Stages of the cover.

After selecting the image which I wanted to use on the front cover and imported into PhotoShop so I could edit the image. The first thing I did was cropped the image to a suitable size which showed the person the guitar and the background. The image can be seen below:

After cropping the Image I made a design of where I wanted every think to be on the front cover, by following this design I will create the magazine cover. The plan design of the cover:

After creating a plan for the front cover, I did the first thing by editing the background by making it slightly defocused; I cut out the model and placed it over the top on a new layer before the image was defocused so that two wasn’t blurred. Thus the model stands out on the background; this makes the readers draw their attention to the person on the front of the magazine. I also slightly edited the lips and eyes and enhanced the colour of them, this making the smallest of detail stand out.

Next I typed text to see what it would look like on the front cover, I added basic effects on the text, such as bold and underlined text. Also I added a basic version of the logo on to it, to see if it looked good and was the right size. Text plan on cover:

The next thing I did was add colour to the text and select a suitable fonts. The colour scheme of the magazine I chose was made up of red’s oranges, browns and black, the colours match the guitar and person. Font wise I only used one or two different fonts to keep it with the house style of the magazine and if I used too many different fonts it would make the magazine look unprofessional. I think the colours and the fonts look really good and effective on the magazine.

Finally the last thing I had to do was add smaller images such as a bar code and shapes. I used a circle because they were simple but effective and made the text stand out; once again I used the house style colours to premote the magazine. I put the bar code at the bottom of the magazine; this was done as most magazines do this. The final version:

I am very happy with how my front cover has turned out because I think when looking at it, people will know that it is a country magazine through the colours used the person and the location. Overall I am please with how everything had turned out; my favourite part about the front cover is this how the person stands out from the background as I think it is a really good effect.