Critical Evaluation of first draft of front cover

Critical Evaluation of first draft of front cover

I believe that the front cover represents the aim and style very well, as the colours, general composition and shaping of images and text (as well as the props used) convey the correct genre. The magazine clearly states the intentions through the mention of various metal bands, as well as the guitar being featured to capture the genre of music and to account for the general house style used. The coverlines, however, are slightly harder to see than predicted due to printing reducing the overall brightness of colours, which makes the main coverline 'Rise up!' extremely difficult to read at distance, completely ruining it's aim to stand out, feedback I received confirmed my thoughts on this. I have decided that I will attempt at changing the 'Rise up!' to a blue colour to match the model's hair; this was a suggestion from some of my peers during a 'hotseat' feedback session. The smaller coverlines and pull quotes are, however, a slightly brighter colour, yet could still be more visible. The coverlines are positioned in a nice way, not obscuring the artist's face in any way, though the artists's darker patches of hair are blending in with the background too much.

The choice of font does work well, though the main coverline is, as mentioned, hard to read from a distance, and the font I created for it does not work very well, though the other fonts are very clear. The background is just a plain black colour which was intended, though it does make it hard to see the darker colours used on the page, therefore I believe that I will need to either change the background or lighten the other colours. The title/masthead is easy to read, as there is a lot of colour differentiation to create a visible shape, especially with the splashes of white.

There is a barcode, as well as the issue number and pricing, though it is a little harder to read the issue number due to little contrast in colour. I do believe that it looks like a music magazine front cover, however it does need to be brightened to ensure professionalism. I think that the only problem with the desired appearance would be the overall darkening of the colours once printed, which can be countered with a brightness effect over every layer.