I am getting close to finishing my front cover and i think it is really begging to look good. I am pleased at what it looks like and just need to edit a few things. I think i will leave it at the stage it is now and begin my double spreadsheet.

I have had to change a few things on my front cover. Reviewing my front cover along with another classmate I started to realise that the some conventions used didn't actually fit in with the Genre of my magazine. My magazine title was initially done in a graffiti font saying Taste. I felt this gave more of a rough and hard vibe to my magazine and due to this I decided to change the font of the title and the rest of the writing to 'bauhaus 93'.  I also decided that my theme colours gave off a rough sense too as the colours were all dark Reds and black. I didn't make a decision today on what colour were suitable to use but I did make a decision that I should have made to start with. I properly decided on the type of look and impression I was trying to give off through my magazine as I don't think that I really thought this through to start with. I confirmed that I was trying to be a 'smooth' and cool magazine more that rough and hard and confirmed the Genre of my magazine to be R&B. I believe this decision making really helped as I now know specifically what i need to do and my personal specifications that i need to meet to keep to the genre of my magazine. Today I basicallly started all over again!

My front cover is coming along well. I  am extremely pleased with the progress I have made on photoshop so far. Knowing this was the most crucial part of the coursework I made sure I kept on trying and I am now very confident using photoshop. All the pictures I need for my front cover have been uploaded on to photoshop and theme colours and other bits and parts have been put into place. I am now just editing and making improvements to  my front cover. I should be finished in no time! :)

I think i am finally getting the hang of phtoshop, I now feel confident using many conventions on photoshop like rotating, enlarging and modifiying pictures. To me this is a great achievement as i hav e struggles alot in the past few weeks on photoshop.  Here is a print screen of my use of the Roation feature in photoshop :

I have finished taking all the pictures needed for my front cover. The main featrue of my front cover is a charcater called Raymond Royster. I plan to have him headling my front cover. I have take a series of photos of him and have a rough idea of the ones that i will use. I will flick through the pictures again to confirm which ones i will use. This is exactly the type of look i planned to have as the front cover is supposed to be designed to scream out URBAN!! This is some of the pictures I managed to take of my main feature for my front cover

This is my analysis of the NME magazine.

In this magazine I analysed many different aspects of the front cover. This is a NME magazine, a typical rock/punk genre. Looking at this front cover it is clear to see their target audience through the look of the main character. The man headlining the front cover has a very dark outlook about him. It may not be possible to see from this picture but i believe his eyebrows have been edited or make up has been applied to make his eyebrows darker and also he has eyeliner on himself to make the eye area darker. From this I can clearly figure out that the Target audience is punks/ greebos.

Also other props like the number of chins he has o his neck point to the same social group. I saw from this magazine that they made sure that they did all they could to make it clear what social group they were aiming t and made the magazine appeal o them greatly.

The left third is filled with all of the exciting subheadings that are likely to attract readers. There are no  subheadings on the right and side of the magazine, this has been done strategically as the left hand side is what people always see first hen magazines are out in the shops. This is a very important pointer that i must remember to add in to my magazine as all attraction will need to come from the left hand side of the page

I have also noticed the enticements and prize that NME have put on the top of the front cover. This seems like a very smart idea as a Chance t win something will once again attract readers and may even attract those outside the target market as they may just be planning to try and win the prizes and may read and buy the magazine as a result of this.

My progress so far...