Magazine Cover Ideas

 For my magazine cover ideas I was particularly indecisive with the exact feel and style of the poster. I wanted to create a 'Little White Lies' type of magazine cover, with the slick and minimalist feel, however I was concerned I would not be able to include enough features to achieve a high mark. As such I began my ideas based around a 'Sight and Sound' type cover, using a strong base image with text over the top. I used a series of screen shots of our actors to create the mock up, but after doing so I was aware that I wanted and was set on doing a more stylised cover such as 'Little White Lies'.

I decided to have a go at mocking up a cover with the same style of a strong image, but add texture and style to the image, as well as bring in a background image as to create a more minimalist yet sophisticated feel to my cover. I used a series of Photoshop filters, as well as screen shots from our trailer layered on top of each other to create the slight 'outline glow' on the graffiti, as well as Robbie himself. However, after looking in closer depth at 'Little White Lies' cover's, they were far more stylised and graphically strong than this. 

I wanted to create a poster like effect, playing around with filters such as 'cut out', and 'posterise', where It created this 2D feel to both the background and the image of Robbie. The only problem with such is that the detail of Robbie is lost, as well as the background, and so I changed this by filling in sections of both the background and foreground different colours. This created an overall more tonal effect which I liked. 

I pushed this idea further, using a very similar style as to the one before, but taking inspiration from the 'Little White Lies' cover of Drive, where Ryan Gosling was in the foreground, and the background consisted of layers of coloured skyline which faded into white. Instead I tried using light pink to lift the cover, but I was not keen on this. As for the title, I liked the idea of it replication a puff, and the title idea was based around the circular and lens shape of the puff. 

I will do a photo shoot as to find the right image for my cover, and I will develop this last idea further. I want to play around with colour, text placement, and style which will be seen in later posts as my cover develops. 

EL

Magazine cover analysis - Inherent Vice

One of the key themes within Little White Lies magazine covers is the use of a strong central image created in a style of an illustration. The colours generally carry connotations of the style and tone seen within the film, here the orange and yellow creating a sense of the colours used within the film. A mother defining factor is the use of very little or no text, often only the title of the film is seen, allowing for a minimalistic them and style which follows the overall artistic feel of the cover. The title being in a recreation of a puff style works really well, allowing for the strong central image to be the main focus, while all other text and details needed are viewable but not complicatedly distracting away from the image. The floral image with the outline image over the top works really well, being clear well still artistic and abstract. Another common feature in the way in which the magazine world is through the use of the illustration itself, where commonly the magazine will employ someone to create an illustration for the cover, which is something I may do myself, possibly drawing it on paper and then developing this on the computer suing Adobe illustrator as well as Adobe Photoshop. In terms of how other Little White Lies covers compare, this is definitely one of my personal favourites, as the colour, mixed with the black as well as the contrasting white for the title draws the viewers eye on and works around the page. There is little detail, but is just enough, and slightly abstract to keep the cover interesting and attention grabbing.     

EL

Magazine Cover - Analysis

For my magazine, I have been largely interested in the more arty, minimalist style such as Little White Lies or Sight and Sound, with the simple titles and clean layout of text. I particularly like the Little White Lies covers, which employ simplistic style through the illustration on the cover, and minimal text to create the overall minimalist style. The commonly employ an illustrator to create the covers, which is a concept I really like. The title itself sits in an variation of a Puff, with the white standing off the background making the title clear. The only text commonly viewable on the cover is the title of the featured movie, as seen above to be Attack the Block, and Drive. My favourite cover out of all three is the far right drive cover, and is something I will work closely with. The Sight and Sound magazines are not my favourite, however they employ a great technique allowing the text to sit on the page without being to distracting. The main central images are clear, and idea I might use in my cover, however I am thinking about merging the two styles to create an illustrated cover like Little White Lies, and laying minimalist, non varied colour text over the top in the style of Sight and Sound. In particular I like the Shame cover, where the text is all right alined and uses bold fonts and non bold fonts to create a form of sub headings and main text. This is something I want to use within my own cover. Noticeable things about all covers are that the title of the magazine is commonly at the top, a trope my magazine will conform to. As well as this, the title of the film the cover shows is at the bottom, something I will also follow. The text is commonly placed around the central image and rarely over it, which is again something I will do. As for the main image, the Little White Lies covers normally use colour and vary in colour, which is something I will use to help my cover stand out.

EL

Institutional Analysis

EL

Adam Magazine Analysis - Hunger games

AF

Adam Magazine Analysis - Sherlock

 AF

Adam - Magazine Analyisis

As I'm targeting a mass market in my magazine, I researched Total Film and Empire. These two magazines are very similar in style and I will aim to adhere to these conventions. You can see many different conventions which are used throughout, notably the large title behind the central image and a tag line above the title. In these magazines, a lot of action is going on in the cover with a lot of different parts, given a cluttered but specific feel.

I extremely like the use of a bar to showcase other films, this gives the cover a professional feel that I hope to replicate. The title of the film is also shown centrally, and covers the whole page. I also hope to include a puff to showcase another film along with a bar at the bottom, giving a brief teaser to what's inside the magazine. 

AF

Emmas Magazine Analysis

When researching into current magazines, I found the ways in which they present their content to the audience greatly varied. Magazines such as Empire and Total Film cater for a mass audience, making content easily visible on the front cover so the potential consumer is aware of the best features. Magazines such as these, vastly advertise their content, selling the magazine on the content rather than the name. Despite this, it could be suggested that film fanatics are also interested in these mainstream magazines, as the advertisement content at the back includes fan paraphernalia. 

In contrast, magazines such as Clash and Little White Lies aim at a niche audience, primarily featuring arthouse and indie films. As people buy these types of magazines for the name and reputation, minimal advertising is present on the front cover giving it a very professional and minimalist feel. Sight and Sound magazine strikes a contrast between mass audience and indie magazines, showing interest in both areas. For my own work, even though I prefer the design of magazines such as Clash, I want to create a cross between Sight and Sound and Empire. I believe that this will strike a balance between stylised design and practicality, testing my abilities to  produce a convincing magazine.

EJ