Making the Front Cover

I have started making the layout of the magazine using Photoshop. Firstly I just simply opened up the edited image of my main front cover model. Before doing anything else, I wanted to get my masthead onto the picture.
Through my research of codes and conventions, I have found that some magazines have their model front cover model overlapping the masthead, and this convention usually only occurs when the model doesn't take up much of the masthead anyway. Thankfully, I already had this in mind when I uploaded the image and moved the model lower down to make more space for the masthead. This also meant that there was enough space in the end for my masthead to be overlapped, and in the end will give my front cover a more professional look I think. I was able to make them overlap by using the quick-select tool to select the model and copy him onto a separate layer, meaning that he has a separate from the background. Afterwards, I was able to make my masthead on their own layers and place those layers in between the background layer and model layer, which meant that the masthead would end up in between the background and the model, making them overlap.
I think that the use of only rectangles may make it look less professional but I'm afraid that if I try any other shape (such as a semicircle in my layout sketch), it will clutter the main image.
In my layout sketch, I had the fashion model in the left corner, but I had to move her to the right side because the main model takes up more space on the left side due to his pose and positioning, but I am not complaining about this as I think that it makes the image more effective and I know it would look less appealing if he was turned the other way. This also means that the barcode will have to go on the bottom left corner as opposed to nearly every magazine where the barcode is typically on the bottom right corner.
On the top are a pink/red and yellow rectangle. In the pink/red one, I'm going to write the notification for free posters, following the conventions with rock magazines offering free posters for their readers. It also follows another code and convention by being placed in the top left corner, as most magazines have that notification placed in the same area. The yellow rectangle will have the text for the price inside of it. I gave the price it's own rectangle so that it can still stand out from the image and the price can be easily seen by viewers.

Now I'm starting the add text to the front cover. As you can see, the I mainly used black and white as the colour of the text to make it easily noticeable, and it works because of the coloured rectangles placed behind the text, so I've been using wob to make it stand out for the reader. I also used a barcode generator to make my own barcode and placed it in the bottom left corner.
I also typed up 'steal her look' in reference to the meme that I've seen on social media sites such as Tumblr and Twitter, where users would often have a picture of a person (usually a celebrity or internet sensation) and then write 'steal ___ look' and begin to list down their items of clothing and prices. I typed up 'beginner's' guide because of how the model was dressed simply, and wanting the reader to learn from the basics. Although personally I don't like the amount of makeup that is stereotypically represented on rockers, and that's part of the reason why I decided to go for a simple, black look. I also linked the fashion segment with rock by typing up "rocking out in style" which links both rock music and fashion together.

Now that I have finished what I think is the base of the front cover, I have uploaded the image onto InDesign and will use that program to add the main text onto my front cover. It might just be me, but I think that the image quality on InDesign is slightly worse than the quality on Photoshop.
I have used the rulers to try and figure where to place my text and decide on the length and width of my headlines etc. Overall, it still looks pretty even.

Above the masthead is a skyline which is also exaggerated by saying that this magazine is the most reliable (in the world?), but it is a convention used in many magazines as I have seen during my research.
One thing I fear is that my cover may appear to be more of a gossip magazine rather than a music magazine, but I tried my best to relate all the headlines/coverlines to rock music.
With Anasztázia (made up artist), I tried to make the link between rock artists and the party life (drugs, parties, alcohol etc). I also exaggerated her status within in the rock world (again, still made up) by giving her the title of Queen of Rock. I plan on taking pictures of one of my friends who will act as Anasztázia and use the image as a picture boost for my contents page, filling up more space in that page in the process.
Underneath that, I have information about the rock band 'My Chemical Romance', which are extremely well known. I made up a headline about the disbanded members reuniting, which I know would attract a lot of rock fans. I also gave the headline background colours and different text colours to make it stand out even further. I also point out an interview between the lead vocalist and bassist of the band, meaning that the readers will be able to read the thoughts of some of the band members.
On the right, I made headlines about another rock band, 'Three Days Grace'. I also tried to play around with words and make it rhyme or catchy. I also notified the readers about their new album.
One thing that bothered me at first when I made this cover is that I used the same font throughout. However, I found it extremely difficult to make the page look nice with any other font, and I even asked some of my peers and friends for their opinions, and they all agreed that the magazine looked better with this one font. I used mainly red as my text colour because it was the most eye catching colour to me. I experimented with different colours but found that red stood out the most and was the easiest colour to see, so I used it to make it easy to read. I also think it's somewhat appropriate because of the colour symbolism. Red usually connates death or danger, and rock music is represented to have a violent nature.

Front cover done in INDESIGN

Front cover done in PHOTOSHOP

This is a comparison of the front cover done on the two programs. The reason I did this was because to me, it looked like the quality was reduced when the image was put onto InDesign, and from this comparison, I can see that I was right. The Photoshop version of the front cover is superior in everyway, as InDesign has washed out some of the colour. Personally, I found InDesign more time consuming to use and it was definitely not as fun for me to use. Another small detail I liked about the Photoshop version is that the background coloured rectangles for My Chemical Romance and "Reunite!" were much nicer and easier to make due to Photoshop giving fixed lengths and widths unlike InDesign, and it makes the black rectangle behind "Reunite!" blend in much better than the one on the InDesign version.

After looking back at my front cover, I noticed that there wasn't any headlines relating to the main front cover model, and unfortunately for me, this is a convention used in every music magazine. I had to go back and change the headline about Anasztázia to fit with the male model, but I know that I will definitely be using her for my contents page.
I also had to move down the headlines about My Chemical Romance a bit lower to just to make more space for the new model headline. I further noticed that the bottom of the magazine looks quite empty, and did not the take the rule of thirds into account when making my front cover. To try and fix this, I tried moving the area of My Chemical Romance even lower, but I didn't the model's claws to be hidden due to the symbolism I have with it. Another reason why I did not move it down further is because that it was difficult to read the part about the interview with Gerard and Mikey Way, so I had to keep it high enough to be able to be read. I also did not want to change the colour of that specific text because, just I explained earlier, none of the other colours really went well with the background.