Construction of magazine cover

For my magazine I will be using the measurements of Q magazine. In width it is 215.9 mm and in height it is 279.4mm I first picked my dominant image. I chose this one because I felt it suited really well the style of my magazine and the picture allowed for the masthead and for text on the side.

I then chose my masthead, I was originally going to use font similar to Elle and Vogue however I wanted to set a slightly different mood. Seeing as I am to create a music magazine I feel that the title must stand out from fashion magazine titles and so I went for a thicker, simplistic font to make it unique.

 In addition to this I added a strap-line as I want readers to understand that this is a music magazine and to emphasis that it is the first UK music magazine aimed specifically at women.

I decided to add the text in the empty space on the right as it would ensure that the image is not to obscured and would look more aesthetically pleasing.

On the next article title I decided to use a buzz word ad to make it stand out by placing it in a black box and making the font yellow.

On the next text I used a slightly different font to make the cover look more interesting.

For the main cover story I make the font almost as large as the masthead and place under the image to show that there is a link between the image and the title.

The small sub-title underneath it needed a shift in colour so it could be better read. In addition to this I wanted to make the words "GLOBAL SUCCESS" stand out. 

To highlight that it is a music magazine I included a few words to show the music content in the magazine.

Looking at both music and women's magazine I could see that free gifts or competitions feature regularly on front covers. Therefore seeing as this is the launch of a new music magazine I decided to include a free CD inside.I think the circle works with the general layout too.

The last thing to place on the cover is the bar code, the date, the price and the website. All of which I placed together on the right, on its side. I didn't want to space them too apart as I found that on my draft cover it made the cover look too cluttered.