In this blog post you will see my critical analysis of my mock up magazine cover and an image of the front cover.
1. What is good about it?
The only thing I found successful on this magazine cover was the title, this is because in my opinion and according to my research on other rock / metal magazines such as Kerrang! and Metal Hammer, this type of font does go well with the music genre rock.
2. What is bad about it?
Firstly, the quality of the main image is appalling and doesn't look in the slightest professional or appropriate for a music magazine as it was taken on a regular mobile phone (Blackberry Curve), instead I will be most likely using either an Apple iPod camera as they are around 5 Mega Pixel but does look professional as lighting doesn't effect the quality of the image taken.
The main image its self doesn't actually show any sign of a typical rock band as it is just the lead singer sat on chipped wooden stairs smirking, this has no connotation in the slightest towards rock other than the black leather jacket and the black background, this made me realise I need to be a lot more careful when taking my images for the final magazine cover.
The "Buzz Words" in the bottom left corner of the magazine aren't eye catching in the slightest, and the colours don't really go well with the house style of the magazine cover, in future I plan to make sure the buzz words stand out a lot more and fit the house style and what ever is going on in the magazine.
The smaller image of the lead singer at the bottom of the magazine cover is once again not necessarily suitable for the magazine cover, in future I will most likely use images of real bands and a more interesting,eye catching story to go with it to make sure the magazine cover looks more professional.
3. What are the limitations of the equipment you used?
With the camera, the limitations are you cant exactly be in light or it will effect the camera, so your almost forced to take a darker image. Using Photoshop I found out according to numerous videos and websites I researched, there practically aren't any limitations to what you want to do with an image, personally I think Photoshop is the best technology to use when making a music magazine, the only problem with it is that there aren't any set columns which can then make the magazine cover look unbalanced and messy. But then I started using InDesign, this allows me to make my images / layers on Photoshop and then import them onto InDesign and therefor I have columns which will straighten out the magazine cover for me.
4. How has your research impacted your choices?
My research has impacted my choices greatly, as I now know that if I where to make a light rock magazine, staring for example the band "Nickelback" the magazine wouldn't need to be hectic it can be quite calm looking yet stand out from other magazines, I feel like this would be a lot easier to create rather than having to make things look really hectic, I could use simpler fonts, images etc which would be more suitable for my capability on Photoshop and InDesign.
5. What will you need to do in order to produce a better final version?
In order for me to produce a better final version, I feel like I need to do a lot more research on Photoshop and InDesign to get the hang of it and become capable of succeeding in any ideas I then have for my music magazine cover. But also keep up the research on music magazines so I can gather more ideas and information on how my final piece should look and keep practicing as individual blog posts so I can view my progression and where I can improve.
