The document describes the step-by-step process taken by Ashley Billingham to design the front cover of their music magazine. Key details include: 1) A red rectangle was placed at the top to serve as the background for the masthead in keeping with a red, black, and white color scheme. 2) Additional borders and elements like circles and banners were added to balance colors and fill space for advertisements. 3) The masthead, images, bar code, and side stories featuring artists like Taylor Swift, Pink, and Eminem were positioned following magazine design conventions. 4) Colors, fonts, sizes and other stylistic choices were made to make elements like advertisements, headlines

1. Step By Step -
Making My Front Cover
By Ashley Billingham

2. I started with a blank A4
background, and then
placed a red rectangle at
the top of the page. I chose
the colour red because of
my colour scheme of ‘red,
black and white’. I decided
to make the rectangle near
to 1/5th of the page,
because I want to place my
mast head on top of it, so
that the red will help the
text stand out even more.

3. After, I wanted to create a
small border, parallel to
the mast head border to
help even out colours
around the page and also
to make my magazine
appealing to look at,
meaning that hopefully
my target audience will
be attracted to it due to
it’s boldness.

4. Then I placed my final chosen
mast head onto the cover page
and placed it on the border. I
made my mast head white so
that It will stand out more. I
could have used black to keep
in with my colour scheme, but
because red is quite a dark
colour itself, the white looks
more effective standing out on
red. I decided to place the
mast head to the side of the
border so that I had room to
add more to the top corner of
the page next to it.

5. I then added a shadow
effect onto the text so
that the writing looks
more deep and edgy,
which is what I was
looking for as my genre is
pop music, so I want to
make my magazine look
as modern as possible to
reach the generations
who appreciate this style.

6. I then added the
completely edited
image of my 3 models
(PIKK ‘N’ MIX). I placed
it to the side, as I
wanted to follow the
example of Q Magazine
and place the primary
image slightly to the
side, leaving enough
room to add side stories
down the side of the
page.

7. I added a black circle at the
top corner of the page
(where I had left space
purposely for something like
that). I made it black so that
It would disappear with the
white background or the red
border. I decided to only
place half of the circle on
the page, to make it more
tidy and also to carry on
with the edgy look within
my house style.

8. I decided to add a thin
black banner along the
top of the page about the
mast head. I did this
because I want to fill up
as much space as I can,
and also spread the
colours around too. I plan
to add some writing or
advertisement along the
top which will grab the
readers attention.

9. I then added another
black circle, diagonally
opposite the first one I
used. This is to help me
advertise and make
certain text stand out to
an audience where as If
I had just wrote it and
put it on a normal
background, it wouldn’t
look as appealing.

10. I then added a white square
in the bottom right corner
so that I can place my bar
code on top of it. I’ve made
it slightly bigger than what I
want my bar code to be so
that part of the white
square is still showing,
allowing me to write the
date and the price just
above the bar code to keep
the use of typical magazine
conventions.

11. I added the bar code on
top of the square, leaving
the white section which I
wanted. I wanted to put my
bar code at the bottom of
my page as it is a typical
convention of a magazine
to have the bar code at the
bottom of the page, where
it is out of the way of the
more important parts of
the magazine which draw
the reader/audience in.

12. Along the bottom read border, I
wrote a advertisement for a
competition inside the
magazine which allows the
audience to win tickets to see
Rhianna live in concert. I chose
to use the artist Rhianna as she
is a popular and modern artist,
meaning that her concert
tickets would be very desirable
for a fan of hers. Meaning more
magazines would sell. Also I
chose to write it in white bold
capital lettered writing so that it
stands out.

13. Underneath the
advertisement, I wrote ‘see
page ... for more info’ I did
this so that the audience
can just turn straight to the
page instead of searching
for them through the
magazine as some
magazines don’t think
competitions are important
to readers meaning they
don’t give them a page
number.

14. In the second black circle (at the bottom
left hand corner of the page) I wrote
another freebie advertisement, as
everyone likes to be able to get things
for free, and my magazine is offering a
free CD of Jay-Z and Beyoncé
collaborating as they are also one of the
worlds most famous artists and celebrity
couples, meaning they are loved by
everyone, again leading to more people
wanting to buy the magazine to be able
to get the free CD. I wrote the ‘FREE CD’
part in red, as that is the important part
that needs to stand out for the audience
to be interested, once they are
interested, they will see the writing
underneath explaining who’s CD it is.

15. Onto the black border I added a
advertisement type quote
which is a reference from the
magazine advertising that you
can find out the top 10 most
exciting people right now inside.
I have wrote it in white so that it
stands out more on the black
and also I made the ‘most
exciting’ part, in all capitals and
bold writing so that it catches
the audiences attention, and
makes them want to find out
more about it.

16. In the top right corner, I have
added text In the black circle,
advertising a feature article which
is 42 pages of reviews about
musicians, concerts, albums etc. I
made the number 42, red so it
would stand out from the black
background and the white writing
around it. I also made the number
42 a lot larger than the font it sits
on so that it really stands out and
that means that when the audience
see the number, they have to look
at the magazine to read the small
print underneath.

17. In the same circle, I
added an enlarged
exclamation mark in
white to make the red
number 42 stand out
even more and to also
make the audience feel
like they will have to read
the article, because by
adding an exclamation
mark, the sentence
becomes a command.

18. Then, down in the bottom
right hand corner, just
above the bar code, I added
the price of my magazine,
this is a usual common
convention of a magazine as
most magazines display the
price either just above or
just below their bar code so
they know where to look, to
find out how much it costs.

19. Along with the price, I
then added the date of
release for the
magazine, so the
audience know what
issue the magazine is. I
have placed it next to
the price (above the bar
code) as the date is also
part of the magazine
common convention.

20. I then added in the girl bands name
of ‘PIKK ‘N’ MIX’, I came up with this
name using the current and popular
girl group’s name of ‘Little Mix’ and
added a twist on it. I downloaded
this font from the internet, so that I
could have a varying range of fonts
instead of using the same default
fonts provided by photo shop
themselves. I chose colour it in white
so that I could put it across the
image of the 3 girls and it would
stand out, I also wanted to
incorporate the name into the house
style colour theme of red, black and
white.

21. On the name ‘PIKK
‘N’ MIX’ I added a
shadow effect onto
it, so that it could
be more defined
and also the letters
stand out more
with the dark
shadow behind it.

22. Then I added a tag line
above the name ‘PIKK
‘N’ MIX’ as a teaser
into what the article
will be about. This is
also another common
convention, as tag lines
are used to draw the
audience into reading
the magazine.

23. Finally I started by adding the
finishing pieces to my front cover
which are the side stories down the
left hand side of my front cover.
These are important conventions as
they are what draws the reader in
further to read the magazine. They
give a little bit of information of
what the magazine entails when you
read it. I decided to use the artist
‘Taylor Swift’ in one of my side
stories as she is very famous, and is
often in the tabloids, meaning
people will want to read her article
to see what she has been getting up
to.

24. I added a secondary image
of another model, which I
have placed under the side
story about ‘Taylor Swift’ to
suggest that the image is
‘Taylor Swift’. Having a
secondary image on my
front cover is also another
common convention as
many magazine have a
various number of images
on the front of them,
usually no less than 2.

25. For my next side story, I
used the artist ‘PINK!’ as
she was known for being
in the tabloids a lot, and
once or twice it was for
drug use, so I decided to
use that idea in my
magazine to make it
sound more interesting
for the audience to read.

26. For the next side story, I wanted to
add something different instead of
just have writing down the side of
the page, so I drew a red box
(keeping in line with the other side
stories) and then a smaller black
one inside of it. Then, using white
writing I wrote the band name
‘1975’, as they are a very popular
band within my generation and
their music is enjoyed by everyone,
so I thought it only fitting that I
advertised that there was an article
about them in my magazine, to
attract the audience.

27. Finally, I added my last side story onto my front
cover. I used a story about ‘Eminem’ as he is
another very popular and cherished artist in the
charts, and has a reputation which came from his
past use of drugs and mental break downs etc.
Eminem disappeared from the charts for a few
years, and when he came back he claimed to be a
changed person, which Is why I thought I would
incorporate that into my front cover, and make it
sound as though in the article about him, he has
gave ‘BEAT’ magazine an exclusive interview after
his mental break down, which I think would
interest my target audience a lot due to ‘Eminem’
immensely large fan base. You may have noticed
that throughout my side stories, I have made
some of the words red whereas the rest of the
font is in black, this is because I thought it would
also help to grab my audiences attention by
highlighting certain words within the side stories
which could possibly make the reader very
interested in reading the magazine.

28. This is the
completed final
product of my
music magazine
front cover.