I looked at a variety of existing women RollingStone magazines and the layout to create the right conventions of an American magazine cover. I investigated where the barcode, pricing and website went plus the sizing of the images, to make my covers look as professional as possible.
My first cover i downloaded an appropriate typeface for the title of the magazine company (lobster 1.4), and used a colour that would be an recognisable logo to the selected audience. I used a strong main image by having the models hair the same colour as the logo, with direct eye contact with the audience, catching their eye as they walk past, the colour connentations i have used are black and red through out this magazine cover, this is to fit in with the main headline, "Britains badgirl" the red and black represent danger, i have made the model only wear a bra and leather jacket for the male gaze theory i had been investigating. The shiny leather jacket and bright pink lipstick is backing up the representation of women, made to look sexy for the male readers. The audience gratifications of this magazine is aimed at both genders, of middle class as my magazine is quite a high price $4.99, the magazine is a old school theme but has all music related news and gossip.The key strengths with this particular magazine cover are the use of complementing colours have been used to match with the image making this look as professional as possible, the sizing and lighting used for the image makes the magazine look real. A weakness with the magazine cover i feel is the poor background, i found it hard to find a colour that wouldn't make the red font look too bright, i didn't want a white background with these colours as it would have took the main image out of focus. I have layered the background to create a dark glow around the main image keeping it the main view point. This was done deliberately to engage the viewer and focus the eye on the image so the reader wants to look further.
Again on my second magazine cover i matched the size and font of the main title to make it recognisable but changed the colour to sky blue to catch the preferred audience's attention, this colour has changed due to a summer edition (blue represents blue sky), this has been done purposely for advertising and marketing, making the readers want to know what's so speacil about the magazine and why the main title is a different colour. The style and text have been changed to match the summer genre, it's content is summer festivals and fashion tips from Lady Gaga with an exclusive story, the main image this time i used was a simple image with the model looking away creating a suttle sexual connotation, by using her long hair to cover her face, this was due to my research investigation that lead me to these. I used above lighting when taking my image to create natural lighting across one side of her face, i feel this is a positive aspect of my work. The background again could have been changed to a summer colour for example a pail yellow or orange. I set the release date to a summer month July, to fit in with the festival genre, giving time to inform the readers when the festivals are on. My chosen font for this particular magazine has been selected from my research investigation where the main image is slightly different, by putting a twist with a close up shot and different style of font. This again makes the preferred and negotiated audience both look twice about wanting to read the magazine.
For my final magazine cover i used the recognisable font and colour from my first magazine for all audience types. I put the main image slightly out of centre to make the audience see the name of the magazine, then down towards the image. I also put the main image in front of the magazine name, this shows that even if the audience can not see the whole name, they still know exactly what it says. This is aimed at negotiated readers, people who know the magazine well. I made an 'inside special' by making a black and white box as part of a trademark for my magazine i seen this being used in my pre production and part of american magazine conventions. I kept the colours with mainly red, an improvement with my main image could have been edited into the magazine. I feel that i have made three professional magazine covers without the high-tecnology.