In order to learn how to use some of the features on InDesign, I picked a magazine cover and copied the technical forms and conventions used, in order to gain understanding on how they used these techniques. The top image is my attempt and the bottom one is the one I copied. From doing this, I have learned how to layout the cover lines in different ways like the “women in music” cover line.  I also learned how to use the different typeface and colours trying to find the same fonts and colours used in the original (as best as I could). All magazines have conventional features, in order to achieve a preferred viewing- a magazine has to look like a magazine! The feature we can see on this particular cover are: masthead, main cover line, main cover star, plug and cover lines.

Reflecting on my work, I believe I did well on the bottom right hand side cover lines, the proportions and layout look almost the same, I managed to find very similar fonts to the original. Also, the black and white colours and when words are capitalised or in lowercase have been copied accurately. One thing that I struggled with is the purple colours, I was unable to match the colour accurately to the original, I need to learn how to mix colours and make swatches. Moreover, next time I need to make sure the photo used is at a high resolution and not blurry as the main cover star in mine is a little blurry in comparison to the original, making it look less professional.

Having the skills to use and edit on InDesign will help me when I begin to make my music magazine as well as looking closer to the time this will help me design my tour poster for my hip-hop star. I can now successfully create a masthead, cover lines, place and size an image as well as using different typeface and graphological features- all vital skills to create a successful conventional magazine cover.

In order to help me improve I’ve linked 2 video tutorial which will teach me how to make and access more colours: