The document provides details on the process of designing a magazine cover for a reggae music magazine. It discusses testing different background images, layouts, and design elements like the masthead, cover lines, and main image. The final design incorporates feedback and uses colors, patterns and images that represent reggae music and Caribbean culture. This includes a large main image of the designer's father holding a guitar, a bright green and yellow masthead, and cover lines discussing a reggae artist along the left side.
2. This image shows one of the first backgrounds that I have
1st Background thought about using for the front cover of my music magazine. I
chose this background due to my research in reggae magazines
where I found a very effective magazine which is shown in my
research which uses a similar background. I think this particular
image would be quite effective because it looks a bit like the
tropical environment with all the sand from beaches in
Caribbean where reggae originated. However, I felt that this
background didn’t really suit my main image when I assembled
my 1st attempt at the music magazine front cover. To me with
this particular background it made my actual magazine look
sort of like a poster because the colour scheme that I had
planned to use for my masthead did not really go well with this
specific background. Although I do feel that this background
would have a great effect on the target audience due to the
tropical and calm feeling however, I feel that it does not suit my
particular layout and colour scheme.
2nd Background This image is of the second image that I have thought about using
for the background of the front cover of my music magazine. I
have thought about using this kind of background because,
during my research about a video from a concert named ‘Unity’ it
seemed to me that it would be a great effect if I used my main
image to look as if he was on the stage facing the crowd just like a
conventional concert. On the other hand I feel that this specific
background will be too dark to use even with the bright lights
there. Also, I feel like if I used a background that uses at least two
of the colours for my particular colour scheme the masthead and
main image I have in mind will work very well. That is why out of
these two backgrounds I prefer the 1st background because it uses
at least one of the main colours I wish to be included in my front
cover which is gold (yellow).
3. This print screen shows part of my 1st attempt at actually creating my reggae music
magazine front cover. At the start when I first began creating this specific front cover I
1st Attempt thought that it would actually turn out quite appealing to my target audience however, with
a little help from my media teacher and family members I came to the conclusion that
when this front cover would be fully developed it wouldn’t have a huge effect on the
audience so I know now that I have to make changes.
Firstly, the three images that I had used at the bottom of the front cover I feel present no
meaning to my target audience and reggae except the Bob Marley album cover (which isn’t
a picture I have taken so wouldn’t give me any marks). The image on the far left of the front
cover of the pitch black outlined character in the red, gold and green background I feel
could have been effective if I used a better image to turn black. For this particular image I
was trying to create the iPod effect where they black out the character with a colourful
background. However I feel that this did not work very well due to the fact that the image
chosen to be blacked out didn’t really have any meaning when made this colour because I
feel that it just looks like some sort of black figure which would make the audience struggle
to actually identify what the character is. Secondly the image next to this is of my family on
holiday in Jamaica in the sea splashing around. I thought I could use this image to
represent the fun and peaceful side of reggae music and also link the image in with a major
cover line about a holiday. However, in the end I felt like this image could actually represent
any type of genre of music such as: indie, hip hop and jazz because these types of genre’s all
can be linked with fun and joyfulness. As you can see the background of the front cover
doesn’t really compliment the main image that I have used especially with the red, gold and
green lion figures in the background which have been faded using the opacity tool. These
particular aspect of the front cover allow it to look more like a poster than an actual
magazine front cover. Lastly, the main image that I have used for this front cover I feel
doesn’t work really well in this particular position. A conventional main image is meant to
be very big and stand out from the rest of the images however with this particular main
image it looks as if it is being overshadowed by the three images at the bottom of the page.
Furthermore the darken effect that I have used combined with the blur tool makes the
main image look very dull and un-appealing which is the complete opposite of the genre of
music known as reggae. After creating this I now know that I need to make some serious
4. Crowd Effect
•The print screen above is of the beginning process of creating
my reggae magazine front cover. As you can see the image
shows some sort of crowd image placed on the bottom half of
the Photoshop screen. To get the image and also the affect that
has been used, I saved a dark black image of a crowd cheering.
I then opened this image in Photoshop and then dragged the
image to my music magazine front cover. However, when I
dragged this image I thought to my self that the image would
be to dark to be on the bottom half of my magazine which
would prevent me from showing the rest of the background
which I would place behind this layer. Therefore, I played
around with the different tools on Photoshop to try and make
this crowd image lighter or faded. I then found a tool called
opacity which allowed me to make the layer become less dark
and more see through when I made the percentage of the
opacity smaller. I made the opacity 87% which I think would
work quite well when my reggae front cover is finally created.
5. Background Image
• Now the print screen above is of when I finally found my
background for my magazine after a lot of playing around
with different backgrounds and also advice from teachers
and family members. I decided to use this particular
background because, it uses all the 3 colours red,
gold(yellow) and green which are the main colours used in
the reggae and Caribbean culture as I have stated before
which will be very effective to my target audience.
Furthermore, the patterns that are used on the background
like the different circular shapes I feel add a great amount
of affect to the audience because, to me it feels like the
patterns could be associated with the musical instruments
used for this particular genre such as guitars and trumpets
due to the smooth effect. When I first dragged this
background image across to my music magazine I used the
blur tool to smooth down the sharp sections of the
background which would allow the background of my
music magazine to look more calm and peaceful to the
audience which also links in with the soothing genre of
music. When this process was completed I then dragged
the background layer underneath the crowd layer so that
the crowd would then be visible whilst the background of
the magazine can still be seen.
6. Main Image
•Moreover, the screen print shown presents the main image I am going to use for
my reggae music magazine front cover. The main image used I took with a digital
camera in my house and used my dad to be part of the main image as he was
actually born in Jamaica and grew up listening to reggae music so I thought he
would suit my magazine very well. I then thought to myself, what props would
suit my main image model so that It expresses the actual genre of music. I then
noticed I had a guitar in my house so I made my model hold the guitar and took
a couple pictures to see how it turned out. The first few times my model didn't
really look like a reggae artist so I told him to act like your actually playing me
something with feeling. That's when I took the final picture and then I uploaded
the image to Photoshop. Once uploaded I had to remove the background of the
image so that all that would be left is just the image of my model playing the
guitar. So to do this I used the 'Magic Eraser Tool‘ and with just one click the
background of the actual photo was removed and all that was left was the main
image as you can see above. I then dragged the cropped image to my magazine
front cover, and began to play around with the image to find a suitable place for it
to look like a real magazine and be effective. I then thought that if I placed the
image to the right hand side of the magazine the prop used wouldn't really be
visible, so I then moved the image across to the left and found that it was a
perfect fit in that particular area as shown above. The image worked very well
with the crowd image shown before because, it looks as if my model is playing to
the crowd and the reader which is a great affect to use to draw in the reader
because it allows the magazine to involve the audience.
7. This screen shot is of when I first created my masthead
using the font JF ROCK. I automatically knew that this font
1st Masthead would be a part of my masthead due to its unique and eye
catching look . As you can see I have placed a plant leaf to
represent the letter ‘a’. I have done this because this
particular leaf is very popular in the Caribbean islands and
also is one of the main subject in reggae music. I added a red
stroke around the leaf as well to link in with the colour
scheme and found that this worked well. However, the size
of the font which is 36 works very well on the magazine with
the black stroke around the letters but I was struggling to
find out which colour or colours I would actually use for the
masthead. As you can see firstly I tried to use red for the
whole masthead apart from the green leaf but, I thought
that this looked to plain and also because this section of the
2nd Masthead background was also red so it presented the masthead to be
quite dull and bland so I made a few changes.
For this screen shot I ended up changing the colour of
the top half of the masthead to the colour green to see
what two colours would look like instead of one colour.
Whilst doing so I found that using two colours actually
did look more appealing rather than just one so I began
to see what the two different colours would look like. I
decided to just stick to the original three colours from
the colour scheme of the magazine so I used green and
red and saw how this looked. I felt that these colours
looked much better than my first attempt especially the
green however, I still feel unsure about the red being
involved for the bottom half of the masthead but I have
decided to keep the green for the top half because I feel
it is quite bright especially with the dark background.
8. Masthead
This print screen presents my final design for my
double page spread actually placed on my
background design with my main image. As you can
see I kept the cannabis leaf with the red stroke
around it. I also kept the dark green colour for the
top half of my masthead due to the eye catching
effect it has with the dark black stoke around it. The
top half of this masthead will especially stand out to
the audience due to the bright yellow colour for the
lower half of the masthead. I feel that the final
design for my mast head including the final colours
that I have chosen as shown in the image will stand
out to my target audience for many reasons. One
reason for this is that I have managed to involve the
three main colours of my colour scheme when I
include the red stroke which will allow my target
audience to automatically realise what the genre of
this particular magazine is. The main yellow and
green colours used are both quite bright which may
not work in some cases but due to the dark crowd
effect I feel that the colours will stand out for the
right reasons to the audience.
9. Cover Lines
This screen shot is of the cover lines that I have used for my
final design for my music magazine front cover. As you can
see I have used many font sizes for my cover lines. The
reason for this is that it will allow the important parts of the
magazine to stand out, for instance the Everal ‘Ragga’
Watkins section of the main cover line. I have made this
part much larger because, it presents the actual music artist
which relates to the actual theme of the magazine therefore
it will allow my target audience to know that my main
image is the music artist and the rest of the cover line will
draw them in as they will want to read more. Furthermore,
I have decided to use a specific layout where all of the cover
lines are on the left hand side of the page which will allow
enough space for my main image to stand out also.
However, as you can see by the screen print I tried to decide
whether I should use a red stroke around the cover lines for
them to stand out. I feel that the stroke for the cover lines
emphasises them too much and will distract my audience
from my main image and masthead so I have decided to
change this and just keep the cover lines in a bold white
colour. Moreover, also for my cover lines I have decide that
from the first cover line gradually getting to the last the font
size will increase until the major cover line. I feel that this
will create a slight bit of suspense for my target audience
because, as they get the sense that the cover lines are
increasing by size they will be wondering what the main
cover line will be and therefore read on.
10. Final Reggae Music
Magazine Front
This screen print shows my final design for my reggae
Cover music magazine front cover. I feel that this particular
design is very eye catching and will appeal to my target
audience through the many sections of the front cover. I
have made slight changes to specific sections of my
design for a few reasons. For instance, the main image
that I have used previously I made much larger not only
to be eye catching to the audience because I am only
using one image but also, the knee area of the picture
made the image look like my model was just floating in
the air so I changed this. Furthermore, another aspect
of my front cover design that I have changed is the font
size of the top half of my masthead that I have used. I
have done this to allow the ‘Reggae’ section of the
masthead stand out from the rest to allow the audience
when they first see the magazine to instantly realise that
the magazine is about the reggae music genre without
confusing them. As you can see to get my final design to
perfection I used the border guide lines to allow all my
cover lines, the issue date, strap line and the masthead
to be lined up correctly to look well structured and
organised to my target audience.
