Front Cover Production Log By Tesfah Watkins-Scott

1st Background

This image shows one of the first backgrounds that I have 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.

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).

2nd Background

1st Attempt

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 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 changes in order to create an attractive and unique magazine to receive a higher grade.

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.

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.

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.

1st Masthead

This screen shot is of when I first created my masthead using the font JF ROCK. I automatically knew that this font 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 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.

2nd Masthead

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.

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.

Cover Lines

Final Reggae Music Magazine Front Cover This screen print shows my final design for my

reggae 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.