Drafting and Planning: Cover Page Draft v1

The following is the first version of the cover page for my music magazine. Currently I have not taken any original photography for my magazine and so I have used a coloured place holder where imagery will be. This draft is representative of my final product. 

As you can see at the top of the page, there is a skyline which tells the reader what bands are in the magazine, this is designed to inform the reader of the smaller, “less important” bands that feature in the magazine. These bands mentioned in the skyline all feature somewhere on the contents page. For example, Gap Year appear in the “News” section, Lonely Division appears on the “Featured” section and Another January and The Pixies appear in the “Regulars” section as a sub title of “Posters”.

Next, the masthead is in the upper left third. This allows my magazine to be noticeable when stacked on a magazine rack. This will encourage readers who are familiar with the magazine to look for it and therefore increase sales.

My main cover line is made using the font Chanson Heavy SF. I chose this font as it is a loud font that screams for attention, while still bringing clarity to the cover page. I then used my “flagship” font Andre Light SF for my anchorage text. This is the font that I also used for my secondary cover lines and the body of text for my double page spread. I did this to show that the anchorage text isn’t as “important” or as “dominant” as the loud main cover line.

I have included 6 cover lines aside from the main cover line. These cover lines are separated from the main cover line using a red box. The colour red links to the masthead and the hose style of the magazine. These cover lines are set out with the band’s name at the top and a short title of the article.

I have included a bar code, date line and price. The date line is simply “February 17”, this lets the reader know that the magazine is published monthly. I have chosen to price my magazine at £3.00 as it is central to what most people who took my survey said they were willing to pay for a magazine of this genre.