Final Design - MACHINE Front Cover

The above image is my final front cover design for my MACHINE magazine that focuses on the genre of metal. I decided to include such bold elements as the Future Publishing logo and slogan "The United Kingdom's Best Selling Metal Magazine" to make the overall production feel much more 'real', and also to further display how typical mainstream magazines use wordplay to grab the attention of their target audience.

I used valuable information gained from analysing front covers from Metal Hammer and Kerrang! magazines to accurately gauge what my target audience is looking for when it comes to aesthetic and language qualities within the realm of magazine publishing.

Other than Soulfly and In Flames, I created all of the band titles myself; this was not only a creative process that was fun to engage in but a hyperbolic play on what I believe to be typical metal band names that get churned out of the music industry. I let the photograph of choice (of which I took myself) dictate the colour scheme - which is evidently shades of red, brown, black and white. I manipulated the stock image of the cityscape to follow the scheme, likewise.

One minor change to be noted is the shortening of the magazine name; instead of "The Machine" I decided to make it as minimalist as possible. This not only gives me as a designer more room to fill one word in with, but as a reader it will much more memorable due to it's decisiveness.

Bibliography:
City scene (background)
Future Publishing logo
Barcode image
Image of Tickets
The above list details the source location of images I manipulated in order to achieve the final design; as is evident I moved as far away as possible from relying on stock images - not created by myself - to serve as the focal point of the design, and therefore made the cover 'my own' creation.

The above image is a screenshot taken from within Photoshop CS2 - the software package I utilised in order to produce the work. As you can see, I have expanded the Layers tab to show as much 'behind the scenes' material as possible; noting the speciality language regarding magazine design such as "Masthead", "Banner" and "Headline".

Key Terms - Magazine Layouts

House Style: A magazine's distinctive design that distinguishes it from its competitors.

Banner: Text which stands out on a coloured background - normally situated at the top of the page.

Masthead: The actual name of the magazine.

Headline: Catchy Title for the main article.

Motto: A memorable phrase that is recognisable to a particular brand.

Strap Line: Also known as a slogan.

Pugs: These are placed at the top right and left corners of the page and are known as the 'ears'. Examples of content that is placed here is the price of the product, the logo or a promotion.

Copy: The Main Story in the Magazine.

Puffs: Boxes that promote features found inside.

Sell Lines: Persuasive text on the front cover that helps to sell the magazine to the audience.

Anchorage Text: Text that helps pin down the meaning of a picture (and vice versa).

Caption: A clear description of an image.

Buzz Words: "Free", "Exclusive" and "Wow" are all examples. They attract the readers attention.

Drop Capitals: Really big letter that starts off an article.

Lead: The introductory paragraph of an article. This is Usually written in bold or CAPITALS.