Front cover construction

The first element of my magazine needs to address, who my target audience are going to be, I wanted to create an indie magazine that was unisex for the young adult market, ages between 16 to 25. Although ethnisity has a role within indie music I didn't want to aim at any ethnicity group, the indie music scene doesn't have a cultural ethnicity group, the lines are blurred but indie music is poorly represented by the black Asian community. Not because they are being excluded but rather than culturally these ethnic groups prefer more urban music. With this in mind my Music magazine will follow the conventions of indie music magazines and aim at white young adults who are independently stylized.

I arrived at the name Soft because I felt this was strong word etheticlly, well balanced and it has a delicate feeling which I wanted my  magazine to reflect.

The main reason for chosing indie as a genre apart from my own personal music tast was because there are so many possibilities within an Indie magazine. There is no limits for what you can do - and I really like that.

Indie music is independently styled and the magazine can be more like a piece of art work rathe rather than an explosion of information like the pop genre. I can be very creative with the colour, model and fonts. 

Photography is one of my strenghs and the indie genre lets me show this aspect in the best light.

Here are my first sketch to my Indie Music Magazine:

This is what I have done until now. The masthead is now in the top in the left side, but I also tried to put it just around where his hands is but after feedback from other students I preferred it higher which tends to follow conventions of other indie magazines. So now it is in the top with the blue background and the T is just touching the outline of his face so it is easier to see. It is important for me that the masthead is easy to see.

Fonts 

To my Music Magazine I have researched different fonts, I like the first one best - I think it will fit well to my magazine as well as the tile of the magazine "Soft". I like it because it is simple, have beautiful shapes and is easy to read.

Courier New font was also a possibility but not on a magazine masthead, I think it is to simple and a bit boring it also has harder lines which works against the title.

I don't like cooper black at all, I think it is to thick and I don't like the F in the font - and the F in my masthead is important.

I don't like Lithos pro regular either, here is it the S I don't like and I think it's annoying that the font is in capital letters.

I have played a bit around with the colours, I know my main cover image will be mainly dark blue - I think yellow/orange colour will be good together with the blue, Blue and orange are complementary Colours so it will automaticly get more attention.

Here I have tried more fonts with different colours in the fill and the lines on the real cover image that I want to use, so I can see how the colours work together on the cover image.

Step by step

I have used Photoshop to put everything together. In the first screen shot I have put all the strapline boxeswere I want them to be. I chosed a grey colour to the main- and straplines, because I like the grey together with the yellow/orange masthead, his skin colour and the blue/dark blue. Now I need to edit the picture on photoshop so it is easier to read my font.

I have edited the picture, I have used the burn tool around his hair and a bit in his face and hands. But haven't done it how I would like it to be, it is too messy around his head.

I wanted to try something different and I just learned how to use the brush tool, so I used the blue colour to put around him and then chosed write colour as the font. I think the results are affective but I really like the colours from the original picture better, so I will go with that.

I went back to my original picture and I have started to write my straplines. I am happy for content  written and think the balance of text to picture is successful, but think I need a little more information. I need to make sure the ratio between art and functionality

The change I then made on this one is adding more text on the right side and under the little picture solving functioanality issues. I've used the burn tool on his hands and on the right side where the text is, so the font is more pronoced . I made my masthead bigger, changed the straplines colour adjusting the light and put a little picture in the top of the right side of my magazine.

This one is my final cover front, the only thing I have change here is put the little picture under the text instead of over.

I am pleased with how it ended up and esthetically feel it is well balanced, photography is a major part which I wanted because I feel this is the sort of product indie music followers will like to be seen with, it will become part of their fashion statement.