11th November 2011

   I have now tried putting some of the images of Amy onto the front cover so that I can arrange the layout better with a photograph. I have tried several different close up shots, however, I feel that the one shown below is the best as I think the lighting is better with her face looking up and so makes her look more fresh faced and reflects off the glint in her eyes.

   I have now added more features to the cover after looking at the existing magazines in my research. I have put a non-copyrighted image of a barcode at the top right of the cover as there was space left to fill in this postition. I have also put the month, the issue number and the price around the barcode. I have given the price a bold font to make it stand out more. I have placed the photo of Amy at the right of the cover so that she is facing the space on the rest of page. This has left room for me to place the plugs down the left side of the page within the blank space. I have arranged the plugs around the shape of her body so that they do not take any attention away from the photograph. I have not yet decided on a name for my cover artist but so far I have put 'Amelia'. I have used the colour select tool on Serif DrawPlusx3 to capture the same colour of the red dress and use it as the font colour for the main plug. I have done this so that there is a clear link between the singer and their plug so that the readers attention will be drawn to this immediately.

   Below the main plug I have then placed another of the magazines features. I have written the words 'ALEXANDRA BURKE' to begin the plug as the name is what will grab the buyer's attention. I have then continued the plug below saying, 'Exclusive look at the X Factor Winner's first tour'. I have included the word 'Exclusive' as this is a way of persuading the reader to buy the magazine, knowing that they won't see it anywhere else.

   I have then featured another plug at the bottom right of the magazine, overlapping the photograph. I have chosen to place this plug there as it is an important plug and again needs to stand out on the cover. As I felt that the writing would not stand out enough even with a bold font or a contrasting colour, I have chosen to feature this plug within an auto shape. I have chosen a circle as I found that circles are used for plugs on several of the magazines which I looked at when in my annalysis. This plug reads 'AMY WINEHOUSE Last interview with the soul superstar'. I have used alliteration in the plug, 'soul superstar', as this makes the sentence sound more catchy and makes it flow more. I have also used the word 'last' to gain the reader's attention as it will make them want to buy it as this will be the last interview. For each of the plugs on the cover I written all artist names in upper case and bold, as these are the most important parts that the buyer will want to see. I have then written any additional information in lower case letters and without a bold font. I have done this as I feel that the cover would be overcrowded with too much bold lettering.

   I have placed a bar at the bottom of the magazine which features more artist's names. I have made this bar the same colour as the masthead as this draws your attention to it and shows its importance. I have used a white font for these plugs as it contrasts with the blue and makes them more noticeable. I have placed a white dot between each name so that it reads clearer and there is more distinguish between artists.

   I have used artists who are currently big in the music industry for my front cover. The majority of the artists are of a pop genre, however I feel I have used a variety so that they will appeal to both genders.