Mock up front cover analysis

My mock front cover went very well I thought. I thought for a first ever attempt for a music magazine I done very well. I spent roughly about 6-8 hours doing this front page.

I thought there was many positives to take from this front page. Firstly I liked the colours (black, yellow and white). I got these colours from I magazine that I researched. These colours suit the genre of my magazine which is rap. Another thing I thought was good about it was the front cover was the writing surrounding the image in the middle. These quotes were totally made up but the quotes themselves didn't really matter for the mock up, but I like the way they look. I really like how the masthead and main heading looks. The writing for the masthead looks very good because it relates to the genre of my magazine. Finally I like how the barcode looks on the bottom left of the page. I had many arguments saying this should go on the right bottom of the page but my research shows me otherwise.

The image on the left shows the barcode in the left hand bottom corner.

I thought there was also negatives to this mock up as well. Firstly I think that the image was not very good. I used photoshop to try and change the colours of the clothes to make them suit the magazine genre but I made the clothes look less realistic. I also thought that the main title would have looked better on the top of the page underneath the masthead. This is because normally the main text stands out the most and when you look at the front cover, it does not really stick out like it should. Finally I think that the background is very poor. I would like a black background but the background on the front cover does not blend in with the images.

The only regret I have with the equipment I used was the camera. The camera I used did not have the quality because it was an old one. For my real front cover I will much a much better camera so that it looks a lot better on the front cover of my magazine. I don't think the images look very blurred but I think that the latest technology will make the images look better quality.

My research massively impacted my choices because my whole front cover is based on another magazine front cover that I researched (this is the image above). It also had an impact because without research, I would never have had a clue what music magazines looked like and represented.

I will need to change things on my real front cover to make it look better. These things are stuff like taking better pictures with better clothing, using photoshop a less as I can to make it look more realistic and moving some of the writing around it to make the front cover look better. A final thing I would like to do is make the masthead bigger so it stands out more.