AS magazine progress

 

 

 

 

Choosing the images for my magazine

When shooting material for my three tasks , I took a variety of different shots so I had much to choose from. Here are some of the images I used and some I didn't and my reasoning for including or rejecting it:

This shot was rejected because it seemed as if the artist was too laidback and it would be difficult to position this image on a double page spread.

I decided to use this image for my double page spread as it was a good proportion and used direct gaze to connote confidence towards the audience.

This was my cover image because I felt it was similar to that of an NME or Q page in that the artist appeared focused and confident.

This image simply was not taken very professionally , being to far way from the camera and taken with the backdrop clearly visible.

I rejected this high angle shot because the artist seemed uninteresting and was not facing the audience. This is a problem as an audience would be unable to connect with the artist if he was in a magazine.



This image is overdramatic and a bit far fetched to appear in a magazine. It also did not meet my  goal  of making the artist seem relaxed and confident.

This issue with this mid shot is that we can not identify that this is the artist and therefore it will not grab the attention of his fans.

I decided against adding this image because my model is not looking at the camera , and therefore it does not involve the audience as much as it could.

Again I did not like this image , it was not easy to identity the artist and ultimately the artist should be facing the camera , which I have learnt to do in the future projects.

Magazine design progress

This is the progress I have made when designing this cover as I had to use photoshop to remove the background and used the rubber and magic wanted tool to make sure that it looked as plain as possible so the image at the front would stand out. I tries to make the masthead cover the top of the page and made  the font much larger so that it instantly gave an impression on the audience. I have found it difficult to  find a way to place the sell lines in the correct position.Also , I know I have to reduce the amount of sell lines and make the remaining ones bigger.

I have also started work on the contents page as I tried to make similarities between this and the cover by using similar text . I tried to make it easy to navigate to a specific article that someone would want to read. To improve I will have to add the minimum of five images for my contents page and create one large image that stands our.I chose my fonts by using the website Dafont but struggled to find a way to position and write my text to the right scale and style that would suit the indie genre.

Magazine development

 

This is the front cover of my magazine that I am creating. To improve I have to obviously add the centre image and alter the masthead and other aspects of the magazine to complete the piece. I intended to get the general template and layout correct before I added the images, simply because structure is very important to a successful product.

As you can see , I have tried to add sell lines to make the design resemble typical; magazines and I made the masthead bold and in italics so it sticks out to the audience.

What I gained from viewing other work

What have I learned from looking at last years students work?

I have learnt how to position the sell lines or text in an effective way and gained ideas on how I want to represent or crete a suitable identity for it. I think this exercise inspired me to target the audience by using appropriate images and articles.Importantly looking a these examples made me aware of the mark ranges , and compare with how my own stands up.

How will I apply this to my own work?

I think that I could change my magazines set up and hopefully appear more original so it gains the attention from the younger Audience I am targeting.I have seen how the genre of music heavily influences what is included throughout a cover , contents page and double page spread.Its easy to see the difference in an low grade and a high grade here and I can now clearly see the work I have to do to achieve the better mark bands.


Follow the link below to watch Powtoon on this topic-
Looking at past students work-Powtoon

Research into existing logos

This logo is successful because it is simple and memorable. The white letter contrasts against the red background to make this masthead standout against other contemporaries.

This econd logo is also strong as its capitals are bolder and larger in scale when compared to the rest of the cover.Overall, I prefer the Q logo as it is more concise and easy to remember for the audience.

This logo is smooth and slick , and this style is not as bold as NME or Q as its dance genre is considered more youthful. The font seems to have similarities to a DJ set , so the audience know what to expect instantly.

This logo seems to have  rough and battered effect which instantly lets us know that this is magazine covers extreme music. It seems to be a heavy metal magazine due to this effect. 

Album cover design

When I was making my double page spread , I tries to avoid hang blank space.I thought it would be a good idea to design an album cover for the artist I was interviewing , so I made this on Adobe Photoshop. I tried to design the cover with a futuristic and unique look.The shape tool helped me to create the robot in the centre and I used the text tool along the bottom.

Questionnaire results videos

These are my video footage of when I used my survey to find out about how I could make my video successful:

What I found out from the video footage:

I found out that most of the audience had not been to a festival , but would like to , so maybe I could arrange to have a competition to win some. As for genres , Indie was popular , which is helpful as this is what I have chosen for my own. It didn't seem that the audience was keen on the idea of music magazines and didm not buy them on a regular basis.

Colour scheme

I like this colour scheme and have chosen it because it is the typical colours of a magazine such as Q or NME  that I have took my inspiration on.It think that it looks mature and this resembles the music that is displayed inside the magazine as the black/grey allows the magazine to create a sepia effect which I like the style of and think that it gives it an old fashioned feature.

Choosing my fonts

I quite like this font which is called "Big noodle tilting" as it fits the genre of my magazine that is indie because it is bold and mature for people with a serious interest in music.

This coolvetica font is quite unique and is stylised , so could help attract a younger audience.However , it does remind me of a dance magazine and so does not entirely fit the older genre I am aiming for.

I dont think that this font would entirely fi my masthead as i don't feel as if it is bold or different enough to make the reader understand that this is the title of the magazine. It is not suitable for a masthead as it is too plain and will get lost among other mastheads in the industry.

The sell lines could have this apple font as as it is not as bold as the masthead which will grab the 

readers attention first , but on the other hand it is rather plain and ordinary , which could repel people away from the magazine.

This font would be more suited to a magazine like Kerrang! that focuses on heavy metal music than indie as it looks as if they are tearing the music world apart.I would like my Indie magazine masthead tobe more simple as it mirrors the conventions of this genre of music.

I quite like this font as it is stylish and unique to the others I have contemplated using , but I am worried that it may clash with the other fonts featured in the magazine.I think that this may confuse the audience  , which will decrease the overall impact of the magazine.

 

In the end , I decided to use the "big noodle tilting" font as I felt is was more suited to the genre and would work in generating interest towards my masthead. I do not think that the others were bold enough either. 

 

Student success - college magazine

This is the front cover of my college magazine which includes a masthead and appropriate sell line stat are relevant to the subject matter of the magazine.I liked the way that the main image cover the success logo as it is a typical conventions of a magazine to do this and I thought it was an improvement over in my previous work on photoshop which was plain.I attempted to use the lasso and rubber tool to erase the background of the photo and zoomed in so I could be more precise when doing this.I then tried to make the image to scale by using free transform so it did not look stretched or out of proportion. I believe that the sell lines are too small.This is the finished product:

This is my contents page in which I tried to include synergy between it and the cover because it was from the same magazine. I also included a barcode , date , and sell lines.AS this was my an early attempt at using photoshop , I feel that a lot of the colours clashed and made the magazine look less professional.As you can see their are not as many articles included in the contents page as there should be as it should look as though it is filled with stories , whereas there are only six.The fonts could be generally more unique and engaging and the titles of the articles could be bigger.This is the finished product:

The Simpsons movie task

For this task I was asked to create a poster to advertise the Simpsons movie and I had to include the title , an image of Homer Simpson and the date it was released. I managed to include these typical conventions in my final product. This is an image of my poster that I created using photoshop to position the images and demonstrates how I create layers to make it look authentic:

                                  Before making the poster I decided to take a look at the trailer:

                           First draft                                                                      second draft

To improve this poster I was told that I could have made the main image bigger and fill in the dull blue space around the character as I it could be used in a amore inventive way. I was told that the date at the top was a positive aspect because the audience could quickly and easily find out when the film was released.I thought that it was flawed because there was too much dead space behind the main image , that could have been larger to reduce this.

moodboard

 This was the mood board I created to explore rock , indie and even pop music to help me draft and gain ideas that i could reflect in my own magazine.I like the flashy reds and yellow colours are contrasted on the image of Jimi Hendrix and the versatile use of fonts on mastheads and titles that distinguish the magazines identity and help it to stand out among other contemporaries.I tried to make it personal to me by adding sell lines that I found interesting in an attempt to capture similar peoples attention .I also found this task to help me be creative and add various concepts into one space that I could refer to if I needed inspiration.

This image shows my mood board and I proves that I have included artists that are related to the genre I have chosen and some that are not , as I wanted to experiment.

Time management

I want to use this grid to manage if i am keeping on track of the tasks I have been set.I find it is a useful way to track my progress and see how I can further improve my research and planning further.I can also evaluate how I did and if it was made to the best of my ability:

AS coursework proposal table

This table allowed me to plan all of the aspects of my magazine:

Potential problems

What could go wrong?

A part of my planning , I wrote a list of what potentially could hinder my progress.This included planning a venue , which I found difficult , as I had to change the location on several occasions. Another issue was creating synergy between my photos and text as I felt as if they did not merge as well as they could have done. My images were stretched beyond proportion at points , making the magazine look rushed and unprofessional.To fix this , I went back and edited the images on Photoshop to a suitable size.The biggest problem though , was planning to get everyone together at a certain time and find models willing to let me take photos of them.

photoshoot planning

Before I set out to go and film , I asked a friend over social media if he was available on the date to be an actor involved-

Photographic techniques

To take a good photograph you must consider:

• Shot distance
• use of tilt
• shot composition
• Eye line
• tone
• line
• colour , including vivid , primary and monochromatic colours
• Texture and hints on creating texture
• patterns and hints on capturing patterns

Shot distance types

ELS/LS- good for showing the insignificance of character or for showing characters as powerless in an overpowering environment.Also good for establishing location.

MLS/MS-good for showing movement or for a balanced tracking  of characters and their environment.

MCU/CU-good for portraiture or for moving image

BCU/ECU-good for showing the significance of a character or for showing the characters as powerful.Also highly useful drawing attention to character emotions.

Tone

Control of tones including variations of light and dark , emphasising important parts of the image and colour generally set the mood of your photograph.Tone control can be used to emphasis the shapes of the most important elements of a page.

Photographic / moving image techniques 

Composition

You need to think very carefully about how you compose a photograph.Many photographers place their subject in the middle of the photograph , which may result in a dull image.Use of the centre image composition can create a focal point.

Foreground/background

When designing a shot remember to keep in mind both the action in the foreground n the background

Framing

Keep the rule of third in mind when designing your shot.The viewers eyes are drawn to the cross sections of a frame, this is where your action should be taking place.

Lines

Lines are useful for emphasising and leading the viewer towards a  main area of a specific subject.They may divide up the picture into segments and differ in size and shape.This can influence the mood of a photograph.You can easily control the appearance of lines in your pictures by camera viewpoint.

Using colour

Taking control of the way in which colour is used in your photographs is a key way of improving your images.Keep your eyes open for for the vibrant coloured subjects , but also look for delicate coloured subjects and ones with muted tones.

colour sells -Bright bold colours are used on magazine covers so choose or plan the shots you will take on magazine covers.

Primary colours- include blue , yellow and red

Monochromatic colours- often have a sense of harmony and have two subjects

Textures

We must look at texture and patterns when taking a photograph.Texture can be used on a close up .Direction height and quality of lighting all combine to create a texture.

Are you ready for the weekend? article

This is was my induction task and I was asked to create an article for a music magazine.I had to choose the artist and try to feature conventions such as main images and titles:


                 First draft                                                                                             Second draft

My target was to focus on the present tense as past can be included to an extent , but my article had too much. I need to avoid creating a timeline of the article and focus on new content as young explorers want to find out the latest gossip. I tried to make the masthead bigger and the start of the article in bold to highlight what information is included in the columns.

Strum magazine

Front cover
For my front cover I decided to use a well known band that will catch the attention of Indie fans and use a exclamation mark at the end of the masthead to connote its playfulness as well as seriousness. I tried to use the  pull quote of "we want to be better rather than bigger" to create a preview of an interview and tease fans wanting to know more.To improve my design I was told that the cover image seemed stretched which affected the overall quality of the design and I realized that the right hand corner felt a little bare and dull.

Contents page
This is my first attempt at a contents page and I  tried to create a layout so the audience could easily navigate the magazine and find articles they are interested in easily. To improve I should work on my design and layout skills as I should try to maintain the same font style throughout and use capital letters where appropriate as there are a number of punctuation errors. I found making this much more difficult as a contents page should be packed with images and text , to create the sense that it is value for money. I was pleased with my first attempt of a contents page , but would take more care to reduce spelling errors in the future. Another major issue I have to address is that many of my images are stretched and out of proportion.

Double page spread
This is my double page spread and I tried  make it look professional by adding columns of text and pull quotes. The large image on the second page has a caption to help give more information about the bands style. To improve , I think the layout could be better as it overlaps  and I should include more text on the second page.One of the issues this spread has is that it is the second page has little synergy with the first, creating the impression they are not linked.I also think that the caption underneath the main image is tot small and in the wring colour.I think that with the columns I was too interested in following a formula , so the text looks dull and uninteresting as a result.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

My practise magazine cover

This was one of the first times I had attempted to use photoshop and I tried to make the masthead cover the top and make it bold.I tried to cover the masthead with my artist to make it look professional and include various sell lines .I tries to include a plain background so your focus were on the text, so your eyes would be drawn to the subjects inside of the magazine. I realise that there is area for improvement because I will need to include more sell line and information about article as it looks rather plain.

                First draft                                                                                             Second Draft

                                                    What I need to do to improve:

I need to make sure that the image I used is to scale and to adda a barcode and price. I have also included too much dead space which makes the cover seem plain and boring.The sell line needs to be enlarged. The sell lines are not big enough and should be aligned down the right hand side. I think that there is too much dead space in the background.

Institutional research

Own industry leading brands that include retail, health, construction and fashion.They embody market leading criticism and their magazines include construction news, retail week , HSJ , nursing times.net and  Drapers.

Conde Nast mainly focus on fashion magazines such as vogue , Glamour and easy living.It produces  eighteen consumer magazines in the us and was founded in 1909.They own twenty seven websites and have currently made over fifty apps.





Natmags is a British magazine publisher based in
London.It was established in 1910 by William Randolph Hurst and was wholly owned by Hearst cooperation.Its publications include cosmopolitan , best and coast.

                                                                       

Ipc media is the leading company that owns over sixty types of magazine including womans own , photographer and TV easy.It is owned by time inc. and it is a consumer magazine and publisher in the united kingdom.They sell over 350 million copies a year.They were founded in 1958 and their headquarters are based in London.









Future publishing is the sixth biggest publishing company in the united kingdom.It is the official magazine company of three major games manufacturers and is was founded about 1985 by Chris Anderson in somerset with the magazine amstrad action.It reaches 51 million international consumers a month and publish magazines based on sports , photography and film.










Bauer media reaches over 19 million adults a week and own more than eighty brands that cover a diverse range of genres such as Heat , closer , practical fishing , mojo and Q.They were founded 1875 and their headquarters are in Hamberg in Germany and cover more than sixteen countries worldwide.It originally started of as a small printing house but over time grew into Britain's third largest publisher.