Front Cover Development

Firstly, I re-sized the cover image to fit the page. Following this I added my masthead, QUAKE, choosing a font I felt was appropriate. I added inner-shadows and an outer glow to the font, using the effects panel down the right-hand side.

I wanted the image of Em to overlap with the masthead slightly and so opened the same picture again in another document and cut around her head using the magnetic lasso tool. It was extremely difficult to distinguish between the background and the top of Em's head and so it took several attempts. I wasn't too worried about the rest of the image being cut out carefully as it was going to be placed on top of the other identical photo of Em. After cutting out the image, I used the eraser tool on a thick, blurred brush to soften the edges around her head.

I then copied and pasted the cut out image on to my cover, adding it as the top layer so that Em's head overlapped with the masthead. This is a convention of many popular, well-known music magazines.

Next, I began to add text. Firstly, I added the main coverline as it related to the image and so needed to stand out in comparison to other text. I added a rectangular shape and used the eyedropper tool to make it the same colour as a section on Em's top. I then covered the shape with the heading of my coverline, MAY'EM, using the same style of font as the masthead (stencil). Following this I added the words: 'ROCK'S BIGGEST REBEL IS BACK... EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW!', to briefly summarise the main story in a dramatic way. I added effects to the text to make it look more interesting, helping the magazine to grab the attention of my target audience. The blurred, glow effect I have added to the words, 'EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW!' almost make it look graffiti like, which suits the type of audience I am trying to attract perfectly.

Next I added the other coverlines, using 3 main colours - red, white and blue. I used similar style fonts and capital letters throughout to continue the loud, yet classy theme. I tried to distribute the text evenly across the page, careful not to draw attention away from the cover image and main coverline.

Finally, I added the final features to my cover, including; a pug, barcode, date, price, strapline and additional images. The pug was created by adding text to a cirle I had produced using the shape tool. I then added a blurred, glowing effect to meke it look more classy and interesting. I didn't want the pug to look to cheap and tacky like pugs often can. I merged the barcode, date and price on top of a white rectangle as I had seen this done on several other magazines. I decided to use my strapline to simply 'name drop' a few bands that would feature in my magazine. The additional images I added fit discretely in the bottom corner so that attention isn't taken away from the main cover image.