Initial Notes on Magazine Cover and Design Ideas

Soap opera magazine covers use a variety of images, texts and colours in order to attract their audiences. Hyperbolic language and short, snappy main cover lines grab the reader's attention and encourage them to buy the magazine. They also include selling lines to compete with other magazines and advertise themselves as having the best value. In order to create the best designs for our magazine cover, I have looked over my research and the conventions of magazines before creating a plan:
Magazine Plan



This magazine cover plan was created using Microsoft Publisher. It shows all the necessary elements needed on a magazine listings cover, where they should be and I will use this as a basis for my designs. Specifically, I have paid particular attention to the left third of the cover as this is what will be seen by potential consumers when the magazines are stacked. Out of the two designs that I produce, I will choose the best one to take to my group for ideas so that we can collectively come up with a unique design.

Magazine Design 1

This is my first basic design using Microsoft Publisher. Unfortunately, the tools are limited and therefore I was unable to cut images and we will need to use a programme more technical than Publisher in order to create a more effective and professional magazine cover.


Positives about this first design include: a variety of images, large main cover line, another smaller cover line and bright colours. 


Negatives about the design: it's too simplistic, appears bare, needs a bit more text, the images are blurry, the main cover line is not in the left third and the overall look is unprofessional.


To improve this first, basic design, I will need to use a more technical programme and include more images and text in order to fill the spaces, making the cover more exciting and appealing for the consumer. Furthermore, the colour scheme could be improved in order to make it more attractive and eye-grabbing. 
Magazine Design 2

This is my second design which I have created using Comic Life. Though generally used for producing comic strips, I used this programme as it enabled me to choose large fonts and colourful texts, as well as letting me overlap images easier. 


Positive aspects of the second design: there is less free space, the main cover line is included in the left third, more images have been used, the colour scheme is more varied and a little more text has been used.


Negative points of the design: it still looks unprofessional, there is still a lack of text, the barcode is missing, the layout of the design is messy.


To improve this second design, I would need to rethink carefully my design layout and try to make it more professional, as well as using a more technical programme in order to crop images. A barcode is needed and more cover lines should be placed around the other images on the cover in order to explain them.


Though my designs have been unsuccessful in producing a final, professional design, I will feedback to my group of the troubles I faced so that we create the best magazine cover. 

Initial Notes on Poster and Design Ideas

Unlike magazines, posters use predominantly images rather than text to advertise and so I have ensured that  text would be minimal on my poster designs. Information on the poster designs includes the soap opera name, tagline, time and day it can be watched with the channel logo.  

To help layout my designs, this is the basic plan I have created for our poster:

Poster Plan

I have chosen to use a border around the main image to make the poster look modern and stylish, reaching our young target audience as seen in the following design:

Contrasting the classic picture frame with a modern image in the middle connotes that this is an older styled soap opera with modern characters and story lines. It also connotes the character of Rachel and how she will be changing the lives of the traditional families in Mill Lane, as well as showing the other relationships between the characters and introducing the new soap to the audience. The classic font to show the title and day/time is modern but also classic reaching our target audiences and in white so that it will be easily visible against the background image. The logo is in the corner and is clearly visible, informing the audience well.


For my second design, I decided to take a more simple and modern approach by using a plain background allowing the text and images to stand out. I have also included a tagline which is important in grabbing the audience's attention:

By pulling the focus onto Rachel Manning's character, with the slogan it connotes that she is causing trouble encouraging the audience to watch and find out more. It also demonstrates her character and allows the relationships between the other characters and Rachel to be shown through how they are looking. again, I have used the whole cast as Mill Lane will be a new soap opera and so this will introduce all the characters to the audience. I have placed the channel logo smaller and at the bottom of the poster in order for the main tag line and soap opera name to grab the audience's attention first. The green surrounding 'MILL LANE' connotes farmland and jealousy, which are important elements in our soap opera. I have also chosen the same, classic font in capital letters to grab the audience's attention and create a modern look for the poster, capturing a younger target audience. 

I have created both designs using Microsoft Word which isn't a very effective programme to use for professional poster design. I will suggest to my group that we find alternative methods of producing a poster so that the final product we produce is finished to a high standard.