MOJO: REPRESENTATION

Mojo Inspired Magazine Front Cover

In media, we looked at the representation of characters, social issues and contexts and created our own magazine covers based off of this.

Above is the poster that I designed as my interpretation of what a "retro" styled music magazine would represent today.

The name of the magazine is made to fit the aesthetic of the time period the supposed magazine writes about hence the name "Retro Wave". The 80s and 90s theming of this magazine led me to use two complementary colours, purple and yellow, as my primary colours of choice for the font colour of the text. This is more visually appealing and would allow the readers to see the text more clearly as it is better separated from the background. The text I used for the cover lines, title and covermount all included a black stroke on the text, I did this for the emboldened look the 80s is known for as a magazine designed for a fanbase interested in retro music would likely be more appealed by such theming. I applied a drop shadow to all the text so that it feels as if all the parts of the magazine can interact with one another as if they were all in the same world. The outer glow on the name of the magazine is reminiscent of neon lights which were a popular form of lighting at the time and would be more appealing to the target audience.

The centre of visual interest in my cover is a photo of Rick Astley, a famed 80s popstar. He is known for his hit songs "Never gonna give you up" and "Together Forever". I chose an 80s musician to appeal to the readership that grew up listening to Rick Astley or similar music. The photo I chose is taken from a slightly higher angled camera to make it seem as if he is looking upward and outward as to what is next for his career, he is very evenly lit and strongly exposed showing his age but also the twinkle in his eye that drove him to where he is today. This photo and its attributes correlate with the title "The Comeback Of A Legend" very well in my opinion as the photo shows that he is ready to continue producing music and share his talent with the world and the title suggests he is doing so successfully as he is making a "comeback". The title is accompanied by the artist's name, "Rick Astley" so that readers are not only captivated by his face but anyone who remembers his name but not what he looks like is also drawn into reading as to what he is doing in the 2020s. He is also posing in a very bold and determined manner with his hand placed on his abdomen, this insinuates that he has a goal he is aiming to achieve. Readers may wonder what it is that he is hoping to achieve.

The cover lines on the side of my magazine also depict the titles of articles and names of popular artists from the 1980s and 1990s who have a very strong presence in the world today, accompanied by quotes from them to further remind people of their identities and why they are so great. This captivates readers and emplores them to read about the artists whose words may have once inspired or enlightened them in the past. I justified the cover lines to the left in an empty space alongside Rick Astley showing that the additional articles are just as valuable as the main piece. 

To balance the cover out I justified the title and covermount to the right to ensure that it does not feel like the cover is very busy on one side as opposed to the other. The covermount is also placed slightly below Rick Astley's eyes so that it does not seem like the additional free material is more important than him while still placing it in a visually accessible place.