The font I used for my masthead was ‘Love Song’, taken from a website called, ‘Dafont.com’. I chose this font because, in my opinion, it was quite suitable for my pop magazine, as the font included hearts and followed conventions. For example, the ‘We Love Pop’ magazine also includes a heart in its masthead, and that is where I took my inspiration from, for my own masthead. I had initially decided to use the colour red and burgundy for my masthead, as I took those colours from the lipstick and the shirt my model was wearing. However, I felt that those two colours were quite similar and were limiting the colours I wanted to use for my coverlines; therefore, I decided to change the colour of my masthead. Before doing this, I changed the colour of my model’s shirt from burgundy to purple, using Photoshop, as I thought this colour would enable me to use all the colours on my front cover effectively. Therefore, I changed my masthead’s colours to purple and red and felt that it looked more appealing than the previous colours I had used. In order to make my masthead more striking, I chose to add effects. I added ‘bevel and emboss’, ‘inner glow and ‘outer glow’, which resulted in my masthead looking more effective, as well as giving it a more 3D look.

At the bottom of my front cover, I decided to include a banner, which would contain 5 images, in order to follow conventions of real pop magazines. I decided to fill the box with the colour red, as it is one of my feature colours, and would help my magazine stand out and seem bold. To create a 3D look for the box, I added effects like, ‘Bevel and Emboss’, ‘Inner Shadow’, ‘Inner Glow’ and ‘Drop Shadow’. This resulted in the box popping out and enabling it to look more professional. I also included text just below the box, as well as a puff. I initially thought of using the colour white for the number ‘5’, however, when I applied it, it did not look too appealing and didn’t stand out as much as I wanted it to. I then played around with the colours and finally came to the conclusion of using the colour black. I also added effects such as ‘Stroke’, ‘Inner Shadow’, ‘Inner Glow’, ‘Outer Glow’ and ‘Drop Shadow’. By including these effects, the text stood out more. Along with the number 5, I also included another text; ‘Smashing Posters’. I did this to follow conventions, as many pop magazines include it, and it is a way of intriguing the reader. I chose the font ‘Microsoft YaHei Bold’ for this text and the colour white, as I knew the colours red, black and white would look quite attractive, as I had used these colours before, for my preliminary task and it appealed to my audience. To make the text stand out even more, I added effects like ‘Bevel and Emboss’, ‘Inner Shadow’ and ‘Inner Glow’.

The font I used for my artists’ name (Hannah Kay) was Magneto Bold. The reason I thought that this font would be suitable for the name was because it looks similar to a signature. I chose to use the colour red for this font, as she is the main feature of the magazine and also because I wanted the text to stand out the most. To make the text appear even more noticeable, I added a few effects such as, ‘Bevel and Emboss’, ‘Inner Shadow’, Inner Glow’, ‘Gradient Overlay’ and ‘Drop Shadow’. This resulted in the text becoming much bolder than it was before, and a good way of intriguing the reader. I also decided to incorporate a pull quote in my magazine as I wanted to follow conventions. The font I used for my pull quote was ‘Forte Regular’. I chose to use this font because, in my opinion, it looks handwritten and natural. This would intrigue the reader as it gives the magazine a more personal touch. I didn’t add any effects to this text because they made it look quite dull and not at all eye-catching. Therefore, I thought it looked much better without them .

I initially decided to use a graphic, which was a gold circle, found from Google Images. I thought that this would help my magazine stand out, however, when Ms Mottram saw it, she did not find it too appealing and didn’t think it worked well with the rest of the magazine. I then decided to include a purple circle on my magazine, to keep the colour scheme going. I also decided to add a text in that graphic saying, ‘interview with Jessie J’. For this, I used the font ‘Arial Bold’, as I felt that it stood out the most, compared to the other fonts I tried. I chose the colour white for this and not red, because it looked quite over the top, and I felt that purple and white look better together. Just above the graphic, I decided to include the text ‘Exclusive!’ because I wanted the coverline below that to stand out be noticeable. I chose the font ‘Arial Black’ for this and decided to make it the colour red, as it resulted in the text becoming more vibrant. Below my masthead, I added a text saying ‘Issue 13’, as I wanted to make my magazine look realistic as possible, and also to meet conventions. The font I used for this was ‘Arial Black’ and the colour I chose was black.

I decided to include 3 main coverlines on my poster. I was given the suggestion of including hearts , from which my coverlines would come out from , by Ms Mottram. I took this idea into consideration because including hearts would mean that I’m following conventions, as my masthead also consists of a heart. I copied and pasted the heart from Google Images, and filled it in, to be the same shade of red, as the heart of my masthead. I then included text for each of the three hearts. The font I used for these texts were ‘Arial Bold’, as I wanted the coverlines to be the same font as the coverline in the graphic, to keep my magazine consistent. I initially considered to use the colour black for this font , however, when I did try this colour, it faded in with my models hair, and wasn’t quite clear to read. I then finalised the colour purple for this text, to keep the colour scheme consistent. I am also intending to include a list of celebrity names below these coverlines, to show the reader what other artists are featured in the magazine, as well as a barcode beneath this.