Research and Planning

BOLD AND UNDERLINED: Cover log

I have just started to put my magazine front cover together. So far I have taken 3 pictures I have to decide between to put on it. I got my friend to model in several different camera angles and lighting including; Close up, medium high angle shot and a medium shot.

After altering my fonts for a while, I decided to change my magazine name from 'Bold and Underlined' to just 'Bold' as it's shorter and easier to remember. 

'BOLD' by itself looked boring in any font I tried; I changed it several times and tweeked it with effects and transparency. Eventually I found the mirror tool which allowed me to mirror my words and then make it more transparent so it didn't look like 'BOLD DLOB' which wouldn't have made sense to any reader. The image above is the one I decided on for my final design, I went on an internet website called Picnik which allows you to edit every aspect of the picture; so I made the image lighter and her eyes brighter. By adding these effects it let the writing sit more effectively over the image (this also meant I could use nearly any font and colour I wanted). My first magazine front cover still went under the name of 'Bold and Underlined' it was like a trial run so I could decide which title I want and which fonts looked best.

I didn't use all my own images on this front cover either, which would have gained me less marks on presentation and originality. After I made this front cover and added barcodes and website addresses on the school editing application, I wasn't pleased with the overall look of it and I knew aspects of it needed to change. So, I went back onto Picnik and took away the softened effect and the delicate appearence and made it lighter and brighter - more dramatic. Then on the school computers I added things I couldn't online - I added barcodes, changed the fonts from Comic Sans to Courier New and made sure everything was readable. I constantly asked for feedback from friends and teachers so I could get a different view from someone who may buy the magazines. They suggested I change my other imagery which was clothing to another person. Originally I chose a young boy edited to look as though he was crying (my own images) but it didn't look quite right and unless you knew what the image was at such a small size you couldn't make out what it was. I had some images that I'd taken when researching for my music video story board so I chose one of an eye with a tear running down. By using Serif Photoplus I was able to edit the same tear into other places under her eye. I edited the bottom of the crying eye picture to be curved so that I could fit my magazine website underneath it.

To make the front cover image seem relevant to the magazine or at all to the front cover, I put a headline in a different font and colour to the rest the top left of her head. It read 'Jennings talks: I'm not ashamed of who I am"'. This links into the genre of my magazine because it's a teenage girl saying I'm happy with who I am in other words, no teenage girl thinks their perfect - even if they tell other people they think they are. If they can meet a girl who isn't big headed or the prettiest girl in the world in might influence them too look in the mirror and appreciate who they are and what they've got. Also, they can learn why she feels like this and what she has been through too come out like this; not everyone has an easy life and this magazine gives people the chance to willingly tell their story to help others get over theirs.

I made the date 'Saturday 3rd of December' so that this issue could be special edition and could have a theme of Christmas and snow. I made some headlines the colour of the special edition banner running across the bottom left hand corner and one of the arrows pointing to the crying image saying 'Are you impressed' using exactly the same colour as the banner.

I added to snowflakes to either side of the banner to make it seem more christmas orientated.

My competition was to win tickets to the Jingle Bell Ball which also took place this month; the readers of my magazine had the choice of who should win them; on this particular headline, on the world 'bell' I made two little bells with a holly leaf to go underneath it. I did this so it linked in with the word/competition and the theme of this edition.

The genre of my magazine is teen reality - looking into what teenage girls really want to hear about whether they admit that or not! Because of my choice of genre, the magazine slogan is 'This is reality', I wanted to incorporate this into the front cover so because my title still lacked something I chose an unusual font and in the letters L and D I wrote the slogan. I put it there so that it's eyecatching and the readers now the slogan  and can relate it to the magazine.

If I was going to sell this magazine to people in my age group I need to make it a reasonable price. Most teenagers my age get between £10 - £50 pcm, so in order to make sure this was affordable and not a big loss in their pocket money I made it £2.40. It's a reasonable price and the magazine if made would have monthly offers, moving the price down to say 89p for a limited time only, to increase purchasing rates.



I tried to make the date readable but not a major part of the overall appearance which is why it is so small and placed so near to the side. It needs to be seen a little so that the theme of the frontcover fits in with the seasonal month.

The price is also not to big, so that it's an impulse 'I must have this issue!' buy as apposed to a long debate over whether you should spend your £2.40 on it.

See at the top of the magazine how I mirrored the title and put in the words 'This is reality' to contrast and improve the overall look of the title.

This is wear I brightened the image and inhanced the colour and shading in her eyes. The colour of her eyes matches the special edition banner which is the same colour and the arrow and in printing the same colour as the headline starting 'Jennings'.

 Here is were the original image of the crying boy would of been before I decided a crying eye representing a boy lying to you is. The arrow is meant to ask the reader if you are impressed at how boys treat girls.

You can see were I have cropped the bottom to enhance the look of the web address directly underneath it. The web address is again not a major part of the front cover so did not NEED to be seen as much as other aspects of the front cover. However, it is a way of advertising the magazine and selling the subscription side of it so it is in a bright colour so that it stands out.

Above you can see the bell along with the mode-of-address I used in my competition title. I deliberately placed it near the special edition banner to connote the idea of Christmas and to come together to form a theme for the whole frontcover. As aposed to random objects that mean something to the publisher because they know why it's there where as the reader and buyer may not.