Flat plan-final product

Here you can see there is a huge difference between my initial flat plans and my final product and this is due to many reasons. The differences are mostly between my front cover and double page spread, my contents page is similar, just flipped with a little extra added in.
I decided to change my final product as i believe this made it look a lot more professional as my flat plan seemed to look too too spread out resulting in too much dead space on the page. It also looked very messy and untidy so i decided to create a simpler, but over all more effective front cover. The same goes for my double page spread, but this time the flat plan seemed to be too crowed, messy and cluttered having images and text pretty much in random places dotted around the page, so i decided to split the page in 2, giving my main artist half the page for an image so the reader could clearly see him, his look and emotion, while also allowing easier reading and a better looking piece all around.

research into costume and hair.

in order to et a better understanding of what look, appearance and style similar artist in the music genre used i did some research. The first artist i looked at was Liam Gallagher, Liam is iconic for his hairstyle and constant use of sunglasses, whether he be inside or out. His hairstyle, which usually consists of long sideburns and that original mod look helps him stand out in the music industry and has influenced many people to grow their hair into this style. He is also known for his own pretty green clothing and is usually seen wearing a long parka, rain coat or mac. This made me look at my genre and artist and see if this look would suit my magazine best. I then went on to look at the otherside of the mod and indie culture and look where artist like to wear suits, button up shirts etc to get that old vintage mod look with a little rock'n'roll in there too. A new and young up coming band that use this is The Strypes. they are a band of teenagers who take this look instead of the parka and long hair look. Another iconic artist to do this is Mile Kane who recently shaved his hair, but before then was seen with his long hair, however he was always seen in a blazer or suit. They even go along the route of wearing old style denim jackets, leather jackets or Harrington jackets in order to keep their mod look, while looking more causal. 

contents page

What it told me

These were some more results from my survey. this showed me that the largest audience would like to see more pictures to writing. This allowed me to look at my magazine and add in more images to break up text in order to suit and please my audience. This also allowed me to ask what genre people wanted to see the most, and by doing so, this allowed me to see that the indie/mod genre won and therefore went and worked towards creating a magazine that was fitting and appealed to this genre.

Evaluation question 7

Here we can see just how much i have improved my Photoshop skills as well as using the conventions of a professional magazine in order to create a better looking, professional front cover. I learnt how to use different blending tools to get a fade from one colour to another, as well as different fonts, colours and styles of text to make my new front cover stand out and attract the audience more. Shapes and the layout was one of the main things i looked to improve on as this can help certain sections of the cover stand out, as well as make a magazine look better. If the layout is too messy and complicated then this will not be as appealing compared to a front cover where you can see everything clearly and can navigate around it with ease.

Once again you can see that I learnt how use different conventions and styles in order to create a better looking, more professional contents page by using different colours, fonts, shapes and pictures to make the contents page look overall better.

Evaluation question 6

evaluation question 5

evaluation question 4

Evaluation question 3

evaluation 2

Evaluation question 1

In what ways does your magazine product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media use ?

All magazines have a masthead, headings, sub-headings, images, prices etc and all magazines are required to follow these conventions in order to make an effective magazine. My magazine therefore follows all of these conventions as it would not only look poor without them but it could potentially ruin the magazine as it would look unprofessional. 

furthermore by using these conventions my magazine will look more appealing to the eye therefore meaning more people will be attracted to buying my magazine. as well as the retailer seeing the 

demand for my magazine wanting to get more in to sell.

I looked at mastheads for inspiration, but the 2 that influenced me most was NME magazine and Q magazine as they look at and review/ interview artist that fit into the genre of music that my magazine also looks at. The masthead is a red box with large white block writing. i like this style as it clearly shows the magazines name, as well as being a recognizable logo and people will know the magazine even after a quick glance so I used this style in order to have the same affect. Also i like the simple contents page they both have, sticking to a style where the main article has a large image with the page number, and then the rest of the page numbers are dow the side with 1 or 2 lines or quotes about the article.
Overall i have used a house style that fits the convetions of what a magazine needs and also kept the same colors and style throughout. 

week 16

Today i finished off my double page spread. I then took the time to go through my magazine finishing off an parts that i thought needed touching up or changing in order to give it that little extra effect and better look.

Surveys

I also created a Facebook page in order to ask the public what they preferred when it came to magazines. I aced multiple questions such as how much would you pay, do you prefer text, pictures or a balance and the genre etc. I did this so i could get a ruff idea of what people would like to see so i could try and follow what they liked so that my magazine would appeal to more people being more sellable and attractive. These interviews also helped me predict and look at how to attract a certain audiences and what different types of people like when it comes to a magazine.

Facial Expressions

There are many facial expressions that can be used in order to create emotion and effect as well as creating a different style, look and image for a magazine.


The chocolate box - half or full smile, teeth barely visible and full or 3/4 face to camera. This is used to project a pleasant and warm feeling for the audience and highlights the models features.

Invitational - emphasis on the eyes, usually the mouth is shut or has a hint of smile, head is usually to one side or looking directly into the camera. This is used to project a mysterious feeling.

Super Smiler - Full face, wide open smile with teeth, hair often wind-blown. Projects a confident and aggressive/ happy tone.

Romantic/ Sexual - Usually has both a man and woman who are positioned close together, unsmiling.
Carefree - Active, healthy and happy. Usually includes vibrant colours.
Practical - Concentrating, engaged, focusing on something. Mouth usually closed and eyes off camera.

Seductive - cool and chilled posture, expression is less reserved but still confident.

Comic - Deliberately ridiculous, exaggerated and funny facial expressions to provoke humour.

Catelogue - Empty expression, look of wax-like figures. Personality has been removed.

Facial Expressions

facial expressions can give the magazine emotion, attitude and just make the readers feel engaged in it. By using this image of Liam Gallagher, we can already see the arrogance and aggressive nature he has. This will attract the reader as they will be expecting controversy in his article and will want to go and read on. The image on the front and facial expression can also make the reader sad or upset, for example if a death of a famous iconic artist has suddenly passed, as the magazine uses a creative image where we see the artist smiling, looking happy/content, or even a famous image this can cause emotion and once again make the reader want to read on. A great example of this was when Q magazine used an iconic picture of  David Bowie after his passing. This showed his famous face paint and art reminding the reader of just how good and how big he was as a artist and a person. This in itself would make readers want to pick up and buy the magazine in order to read up and remember the career and life of Bowie

final product

As you can see i overall changed the layout of my magazine, the colour scheme, fonts, logo masthead etc as i believe this is suits the genre and audience more. The old style and layout i had was very messy, cluttered and unprofessional. i also realized that my original flat plans would not work with my pictures and the ideas had, i also had to change these throughout the process of doing my magazine. The colours were changed so that i could follow a house style so that the magazine flows and fits the style its meant to follow. also i added in more text and font styles to the front cover and contents so that different headlines, page numbers and articles stand out more and draw the readers in to the main parts of the magazine.

I did not want my contents page being to cluttered and having too many articles on there, so instead i picked out a few main ones that i believe the readers would be most interested in  in-order to allow easy finding for the bigger articles.

The double page spread stuck with the original flat plan but with some alterations in order to make it look more profession. The photo taking up one side was to show the readers the arrogance of his nature to give the text and magazine more emotion to it. I also had to change the font and colour of the questions asked so that it was easier for the readers to follow and clearly see what was being asked and where the responses are.

Magazine

 i have tried to stick to a colour scheme, but I have also would like to change it up and make it black and white with some reds, to stand the writing out. I have a few different style for each that i like and which can be improved upon, i just need to see which one will work and ooh the best. Unfortunately while looking at other peoples work, professional magazines and also asking other people to view my magazine I believe this is just not good enough.

image-02 i have tried to stick to a colour scheme but if i change my cover to black and white the contents page will follow. I now know however that for an effective contents page that draws a reader in and gets them engaged needs more detail, different colours, fonts and sizes as well as pictures in order to really excite the reader and make them want to read on.

image-03 i will change this as i have not yet decided on the layout that will work best for the magazine and style. while looking at work published by top selling magazines i realised that for the pictures i have to be effective the full double page spread has to tie together in order for the piece to look professional and readable.

week 15

I aimed on finishing my contents page while sticking to my house style to give it that over all professional look. I also aimed to get a start on my final double page spread and get my images onto the page so that next week i could start moving it around to see what fits.

week 14

today i am aiming to finish my front cover by fitting the correct photo to and finding the right style and color scheme to give it a professional look.
in my opinion i have came on a lot with my skills and using photoshop. i have just about finished my front cover and only need to tweak a few things and add a price. i can now use shapes, different fonts, blend colors and images and use more of the tools to a higher standard and quality then i could before.

week 13

Once I took my photos, I then planned on putting them onto photo shop and seeing what i could do and come up with. I knew these were not going to be my final product but the idea was to look at different colours, styles, textures and shapes and font on and around my images to see if they would work at all