Earlier in my blog, I deconstructed an issue of The Source and XXL's front covers and when thinking of what Hiphop music magazine's front covers inspire my initial ideas and thoughts for my own design, The Source and XXL proved to be the ones that triggered my thoughts for ideas of image, text, layout + colour scheme. Below are two examples of the music
magazine's;
THE SOURCE: This example of the magazine's front cover inspired me most through the use the image of the artist. I admire the direct mode of address the artist is holding as it suggests confidence and dominance and I also like how close up the image has been taken to reinforce this dominance and confidence through the large focus on his face and top quarter of his body. Most of all, I admire the use of headphones which the artist is wearing; I believe this suggests musicality by reinforcing the music genre and also allows the front cover to visually look appealing for consumers. I like the different positioning of the text on the front cover also; I like how the artists name has been rotated to suggest an interesting look and style to the left of the page and I also admire the different colours used for the text as well- black red and gold to upkeep conventions within the Hiphop genre.
XXL: From this example of the front cover of one of XXL's magazines, I admire the text positioning and layout the most. I admire the positioning of the XXL to the left of the page, making room for other features on the page and I also admire how it holds a block background colour for the title to sit in; this relates to my title design as I have used this effect. I also admire the text positioning of the 'Nicki & Drake, Domination' as I believe it has been positioned clearly to still allow focus to be set on the artists themselves. I admire the simplicity of this front cover also; I like how there isn't to much text and when there is I like how it is set aside from the image drawing a complete focus on to the artists. I like the use of colours on this example, black red and white which all follow conventions of the Hiphop genre. I also admire the black background however as I have already created a black background for my contents page I am not inspired by this as I want to create a whole different style and look for my front cover.
Initial ideas;
Image: I am going to be using the same artist on my front cover which I have used for my double page spread and contents- Tyra, to present a USP of my magazine like mentioned before. I want the image of Tyra to be the only image on the page and to be the largest feature on the page to draw a large focus to her. Currently I want her to feature as the whole background of the page however I may change this idea when it comes to shooting the image and what the result is in terms of style and positioning. If I do not place her as the whole background, I am thinking of having a grey background as I have not yet used this colour in my creations yet and feel that it is a colour which anything will show up strongly against- expanding choices of colours for text; the colour grey will also compliment the grey text used in my title design. I aim to shoot a close-up shot of my artist, like the first example, only showing her face and quarter of the top half of her body. I wish to do this to suggest dominance and confidence through the image.
Colour scheme: I do not want to use the same colour scheme which I have used in the double page spread or contents however as my title design has been reinforced on my contents page through the presence of the 'S', I will be reinforcing the yellow also on my front cover. My title design holds a yellow block background with grey text therefore I will be using yellow again in my front cover however I will need to find a colour which either contrast or compliment the yellow apart from the black used in my contents. Depending on the editing features I apply onto the image of my artist, I will not know what colour I want to use for text and background however I know it will have to be a colour/colours which will contrast with yellow to suggest a bright + bold 'quirky' effect.
Text: I do not want to include much text on my front cover as I do not want to clutter the page or take away any importance that my artist will hold. I aim to create a cover-line promoting the image of Tyra, by using her name and another textual element to either suggest the genre of her and the magazine or something which relates back to my double page spread. I want to create cover-lines which promote artists which are to feature in my magazine like the two examples above and maybe a quote from 'CLONED' like the first example which holds a quote above the title design. I aim for the cover-lines to be smaller than the title and for the cover-line which promotes my main image of Tyra to be near enough the same size as my title design to suggest the same amount of dominance.
Layout + positioning: I aim to follow the same positioning of the title design as the second example, as I believe it eliminates any spacing problems which may arise during the creation of other features as it to the left of the page. Underneath the title design I want to position a tag-line directly underneath it but in a slightly rotated style to contrast with the positioning of the title design. I aim for the face of my main image to appear in the centre of the page like the first example and for the cover-lines to appear around the image and to maybe even appear on top of the image depending on colour choices later. I aim for the barcode to be at the bottom of the page to follow conventions of these two examples.
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