Final Cover Choice and Elaboration

 FINAL COVER EDIT/ PHOTO

The primary picture is usually modified and polished before being placed into printing in order to create a cover that attracts a broad audience and allows a magazine to sell. I opted to use Canva to alter the photographs I selected since it is simple to use. Many pre-made filters and tools make photo editing a breeze. With these photographs, I'm attempting to convey the concept that living a healthy lifestyle (since this is for a lifestyle magazine) does not have to be overly complicated and that it can begin with basic steps, as seen by the lighting and editing alone. It deliberately subverts the norms of lifestyle publications by appearing staged yet remaining simple and beautiful. I wanted to make these cover photographs appear less produced and more genuine in order to convey the notion of a true lifestyle and how it may change for everyone.

MASTHEAD

As indicated in previous blog articles, the masthead for both magazine covers is at the top of the page and in bigger font size, as it is in most other lifestyle publications. The typeface is named "Ahabaya Libre Regular," and it is clean and straightforward, making it appear elegant.

MAIN IMAGE

Because it is a picture of a bowl of plant-based cuisine, the primary image is entirely centered in the middle. The main picture is a coverline from one of the articles included on the magazine cover. This shot does not have a backdrop that I added. The main image features a round bowl, which was photographed on a white countertop. Only the shadows from the bowl are visible on the tabletop, which is surrounded by a blank hue. I didn't do any editing on this shot since I changed the lighting to make it brighter as I was photographing it.

SELL LINE

Sell lines are not common in lifestyle magazines, so there is not one included in my final cover of the magazine. They do not really go with the genre and the content delivered inside the magazine.

COLOR SCHEMES

For the magazine cover, I used a dark brown font color for the masthead, as the main image has many neutral colors, like tan, beige, light yellow, and brown. As for the cover lines and other words on the cover, I used dark browns in order to create contrast with the white background from the image and to make it easy to see and read when the viewer sees the magazine, but still, be able to connect it back to the color scheme shown in the mina image.

COVER LINES

The cover lines on the cover are meant to relate to the main image, so two of the cover lines (“food joints that support your body, not destroy it” and “how to maintain a plant-based diet”) connect to the image of food. The cover lines are not too long and descriptive, but not extremely vague. Some lifestyle magazines include very vague cover lines to attach the reader, but more have a good amount of information in them.

MISCELLANEOUS 

I tried to use the blank/ negative space from the white countertop as the background, and fill it up by placing the cover lines and barcode in those areas. There was a lot of space at the bottom of the page, so I placed two cover lines and page numbers there, and a barcode in the bottom right corner, as that is where they are most commonly seen, especially in lifestyle magazines. There is also a month and year in the top right corner, as this feature is common in lifestyle magazines.

FONT CHOICE

On the magazine cover, the masthead employs the font "Ahabaya Libre Regular" in all capital letters and bolded, and this font will be used on every issue in order to familiarize the reader with the magazine so that they can notice it and buy it right away. The font "Alice" was chosen for the cover lines, so it's pretty similar, but not as bolded. The magazine covers are coherent but not too dull because they use the same typography but a distinct font. When using the same font, it's easy for the viewer to lose track of which parts of the cover are more important, such as the masthead instead of the cover lines.

By creating this cover, the process of first taking the cover image, then editing the cover image, and then deciding what content would appear alongside the main image allowed me to make connections to the genre conventions of lifestyle magazines. There are many elements that abide by the conventions, but there are some that purposefully subvert them in order to create uniqueness and let the magazine sell.