This document discusses the development of ideas for the front cover of a regional magazine called iLondon focused on London. It notes that Time Out London typically uses portraits of celebrities on its covers. The document discusses initially considering a landscape photo of the Houses of Parliament for the cover to tie to a politics and education article. Research on a Time Out London cover competition supported using an iconic London landscape. The document proposes experimenting with landscapes of the Millennium Bridge and Westminster Bridge along with including students to link to the article topics and target demographic.

1. This is additional research to develop my understanding of regional magazine front covers.
Stereotypically, Time Out London tends to use mid/long shots of portraits of celebrities (Dyer’s star
theory) as their primary image for their front covers. This is an online competition on Time Out London’s
institutional website that gave the public a chance to photograph iconic London landmarks as part of a
front cover competition. This challenges the stereotypes of Time Out front covers because they tend to
use portraiture rather than landscapes.
As I live in London, I decided that my regional magazine would focus on the city of London. For my
primary image that will be used on my front cover for my issue of iLondon (my regional magazine). I had
initially decided to use a landscape/long shot of The Houses of Parliament. This was because it is an
iconic landmark of London, and I wanted this to connect and correlate with my article that focuses on
the topics of politics and education. Before researching this, I had wanted to challenge London
stereotypes on terms of London regional magazines generically using portraiture shots of primarily
celebrities as their primary image on the front covers of their issue.
This research simply supports my idea for my front cover because it is of London landscapes. I had not
previously seen this competition before deciding that I wanted to photograph The Houses of Parliament.
It is an iconic London landmark that I think will entice audiences because of its status and prominence in
terms of London heritage and iconic buildings.
For my front cover idea, I would like to experiment with both landscapes of the Millennium Bridge and
Westminster Bridge. This is because I feel as though the concept of a landscape will create an innovative
idea for city regional magazine front covers, which is what iLondon is. Moreover, I would also like to
experiment with the idea of including students on my front cover to link with my article focus which is
on politics and education. This will allow my target audience of fifteen to twenty-five year olds to
identify (uses and gratification) with them as they will be of a similar age group and demographic in
reference to the socio-economic scale. This idea will hopefully create a personalised touch to my issue of
iLondon as I will be including the element of education through the students and the element of politics
through the landscape of London.
Time Out London Front Cover Competition