Prototype magazine cover

I created two 'mock ups' of a front cover to gather my ideas and to see if they would work effectively  I hope to use something like this for my final front cover (obviously with a photo taken by me). I used inspiration from other magazines for things such as the layout to make it look as professional as possible. 

Obviously, before even started creating a front cover I had to decide on a genre of music and a target audience which I want my magazine to appeal to. In the end, I decided on Indie as I think it would allow me to have a calm and in-a-way retro look which is what I wanted. I also chose for my target audience to be 15-32 as i think this type of genre is most popular between these ages.

For the name of my magazine I came up with a short list including possible names such as; Pure, Shadows, Vague and Unica (unique in a different language). I opted for 'PURE' as I thought it represents the type of music and genre I am aiming for as Indie singers are often not as 'auto tuned' as lets say pop artists etc giving them a purer sounding voice and tone. However, this is subject to change throughout the process of creating my final cover!

Adding to this, the overall 'colour' of the magazine was crucial as it had to link with the genre. I made the image have a subtle colour as I didn't want the image to be seen as 'brightly coloured' as it may go against the genre and be seen as 'Pop' rather that Indie. 

However, for my second draft the most drastic change was the idea that I used colour for the font and used the font I used for the title in some of the sell lines. The idea for using the same font came from the need for a house style and I thought an obvious way to promote this would be to have the same font running throughout. I also like the colours as they all have an 'urban' feel and I feel that they compliment the genre by this. 


After re-evaluating both front covers, many things have stood out to me that I will consider/change when making my next draft. Immediately, I dislike the 'TM' sign next to the name as when I looked back at my cover I think it gives it a cliche/amateur look hence why it was removed on my second draft. I would also make the name of the magazine smaller so it did not cover the artists face or I would make sure I take a picture with a big enough margin between the face of the model and the edge of the page to allow my logo to fit in without disrupting the image.