Final production

Magazine page drafts

After around 3 weeks work in Photoshop I have created 3 drafts for my front cover, contents and double page spread. They can be seen below. I still need to add refinements to all 3 pieces and complete my article for the double page spread.

Coursework introduction

As an introduction to my magazine coursework, I have compiled all the necessary features for the foundation of my magazine such as rough sketches of the cover (subject to change but can be seen below) as well as a magazine name and potential articles which could be featured on the cover. I have a listed a few ideas below after reading a guide on what must be considered.

1. Consider your audience.
- Aimed at an alternative genre (this is a niche market) of house music, part of the Electronic Dance Music genre.
2. Research of esisting magazine.
- A PowerPoint can be seen below on research of current magazines.
3. Consider your design.
- Primary drafts can also be seen below.
4. Potential names.
- Abbreviations; THM, EDM. Letter or word; Haus, House, H, Electrozine
5. Colour profile.
- Black, white, silver, green.
6. Enticing an audience.
- Include a free first edition mix CD
- Interesting articles
- Website/online issues
- Professionally formed
- next issue discount.
7. Potential slogans
- Worlds biggest electronic magazine.
- House fans favourite; fact.
- Reccomended by the EDM industry.

Similar magazines from PC4812

Professional photography

Professional photography from PC4812

Magazine conventions

My SlideShare on magazine conventions using the magazines FourFourTwo and Empire to create my conclusions within the presentation.

My practice 'College' magazine evaluation

Evaluation

What went well with the photography? What could have been better? 

Overall my photographs were well suited for the magazine cover and contents page as the photos included in both landscape and portrait photos with a vary of depth, some focused on just one person whereas others captured a larger area such as the one included in the contents page which captures part of the college through the alleyway. Despite having a variety of photo styles, we did not have a vast amount of photos to work with and perhaps at the time should have taken more so we had a wider choice when producing the magazine. Therefore, the photography itsself went well and so did the manipulation of photographs for the magazine but I do not believe we took a large enough amount of photographs, this meaning that we were somewhat 'lucky' in the production that the photos were suitable and useable for the magazine.
 
What did you learn about using the software?
 
My front cover and contents page were created souly in Adobe's Photoshop which I have used previously so I knew what a majority of the effects and tools could be used for however I did learn from the production of my magazine the usefullness of tools such as the 'magic eraser' tool to remove backgrounds. On top of this, the blending options tools were also very effective for the production of my magazine as they allowed me to change the colour of text and the opacity of images quickly so it was easy for me to see which colours worked best and looked suitable for the magazine; the accesability of these tools also made it easy for the magazine colours to be consistent and so we can see blue and white text along side dakrened images (edited using the brightness and contrast feature) throughout my work as the bright text contrasts well against darkened images. In summary of this, my project came out as I expected and I was able to use all the needed tools to produce my magazine.

What do you think of what was produced?

The weakness I see in my final product is that although it is consistent, this could be seen by some of my audience as boring and so may want to see a variation of colours instead of consistent blue and white text throughout if it were to be a full magazine. However I believe the project did come out as I had planned, the pages are not sparse-looking and included the necessary information needed. My magazine includes a house-style of colours and incorporates various image types well using both portrait and landscape views succesfully.

What do others think of what is produced?
 
'The photography in your photos is very well done and you have made great use of photoshop to give the cover and contents page a very unique and slightly moody style. The colours and syle are consitant in both pieces and they fit the magazine very well. The reseach you have done looks very useful for creating other magazine covers.' - Adam Pluck, classmate.

Why did you choose to do what you did and how much of an effect did the audience research have?

I chose to do what I did from my audience research and from my own personal preference. As the magazine is aimed at college students aged 16-18 I fit the criteria and so included what I felt was needed in magazine to make me buy it and looked at my audience research which mainly requested an informal magazine with a variety of articles about both college and non-college related subject. I also included common desires of people in this age range. As a 16-18 age group's main desire is money and getting what they want, I included an article about an easy to way to make money with the magazine; by writing articles for it and being paid royalty or comission if the article becomes published.

I also chose to do what I did with reference to the front cover as graphic design is a hobby of mine so I wanted to expand my knowledge using a wide variety of the available tools in Photoshop and see what the final product would look like. I had a plan from my research of looking at other college magazines and so included those as well as including my own ideas. The ideas I took from research are effects such as having the word 'College' on the front cover behind a subject in the photo - in my case the silhouette. I incorporated my own ideas such as using a silhouette from a completely different photo and adapting it to a new photo through the use of beldning techniques and an opacity change.

In summary of this, the audience research I conducted played a strong role in the production of my magazine as I included what people asked for but as well as this included what I felt was necessary if the magazine was to be published and distributed, this despite giving me a bias view leads me to believe the magazine would be a success if produced.

Below I have included an image of both my magazine cover and the contents page I produced in Photoshop.

My practice magazine work

Below is a Prezi on some of my research/inspiration and the build up to my practice college magazine including raw photos which were taken as part of my group for the cover and contents page aswell as versions of the images which have been manipulated in Adobe's Photoshop.

Practice for the college magazine on Prezi

Audience questionairre

From the results of my questionairre, I can conclude that the majority of people would most prefer an informal college magazine whicht alks about social events more than college information. On top of this, most of my results show that people would prefer weekly issues to keep up to date.

With reference to social grades, a vast  majority of my results (4 out of the 5 who answered) have a parent/guardian or parents/guardians which classify as C2 - skilled working class such as mechanical engineers and employment in maintenance for motor companies such as Nissan.

Using questions which allow me to conclude what type of physcographic audience my magazine would most appeal to, I have discovered that people who classify as 'Belonger' and 'Achiever' express the most interest. I included the question 'When you buy clothing, do you pay for the brand or pay for what it actually looks like?' to whcih the greatest response was 'pay for the brand' - this relates to achievers as they are willing to pay a more expensive price for a brand name instead of just buying clothing for what it actually looks like. To discover wether a 'Belonger' sub-community would be interested in my magazine, I included the question 'If given the choice, who would you choose to be happy; yourself or your bestfriend?' - this appeals to 'belongers' who are family/friendship orientated which would choose their best friend to be hapy over themself in most cases. On top of this, to designate between my 'achiever' and 'belonger' sub-comunitees I included the question 'Do you believe money can buy happiness?' to which most achievers would answer yes as they steretypically own expensive cars, a big house and have a generally wealthy family which leads to a happy family atmosphere whereas 'belongers' and other sub-communitees would answer no as their family and friendship orientated views would lead them to believe money cannot buy happiness, you can be poor and happy with family.

I have included below a copy of my questionairre to which I recieved 5 completed forms with all questions answered.

The Vaccines and The XX

From my Glog made on Glogster which can be seen below, I can conclude from the photographs of the bands The XX and The Vaccines that they are both modern day indie bands which are based on rock and roll band of the 60's, 70's and 80's. We can tell this from the bands poses in photos which can be seen below, both images illustrate a laid back and careless atmosphere as if the presence of a photographer and camera means nothing to them. On top of this, the apparel worn by both bands allows us to incinuate that they are a modern day rock or indie band as clothing such as leather jackets and vest tee's are almost symbolic of these genres.

As well as this, in the band photo of The Vaccines (seen top right of the Glog) the angle of the photograph makes it appear that the band members tower over and look down on anyone looking at the image which implies a sense of dominance or power over the reader where as in the photo of The XX (seen bottom left) the band members appear to be on the same level as the reader.

First assignment

My first assignment is about the magazine the NME (New Musical Express.)
Past cover photos include the one below which revealed an exclusive interview with Florence of Floreance and The Machine.
Below I have also added a recent article from a copy of the NME which asks various people who they believe to be the greatest lyracists of all time may be.
A feature of the NME which is shown below is their coverage of the Reading and Leeds music festivals which occurs annually. Below is an example article from a recent edition which talks about part of their coverage of the festivals this year and the Greenday set.

The NME has been the most popular music magazine since the early 1980's, before which it was published as a newspaper which was the first in the country to publish a singles chart, which it did in 1952.
The NME was one of the first magazines to also have a website along side it, the website was first published to the internet in 1992 and remains to be run by NME editor Steve Sutherland and NME publisher Robert Tame however in 2005 the team running the website was extended to cope with growing amounts of visitors as more and more people gained access to the internet. The website now counts over 7,000,000 hits per month and is the most stand-alone music website in the world.
The magazine its self is owned by IPC Media, part of Time Inc. and is managed by lead editor of the magazine, Mike Williams.
The NME's main sales come from both males and females in the age range 16-25 who have interest in music genres such as Indie and alternative however the magazine does occasionally include interviews and articles on more mainstream music artists to draw attention from mainstream music listeners to boost sales.

The NME is unique in its use of an abbreviated, bold title which immediately becomes memorable to customers. The magazine varies in its colour of the title but generally colours the abbreviation 'NME' in red or white text. The colours may change in certain cases so that the title is easier to read over certain colour images on the front cover.

The NME uses various styles of photography, the cover often varies between photos which have been modeled such as the image on the far left below. However the cover also uses 
photos which have been taking from live sets at music events such as the one seen far right below. The cover varies in these styles of photography so is easier differentiate issues from eachother when they are on market and magazine stalls, so people can easily tell if a new issue of NME has been released or not.

First Post

My name's Peter, I have created this blog to post my AS Media work online.

The magazine I may look at for inspiration will be the NME - New Music Express.

The music I most prefer is by bands such as A Day To Remember and Blink 182; below I have inserted a picture of an issue of the NME and a band photo of A Day To Remember.