Magazine Front Cover and Contents

I have now finished my front cover and my contents page after putting alot of hours into finalising both of these ideas, where both have changed since my initial ideas. The front cover now appears very 'busy' however I wanted this and this 'busy' scene with lots of information hitting the reader wouldnt be something unordinary at school after all it being a school magazine.

I made sure that I had a medium close up of which I took using my own camera along with all the other photos that are in my magazine. All photos are from my camera whether taken from me or somebody else. The medium close up is used as a porthole not to be the main image on the cover however still to create an impact and make it obvious for the reader.

My main photo however is a band photo from a local band 'No Time for Sightseeing' friends of mine from a gig that actually took place in the summer. This photo covers the majority of the cover whilst still leaving what I believe is a healthy amount of room for a commanding masthead. The masthead I got rid of what I felt was intially a strong idea to punctuate the masthead name with a fullstop however I changed this to give it a more easy reading and relaxed appearance.

The main cover line on my magazine is 'I am the Music Man' which relates to what would be a music article however obviosuly tying in with school links. I wanted this as the main cover line it suggests a youth and childrens era coming from the classic song played at so many childrens Discos. I felt this immaturity would work well in what is an engaging music orientated front cover again to give an interest in the magazine as Music is such a domineering subject nowadays.

I also used images from google in a minority to gain extra interest from a prospective reader by using both popular female and male images from the past and more modern music such as Florence and the machine and Bob Dylan.

Im very happy with the final draft I have created for my front cover packed with all the neccessitys including original photos, eye catching images and titles. Strong left third aswell as smaller details such as a barcode and the date.

Contents

The next step after finalising my front cover was to create a contents page using similar styles and house styles as my front cover. This I have done successfully I believe after creating a contemporay looking contents using the same 'Class' font with the use of 'features' in a narrow formal font to give the contents some authority and organisation. This works well as the same 'class' font is clear to see and flows nicely from the cover.
The page I have created is mainly of images and ones again which are all original however these contain a bit more width and substance as they are from more varied subjects than just from school. A couple are from music concerts which I have been to where the photo looks like a real life magazine photo as its so realistic and stands well on a strong array of images.

Other images are of things such as my girlfriend playing the guitar again reflecting the music scene however creating a contrast between images over the real life band 'Darwin Deez' and just what is in comparison an amateur playing guitar.
Other photos dominate the page with little text however this makes it easy to read and certainly intriguing and engageable for the audience.
I also used the contrast option on Publisher as it enabled me to sharpen my images and gives what I believe is a more professional look for my images both on the cover and on the contents.

Both of these drafts are now printed off