F15. Music Magazine: Making of the Front Cover (incl. sketches)

Below are screenshots of the process through which I created my magazine front cover.

I used the shape tool to create the bold triangle and circle.

I used the character tool to change the size, font, spacing, width and height of the letters. In this draft I have used only two different fonts, however I have used a wide range of heights, spacing and sizes.

I have used the colour tool and swatches, to change colour of the fill and stroke of all the letters and shapes.

I used the stroke tool to change the outline of some letters to a different colour, to be bigger or smaller.

I decided to try a different picture to see if this would enhance my front cover.

I drew a circle behind some writing in keeping with my research into seventeen magazine to attempt to highlight the information. 

I attempted to align my magazine using the rule of thirds which I installed through using guidelines.

At this point, I decided that I needed to take a different path with my work so I decided to start editing it to hopefully create a better magazine cover. I began with the name of the magazine.

This new title matched my research with seventeen magazine and Cowgirl magazine more therefore creating a good in mix off youthfulness and country music.

I then began to change the rest of the fonts to match the new and improved title.

I used the swatches with the colour tool to edit all the colours so that they became a corresponding. In this version I also used sizing more to get a further range of sizes. This was an attempt at getting it closer to a magazine cover fitting of a magazine for teenage girls as this far closer to my research into teenage magazines such as seventeen magazine.

I then decided to change fonts and move different pieces of writing in and out of the cover to see which looked best where (with consideration to the rule of thirds) and what should be included. Below are different examples of positioning.

Above is the final draft of this style of my design, I have moved the lettering around in attempt to stick by the rule of thirds and to float all the words appropriately. After looking at this, I have decided that country picture does not go with the youthful text so I need to fins a better balance between the two.

I decided to remove all the detail and focus on getting the title right. I decided that I would model it on cowgirl magazine which is a country music magazine which has a more modern and young feeling to it. The title itself is very similar to that off VOGUE and ELLE.

This is another draft I created by moving around text and using different fonts, colours, positioning's and sizes. 
There are clear problems with this design. The photo is not proving to be eye-catching enough, the text is serif which goes against my research, some of the writing is hard to read. The barcode is far too large for a magazine. Overall, it is a simple uninteresting design that could be improved.

I then started to change my design again, I moved the title up and I changed the picture to an image that I believe is more eye-catching. I had started to edit the placement of the letters.

I then began to experiment with the colour of the title, by using colours that I picked up from the image.

At this point I decided to do some drawings  of my front cover to help further develop the page. From them I found that the bar code belongs in bottom left corner and that the writing on the right side should be two colours like the first two sketches. I also prefer when the bottom line matches the heading like in the first sketch. Overal, I would like to create something similar to my first sketch.

 After I had chosen a title, is started to put my text back in place but I changed the font and spacing to be compatible with the new image I had in mind.

I then experimented with the boldness and colours of the text. 

I decided to add some additional information to the cover to make it more professional such as the date, price, bar code and photographer.

Above is my finalised bar code details.

I then trialled using a name I had previously considered but I decided that my previous title of LASSO was a better fit for my magazine.

I decided to move the rest of the information that had been around the bar code, to below the title as shown above. I also added a tag line above the title.

I  experimented with the concept of lines by changing their placements, colour, thickness, and adding more or less of them.
I then went on to experiment further with colour, as can be seen in my final drafts however above is the near finished copy.