Progress

Lastly, I included the page numbers and repeated the masthead in small as to keep a consistent layout throughout the magazine. From feedback I received my double page was criticised to look more like a billboard. I used these criticisms to enhance my double page and decided to decrease the size of the text and align it so that it looks less like a billboard and more like a magazine double page. I used Smash hits magazine as an inspiration to add lines that separate the title from the text.

         I included arrows and a reminder towards the bottom corner of the page as to remind them to claim the free CD. I placed it here because once the reader reads the article and the high praising towards the artist they will be more interested in hearing her songs. 

         I used different sizes for the title as it made different words stand out and catch the audiences attention. 

I included the main article and the title of the page and used the same colours from the image onto the title.

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I turned the photo backwards as I wanted to make the text fit along her figure as it made the page more exciting. 

      I included the every month section of the magazine. I used different fonts to make specific words stand out for example, the quote are in big as to grab the audiences attention.

         I replaced the image with one that has a light grey screen as the background and the clothes of the artist relates to the colour of her forename.  

I included the masthead in small and inserted some of the text however after inserting some of the text the image made it difficult to include all the content and the white background did not match a contents page as much therefore I decided to find another image which may be suitable.

         I included the title and chose an image that I felt was suitable for the contents page.

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After feedback from my peers many people stated that the front cover had too many ‘white space’ especially  between the kicker and Lady Gaga as a result I extended the strap line so that the gaps between the strap lines weren’t too big. This made the magazine look less empty and not too cluttered with text. This is the final copy of my music magazine front cover. 

I created a layer of her head that can go above the masthead without having to eliminate part of the masthead. I changed the colour of the kicker so it was different to all the other colours on the page. I chose a peach/pink colour because I decided I will have this colour in the double page spread for Gerta Hasa therefore the kicker can relate to the double page spread by  including colours relevant to it.

I moved the kicker to the side as I felt that the page looked more cluttered with the strap lines and the kicker going across. After I moved it to the side it looked less cluttered and more organised. Also I placed it at the top in a way so that her name fitted well with her figure and I placed the quote near her mouth as to convey that it is coming out of her mouth. I made her name the biggest font on the page so that it can stand out from other text. 

 I inserted the straplines and the kicker as the artists name in capitals across. The quote is near her name as to imply that it is a statement made by her in the article featured in the magazine. I wanted to make the straplines fit the figure of the cover artist however when I move the artist to the side the part of the masthead that was erased shows and I cannot edit it because it has been simplified. 

I inserted some of the straplines and created the overall colour scheme of the front cover. The colours were inspired form the models dress and I used it to highlight specific words such as MTV and HOTTEST so that they can stand out amongst other text.

I 

I included the title of the magazine ‘DYNAMIX’ and placed the image I was going to use as my cover artist above. The cover artist is the major selling point of this magazine edition therefore I placed her above the masthead by simply erasing part of the masthead so that the head of the artist covers part of the masthead. 

Masthead Ideas

Title/Logo Ideas:

• TONE
• TEMPO
• KARA comes from the Greek word meaning "sweet melody"
• TRAX
• DYNAMICS
• DAZED
• HARMONY
• RHYTHM

Tone- this masthead was too small and through feedback many people said it is not suitable for pop music magazine

TEMPO- sounds more masculine and would suite more with a hip hop magazine

Kara- this will be difficult for the audience to understand because its meaning is in another language therefore it does not match to be the title for a pop magazine

TraX- I was going to use this because I like the way it is a play on words where it has an -X at the end instead of ‘Tracks’ which sounds less exciting however it is too short when placed on the cover it does not fill the top part of the front cover mock up and when enlarged the letters look too spaced out

Dazed- This does not show the identity of the magazine it can be a fashion magazine as well as a music one therefore I will not use it I want to use a title that can tell the audience the theme of the magazine

Harmony- This sounds more soul or R&B and sounds more feminine than masculine therefore I will not use it for my title

Dynamics –matches the magazine but is quite dull

The two masthead ideas I liked most was Dyanmics and TraX, so after feedback from my peers, I decided to merge the ideas from Trax onto Dynamics making it DYNAMIX- I really liked this idea because it also has ‘mix’ at the end which can refer to the mixture of different articles in the magazine or relate to the mix of gender of target audience (unisex)   

Music Magazine Photography

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Questionnaire results

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Target Audience

Target Audience
Our music magazine editions will be of a ‘pop’ genre therefore we will target an audience of pop music fans. We will do this by including a pop singer who the readers will want to read about. We have decided our magazine editions will have a target audience of an age range between late teens to adults (around 17 to mid-30s). The target audience cannot be any younger than 17 because I will ensure that the cover I make will be sophisticated and mature, similar to magazines such as Q and Blender. I will make my cover appealing to such an audience by including content that will interest this age group. Also, the cover artist I will include at the front will be of a similar age as the target audience so they can relate to her. Furthermore, the gender of our target audience is mainly female because firstly the magazine is of a pop music genre whose audience is dominantly female. Therefore, I will appeal to such an audience by including a young female cover artist and the content that I will include will mainly revolve around pop music and current pop stars. However, the female artist can also appeal to males because of her sex appeal, therefore the target audience is unisex however the magazine will resemble women more than men.

Through analysis of different music magazines I have realized ways in which they target their audience one of which is through colours. Top of the pops, for example, is a magazine for young female teens, it targets such an audience by including dominant bright pink and purple colours in text, title and even the clothes of the cover artist. The colours are less saturated so they do not appear strong but light, secondary colours which match the targeted age group. Other magazines such as Q have an older audience of both men and women therefore include a red colour that matches the title as well as their target audience. I will capture my audience’s attention by including an appealing colour palette that will consist of sophisticated tertiary colours because they tend to be more saturated – strong and dark- and therefore would appeal to a more older audience, unlike primary colours which tend to be bright and more child-like, as a result I will form a colour scheme that will match the age of the targeted audience for my magazine. So that my magazine cover can appeal to men, as well as women, I will not use colours like pink and purple because they are stereotypically associated more with females than males. Therefore the colour will be more unisex so not pink or blue but a neutral colour like red, green or yellow and the text will be in black. The target audience of my magazine will be clear from the cover artist and the colours used, also by some of the content I will include. For example relevant articles on both female and male pop artists who are of the same age group as my target audience. Content that can interest the target audience of my magazine consists of fashion, music, iTunes, concerts, certain TV shows like MTV. This will not appeal to people older than the intended audience, because the content will not interest an older audience as much.

Production Schedule

Date	Task	What to do
16/01/12	- Start Production Coursework	- Go through task outline and assessment criteria - Create my own blogspot
23/01/12	- Begin preliminary task	- Create a School magazine: - Take photos -Edit photos and Create magazine cover
27/01/12	-Complete Preliminary task	-Create contents page of school magazine
31/01/2012	- Begin research	- Research pop music magazine covers online and analyse one magazine front cover
06/02/12	- Continue research	- Analyse two other magazine front covers
07/02/12	- Continue research	- Research three magazine double page spread and analyse two from a music magazine
20/02/12	- Continue  research	- Analyse third double page spread
29/02/12	- Continue research	- Research three magazine contents pages -Analyse two contents pages
04/03/12	-Complete research -Start planning	- Analyse third contents page  and post research on blog spot -Take different images of a group of people to create a band poster using Adobe Photoshop
05/03/12	- Continue planning	- Analyse the poster created and images taken - Start producing a mock-up of magazine front cover
09/03/12	- Continue planning	- Create a mock-up of contents page
10/03/12	- Continue planning	- Create mock-up of magazine Double page spread
11/03/12	- Start Production	-  Take all photos for my pop music magazine
12/03/12	- Continue production	- Start editing the images and choose all the possible images I will use for magazine
14/03/12	- Continue production	- Choose the logo and font and colour scheme for magazine
16/03/12	- Continue production	-Choose final image that will be used for front cover
17/03/12	- Continue production	-Start creating layout of front page of the magazine
19/03/12	-Continue production	-Insert text on front page and pugs
21/03/12	- Continue production	- Choose final image for contents page  and create layout of magazine contents page
23/03/12	-Continue production	-Continue creating layout and inserting text into contents page
26/03/12	-Continue production	-Choose final image for double page spread and create layout of double page spread
28/03/12	-Continue production	-Insert title and text to double page spread
30/03/12	-Complete production	-Complete all music magazine production

02/04/12

-Complete production

-Upload completed magazine onto blog

Mock ups -Double page spread

Mock ups- Contents page

Mock ups- Front cover




 

Band Poster

I was instructed to create a band poster using different shots to give me an insight on how to take my photos for my own music magazine. I used my photography skills to create a band poster of a rock genre. Firstly, the image was taken from a low shot to make it more interesting as it gives the image depth perception. The band members were all positioned in one line and the shot was taken from below so that the space in front is shown and can be used to insert the text (band name) during post production. The image has been edited in Adobe Photoshop during post production. I used the software to add effects of black and white colour as this matched the dark genre of rock. Constant colours have been used, like grey, black and white, which makes the image look simple as well as professional.

Practice Photos

Through analysis of different creative photography in particular of bands and iconic figures. We identified some common techniques used to enhance an image making it more effective to the viewer. We then practiced taking band photos using some of these techniques outlined. This helped us develop skills in photography that I can use later when taking individual photos for my music magazine.

 

This is a creative shot taken at a low angle which gives the image a lot of depth. A low angle is usually associated with portraits of presidents, leaders and iconic figures. Therefore this shot makes the band photographed appear strong, powerful like heroines, which can achieves the viewer's admiration.  Also, multiple focus is used with each member looking at different directions. This gives the viewer different focal points to look at making the image more interesting. Through analysing the Green Day Poster we established that most band photos have the lead looking directly at the camera with the other members looking away from the camera to help distinguish  the leader of the group. He is also positioned in the centre of the photo to suggest that he is the central focus of the band. This inspired us when taking our photos, as evident  she is positioned in the centre and is looking towards the camera.

 

This is a creative shot with depth perception because the left side wall of the corridor is shown allowing the viewer to perceive the photo in 3D and visualise the distance behind the subject.  Furthermore, the image consists of another technique called rule of thirds, where the subject matter is positioned in two of the thirds of the frame to create a more artistic and creative photograph. It allows the audience to focus on the subject more. Although the lead of the band is not positioned in the centre of the photo they remain positioned in the middle of the band to indicate once again that they are the lead. Also,  a mid-shot is used to show some part of the subject in more detail. It focuses more on body language  than facial expressions to convey emotions and messages.

Similarly, this photo uses depth of perception to give the image a more artistic and creative feel as well as making the image seem three dimensional. The subject matter is positioned in the centre of the frame which shows that they are central focus of the image- they capture the viewers attention first which then leads the viewer to see other aspects of the image i.e. the surroundings.

Contents page 3

This is a contents page from 'Q' magazine; we know this because the masthead is included next to the title ‘Contents’. However, the size of the logo is not as large as it is on the front cover. This is because the audience are already aware which magazine they are reading from the front cover because the purpose of a front cover is to distinguish itself form other magazines whereas the contents page reflects mainly on the content of the magazine. The main colours on the page are black, white and red which shows a consistent colour scheme used throughout the magazine to make it more unique and personalised. 

The main image is a long shot of The Courteeners, an alternative rock band on top of a hill, and takes up about half of the page. The camera shot allows us to see the whole body of the musicians to emphasise their clothing and posture. They are dressed in casual clothes which makes them less glamorous to the stereotypical celebrity image.  Also below is a section titled ‘Review’ with a photo of Nick Cave; a musician. This layout is effective because the page is evenly composed of both text and images so that it is visually attractive and less cluttered with too much text or too much images. 

The ‘features’ of the magazine goes along the left hand side of the page, and it informs the audience of the content of the magazine  as well as the page number to read on. A summary is written under each story to give the audience an overview of what its about to draw their interest. This gives the audience a choice of what to read, having the topics in a contents page allows the audience more freedom to choose what interests them and also know about all that is inside the magazine rather than going through it all. This is efficient because when buying the magazine the reader can easily look through the contents page rather than go through all the pages and know all that’s included. A column with the heading ‘Every Month’ is included below to inform the audience of the main content found every month in the magazine. It keeps the reader looking forward for something each month as they become aware of some of the content that will be found inside that could be to their interest. All the headings are emboldened in white on a red backdrop which is the same as the colours in the logo ‘Q’ and similar to the front cover where the artists are written in white and highlighted in red to make them stand out and attract a larger audience. The colours make it easier to read and match the housestyle of the magazine. The other text on the page is mainly black because black is a dark, formal colour that is less difficult to read. Also it suites an older audience, they do not need lots of colours to be attracted for example in ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine the text is very bright and colourful because it is aimed at a teenage audience. The magazine overall keeps a consistent style throughout the contents page to make the reader immediately associate the page with ‘Q’ magazine.

Contents page 2

The simple layout of the contents page is well structured as it has been composed according to the conventional grid. The conventional grid makes the page look less cluttered and sophisticated. It appeals to a more mature audience of both male and female. The images and content on videogames matches a male audience as well as the image of the woman and the content on famous celebrities such as Michael Jackson can attract a female audience therefore the overall target audience of this magazine page is unisex.

The emboldened title ‘contents’ takes up most of the upper part of the page this is because it informs the audience more about what to expect from the page and although the image of the woman is a layer in top of the title, the title is still very clear and stands out making the words still very distinguishable. The biggest image is of the female, she is positioned in the centre of the page to grab the audiences attention, she is the first thing you see when you look at the page which highlights that she is at the centre of attention. Also, she is layer above the title ‘contents’ to imply that she is more important than the title as people already establish that this is the contents page through the layout and content therefore the major selling point is the images and interesting content. The copy is aligned so that it fits the figure of the woman this makes the audience focus on the image as well as the text. The colours of the image also relates to the season of the year in which this edition has been published, the words ‘Christmas in July’ complement the woman holding candy which creates a festive mood to the page.

The copy in the contents page is placed to the left hand side of the page it is fragmented into several section such as ‘Upfront’, ‘features’, ‘Music ‘ and ‘every issue’ this is to make the content clear to the audience and guides the audience so that they can find easily what interests them. The images are positioned to the right hand side of the page so as to keep this is to keep the page consistent and less cluttered. Moreover, more than one image has been used on the contents page. The images attract the reader to different articles; the numbers next to each image refer to their description on the page. It allows a reader who is attracted to the image to read the description and then find the page to read the full article. The purpose of more than one image is to attract the reader to more than one article in the magazine.

Contents page 1

Double page spread 3

This is a double page spread from 'Q magazine'. It focuses on an audience interested in pop music genre because it involves a famous pop star; Lady Gaga. The chains wrapped around her chest combined with her seductive pose and facial expression creates a sexual concept to the page, which attracts the male audience and convinces them to buy this magazine. The vibrant red and black typeface reinforces this concept because red symbolises strong emotions and seduction and the black shows power and dominance, however the white background contrasts with the concept as it symbolises purity. This justifies her seductive expressions as pure and innocent.  The white background of the image also makes the content of the double page spread and the details of the image clearer for the audience. The use of only one image of the artist on the double page spread makes it stand out. This shows that the double page is focused on this particular artist. It also represents the artist as an iconic and well-known figure. Having just one image on the spread makes the page less cluttered, keeping it looking neat and sophisticated and so appealing to a more mature audience.

The layout of the page is well organised as it has used conventional grids to align text and images in fixed positions. The main image takes up one half of the page whereas the copy takes up the other half making it easier to read and follow. Although the layout is simple it looks less cluttered and gives the double page its mature look which appeals to the target audience of adults. The title is the biggest font on the page and takes up nearly half the page so it grabs the audience’s attention. ‘She’s the man’ complements the image of Lady Gaga as she is shown to be revealing her upper half of the body and the bottom half covered, this form of exposure is common among the male gender but not female as they tend to show their upper half to attract the opposite sex.  Moreover, as you go down the words they become darker so ‘She’s’ is in bright red ‘the’ is in dark red and ‘man’ is in black the colours are used to convey meaning, the strong red colours is used to convey a seductive woman with a lot of strength and control, the black is used to represent the man. This implies that Lady Gaga is a seductive yet strong woman; her strength being portrayed by the image is what makes the article state that ‘She’s the man’ as men are stereotypically seen as the ones with strength and control.

The actual copy of the page is very little which shows that the content is very straight to the point and will attract a mass audience because it does not require a lot of time to read therefore more people will likely read it. The artists name ‘LADY GAGA’ is written in capitals and is highlighted with a similar red colour to the title. Her name is the only two words in the sentence that are in capitals to show the superiority of her name over all other text, which highlights her importance, it is highlighted so that it stands out from all other text and grabs the audiences attention. The same colour scheme has been used throughout this prevents the page from looking unprofessional. The colours also match the colours of the logo of the magazine ‘Q’, this relates the double page spread to this specific magazine. The colour scheme also suggests that the style of magazine is targeted at an older audience as the colours used are very powerful, dark and mature.