Completed Magazine Front Cover

With my front cover now officially completed, I repeated the same process I had conducted with the contents by identifying aspects of my productions I executed exceptionally well, consider the areas that hadn't conformed to plan and adjustments I could make in the future to prevent these inconsistencies from occurring again.

Essentially this was the task of the three productions I had to create that I struggled to perfect the most. The underlying issue in this concerned the mastheads design and appearance, although I had initially planned ahead and was vehement I had a concept cognitively I would like to replicate for my coursework, when it came to implementing my idea it found this employment extremely difficult. This was related to that fact not only could I not get the masthead to efficiently emphasise itself behind the male models hair (as it was not large enough to be noticed above the remaining conventions such as the additional headlines with which it should have outcompeted in terms of flawlessness) but the text style I desired to use did not accurately portray the title nor did the colour scheme I had previously decided upon (I really was keen on having one unique shade as the fill for my 'V' - to begin with it was blue - and have the accompanying 'oid' in white so it could portray itself emphatically against the red rectangle backdrop, however in the development stages my lecturer had disagreed on my notion towards the single blue letter terming it 'too unusual and against the standards the audience are familiar with) That thought in itself could have deterred them from purchasing it if they deemed it defied what they would normally anticipate to see in a product. One characteristic I noted during my audience research is that readers like a common convention, they desire to see the same style or theme constantly referred throughout the publication as it provided some form of comfort, without this and if the magazine kept changing its scheme throughout th pages or if they enlisted a element that was too unusual (such as my single blue letter rather then the full white shade) then they could find this distressing. Due to this massive issue surrounding the creation of my magazine front cover I feel I could have conducted my insitutional research more thoroughly and in-depth to have a greater insight into what I would be expected to produce to satisfy the underlying requirements of the audience in terms of presentation of the masthead against the other conventions. Moreover my planning should have been more concise in the notion it would become more convienient if I had a properly accurately executed flat plan towards the locations of all the major elements so I knew how to structure their positioning when it came to developing my final task.

Despite all the negatives I have brought to light, I was pleased with how I executed positioning the image to a location I found appropriate, his face is identified directly in the centre of the document and with him facing the camera lens during the shoot, he is making eye contact with the technology operator which creates the impression he is engaging with the readers point of view and visual direction. It could be understood then that he is attempting to create a relationship with them under the illusion of this 'false gaze' therefore the reader may think they are important to him, that he is being friendly and desires to connect with them. This personal bond that is then conducted makes them feel more relaxed due to this addressing of their nature and presence, making them seem more significant as opposed to the daily, mundane lives they all lead. Here I have applied the Blumer and Khatz's 'Gratification Theory' as theoretically I have developed that 'Personal Relationship' required for all audience members accurately as such. Another section of approval I can give revolves around the use of text style across the cover. When I conducted my background institutional research I discovered that a particular design called 'Bebas Nevau' was commonly seen in the article names of the likes of 'Q' and 'NME', not only had this style appealed to me but I believed it would portray itself most efficiently in my own product 'Void' due to me keeping with conventional texts seen within mainstream products which would make mine not too di-similar from them so can be regarded as authentic in a sense. Furthermore it enhanced the words making them more bold, eye catching and noticeable to the audience, increasing the appeal of my product further. My selection of colour palette was in direct relation to the traditional house style of red,black and white which can be witnessed throughout my three main tasks. The use of it on my cover has been beneficial in highlighting the more significant concepts, with the red drawing focus towards the masthead, the white of the solid backdrop effectively personifying my image and black on the text ensuring the words will still be noticed despite the competition from the more dominating conventions (i.e the masthead and central photograph). With all these in mind, despite my highly negative statement above, I feel I did moderately well in the performance of my resubmission of this piece especially since I had such a narrow time window and deadline to adhere to.