Firstly I added a pug, displaying another element to the magazine, an article on the School Show, hopefully also enticing readers to part with their money to obtain the magazine. The Pug also makes the magazine look far more professional, complex and stand out compared to other publications, an important feature of any Magazine Cover, particularly in today's uber competitive market.

I added the images of both Mr Klappholz and the skull to the main cover I had already constructed. I felt that both stood out well from the stormy background as well as the Splash. I was particularly pleased with the crystalline effect on the skull. The Cover still felt a bit basic so I decided to draft a number of improvements to the conept....

For the images of my English teacher, I managed to catch him on a good day, which allowed me to be able to take a number of good quality photos to use on my Cover and my blog. I made sure to photograph the image with a contrasting background to that of the colour of my main image. Fortunately my teacher Mr Klappholz has a penchant for drama, and was more than willing and capable to portray a number of moods I threw at him on the day, to test a number of scenarios to be able to explore for the best possible photo.

Unfortunately, the jumper worn on the day was similar to that of the stormy background on my cover, however when combined I felt it only added to the mood of the overall concept. I managed to eradicate the background, which proved mostly successful; I removed the main obstructions however a couple of corners were cut off the top of the head of the model, however compared to the stormy image, proved to be a minute problem.

I encountered a minor problem when coming to photograph the skull for my front cover. The skull I had in mind from a model skeleton in my school's Biology lab had been decapitated by a group of rowdy pupils using the room as a dressing room for the school show, a number of years previously. However I found a skull which I believed to better than this; a slightly smaller scale skull in the same lab.

 The darker colour appeared to be almost crystalline, similar to that of the Crystal Skull in the 2008 film "Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull", which makes the skull appear far more mystical and given the ending of the film, sinister.

 

 

 

 

Here I tested possible positioning for my Main Image, where the picture of my English teacher Mr Klappholz and a skull, would replace my peers pictured here. Although the image would be created using layers on a computer programme, I felt it important to consider the positioning in regard to the background visible, spacing etc

I kept in mind the image of the poster for the film "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Pt2", so I needed to keep a space between the two figures to suggest an argument or confrontation rather than a fight already have taken place. I also wanted a considerable amount of the background ti be visible to add to the drama.

Upon discussing my Magazine Cover with my peer group, it became clear that one or two felt the stormy image to be too dark for a cover. I hence forth considered this image as it was still fairly overcast but far lighter in tone, in contrast to the one selected. However I felt that the confrontation had been taken out of the equation, and the image had lost much of it's identity; it seemed confused and was giving out mixed messages, was it friend or foe? In the end I binned this image and chose to use my original storm cloud picture, as the above photo made my cover more "A Mid Summer Night's Dream" than "Macbeth".

Upon reflection I felt that, although I believed I had made the correct choice of storm image, the text on the Masthead & Pull Quote did not stand out enough to act as an effective method of attracting readers. It is here I decided to use a thin black outline to these chunks of text, which produces are far more pleasing outcome.

Once I had adequately shaped my storm background to fit my cover, I began working on my Splash. I went for the a play on the 1986 hit "The Final Countdown" by the band Europe. I believed that the catchy and comical nature of the Splash would display the jocular yet direct form of journalism inside the magazine, much like that of BBC's "Top Gear Magazine" or "Empire Magazine". The words also suggest an apocalyptic nature to the story, which is backed up by the Pull Quote. The drama would hopefully attract yet more readers to purchase the publication.

As I wanted a Magazine Cover depicting a dark & stormy day with apocalyptic events unfolding within the main story, I decided to use a  real life image of a storm as the background to my Main Image to set the scene. I decided to cut out the City Skyline as although I initially intended on using it in my image, as I felt it would add to the drama, creating a "King Kong V.S. Godzilla" type atmosphere, in reality the Cityscape was obscured by the Main figures in the image.

 The first image I considered was too dark, and blended in with the header bar and footer line too much, which meant the details on such bars was lost. The image was also the wrong size to be reshaped without the pixels becoming distorted.

 The Second image I considered was the one I eventually used, as I felt the shade of grey was appropriate as it was light enough to stand out from the Characters on the main image and the header bar and footer line, but dark enough to capture the intensity I desired.

The last two images were far too dark I felt to use, but after intensely studying fifty shades of grey, I felt I had found the perfect background.

For my header bar and footer header line, once again, I chose black and yellow as a colour scheme because of the bars placing on the cover, at either end, I felt these block colours would act as bookends to the cover, helping to magnify the details on the print. These particular shades of yellow and black match the school uniform which helps make the magazine more familiar and personal to the school, which could attract more people to buy the publication from school, building a bigger "fan base" as it were.

 

 

The article regarding a teacher turning 70 was inspired by an article I'd seen in Q Magazine a number of years previously concerning former Beatles singer & songwriter John  Lennon. This too was in header bar format, and being placed at the top of the page suggested the man it concerned was of God like status, which, in a very tongue-in-cheek like manner, is how the teacher is regarded in our school, due to his lesson "antics". In comparison to that, I chose to advertise a freebee given away with this edition of the publication as a juxtaposition to the header bar, showing a range of things found on such spaces of a magazine cover. The word "FREE" in bold also attracts viewers to the cover.

To begin with, I focussed primarily on my Masthead as previously mentioned, there was a specific colour I desired. I also attempted to mimic writing seen in medieval typography, on Olde English Bibles and books. One such example can loosely be seen in the Medieval type story book seen in the opening credits of the "Shrek" Movies.

I decided to use this style of writing as it reflected the time period of the King in question, Henry VIII, and suggested a sense of grandeur, pomp and pageantry about the paper, which again reflected the monarch in question. Although the impressiveness of the font is lost when it is not used with a variety of painted colours seen above, I felt this was more than compensated for by the dull Gold colour. I also feel that the array of colours could only be achieved on a book format, and any attempt to emulate the cacophony of colours on a Masthead would draw away from a conventional magazine style.