This hopefully is the last version of my magazine front cover, as you can see i have improved it loads since the last cover i created and think i have reached a final decision on how the front of my music maagzine should look like:)
Rationale

Colour usage
 I have tried to keep my colour palette as simple as possible but not to boring, the main colours on my front page are, black, white, red and blue. I have used the colour black for the background colour of the main image. I have used black because my main image is quite bright and therefore a dark background will make it stand out, but i also chose black as the main image background colour because it relates to the target audience of my magazine which are fans of indie/ rock. I think the black relates more to the rock fans because rock is a form of music that people just want to do outrages things, like go mental because it puts them in that mood because the adrenaline that you get when listening to rock is intense, also some people might listen to rock when their angry, which is a 'dark' place thats why i have chose the colour black. I have also used black at the bottom of the page for the same reasons, to make lighter pictures and text stand out when they are on a dark background. I have used black also for some of the text, and this text i have used black for are the subheadings and i have used black here again because the text is on a lighter background so putting light upon dark makes them stand out. The next colour I have used is white. The places where i have used the colour white are the highlight colour for the text at the top of the page which is the sell line and the highlight colours of the main subheadings, also for some of the text that go with the subheadings. For the sell line i have used white because most of the page is red and black so the sell line would stnd out more if it was in a different colour and the colour that i thought would be most suitable would be white because the text colour on the sell line is black and red, so they will also stand out whe placed upon a light background because they are considered as dark colours. I have used white for the highlight colour for the subhedings because the text colour is black and therefore yet again it will make the text stand out, also I have used the colour white here bacause it sections of the different subheaings and just gives the page a neat look. I have used the colour red quite consistentley on my page. I chose the colour red because yet again it links in with the genre of my magazine and the target audience. Some might say that the colour red symbolses danger and anger and I agree with this and thats where it links in with the genre of my magazine because when people watch rock artists perform they might think the look an act quite agressive, with the moves they do and the 'screaming' they have in their songs. The places where i have used the colour red is, the subheadings colum, ' the 100 pages special' at the top of the page and a kind of semi circle plug on the right hand side of the page if you were looking directly at the magazine and finally as part of the text in the sell line. I have used red for the subheadings colum at the side of the page to indicate that these are the most important features inside the magazne and because it makes the page look neat, i have also used the colour red for this because it makes the things on it stand out as they are contrasting colours. I have used the colour red for the semi circle plug because there is a red line coming from the subheading colum that leads to this plug, so i have yet again done it for neatness, bu i have also done it to make the text inside the plug stand out and the text inside the plug is black, so this works quite well. The last places where i have used red is part of the sell line text and the '100 pages special issue' part at the top. Firstly i have used the colour red as part of the sell line which says ' so pick up yours now' to grab the audiences attention and to highlght the importanceof what im tring to get across to the audience, which is to buy the magazine, but not in a demanding way as people then probaly wouldnt buy the magazine, then I have used the colour red for the '100 pages special issue' part at the top because it is on a black background, so it will stand out. Allthough people might link the colour red with danger and agression, i have also used that colour as part of my front cover to bring some brightness to the page, so that the page is not just all black, dark colours which will not make it appealing and just make it look boring. Finally the last colour I have used for the front page of my magazine is blue, I have also used the colour blue to bring a different colour to my colour palette even though i wanted my colour palette to be simple, but adding one more colour wont make any difference as long as it goes well on the page. I have used the colour blue because It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence and faith, and some of these things are what people in the music inustry have, for example confidence, all performers should have confidence when they perform, so that they can perform as best as they can and believe in theirselves. The places where I have used the colour blue is, the main hedline and subheadline and for some of the text that goes with the subheading. I have used blue for the main headline as I feel it would stand out on the background and also because i wanted to bring some posotivity to the page and the colour blue symbolizes that. I have used the colour blue for some of the text that go with the sub headings to link it with the colour blue used for the main headline, so that t wasent just the main headline that was blue, because that would look a bit odd and random, also because it makes the text stand out on the background.
Image usage
I have only used 5 images on the front cover of my magazine, which are 2 propper images of people icluding the main image and a picture of some headphones and two symbols that represent twitter and facebook. Firstly, the picture I have used for the main image is a strong image for a front cover because it it of a female and she is looking directly at you and the expression on her face is serious, this is a good thing because it represents females in a  good way, representing them as being serios, but i also think that the picture i have chose for the main image is  good choice because the framing goes well with the layout of the page and its just the right size. The second image i have used is an image at the left hnd side at the bottom of the subheadings colum, which is an image of a female music artist holding her guitar. The reason why I have used this image is that i thought my front cover needed more images to it so i added a sub image, but also because the image goes with the subheaing above it, as the image is a female this gives the magazine a female domination to it because there are no males on the page. I used the picture for the headphones because yet again they link in with the subheading near it. The picture of the headphones are inside a white plug, which just adds that extra neatness to the page instead of them being square and also it catches people attention, as ts something different. The two symbols i have used for twitter and facebook are for obvious reasons, because the twitter adress and facebook adress is on the page and the symbols symbolize them, but these symbols could have more relevance that that, because what if people couldnt read but wanted to know if the magazine had a twitter or facebook page, the symbols would show them that the magazine has got a twitter and facebook page.
Text usage
There is quite a lot of text on my front cover, but not to much. The text that it on my front cover is the sell line, the masthead, the headline, the sub headline, the subheadings and the price and date. All these are essential for the front cover of a magazine and thats why i have included them all. Firstly the sell line is the thing that sells the magazine hence the name of it. The masthead is the most important thing you should have on the cover of a maagzine and I have one of these and the name of my masthead is BREAK all in capitals letters and this is to highlight the importance that it is the name of the magazine and to make it recognisable on the page. The hedline is based about 3/4 of the way down the page alongside the subhedline and i have put these near each other, for common sense so it is clear to the reader that the headline goes with the sub headline. The rest of the things mentioned above are all essentials so i have included them on my front cover, the subheadings on my front cover are placed neatly down the left hnd side of my magazine and this makes the magazine have a more professional edge to it, because they are not just scattered all over the place. The price and the date are situated on the top left hand corner of the magaznie and are quite small, but not to small that you cant see them because this is the most important information on a magazine, because this is what people take into consideration when buying thre magazine because they want to know that the magazine their buying is still in date and how much it is going to be.
Layout and font
I have used a vairety of fonts on my front page to section differnt parts of the page up, for example the sell line at the top of the page is calibri body size 14. The subheading titles are in different fonts but are the same size which is 16, the first subheading title is wrote in calibri body and the second is wrote in arial, the subheading titles are in dfferent fonts because to show that they are different things and not the same sections. some of the text under both subheading titles that are wrote in blue are calibri body in italics, this is to section of the text so you dont just think that i chunk of text is all about the same thing. Most of the other font on the front cover of my magazine is either arial or calibri body, which are the tow main fonts  have used an when you look at the front cover you can see that they are different colours. The font of my masthead is a font i got of a website called dafont and I called my masthead BREAK, I called it Break because In musical terms this means, A technique in which instruments stop playing for a short period of time, allowing a singer or instrumental soloist to be heard alone, this could relate to when there is a rock band playing and a member from that rock band has a solo part, and the instruments stop playing so only he /her can be heard.  Also I think this is a good word choice because some people might associate rock people and fans of it to be quite violent, which links to breaking things.  I also got this font from dafont because it has a wide range of fonts to choose from, I think this is a good font because it is bold and when things are bold they are more clear and easy to understand. The word I have chosen for the name also goes with the font because the word is break and the font looks like it has been broken, so everything goes well together. The colour is black and this is the stereotypical colour you would relate to rock people and the fans because it’s a dark colour and that could link to their ‘dark’ stereotypical moods. The font I have used for the main headline on my front cover is a font from the website called font called font space and i think that it has a good effect to it so i used it as the main headline. The layout of the contents on the front cover of my magazine is what i would call unusual because i havent seen a magazine with the same arrangements as i wanted to create something original, but the main things that are supposed to be on the front page of a magazine are placed in the right places, expectable positions. The main image is placed in the middle of the page as it is one of the main features of the cover, but slightly to the right, this because there is a subheading colum on the left hand side of the page, i think i have situated things neatly on the coverand this gives a professional edge to it, like it has been created professionally. The masthead on my magazine front cover is slightly covered by the main image, but still so that you can recognise what the name is, even though, but highly doubted if people dont understand what the name of my magazine is if they get to know they will aslo recognise the magazine not just for its name, but for its unique style. The subheadings, as previously said are placed in a colum down the left hand side of the page and this just neatens things up and makes the front cover look neat. I think the arrangements of all the features of my front cover are very neatly situated, and this makes the cover have a professional feel.