MUSIC MAGAZINE Front Cover Artists Name & Font Styles

After searching on the internet and looking up dozens of short snappy names as well as surnames I finally came to the conclusion to call my artist Becca Sparks, as I quickly realized that short snappy names and abriviations are easier to remember and say, as well as being more visually pleasing.

So with my artists name chosen I started to select different fonts. Something that showed the artists name off, as well as keeping in line with the genre of the magazine which is an edgy rock pop theme. So I decided to use a brush font, searching on 1001 fonts online, which has 18 pages full of different brush fonts. this is what I came up with.

After a lot of deliberating I finally decided to use the last font shown, as I like the composition, how the font seems to spill out longer than the others, creating a more filled and unique look. So to make it fit on my main image I cut it into two, filling more of the page up by doing so, and emphasizing the surname by making it larger, as more and more artists these days are being recognized by their unique surnames.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Front Cover Main Image Photoshop

Still undecided between the two images I went throughout the following steps and processes to help me choose one picture to use on the front cover of my music magazine.


I cropped both images down to an A4 like size so that I would have the main outline and and composition of the photo to work with.

To then make the image the actual size iI selected image, then image size, finally cicking on A4 international paper size.

To make the
images black
and white I selected images, adjustments and then levels, clicking on the monochrome button (as well as the orange filter on channel mixers, which I found smoothed the skins complexion out more) and then further adjusting the levels of dark, light and medium tones to create the perfect balance of black and white. I did this on both images so I would have a better understanding which one would look better in the tones that I wanted. I also realized that if you move the medium tones higher as well as the dark tones the image became very pixelated, especially if I moved the white balance up. By having such a harsh contrast of the tones the images immediately became very fake looking, which I definitely didn't want so  I worked hard to create the perfect balance.

 I finally decided that out of both images I would choose the first one, on the left. I feel the composition and lighting for this image is better for the front cover because of the composition. I would be easier to put a title at the top of this image as it is a straight image, making the text and font look better placed around her. Further more, I like the way the image is more curved around the edge, which in some cases looks too harsh for a front cover.

Continuing on photoshop i then decided just to really perfect my image i would zoom up close and correct any tiny blemishes the model had using the blemish tool (which was quite easy to use once I adjusted the brush size), or even blend where the light caught her face in places.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Front Cover Main Image

To create the front cover of my music magazine I have decided to use photoshop as I feel more comfortable using it than in-design. Since creating the front cover of my school magazine I have started practicing more with photoshop so that I would be experienced enough to use the wide range of tools and settings to create my image and front cover of my music magazine. I also asked my sister for help with photoshop as she is now completing her final year of a Higher National Diploma in photography, meaning she was able to show me some of the tools and functions that I didn't already know how to use to to improve on my image.




My image of Lucy initially started out in full colour. I had good bright lighting with use of an industrial light in the shoot to make the image as bright as possible, increasing the amount of higlights by using the flash on the front of the DSLR camera. I did this because I know that whilst using photoshop it is easy to tone down the lighter tones into a darker shade, but when it comes to the darker tones it is not so easy to make them brighter if you have no light tones to begin with.

From the shoot I narrowed down 33 front cover poses and images down to these two shown. I was seriously unsure of which to use as the main image on my front cover as I thought both of them were really strong images with a lot of potential to convey the Rock/Pop kind of edgy look that I was aiming for. So with a little thought I took both images and decided to edit them both properly, so that it would give me a real view of what either of them would look like as a finished music magazine product.

Other possibilities from the shoot for my main image:

MUSIC MAGAZINE Padlet - Photograph Feedback

To get a better understanding of what my peers thought of my photoshoot plan I completed my photoshoot and then posted them on padlet. I decided to use padlet for my feedback as it is a user friendly website that I can embed on to my blog so that it is easy for people to leave comments on their thoughts. So please leave some feedback and vote for what you would like to see on my front cover, contents page, and two double page spreads!

Created with Padlet

I then went and posted the link for padlet on to my facebook acount as well as snapchat to get more peoples views!

MUSIC MAGAZINE Photoshoot Plan

To get more of an Idea of what I want regarding the photos in my music magazine I have created a photoshoot plan using Google Slides. It will help me when I am taking my photos, meaning I will know how to take them from certain angles, shot types, and lighting preferences. It also includes the editing that will be completed after.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Double Page Spread Flatplan X2

In conjunction with my other flat plans I had to create two music magazine flatplans for the double page spread in my own magazine. To do this, I looked at the research photos I found for my double page spread collages and took out certain aspects of them that I liked to recreate my own, which actually got me thinking that i would like to do a four page spread instead of a two page. Featuring all of my information and and article on the first double page, and then having the second spread as a large title and close up photo..

MUSIC MAGAZINE Contents Page Flat Plan x2

Here as you can see I have done the same thing as before when I created my front cover flat plans, except now these two are for my contents page. This will help me get a deeper insight into how I want my contents page to look when it is finished.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Front Cover Flat Plan X2

Here I have composed two optional flat plans for styles of music magazine covers that I am going to choose between to creaate my own Music magazine.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Animoto Moodboard

Here I have found a range of images that has helped me to decide what I want my music magazine to look like. I found that I loved the stark contrasting stand offish black and white photos but yet the Magazine cover Photoshoot I found of J LO really stood out to me, as it is exactly the colour scheme I want for my own magazine and the grey background really made the red of her bodysuit and shoes pop.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Ideas

Here I have extensively researched the music magazine industry and used it to help me create my own ideas for my music magazine. I now know exactly what I want to do for my musicc magazine and what it is going to look like.