The masthead is adequately placed however I feel it would fit more if it was more conventional and place a bit further to the left and a little bit further down as it is currently touching the caption at the top which isn’t ideal, it is in the Vogue font. It is not quite big enough as I need it to be as big and attractive as possible to grab the attention of potential customers walking by my magazine. However I feel that the colour of the title and the font are typical to convey my jazz genre as it is classy and cool which is what will appeal to my target audience and their preferred reading.
Staring away from the camera, the cover model is satisfactorily framed using the rule of thirds well however in my second draft I am going to choose a new image in which my model is facing the camera. I chose this photo as it was very similar to a photo of a jazz musician I had found on the internet which I was very fond of and the way it portrayed the genre and the artists in it, unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations and I also failed to cut it out successfully and you can clearly see white lines around my models face which is not professional at all which means that the image can only be described as competent.
Desktop publishing (Indesign) has been used well to integrate well emboss and shadow on the cover lines adding perspective. The line spacing is very low but this is intentional to add something unique to my magazine and I would fulfil this part of the brief to a strong level.
A red, black, yellow, white and blue colour palette helps to communicate a classy and lowkey theme that connotes the jazz genre, however I will most likely change the light blue as it is unnecessary and doesn’t quite fit the theme. Despite this I believe the colour palette was successful and is used to very good effect and impact.
The font is a mixture of upper and lower case which is modern and conventional, however it could be bigger. The font has been used in a very good way to attract a slightly older audience.
The costume is extremely relevant to the jazz genre and it used a graphic tie as well as a trilby hat, blazer, waistcoat and collared shirt. The body language of the model makes him seem focused and shows the importance of his saxophone. He has been directed to look at the saxophone and this is instead of looking at the camera and this infers his success from his music and this was evident for the target audience.
In terms of the language used in the cover lines, this is good. The use of superlatives as in the ‘jazz music saved my life’ attracts the reader and draws a sense of importance to the magazine and its contents. The use of imperatives was weak and should be focused on as it can be the deciding factor between two magazines. Using quotes such as the quote that was referred to earlier also conveys a sense of personal identity and helps the reader to feel as if they are involved and this is a good use of linguistic structures.
The magazine is clearly a magazine and contains the conventional features such as a masthead, captions, a pug, a barcode, issue number, date, main cover star, main cover lines and cover lines. This fulfils the brief on a good level.
Photoshop has been used adequately to place the main cover star on the cover however there is white lines and some of the models face is missing and that is very unprofessional. He is clearly the focus of the cover and he must be cut out properly to fulfil the brief successfully.
My 5 targets are:
- Change my main cover star image.
- Change the blue font to white or red.
- Use more imperative language
- Bigger masthead and place it closer to the left side
- Improve my pug to look more professional