Main Product

This is the final version of my secondary ancillary text, a Magazine front cover .After researching and analysing existing media texts, along with audience research, I applied the style and conventions of my genre of film to my film magazine in a way that would best reach my target audience.
The process in which I achieved my final design was to create a number of drafts and determine which looked the most suitable and effective. I had previously analysed existing film magazines using the LIIAR technique, this gave me an understanding of the conventions used within a film magazine and what appeals to the viewer.
The masthead for my magazine came about when I was drafting up title ideas in my “silver note book”. I settled on the name “Unlock” as I had developed a strapline “We search, You Discover, Unlock your world” The strapline itself is totally original to me, as I used no references or inspiration when coming up with it. The strapline works in harmony with the title I feel as it supports the message and effect of each to the audience. The font I used for the title was a custom one made by a friend of mine, it was called GW 2.
I added the primary conventions such as the barcode, pricing, issue and date in negative space created in the design, I placed them in such a way that it was easy to see and helped give the magazine a solid unified look.
I did not add advertisements or a website address to my front cover as I wanted to try keeping the cover simplistic in nature. However, I did add plugs to the cover; this was done in the form of subheadings with pictures I had taken, featuring a robot I created, and image from Hull Fair, and me on my travels, each I felt had a dynamic feel to it and would entice the viewer to read more. The subheading under the masthead also helps entice the viewer with the slogan”The magazine that unlocks the film information you want”

I used another custom font from the site Dafont.com, it was called “masterplan” I chose this font as it gave a weathered and worn look suitable for my genre of film. I also used this font in my headline and in some of my other subheadings to give it some unity. The text I used for the headline and strapline give it a feeling of reality and urgency for example “Shields First Contact” and “Interview with the survivor” This is a form of wordplay, that I had taken inspiration from some of the magazine covers I had analyzed. Also I think it’s worth noting that the subheading “Meet the new actor” has been designed in such a way that it is shaped along the main image gun barrel, leading the audience to the main heading.
The main image was chosen out of many trial images taken in the blue room of the media facility. The reasoning behind taking the pictures in this room is that it would allow for the best lighting quality and the background could be easily changed for the picture via Photoshop CS3. I settled on the image on the cover as the visual imagery gives it an almost 3d like quality as if it is coming out of the page and staring/aiming out to the viewer. I positioned it in front of part of the masthead as this is a technique used by many popular magazines that do not need to show their title to be recognized, this also gave it a realistic quality.


I created the whole front cover in Photoshop CS3 using many tools, some examples are the opacity level for the text boxes, transform tool for re-sizing objects, crop and magic wand tools for cutting out images and the text tool.