Friday, 10 December 2010

Evaluation of final product

Front Cover..

When it came to the front cover, I got my inspiration through looking in music magazines like Q, NME and some more childish ones like Top of the Pops. As well as that, some pop and indie legends, whilst researching them and images which they had taken. This all helped to give me the knowledge and inspiration to make my music magazine the best that it could be.

I started by looking over my preliminary task, and realised that to make it look professional I needed to change a lot of things about it. To start with the positioning of the image, in my preliminary task it was too square, for an actual magazine. This meant I experimented with how I wanted it to look, for instance in my real task I started by deleting the background from behind them. I did this because many magazines don't have the picture background, a lot use the background colour of the front page colour. So I took this on board when making my magazine. The next thing I wanted to change from my preliminary task was the fonts. In my preliminary task there was no real separation between them all of the different, mast heads and sub headings on the front page. So to make my front cover the best that I needed it to be, I had to change this. To do so, I used a different font for the mast head, and name of the magazine, to the pull quote, and for many of the features that were on the front cover. This made it look like a real magazine. Many of the magazines that I had researched had not had, just the one simple look to it, but had eye popping features. This meant that I researched into fonts and went onto a website generator of fonts to help get me what I wanted to create. Overall I think that that was successful. Another feature which I added was the caption, and this consisted of a sneak preview of a picture which would be shown on the inside of the magazine and a short wording to make people turn to that page. However, the snappy caption which I used I don't necessarily feel it was the best word choice that I could have chosen. But it definitely felt right at the time that I chose it.

The magazines, gave me the thoughts and ideas of putting all the members of the band which I had created onto the cover. I did so with phrase 'hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil'. This is something which many kids of 15 - 19 know, and so it is in keeping with my target audience, and what I was hoping to achieve. The picture on the front cover, I really like however, I'm not so sure if it has the right effect on top of the paint splatters. It sounds strange but I think that the band might seem too flat against it. The only thing was that I wasn't sure of how to rectify this, but I did really like the effect of the paint. The fonts I asked a few people from my class which they had liked the best, before I decided to put them into my magazine, this was because they are of the right age to fit into the target audience which I had decided.

Throughout the whole making of this magazine, I had to learn a lot of skills to help create the right feel to my magazine. The front cover, is what I wanted my music magazine to look like and how I wanted it to fit in with the rest of what I had created. There are a few things though that I would change, and that would be to have taken more photos for me to have chosen from and maybe played around when editing the image more.

Contents..

When it came to the contents page, I got a lot of my ideas by looking in some of the leading music magazines; Q, NME and some more childish ones like Top of the Pops. As well as that, some pop and indie legends, whilst researching them and images which they had taken. It all helped to give me the knowledge and inspiration to make my music magazine the best that it could be.

To help give me ideas for my contents page, I went back and looked at my prelimary task. Even though at the time it was the best that I could do with Photoshop, I knew that I needed to learn about how to improve my capabilities. To do so I researched a lot, I bought a magazine on how to use photoshop and this gave me a lot of help when trying to make it look as professional and like a music magazine as possible. Whilst looking back on my preliminary task I decided that I didn't like the way in which I had edited the photos, it was soon noticable that I needed to make them look a lot more natural. So I took a lot of this on board before going too over the top with the numerous of things which you can do to photographs with Photoshop.

With my research into music magazines, I realised that within the contents pages they had a much clearer layout. By this I mean within their magazines, there different sections and pages, very much stayed separate from one an other. There would be a section for all the music gossip under a header 'Music News' and then a bit for the viewer under 'Latest News For You' for example. So when I started to make my magazine, I took all of this into account. I didn't want to veer off course too much with my own ideas. However, not all magazines have a section from their Editor, but with the target audience I am targetting I thought that it was something that they would really appreciate. To jazz up my contents page, I added my own twist on it which I had not seen in another music magazine, this was to again add some kind of paint splashes. These paint splashes were in keeping with the colour scheme I had introduced on the front cover and which was now continuing into the contents.

There are many conventions of a normal music magazine, for example; the captions of pictures and snippets of text, the celebrity image, the title of the page and the page numbers.

Even though the Contents page is ofcourse not perfect I am genuinely very proud of it. One of the main things however that I would most likely change is the paint splashes as it is hard to read some of the text which is on top of it.


Double Page Spread..

When considering on making my double page spread, I did not have a preliminary task to look over and check. So a lot of the methods that I used was research, and asking my target audience their thoughts and opinions.

When considering what to incorporate within my double page spread, I looked through many different music magazines. However, those which were relevant to what I was trying to achieve. So for it I looked through NME and Q magazine, which are targetting the same kind of audience that I am. But to look for a more 'girls' type of music magazine I looked at younger magazines like Top of the Pops. I looked at that magazine because it is very relevant in trying to capture the specific audience in females. Most music magazines, on there double page spread have a large image of the artist which is making the artist look good, and show of the skills of the magazines designer for making the image look so good. Therefore I looked over all different kinds of double page spreads to help me get to have an idea of what I wanted.

To begin with I wanted my double page spread to have one member of the group pointing upwards at a more focused photograph of the group at the top. The same went for at the top of the photograph only difference was this time pointing down. I thought over all this would look quite effective and unique, however, in reality it just looked a bit too busy and messy when in actual fact most music magazines that I looked through were quite clean and simple. So I went on to tone down, how I portrayed my band on their double page spread. So I chose a single stand alone image which showed the band at their best I felt. I went on to edit this image with a cool background, which is quite feminine as well as coding them for being upto date with the current trends around.

There were many different methods which I could have used for the main body of my article. I chose to do something which I felt would best represent my target audience, and so I went with a one on one quite informal interview. By using that method, it is showing the characters and personalities of the bands which females are always interested in, as it helps reveal a bit more gossip. However, I had a lot more questions which I felt might have been more relevant in targetting my audience. I had done a lot more for the double page spread within the interview, however to fit it in the space that I had left I had to cut a lot of it down to make it fit. So that is a thing which I wish I could have done differently.

On the front cover, I used a theme of grey, purple and red colourings, so now I had to maintain these colours throughout. I think this was achieved in both my contents page and double page spread. In my double page spread I used the same fonts throughout it, which is maintaining with the theme of my magazine.



Overall I am very pleased with all that I was able to achieve, when making my music magazine.

Break down of the final product






Thursday, 9 December 2010

Wednesday, 8 December 2010

Step by step of how I did my front, contents and double page spread

Double Page Spread..




Basic layout ideas for double page spread..


I really liked the way of doing this for a magazine, as it incorporates many conventions of a normal music magazine. For example, one side is a big picture of the featured band, with a big headline title of the bands name.



I started off by adding little pictures of them seperately, as I thought it would be something unique to add to the magazine. This would set it apart from other music magazines. However, in the end it was a bit over the top and generally didn't fit in with the music magazine genre.





Pictures for double page spread..






In the magazine, the double page spread needed a photo to stand out. Seperate it from everything else. So whilst looking through other music magazines, I thought I would go for something different. So I looked through some wallpapers which I really liked, and thought it would be suitable to fit in with the image which i was going for, and still make it look as though the girls were from a band.



Contents Page..




Photos for the contents page..









Basic layout ideas..


I played around with the layout of the contents page a lot before I got to the final version. The contents is one of the hardest things I felt, to achieve it looking like a conventional music magazine. However to get it to look like a conventional music magazine, I used things like the borders around the titles to make it stand out. I also took the ideas from both Q and NME magazines. The picture I added is different from the one which I used in my double page spread because there would always be more than one musician featured within the magazine.
Front cover..


Mast head..



To begin with, the font with the red arrow next to it was the one which I wanted to use as the mast head for my magazine. However, for a magazines main title it didn't feel like the right one to have. It's very plain and doesn't stand out much at all. I soon went on to find a more appropriate one.


ORATOR STD, I thought was the best font to use with a lot of the writing within my magazine. However, there needed to be more than just two fonts to help things stand out a lot more.


Photo's for the front cover..












Basic layout for the front cover..




Typography throughout all the pages..





Why i used the fonts..

Budmo - I used Budmo mainly for certain headers and titles to stand out. Also because it looks quite like lightbulbs that you would have around your dressing table back stage. So it is very linkable to the celebrity lifestyle. It is something that would be expected to see in any magazine.
Georgia - I used for certain sub headings and as part of the questions within the double page spread. This font i think is conventional in the fact that you need a font which you can read, and doesn't look too fancy otherwise people won't necessarily want to read something they have trouble working out what it says.
Old LetterPress Type - I mainly used this font to for pull quotes. It's because it is a font which stands out from the rest of the fonts which I choose. Also the quotes on normal magazine covers etc, it is quite conventional.
Orator Std - this font is used for the main body of the article, and contents page. It's quite a clear font and so it's easy for people to read.
Also I stuck to all of these fonts throughout my magazine because in all of the magazines that I looked in they all stuck to the same fonts. As well as that the same colouring of the fonts throughout too.

Research of other music magazines



















NME Magazine Research




Double page spread

Contents page





Front page




Q Magazine Research...




Double page spread


Contents

Front Cover

http://www.tameri.com/dtp/elements.html

Photos I have taken


Edited photos...


Before..


This photo I liked because of what the band is called 'Out of the Closet'. As it is showing them coming out of a wardrobe it is doing the job well. The focus is not being taken off of them by using an outrageous colour or layer on top which might make it look like it's behind glass. The only adjustments that i made was changing the levels of the photos brightness and then like above making it into black and white.

This photo was more a bit of fun, as it was just going to be a smaller image either on the front cover or contents page. It is something that certain bands might do, like McFly they are known for doing some quite interesting photoshoots.

What i did to the image was:

- crop the size of it
- adjust the levels of brightness on it




Before..



When I put this image into my contents page, I decided that I didnt need to change anything about it. I thought the colours of the picture, were vivid, as well as the camera angle being edgy and not normal. Which music magazines don't always have the perfect image. I thought it had the codes of the make up which she is wearing to show her a real musician. She also looks ready to perform which musicians are, they are always ready to perform for you. In this case to perform for the camera.


Before..



After..





Before..
After..




The purpose of this photo was to use it as if she would be pointing at something relevant within, the double page spread or contents page. I generally thing this photo looks like something you might see within a music magazine as well. One because she isn't directly looking at the camera, which many artists don't like the picture of Cheryl Cole which I used for inspiration. The clothes which she is wearing has some diamonds on which came from inspiration from both the Cheryl Cole photo and the Florence and the Machine one.


To get the photo like this I:

- firstly used photoshop

- I cropped out the background, to get away the beige coloured wall which is behind her

- then I made it so that there was no white background behind that
- to finish it I changed the brightness of the photo to make her look more like an artist


Before..



After..

The photo of Kelsie on her own I think is quite a natural one. I took it of her looking away from the camera and so getting her from an angle. It is a medium close up shot and has allowed me to get the dress in which she is wearing. The dress is a code for the her celebrity status, it is quite extravagant in the jewels which are embellishing the pockets. Also the low neck line is creating the point that she isn't young, which is good seeing as though this magazine is targetting an older audience.



To make the picture look like this I:

- used photoshop
- cut out and erased the background leaving nothing behind her

- then went on to change the levels of brightness within the photo

- this gave it a different look all together, and helps to show a daring side to the band member




Before..


After..



I took this photo to achieve something different, in that she would be pointing at something significant, and relating to something about the band. In the picture she looks quite posed, pointing down. But there are codes which are showing that she is someone famous, for example her hair is very over the top as it is in such a big quiff. Also the make-up which she has obviously isn't something that you wear everyday, so it is a code for her celebrity status.




To make this photo I:

- used photoshop
- erased the background of the wall behind her, with an eraser tool
- once I had done that I changed the colour levels of the photo
- this allowed her to stand out more, by making it lighter and brighter
- this gave the look of a professional photoshoot


Before..


After..

To get this photo firstly I:

- cropped some of the size down
- I then erased the background out of the original picture
- this just left me with the girls, with no kind of background
- then I adjusted the colour levels to make them a bit more brighter
- after that I decided that I wanted them to be infront a unique background
- I chose some wallpaper which I really like to put them infront of it
- so I put the cropped photo of them on top of the wallpaper
- and then for the flooring I added a faded out box from photoshop


This got me the final product to put into the double page spread as one of the pages.



The photos that I am likely to use...







I picked these photos because they are the ones that I think look most likely to be in a magazine.

The group pictures that I chose one is trying to copy the hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil, which was just a bit of fun at the time. However, it might mean a lot to the readers of the magazine. Then there is one of all of them where they all look happy to be together, which is what you want to see with a band. Unity. Also there is another one of them in different clothes, as you don't always wear the same things in a photoshoot. It was also just a bit of a play around with them not all standing there.


The single photos, at the time I took with a thought in my head. It was that the pictures of the Brogan pointing upwards, would be her pointing at something, maybe an article or another photo. The same goes for Beth who is pointing down. Then with Kelsie's photo I just wanted a normal one, as I was contemplating doing a profile of each of them and so it would be best to have some serious ones of them on their own.



The photos that didn't make it...






The pictures that I didn't want to use were generally because the girls were laughing. Or maybe hadn't taken it as seriously as I had hoped. However, some of them I do like, I just don't think that they were appropriate for what I was looking to put into my magazine.

Inspiration for the photos I will be taking..




Spice Girls


As Out of the Closet is a girl group I thought it was best to research a good girl group. That being the Spice Girls as they were big influence when I was younger and would have been around for my target audience. The costumes they have aren't revealing and showing them to be respectful. Black is quite a general colour and as they are all wearing it they aren't clashing. The red setting gives you a feeling of warmth of love and the way in which they are all tight togethor and holding hands makes you think of unity. I'd love for my group to show this some how, that they really love what they are doing.









Lily Allen

I like this photo of Lily Allen as she is leaning into the camera. It gives you a feeling that she is nice and quite inviting, almost as though you could interpret her as being really friendly. Which is exactly how I might my group to look. This photo makes Lily look quite cold though as the colour theme is quite icey, however I think that it is refreshing. Almost as though you are seeing her in a pure way.










Lady Gaga

As Lady Gaga is quite indifferent, I thought that I should look up what kind of photos she has taken. This photo is one of her more tame ones and is showing her to look quite ditsy in a techno way. It is quite different as it has all different aspects a big furry coat and small leotard, but with big hair. It really gave me some inspirition for my models hair and their clothes to be a bit tight fighting however not as tight, as I am trying to influence teens.









Cheryl Cole

I liked this photo of Cheryl Cole, as it shows her to look quite harmless whilst being able to interest people through titalation. Which is how I want my group to look. For the type of music that Cheryl makes like pop with her group and on her own now as a solo artist it shows her well as looking quite daring. The white colour that she wearing and in the mise - en - scene shows her to be how you would expect a pop star to be.


Florence and the Machine

I liked the colours that were used in this photo and the uniqueness of it. This made me think of using their hands in hearts. It's something different to what other places might have come up with. This photo is also showing Florence in her own light as she is not one of your average performers she is quite quirky and different from the crowd making her indie. The gold is quite bright and in your face and almost as if to say that she is a star and she knows, so you should.