Magazines are produced in an extremely efficient way, in an extremely short time frame. Many fashion magazines in particular will create ten or twenty potential covers, which will then ultimately be selected by the editorial team. This means the people who produce magazines must be quick on the mark, open to feedback, and willing to try new ideas at the drop of a hat.
We decided to put our money where our mouth is. Is is possible to create an effective magazine cover, from concept to post production in just twenty minutes? The answer is, rather surprisingly, yes!
Stage one: preproduction and concept
First of all, a concept. When kind of image are you hoping to encode? What genre of music are you exploring? What costume is going to work? How can you make sure that your model looks like a celebrity and not some random student? And what kind of magazine is even going to feature your artist?
We quickly hashed out the following details:
- An edgy, indie/electronica solo artist
- Indie music magazine: glossy, bimonthly
- Stereotypical representation of young, white, middle class males…
- …but subverted through parody
- Use of postmodern imagery
- Intertextuality: punk/trash aesthetic
Unfortunately we didn't have much in the way of interesting costumes, with both Jack and I kitted out in the standard media teacher uniform of a checkie shirt and black jeans. Instead, we grabbed some random junk (duct tape and plastic cutlery) and ran to an empty room for the photoshoot
Stage two: production (photoshoot)
There's not a whole lot of production that goes in to a magazine, at least compared to a music video. For our edgy, trashy look, we decided to go for a classic photoshoot. We emphasised Jack's already impressive eyebrows with some green duct tape, and then shoved a load of plastic knives in his mouth because... why not? Often the most straightforward idea can just 'work', and it's absolutely not worth stressing yourself out coming up with some masterpiece. Trying too hard can make your cover image too staged and boring, which is precisely what you don't want when promoting a young and upcoming artist.
Here's the photoshoot. We only took a few pictures, because by this point we only had just over ten minutes left to edit the thing, but you should be taking LOADS more!
Stage three: postproduction
Now to take your very best image, and to see how it works on the front cover of a magazine. At this stage, it's REALLY important to use at least one actual magazine cover as a basis for your own. Magazines are highly conventional in nature (with a few notable exceptions), and it's important to tick these conventions off if you want your magazine to look like a magazine, and not a gig flyer or a print advert or something else entirely.
And here's the finished product, just over 20 minutes after the original idea. Yes, it's probably missing a few bits and bobs, but ultimately, it's clearly a magazine, and a magazine that presents an enticing hermenuetic code to its potential target audience.
So that's it. Try not to think too hard about this. It's much easier to MAKE SOMETHING and then edit it later, rather than spending ages planning and worrying and thinking.
