Magazine Front Cover (Final)

This is my final front cover, I decided to leave the button out as there is not enough space and I didn't want to cover the models hand as this wouldn't look professional and would also overcrowd the front cover, instead I chose to add a button to the contents page saying 'Free Mixtape inside'

I decided to use a dark background 'dark metal', it looks cool and slick, everything will stand out better against a dark and not busy background but it still has texture to it as it has a metal effect. I then added my masthead in a bold typeface that I choose on Dafont.com I changed the colour of the masthead to a light blue/purple as I thought it contrasted well against the grey background. I also added a purple box around it and changed the opacity so that it is almost transparent. I duplicated the layer of my masthead, placed it underneath the original masthead and changed the colour to add a shadow effect to my masthead. I chose a simple typeface  for the skyline on photoshop and I added a box across the top of the page as the skyline to make it look more professional rather than just  having text. I added a teaser saying 50 VS Ross, I chose this font from Dafont.com as I looked it looked perfect for a hip-hop magazine teaser about fights/beef because it looks very masculine and I chose the colour grey because it works well with the whole colour scheme. I tilted the teaser on its side to make the magazine cover have some variety rather than everything being vertical.

I then used the texturizer filter to make it have a stone kind of effect which I thought would attract my target audience as it is unique. I then used auto levels to brighten up the page as you can see the '50 vs Ross' teaser stands out.

I added my selling line underneath the masthead on the right hand side and I used a simple typeface in white to make it stand out against the grey background. On the left hand side underneath the masthead I added the dateline also in a white, simple typeface, I think that it stands out well against the dark background and I emphasised the word 'May' as I made it bold too. Both the selling line and dateline have inserted a purple/dark blue box behind them both and made the opacity less to make it transparent. I also added a banner saying 'The number 1 selling hip-hop magazine' in a white, simple typeface with a purple transparent box behind it.

I added the image in and it fitted nicely because of the way I had positioned all of the text around it. The image was edited on photoshop as I changed the auto levels, auto contrast and auto brightness to make the colours in the image stand out more and this gives it a more professional look. I also added a white box in the bottom right hand corner and added a bar-code on top of it with a font from Dafont.com.

I added the anchor in with different typefaces, which were all chosen from Dafont.com, I chose to use this blue colour as I thought it looked funky and cool which will attract my target audience. I added a transparent purple box around it and the edges of the box out to make it fit in better and have a more professional look.

I added a kicker on top of the barcode saying '20 hottest summer singles', '20' is in white to add more variety rather than the whole kicker being in one colour and it also draws the readers eye to the number which will encourage them to keep reading on. Then I added the website in small, simple font to keep it out of the way as it is not as important as the other main images and text. Finally I added two more kickers/cover lines. One is about Nicki Minaj and one is about KR Saviour, they are both in blue and white to keep the colour scheme going throughout and the whole colour scheme works well together. The KR Saviour kicker has a transparent purple box behind it to make it stand out even more because this is my main double page spread story.