Drafting and Planning: Front cover

I experimented more with the layout and colours of the front cover of HARK magazine.

I quite like the white background here, since it links more to the basic conventions of NME magazine. But I'm not sure if it'll match the other images in the contents page and double page spread that well, I see a lack of cohesion throughout the article if I use this element of white, unless I use white in all the other pages too. Anyway, I went into a lot of effort in the part and taking them photos, so instead of getting rid of the forest completely, perhaps I could edit the trees to make it look more like a 'music magazine' (rather than a gardening magazine like here) instead and through that, it could tell more of a story about the cover star.

I used more black with the cover lines to give it a more 'rock' look as well as to compliment well with the white background. I used red with the main cover line again to build a bridge between the cover star (hence her red lipstick) and the red HARK logo of '100th issue'. I made '30' in a gold font to make it not only stand out but it also compliments the pug. But this may take the value away from the pug if the '30' is gold too, so I may change that. But I'm still unsure if a forest background is the best approach to go with this front cover, perhaps a front cover having a white background (helping the cover lines stand out equally with the cover star) can conform more with the way NME and Q do their magazines. But what I do know is that I need to include more cover lines, and perhaps cutting down the length of the main cover line can give more space required for cover lines. So far, it doesn't look like it's worth £6.99 (I'll reduce it's price to £5.99). It's certainly not over yet! I'll keep experimenting and researching until I find the best way to make this magazine.