Planning and Research for Front Covers

I have analysed 3 genres of music magazines to see the common conventions of each one. As I have chosen to do a pop magazine, I've looked at 2 of those. These have a target audience of young girls aged 9-15. This means the front cover I create needs to fit the common conventions and suit the target audience. To do this, my magazine must be girly (girls are the largest buyers of pop magazines) and childish, with bright colours and lots of images. My target audience will be expecting young people on the front cover because they see these 'celebrities' as role models. The clothing needs to be fashionable but not too revealing or outrageous. As it is a music magazine, music features need to be integrated through use of things such as props. Competitions and giveaways are popular and at times the pop musc takes second stage to the images and mood. . 

In order to follow the conventions of an indie music magazine, it is very bare and minimalistic. There are no cover lines to tell you what is inside the magazine. This makes the ratio of picture to text higher than the average magazine. This is very different to all the other magazines I looked at. The camera shot is a medium close up and the model is using direct address. The model is using a mask as a prop which is covering a quarter of her face. You can't see what the model is wearing but it is clear that she is young. The magazine chose a young model to represent them because that is who their target audience is.  


The pop magazine I first looked at is vibrant and full of images, giving the reader plenty to look at. The colour scheme is very girly, with lots of pink, but not overbearing. The picture to text ratio is about 1:1 for this magazine, which is normal for pop magazines. Most images use direct address. In the main photo, the camera shot is medium and the model is wearing white to represent the fact that she is pure. This is a common thing for pop magazines as they want to keep all pop artists as well behaving role models for the young target audience 

The rock magazine I looked at is quite dark in the background and bright for the text so things stand out quite well. The layout for this magazine is similar to the pop magazine but the colour scheme is different.

This is my second pop magazine. It is very similar to the first pop magazine I analysed. The colours are bright and there are plenty of images. The model in the main image is wearing black to represent him as a 'bad boy' to match in with the caption. It is a medium close up and uses direct address. A lot of the smaller images are close ups.  

This is the first photo shoot I did for my front cover. I took various photos with different backgrounds, clothing and props because I had a lot of ideas and this way I could see which one would fit best in to the magazine. Blue and orange are opposite the the colour wheel so this seemed like a good starting point.

 Some images appeared out of focus and their mood was too grey. Even when I uploaded them into Photoshop, I was unable to pick up the contrast. I loved the idea of getting my model active this is a common thing to do on a pop magazine.

The problem with asking the model to play is that she is less pretty and there is no direct address. Also I want my model happy and if she is blowing glitter it may be more 'witch' like.

Strengths of my final choice portrait are things such as; good focus - which means that after I have removed blemishes my model looks professional and my photograph does too. Direct address is massively important because walking along the row of pop magazines at the super market (approx. 25) none were without direct address. Lighting was clear and the spot light was well placed. Not too harsh but not weak and soft such as an older woman's magazine eg. Red. Weakness: I changed the background especially when I realised that a friend was using the dark orange on her Rock magazine, Also I could have found an even younger model however, Lucy (aged 16) plays the role well.