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This is the front cover for an issue of the music magazine Q. You can very clearly see the masthead featured in the left hand corner which stands out and catches your attention, and instantly lets the reader know which magazine they are looking at.
The main image is of Liam Gallagher, and although there is no direct eye contact, the image still connects with the audience, as his body language is very straight on and direct, and the camera angle is a medium close up. Also in his sunglasses you can see the rest of his new band members, this suggests to the reader that this is what he is now focusing on, and therefore lures them in, as they would want to know more. It also shows all the band members in an artistic and unique way, also making it stand out on the shelf, and drawing the reader in.
As well as a strong cover image, this front cover also draws the reader in, as they have used a couple of lures, one being the "Queen 16-page exclusive", making the reader want to buy this magazine so they can have this information. They have also worded their cover lines so that they too sound like something exclusive you could only find out in this magazine.
Some examples of the mode of address are in the cover lines, where a lot of informal language has been used. One writes, "Booze, fags and... muffins!" Connecting with the reader, as they feel it may be a more enjoyable read, without complicated and confusing words included.
Overall, this magazine cover brings across a futuristic feeling, of things that will be happening in time to come. This is because of the colours used. As well as the consistent red, black and white that you will always see with Q magazine, they have used simple, but effective greys. Also the expression and body language makes it look like they are looking onward and that Liam is focused on his new band, this feeling helps to draw the reader in, as they will want to know more about it.
This is my mood board for my music magazine.
The genre I have chosen is Dance/Electropop. I chose this genre as it is appealing to me, and I think this leaves a lot of flexibility with the style.
As you can see, I have included lots of colour points throughout the mood board. This is similar to what I want on my magazine. I love some of the photos I have chosen, because they have dull, or plain backgrounds, then they have included a colour that is supposed to stand out, either on the text, or another part of the image. I really like the cover for Mixmag, and the way they have used colour on their front cover.
My target audience for my magazine, would be young people, more specifically 12 - 30 year olds, these are the people would would most likely enjoy this genre of music, as this age group go to clubs/concerts where they would mostly play this genre, or they would be the people who buy this genre of music.
For the preliminary task, we were asked to create the front page for a school/college magazine.
To help us achieve the right photo for our magazines, we had Alex Walton come in to give us an introduction into techniques for taking photos, and getting the right shot. He is a photographer who works for Archant.
He spoke about all the different things you have to consider to get a really good photo for a magazine cover and I learned a lot.
One thing that I learned was that most magazines have the name of the magazine on the left hand side of the cover, this is so that when it is stacked on the shelf, the name won't be hidden to potential customers. Therefore when we took our photo, we made sure that there was a reasonable space along the left hand side of the photo, so that we could add any text, and the title to the cover.
To make our magazine stand out, I used the bold red boxes to highlight the text with the magazine features, however it doesn't take away from the main image.
The reason we chose this image out of all the others we had taken, was because it showed the school element with the text books piling up, but also because it shows the stress a 6th form student might be going through. With the facial expressions and the fact there are a lot of books in this shot, helps to draw the target audience in, as they can relate to it, and therefore would want to read the magazine.
We also wanted to try to make it appealing to the age group, with an interview with the current artist Wretch 32, who would be inspiring and helpful with the information included. This lures the audience in, as well as the competition we have included where you can win an Ipad 2.
This is the front cover for an issue of the music magazine Q. You can very clearly see the masthead featured in the left hand corner which stands out and catches your attention, and instantly lets the reader know which magazine they are looking at. 
