Changes made to my front cover

This is the front cover I initially submitted. I have made several changes to it, taking inspiration from the front covers I analysed in the powerpoint in a previous post.
To start off with, I needed to make the background look slightly less blank.



For this I took inspiration from the image above, and have tried to emulate the interesting lighting technique which creates a gradiated background. To do this I used the 'gradient tool', which I dragged across the background until I got the look I wanted.



I then adjusted the fonts; this involved changing the style, colour and size of the original fonts used. For the cover artist's name, I used the same font as I used on the double page spread, as all bands and artists have a particular style in which their name is written so that it can be easily recognised on, for example, festival posters such as this one:



The "ELLA DOSHI" font and the pull-quote font are taken from www.dafont.com. I also used the magic wand tool and the Shift+F1 shortcut to fill the pullquote with a red colour to match the guitar and border, and then stroked it with a black border to make it stand out.



I wasn't happy with the positioning of the fonts, however, and wanted to make them more colour co-ordinated with the cover image, so I moved the artist's name so that it was more central, and filled it with a red colour that matched the guitar and border. I then filled the pull-quote with a green colour that matched the cover artist's jacket. I also filled the blank space at the top with an advertisement for a competition in the magazine that is mentioned in the contents page.



I then created a 'puff', as, after research, they proved to be extremely common on magazine front covers. Mine advertises the bands that are featured in the magazine, so as to capture the target audience's attention and persuade them to buy the magazine.





Then, taking inspiration from the front cover below, I wrote information about the contents and features of the magazine in a white font inserted into red boxes so that it stands out:



I also changed the competition advert so that it was written in the same red boxes, as it stood out more and was much more appealing to the eye.



This is my final front cover, which I think I have improved greatly from the original one that I initially submitted; it is not as basic, with less blank spaces, more information, and it is much more appealing to the eye, as it includes a variety of fonts which are colour co-ordinated with the main image. The whole thing is therefore much more eye-catching, and I believe that it will appeal to my target audience more than the previous one, as more information about the actual contents is now included on the cover.