Moodboard

As a way of researching the front cover of my magazine, I have made a moodboard of other music magazine covers so as to inspire me. Furthermore, the process of putting together different magazine covers featuring artists of different genres has also shown me that, although the genre of music might be different, the overall layout of a music magazine cover generally remains the same, but falls into two different categories; "busy" magazine covers usually feature a central image surrounded by text, often featuring bold, bright colours against a dark background; this can be said for the magazine covers featuring The Last Shadow Puppets and Foo Fighters. In contrast to this, some magazine covers are more sparse, featuring a simple, striking image against an uncluttered background. The image often features an artist in an eye-catching pose, or with unusual props; this can be said for the Q magazine featuring Lily Allen, and the Mojo magazine featuring White Stripes. Both layouts are equally eye-catching, but use different methods to achieve effectiveness.
Another interesting point that I drew from this was the way in which several of the covers reflected the genre and personality of the featured artist; both covers featuring Jimi Hendrix, for example, included the exaggerated loopy writing typical of the 1960s, evidently mimicking the psychedelic style and influence of that era, which Jimi Hendrix was well known for. The same can be said for the cover featuring the heavy metal band Slipnot - their outfit and style is gothic and horror film influenced, something which is a stereotypical influence for heavy metal bands; the photoshoot for the cover was evidently planned to demonstrate and encourage this stereotype, with members of the band wearing gothic masks and viking-style (another heavy metal influence) helmets. This method of exaggerating the stereotype of an artist makes the magazine look orginal, which could encourage its target audience to buy it.

I will try to relate to this research when planning my front cover, as I want it to look as eye-catching and original as possible so as to stand out from other music magazines that could appeal to my target audience.