The Final Products...

Front Cover

Contents

Feature Article

I wasn't too happy with the previous contents page that I posted so I adjusted some parts of it - the text has not change, nor have the images, but I found that the previous one that I posted was wider than most contents pages and therefore made it fit into a normal size page for a magazine.

I found the contents page the hardest part of this whole process, especially when it came to the layout. I didn't know how to set it out and went from one idea to another and after everything, the above is currently what I have settled for. It wasn't my first choice, but the original idea I went for looked simple at first but turned out to be a lot more difficult than I expected.
The editing process this time around was a lot easier because I knew more about the different types of tools I could use from what I learned when making the front cover.

When it came to basing my front cover on a magazine, I originally wanted to go for the Billboard contents (the 2009 version) but then went for the latest NME layout but found that it didn't work because it didn't suit my target audience or genre. In the end, I went for the latest Billboard magazine layout which can be seen below.

Acting Upon Feedback...

As the previous post shows, I got a set of feedback given to me to tell me how to improve my front cover. I took all of this on board and my front cover now looks like this:

On this post, I will give a short step by step on how I improved it and why I thought some changes were necessary. 

The first issue that was raised was that the date could not be visible as it faded in too much into the letter 'L.' I decided to fix this first as it was simple, I first went for a fairly visible grey but it was a bit too visible for my liking. 

I then opted for a slightly darker shade of grey which I preferred because although it was visible to the reader, it didn't look too distracting. 

I then zoomed out of the picture to check if this time it could be seen without the need to zoom in and I think that it was relatively clear.

My next issue was the fact that the masthead was a bit too close to the top edge edge of the magazine, I then placed it down by a little bit. This made the masthead to look more clear.

The next part I edited was the colour on the subtext because according to my feedback, it was harder to read compared to the rest of the text.

I then unintentionally edited the brightness and contrast of my image but it turned out to look fine and I didn't find the need to edit any further.

One other response I got was that the pink on the right looked like the magazine was leaning more towards the female demographic. However, the males that responded said that it didn't bother them too much and baring that in mind, I didn't change the colour scheme as the content of the magazine clearly looks like its going for a music vibe rather than fashion or other genre.

Before & After Feedback

Here is an image of the before and after of the feedback that I received - there aren't a lot of changes made, but the little fixes here make it look different. 

Quick Feedback...

The above is my front cover at the moment, these are the following quotes I got in regards to this:

• the date isn't as clear (its in the 'L'), to fix this problem, I will make the shade a bit lighter, but not too light because otherwise, it looks a bit distracting from the title.
• another issue raised was that the colour on the left looked a bit 'feminine' due to it being pink which would make it look like a fashion magazine rather than music, however, I personally think that the colour isn't as problematic in this case because other parts of the magazine clearly imply that it is a music genre. Also, I asked a male demographic about whether the pink would trouble them and the majority said that this was not the case. 
• I noticed myself that the masthead should be put a bit lower on her head because while all the other 'puffs' are in line and a certain way from the edge, the same should be done for the top half of 'Louder' as it looks as if it is going to 'fall' off the edge.
• Another issue raised was that the sub-section of 'The Making of Ava" is a bit hard to read so I again would need to make it one shade lighter.

What next?

Bearing all of the feedback I received in mind, my next step is to fix these slight issues to make it look as professional as possible. I think that its important to fix the smaller issues first because these are what make the bigger difference to it. 

The Making of the Front Cover.

During the winter break, I wanted to focus on getting the front cover of my music magazine sorted. The front cover will help me decide how I want the inside pages to look - from the pictures to the layout. On my previous post, I mentioned that I wanted to add a logo on the title, but I realised that its better to keep it simple and not overdo it as for the reader, they wouldn't know where to look and little things like logos can get them distracted. 

First things first, here is a before and after shot of my main image for the magazine's front cover.

Before & After Editing.

In this post, I'm going to take you through step by step of how I ended up with my final product and why I made certain decisions.

Small Adjustments...

During the photoshoot, I was able to gather a decent amount of photos which I could work with (150+). However, at the photoshoot I hadn't charged my digital camera fully and therefore had to work with the next best thing - which was the camera on my phone. It meant that the photos were not going to come out as quality as you would expect, but I was determined to make it work somehow. 

Now due to this glitch, I found it hard to edit skin on photoshop because as I zoom in, the quality becomes bad. Therefore, I roamed around the internet to find alternative sites where I could adjust some parts of the picture to make it easier for me to do the rest on photoshop. 

I resulted on going on a photo editing site called 'picmonkey,' it wasn't an ideal choice, but I decided to work with what I got. The first tools I used were very simple - I adjusted the brightness (4), the highlight (59), shadows (16) and contrast (4). These simple tools made the background more appealing - there was a lighter and darker side, which reflected the shadow and this was hard to see in the original picture. The face/body also became a lot more clear and bright and didn't somewhat blend in with the background as the original. I then decided to stick to these adjustments because I didn't want to over do it too much, especially the contrast, as the picture would not end up appealing at all. 

As I was on an editing site, I wanted to use the tools and effects they had to my advantage, but not too much that I get carried away. I went on their 'effects' tab and click on 'Cross Process;' I adjusted the fade to 73% and it didn't make much of a difference to the picture.

As that didn't make much difference to the image at all, I opted for the 'Intrepid' effect which added more colour and a 'vintage' feel to the photo. It also added a slight faded pink on the left which I think complimented the other side which was a darker shade. While the background's colour changed by a little bit, the model was not affected by the effect too much.

I then noticed that this site had tools to fix blemishes and other face involved effects. I experimented with a few but most of them didn't work as well (and some could only be used if I upgraded an account). I then went for the 'whiten teeth tool' - the brush size was of 24 and the fade at zero. I personally didn't think it was going to work and that it would look stupid but the final result came to a surprise. 

This was the result of the 'whiten teeth tool' and though it looked a bit unrealistic at first, I remember that most of models/celebrities that appear on the front page are most likely to have something done to their teeth too, so in the true spirit of the editing world, I done the same.

However, I was a bit unsure about how the white teeth would look if I zoomed out to the normal size of the photo and turns out they looked fine and also complimented the white shirt.

This is what the image turned out to look like after I had edited it slightly on picmonkey and experimented with different effects. I chose to go with this one because I think I have edited enough to make it look like a more realistic, and to some extent, somewhat professional photoshoot. 

Introducing Photoshop...

After I had done what I had to do on picmonkey, I went back to photoshop to add some final touches to the image so I could continue with the rest of the magazine's front cover (layout, fonts ect.)

The first thing that I did was adjust the brightness (18) and contrast (-2). I wasn't doing this with a purpose but just experimenting as I'm relatively new to photoshop. I quite liked how this turned out but I didn't want to opt for the first one without experimenting with anything else.

I kept the brightness and contrast levels the same but made sure I saved them as a 'layer' in case I wanted to get rid of it after. I then went on to experiment with hue, which I didn't change, and saturation (+9) and lightness (+8). I wasn't too sure about it and didn't like as much but decided to keep it for the time being and again, as I saved it as a layer, I would be able to get rid of it later on without needing to start all over again. 

The next adjustments I wanted to work on was 'colour balance.' Cyan to Red (-8), Magenta to Green (+12), Yellow to Blue (+6). I thought that there is no way that this would work because I don't see these slightly faded colours passing for a professional music magazine. With that in mind, I decide to delete this layer. 

I took a moment to go back and experiment more with different colour balances and saturation/hue but I didn't think it would work at all. Therefore, I decided to opt for the simpleness of brightness/contrast because it didn't overdo the image at all and though a lot of manipulation wasn't made, it still made a big difference from how it looked originally. 

Positioning of Image...

Before I got to the layout of fonts, I wanted to see whether I could position the image higher to see how it would turn out. And although this was possible, something about it didn't look right and so I thought it was best to keep it as it was beforehand.

Masthead...

The masthead is important, especially if its a new magazine - it needs to stand and get noticed. It also needs to have some relevancy to the genre of the magazine and since mine is called 'LOUDER,' I think its quite obvious that its linked to music.

I remembered whilst working on where I should put my masthead that NME have theirs further on the left and they always keep it there and it always works. However, once I tried that on my own magazine, I noticed that it was definitely not the case for mine because it looked a bit awkward, as if it didn't really go with the picture at all. (the font size at this point is 500).

However, I then went back to the magazine which I'm looking up to for inspiration (Billboard) and they put their title in the middle at the top of the picture. I thought that perhaps this time it would work, and in a way it did but something still didn't seem right to me...

I then realised that I should change the font (600) and this time, it all seemed to look a lot better. It occupied most of the top section and was a lot easier to read and this made it stand out.

After I figured out the appropriate font size, I shifted it a bit higher and although the difference doesn't seem visible between the two, there is a slight adjustment of where it is situated. 

I thought it would be interesting to see how the masthead would look if I made the font a bit bolder and this certainly made a difference. However, I thought the 'boldness' of it might come across a bit more towards the 'rock' genre and I didn't want to confuse my target audience.

After I went back to the original font, without the boldness, I thought that I should add the date of the issue. The date I chose was 'Dec 2012.' I used the same font for the date as I did for the masthead ('Beer' Font). The colour I went for a pale grey/pink, I knew this wasn't the colour I was going to go for but I wanted to experiment with different ones to see which would be best suited.

The font size of 'Dec 2012' is 80. I thought it would work the way it is shown above but to me it looked a bit distracting and unprofessional. I posted a quick online survey on twitter to ask my followers what they thought of this, one mentioned "I like the idea of the date being in the title, but it should blend into it a bit more. Also, it takes up too much space." 

Baring in mind what I got from they response, I resized it to the font size of 50. It did look better smaller, but I thought something should be changed to make it work with the layout.

I then resized it to 35 but it looked ridiculous and was hard to make out at the first glance.

I realised that perhaps the problem was no longer the size of the font, but rather the colour. For a moment, I tried to see what colours suited it best and whether they blended in with the title.

I played around with some of the colours and kept the same font of 35 for 'Dec 2012.' The colour I chose was a dark grey, which made it blend into the title but could only be seen if looked at closely. 

As you can see, when zoomed in, the issue date can be visibly seen and its not too distracting.

Fixing Imperfections...

When I zoomed in to look at the issues' date, I noticed that the model had eye bags and since we live in a world where even the slightest imperfections needs to be altered, I was going to do the same.

As you can see in the picture above, the eye bags can be slightly seen. I used the 'eyedropper tool' to get rid of them which is when you select a certain area of colour from the picture that you want the other section to look like. 

This was the end result after I used the 'eyedropper tool.' The difference, I think, can be visibly seen.

On the left is the photo before the editing of the eye bags and the one on the right is after.

Layouts & Fonts...

This part I would consider to be the most challenging. I had to think of catchy/interesting headings and make sure that they fit perfectly on the magazine, as well as making sure that they are music related, one way or another.

The first step I took was to find another font which was similar to 'Beer Font' but a bit different too. I came across 'Bebas Neue' on dafont.com. The reason I chose this is because it looks classy yet modern, and I think that's hard to find in a sans serif font. The chosen title is 'The Making of Ava' - I realise that this isn't exactly an adventurous title at all, but since my model would be an 'up and coming' artist, I thought that saying that its the 'making' would be appropriate since the article would focus on how she rose to fame in the music industry. (font size at this point is varied between all three four words).

I noticed that the title didn't look good on the left and I thought I would check how it would look on the right and I preferred it on that side much more - it just seemed to fit it perfectly.

The dark-ish colour was hard to read so I changed it to white. This certainly was easier to read and work with but I wanted to check how other colours would look and whether they would suit.

The first colour I went for was a grey/brown - it was easier to read than the darker shade before, but it almost blended with the background on that side.

I had the same problem with this colour too - it was just too close to the shade of the background colour.

Since there didn't seem to be a colour which I was happy with, I decide to just experiment with different kinds of colours, I even opted for a pale purple.

As you can see, there was no way that the pale purple could work, it looked tacky and unprofessional. 

After moments of experimenting with different shades and colours, I decided that the best one that I came across with was white and therefore went with that for the feature article heading.

The teaser for the feature article reads "From a small town to Hollywood. How exactly did she do it?" I think that this is an important part of the front cover because it lets the reader know what to expect without giving away too much.

I didn't want the teaser to be the same white colour as the heading of the feature so I went for a grey colour; it wasn't hard to read.

This is how the feature article's heading looks like on the front cover. I personally think the end result looks a lot better than I expected.

My next challenge was filling up the empty spaces with other articles that would feature in the magazine. The first idea I got was to do it about X Factor because since my magazine is leaning towards the mainstream pop genre, X Factor itself is considered to be mainstream and therefore I thought it would tie in nicely. However, I realised that 'The Ex Factor' was a terrible heading and had to think of something different and interesting.

The title of it would be 'A Little Pitchy' and the teaser underneath reads 'What the drop of ratings of 'The X Factor' means for Sony. I thought that this ties in with the music genre nicely but it doesn't just focus on singers - also how it affects major labels.

When I was looking through other music magazines, I noticed that there was a certain amount left between the lettering and the edge - I then zoomed into my magazine and made sure that the feature's title was aligned with the masthead and that it was a certain width away from the edge of the magazine.

I noticed that one the left side the words were not aligned and that they were relatively close to the edge, I had to change this to make it look professional. 

This was how it looked once I aligned the text with masthead. 

My next task was to think of a new heading - I thought I would go for something simple and came up with 'Backstage Exclusive' - it doesn't give away too much information and would keep the reader interested in finding out the 'exclusive' information.

I organised the 'Backstage Exclusive' a little bit neatly so its easier to read and teaser section says 'Rita Ora, One Direction and Little Mix' - this way the reader knows who the information will on and this would spark interest if they are fans of them. 

I noticed that something had to be put in the low corner in the right and I thought I should do it on an issue which affects this generation - its the illegal downloading of music and as Spotify is a relatively new way of listening to music for free but legally, it may rise the question whether sites like Spotify can stop illegal downloading. I asked a sample of 15 people in my target audience and 11 of them said they would be interested in reading about something like that.

I added one last heading which was as simple as '2013' and I think that goes well because since its a December issue, it means that its already ahead of the music to come in 2013.

The last part that I had to add was the website of the magazine - at first I thought I would make it blend in with the background, like I did with the date, but it wasn't readable, even when I had zoomed in a significant amount. 

To make it more readable, I made the colour a bit darker.

The Final Product...