosen.'
• 'I like how there are two people in the picture instead of one.'
• 'I like the banner across the bottom and the feature inside of it because it relates to the people in the picture. '
• 'The mast head really fits in with the magazine genre.'