Magazine Layouts and Analysis

 Before designing what my magazine would look like, I had made layout choices on Paint so that I could see how they would look in different styles. Below are the layouts I had created and their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Layout 1


This layout contains all the necessary conventions that a magazine should have, masthead, text, image. However, this magazine layout seems to lack text. Although i did not want to draw the main attention away from the photograph on this layout, it still seems as if there is not enough text drawing the attention of potential readers. It is also unusual for a magazine to only have a left-hand third, it is more common on conventional magazine covers that there is a right-hand third or text on both sides of the cover. 


For these reasons I have chosen not to use this layout for my magazine front cover.

Layout 2


This layout has more text than the previous magazine cover layout above, and it also includes a puff which is a seperate piece of text, usually in a circular shape that advertises something particular in the magazine. Although this magazine cover has more text than the previous, it has drawn a lot of focus away from the image which i did not intend to do. Particularly the bottom half, the cover will be completely filled with texts and if a full-shot image is chosen it will be difficult to see anything below the waist. Even further up the cover, the puff and the text on the right-hand third will unfortunately mask parts of the models face and draw attention to the text instead of the image. This will also result in an unprofessional front cover as it hasn't followed conventions of a magazine.


For these reasons I have chosen not to use this layout for my magazine front cover.

Layout 3


This layout is the one i have chosen to use on my magazine front cover and i have chosen this layout for a variety of different reasons. The first being that it has plenty of text which will engage a variety of different audiences to the magazine as each piece of text will relate to different people. Although there is much more text than the previous two layouts it does not cover much of the image, whether the final image chosen is a full shot or a close-up, the models face and body will be clearly seen and not masked by unwanted text. Similar to the last layout, a puff has been included on the cover however this time it has been positioned in a more suitable place which is not distracting consumers from the image. This layout also had smaller text at the very top and the very bottom of the cover layouts. This is a great use of empty space and provides the cover with more advertising about what is included within the magazine.