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.
