Research into Album Covers

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Research into Album Covers

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Album Cover - The Velvet Hearts

This is my Album cover I design for The Velvet Hearts; I came up with this idea while listening to their song Serotonin. When I heard the song I felt the singer was going on a journey to find himself again, this is why I included a road in the album artwork. The darkness of the night connotes his lonely feelings that are expressed in the song, this helps build an image of the story he is singing about. The black figure is a representation of the lead singer, in the cover is only outlined slightly as this connotes the image of him being know body and the way he is going to find himself again. The writing on the front cover conveys the image of the word velvet and heart, this plays on the name of the band helping the audience remember the name due to I having an image connection. I did this by using the material of the velvet and making it red representing the red of the heart, used this to underline the title and hold the name of the song to make it look like an important image to the band.

  

Finished Magazine

Feedback on Second Cover

After adjusting the cover to fit the point of the class, I asked for feedback again so i can see what else I need to improve before calling it my final product.

Colour

·         A good variety of colour in the second magazine; needs more colour in the background.

·         All the colours connect to one theme, fits well with the black of the title

Font

·         The new font gives more layering options with the pictures; font sophisticated fits well with background.

Information

·         Information is well thought out but needs a cover story of the model on the front cover; this will help give a good representation of the message behind the magazine.

Picture

·         Not as good as the first one, it is poorly positioned due to it being on one side of the cover.

Evaluation of Front Cover

My magazine Breathless it a beauty and lifestyle magazine, it is targeted at an audience of middle to higher class 16 – 28 year old women. The price of the magazine is £3.40, this attract the audience due to similar magazine of its type such as Vanity Fair has a price around £4.60. This magazine is made to make women feel empowered and t make a change in their life by improving their sophistication and pride with the fashion scene and the places they go. In Breathless monthly issue it will contain stories from the person on the front cover with beauty secrets and ways to make your friends jealous by upgrading your house interior or hobbies.

I choose the target audience of 16 – 28 year women due to what stage they are in their life, the stage where they are starting to move out or have their own place, they look for guidance and support in this time. In this age range it is a section in your life you are trying to move up the job ladder, looking for a more powerful and challenging job role; in this magazine it give advice on how to make this dream happen. I found a gap in the market for magazine as many of the top companies such as Elle offers fashion, but they don’t give the advice to help the people who are going to where it. I think this will challenge the market of those competitors as the magazine Breathless helps guide their readers in every part of their successful lives.

The production of my magazine is very easy to duplicate, the main images wads edited using Photoshop, and to continue this I transferred it into InDesign to add writing and additional pictures. To print the magazine it needs to be in A4 duplicated onto a glossy paper to make the magazine look glamorous, a great accessory to have. This magazine will be distributed every month in store such as WHSmith and also it top high street brands like Topshop and Biba at House of Fraser.

I would change the range of colours in the writing and background; I believe that this will help create the connotation of a fun magazine, but with the colours at the moment I think it does not express the feelings as strong as I would have liked. But overall I am really happy with my final magazine, this come out to be better then I thought due to many tries with completing it using other pictures, titles and founts I have finally found the correct combination that turns out the way that suits my target audience.

Modified Magazine

This magazine is my first draft of my lifestyle and fashion magazine, my aim was to make it bright and target the younger audience by the fun quirky photo.

I made changes to my magazine due to the feedback a received from my class, this first item I changed was the main image. This was due to a comment made saying that it needed more colour and the writing putting focus ion the wring areas of the model. I believe the new photo injects colours and class to the magazine, this photo helps layer the magazine die to the head covering the text.

The second item I changed was the text type of heading, I changed this because I thought that I could make it more realistic by giving it a bit more character such as the text that I have chosen. I did not change that colour back it red due to the change of picture, as believed that it would give a bigger effect if I kept it black so I could keep the other text colourful. This brings me onto the next feedback i got given to make the other text on the page different and colourful, I changed the text type and changed the colours to fit the background behind, this make the magazine look bright a cheerful which I believe fits the genre of magazine.

Feedback of my Magazine

5 = Excellent               4 = Proficient              3 = Basic           2 = Minimum                 1 = Poor

First Feedback

Realism of front cover - 5

Layout and page design - 4

Integration of illustration and text - 5

Use of language - 4

Main image - 5

Variety of founts and text size - 4

Following conventions - 5

Appropriate for audience - 5

Appropriate for purpose - 5

Feedback – Try to have even bigger variety of colours and founts

Second Feedback

Realism of front cover - 5

Layout and page design - 4

Integration of illustration and text - 4

Use of language - 5

Main image - 5

Variety of founts and text size - 4

Following conventions - 4

Appropriate for audience - 5

Appropriate for purpose - 5

Feedback – The colour of some of the text clashes with the colours of the background image

Third Feedback

Realism of front cover - 5

Layout and page design - 5

Integration of illustration and text - 5

Use of language - 4

Main image - 5

Variety of founts and text size - 5

Following conventions - 5

Appropriate for audience - 4

Appropriate for purpose - 5

Feedback – None

Fourth Feedback

Realism of front cover - 5

Layout and page design - 3

Integration of illustration and text - 3

Use of language - 5

Main image - 4

Variety of founts and text size - 5

Following conventions - 5

Appropriate for audience - 4

Appropriate for purpose – 5

Feedback – Change image, make sure writing is positioned differently, it focus on the wrong items