Dear Examiner,
I hope you have as much fun looking through my blog and seeing my work as I did creating it. I am confident that you will see how my posts exemplify my level of hard work and dedication towards the course and final product. All posts are clearly labelled and can be found in the archive, positioned on the right hand side of the page, or label cloud. I have thoroughly enjoyed this years AS Media course and hope to continue into A2.
Thank you,
Millie.
Tuesday 6 May 2014
Friday 11 April 2014
Final Question 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
After looking at the main institutions that are involved with publishing and distributing music magazines I have decided to use Bauer Media to be the publisher. This company are already being successful with the magazine MOJO, in the first half of 2012, MOJO sold a staggering 84,560 copies and has seen rises in sales ever since.
(taken from the Bauer Media website)
"MOJO is the world’s largest UK music magazine, delivering a monthly dose of world class journalism and iconic photography to an audience of extremely passionate music consumers. If you’re featured in MOJO, you matter."
I think that there is a gap in the market for a mainstream, weekly magazine aimed at 17-30 yea olds therefore I feel that Bauer Media could make my magazine successful. Bauer Media also have MOJO as an online magazine which I could use with my magazine. As my social groups of Indie Scenesters and Scene Kids are often downloading things onto iPads and iPhones and looking at things online they may prefer a digital version as apposed to buying a paper copy from a local newsagents like anybody could do. Social media is also a huge part of my target social groups, especially scene kids, which could be another way in which my magazine gets publicised.
With the great name and well known success Bauer Media has I think that they could take my magazine and create a great name for and continue their thriving reputation by filling the ago in the market with my magazine.
Final Evaluation 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Before starting the process of making our own magazines, as research we looked at magazines that already exist, analysed the typical conventions and used them as style models. During the research and planning stage of the coursework I used style models from the same music genre (indie rock) that I am using for my magazine. The style models that I used were predominately MOJO and NME. I have tried to incorporate several conventions that both magazines use as they are both similar magazines to the magazine I produced.
Cover Page
For the title I used a simple and conventional looking font called 'Freshman' to give my magazine the classy look and feel I wanted. I chose this font because it is closet thing I could find to my first style model NME. I used a black and white Wob instead of red on white as I thought that for my magazine this would be too bright and may stand out to look out of place. Although the style model, NME sometimes change the colour they use for different issues I decided to use plain black and white title so that I wasn't faced with issues that they may face such as clashing colours and colour combinations that don't fit. I thought that using a black and white wob for the title is a safe option and eliminates any issues I may have had with colour clashes. Throughout the magazine I wanted to keep the font styles consistent and did so with success. I chose to position my writing on the left side of the page similar to my style models. I also chose to place 'Ruban Royal' over the central image because after trying to position it elsewhere, on either side of the image I didn't feel like it worked. I played around with the positioning and ended up trying it over the image and it worked straight away and also fits in with my style models layout and design. I also found a couple of other examples where text is covering the image and where the image is place in the centre of the page and not slightly to one side.
In terms of positioning, I positioned my title in the top left hand corner the same as NME because I thought that this looked good on their issues and that it could be seen as a classic convention used by the NME. As the NME is also a mainstream magazine, similar to the ideas of mine I thought it'd be a good idea to use theirs as a style model to see how a successful magazine uses conventions like this. I tried to incorporate the positioning of how MOJO have their title but in the end found it too difficult to work around and saw that it didn't look as good as I had wanted, I don't know whether finding it too difficult was down to my skill levels using software such as Photoshop or that the position itself was hard to master.
I chose to have my models image crisp and as clean as i could get him to look so that it would be a representation of the 'Mod' kind of look as they are all clean cut. I chose to have him in plain clothing and wearing a Fred Perry polo shirt because of the importance influence that the brand has within this style image. I chose to position the image slightly off centre as apposed to one of my style models, MOJO that choose to position their images as dead central. This could be seen as a challenge of conventions as there are not many magazine that chose to have their artists off centre. Looking at other magazines I couldn't find many at all that didn't have the artist central to the page. Surprisingly I only found that one of my style models (the NME) used this off central image style in only a small number of issues.
Throughout my magazine i tried to use the same style models so that my magazine has consistency throughout and that it fits together. I tried to use MOJO magazine as much as I could because I feel as if its the same style as mine.
Contents
I love the style of MOJO's cover pages and the range of designs that they have. The main body and positioning of the title are rather consistent throughout but the vary in imagery and styling around them. For example, the image below of Florence and The Machine, the text is curved around her body and she is in front of the mast head within the page, where as the other page that is more like mine has a box where the text is positioned and the image is fits around that box.
With my contents page I incorporated the idea of having 'CONTENTS' as the mast head and to have the locations as 'LONDON, NEW YORK, LIVERPOOL' to show the movement of my artist. My artist is from Liverpool and is travelling the world, playing in places in London and supporting Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane on their world tours. I trie
d to make my artist as real as possible and have added background information about him which is my justification for making these decisions.
d to make my artist as real as possible and have added background information about him which is my justification for making these decisions.
In terms of colour i tried to keep the same colour scheme throughout the magazine which is the reasoning for predominately using the colours, red, black and white. I think that keeping this constant colour scheme adds to the consistency of the magazine and ties it all in together. I chose to use a black and white, or sepia image because I knew before I started to construct my magazine I wanted to include a colourless image into it somewhere because I knew that my style models did the same. I chose to controversially use the black and white image on the contents page instead of where you would typically see it, on the double page spread, because I thought that the colour schemes would work better instead of using the navy coloured shirt along side the red on shut a small and close scaled image.
Double Page Spread
For my double page spread I haven't followed the same style my model used as religiously as I did for the contents but have incorporated the majority of the same conventions that MOJO did. I chose to use the same layout for the article side of the spread but for the image I used one that was not as close up as the one I based it on. For the ones that I looked at the colour scheme of black, white and blue have been used repeatedly but as my colour scheme is different I stuck to my ideas of having red, white and black.
The lighting in each of the ones I looked at made the photo look darker than it was which I didn't think would look right if used on mine. I chose to use a image that included shadow as I don't see many magazines that use this convention. The slight shadow gives the photo edge and the photo itself is more expressionless than the ones I used as style models.
Friday 21 March 2014
Draft Evaluation Question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
While completing my preliminary I was very much a novice in terms of technology. I think that the preliminary is a reflection of my inexperience of technical software. I have developed my skills over the process of creating my magazine and I feel that developing these skills has been one of the most important process of the whole course. Without developing my skills through practise I would have been left with a final product I could have been capable of doing better.
Through using Photoshop I have developed the necessary skills needed so that I can produce a product of the highest of standards and ability. You can clearly see that my skills were pretty much non existent, I had no idea what I was really doing, you can tell that I haven't had experience with Photoshop previously and my preliminary is basic as it can be. I've learned so much by using Photoshop and playing around with it, a few things I've leaned are, how to put together a good magazine, which includes how to move and position images and texts, create new text boxes and create new layers and position them where they need to be. I have also learned how to edit the font of my text and the colour and size to how I want it. I've also learned how to edit photos and to select, copy and paste them to where I want them.
Through using Photoshop I have developed the necessary skills needed so that I can produce a product of the highest of standards and ability. You can clearly see that my skills were pretty much non existent, I had no idea what I was really doing, you can tell that I haven't had experience with Photoshop previously and my preliminary is basic as it can be. I've learned so much by using Photoshop and playing around with it, a few things I've leaned are, how to put together a good magazine, which includes how to move and position images and texts, create new text boxes and create new layers and position them where they need to be. I have also learned how to edit the font of my text and the colour and size to how I want it. I've also learned how to edit photos and to select, copy and paste them to where I want them.
I believe that throughout the process my knowledge of how magazine are made and the complexity and hard work that goes into creating a magazine is now understood. As I said I think that without developing my skills in terms of using technology I would have a very inadequate final product. Using Photoshop for the first time proved to me how much I didn't know about the technology but looking back at my preliminary and comparing it to my finish product I can clearly see how far I have come.
The preliminary task was done over a short period of time so that means that there wasn't any room to experiment with tools within Photoshop which again means that I was limited as I had no chance to use the trial and error way of learning. I think that from the preliminary task, to the draft and with the finished piece the improvements of my skills are obvious. I have learned so much from the preliminary and not just in terms of skills using technology. I think that this is the most important thing I have learned during this process is how to see where gaps in the magazine making industry lie and how to fill those gaps. While creating my Preliminary magazine I had no idea on who my target market would be, who would be the distributor and how it would link with a particular social group. I learned how every aspect of a magazine has to link together and I've learned a lot about how the industry goes about producing successful magazines.
Draft Evaluation Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Editing Software:
iMac
For the vast majority of the course I have used an iMac to create my final product. I feel as if I have got to grips pretty quickly with the device and work well on it. The iMac has helped me gain access to the other products such as Photoshop. I felt comfortable using this computer and found them easy to work with once I got the hand of the system and slightly different keyboard. I prefer to use the Mac instead of a normal PC because I feel that the Mac has a HD quality and is faster than the others available.
Adobe Photoshop CS6
Photoshop is the software I used to edit and create my pieces both on the computers at school and on my own laptop at home. Before the preliminary task I had had little experience using it so was not confident when producing the preliminary task. I have developed my skills through practise and used my skills that I had learnt to help me produce my final piece.
Microsoft Word
I used work to write up my article. It helped me eliminate any spelling mistakes, keep eye on my word count and help me choose what font I wanted to include in my magazine. It made it easy to use before I copied my article into Photoshop and onto my double page spread.
Presenting software:
Blogger
I have used Blogger throughout the course, it has allowed me to keep updated with my coursework and to upload any work that I have done. Blogger has allowed me to upload ongoing work and help keep track of the process of making my magazine. Before the course I had never used this software before and have quickly become accustomed to using it and find it easy to navigate and makes presenting my work a simple and hassle fee task.
Animoto
Animoto is a video creator and I used it to create my pitch for my magazine in the research and planning stages of my magazine. Prior to the course I hadn't used this software before but it allowed me to create a brilliant video without difficulty and the final product was of a HD quality and was an easy way to represent my ideas and iconic influences.
Flickr
I used Flickr to upload my pictures from the multiple shoots I did twits my chosen model. I hadn't used flickr before this process but using it allowed me to upload my pictures onto a 'feed' so that other members on the course could view my pictures without any difficulty.
Twitter
I used this social media to promote my questionnaire within the research and planning stages of my magazine to get more people to take part within the first stages of the course. it was use to use social media as I gathered a wide range of research that helped me make vita decisions within the beginning stages of the process.
Practical Equipment and technology:
Canon EOS Rebel T3 Black
I decided to use my own camera to take photos so that I decreased any change of using photos and because I am used to using my camera as apposed to the Nikon provided at school. By using my own camera it also made the process hassle free and meant I could easily access my photos and could take photos at any stage if I needed to.
Lighting
I used the lights in order to create the shadow on my photos, I wanted to create style to give my magazine the edge I was looking for. I had never used these kinds of lights before so took e a few tries to get them where and how I wanted them but after some practise I was fine.
Editing Software:
iMac
For the vast majority of the course I have used an iMac to create my final product. I feel as if I have got to grips pretty quickly with the device and work well on it. The iMac has helped me gain access to the other products such as Photoshop. I felt comfortable using this computer and found them easy to work with once I got the hand of the system and slightly different keyboard. I prefer to use the Mac instead of a normal PC because I feel that the Mac has a HD quality and is faster than the others available.
Adobe Photoshop CS6
Photoshop is the software I used to edit and create my pieces both on the computers at school and on my own laptop at home. Before the preliminary task I had had little experience using it so was not confident when producing the preliminary task. I have developed my skills through practise and used my skills that I had learnt to help me produce my final piece.
Microsoft Word
I used work to write up my article. It helped me eliminate any spelling mistakes, keep eye on my word count and help me choose what font I wanted to include in my magazine. It made it easy to use before I copied my article into Photoshop and onto my double page spread.
Presenting software:
Blogger
I have used Blogger throughout the course, it has allowed me to keep updated with my coursework and to upload any work that I have done. Blogger has allowed me to upload ongoing work and help keep track of the process of making my magazine. Before the course I had never used this software before and have quickly become accustomed to using it and find it easy to navigate and makes presenting my work a simple and hassle fee task.
Animoto
Animoto is a video creator and I used it to create my pitch for my magazine in the research and planning stages of my magazine. Prior to the course I hadn't used this software before but it allowed me to create a brilliant video without difficulty and the final product was of a HD quality and was an easy way to represent my ideas and iconic influences.
Flickr
I used this social media to promote my questionnaire within the research and planning stages of my magazine to get more people to take part within the first stages of the course. it was use to use social media as I gathered a wide range of research that helped me make vita decisions within the beginning stages of the process.
Practical Equipment and technology:
Canon EOS Rebel T3 Black
I decided to use my own camera to take photos so that I decreased any change of using photos and because I am used to using my camera as apposed to the Nikon provided at school. By using my own camera it also made the process hassle free and meant I could easily access my photos and could take photos at any stage if I needed to.
Lighting
I used the lights in order to create the shadow on my photos, I wanted to create style to give my magazine the edge I was looking for. I had never used these kinds of lights before so took e a few tries to get them where and how I wanted them but after some practise I was fine.
Draft Evaluation Question 5
How did you attract/address your audience?
As I have a wide ranged audience of 17-30 year olds I tried to use a range of different ideas to attract all ages and lifestyles. I tried to design my magazine so that it would address my target audience. I used a variety of artists from my chosen genre so that all ages would recognise them and would be able to relate to each artist included in my magazine.
I chose to use the male model so that the male audience can relate to my magazine and I have chosen to feature male dominated bands to continue the link and to create a relationship between my magazine and the reader.
The range of my audience varies from teenagers to young adults aged 17-30, I tried to keep the idea of my audiences age in mind at all times through creating my magazine in order to get them interested in buying my magazine. I have done this by using well know artists that both fall into my targeted age group and those that fall into my target music genre. My audience is more gender specific for those males included within the target age range which had some impact on some of the decisions I made. I chose to use bands like Arctic Monkeys and artists such as Paul Weller and Miles Kane, not only because they fit in with the style I was going for but because they are very popular and recognisable by all ages. For my Cover, Contents and Double Page Spread I chose to use a male model as my target audience has a predominant male percentage. Although a large number of my audience is likely to be men I need to remember that women are still part of my target audience, so with this in mind I tried to keep the costume and colour scheme as gender neutral as I could.
Throughout my magazine I tried to go for a classy and clean cut look which was influenced by my style ideas and decisions of dressing my model, and using the iconic stylists that dress like 'Mods.' I tried to stick to the colour scheme of a simple, red, black and white to coincide with the simplistic style. I believe that my magazine attracts the audience through the iconic bands and artists from my chosen genre and through the simplistic and clean cut images and layout throughout my magazine.
As I have a wide ranged audience of 17-30 year olds I tried to use a range of different ideas to attract all ages and lifestyles. I tried to design my magazine so that it would address my target audience. I used a variety of artists from my chosen genre so that all ages would recognise them and would be able to relate to each artist included in my magazine.
I chose to use the male model so that the male audience can relate to my magazine and I have chosen to feature male dominated bands to continue the link and to create a relationship between my magazine and the reader.
The range of my audience varies from teenagers to young adults aged 17-30, I tried to keep the idea of my audiences age in mind at all times through creating my magazine in order to get them interested in buying my magazine. I have done this by using well know artists that both fall into my targeted age group and those that fall into my target music genre. My audience is more gender specific for those males included within the target age range which had some impact on some of the decisions I made. I chose to use bands like Arctic Monkeys and artists such as Paul Weller and Miles Kane, not only because they fit in with the style I was going for but because they are very popular and recognisable by all ages. For my Cover, Contents and Double Page Spread I chose to use a male model as my target audience has a predominant male percentage. Although a large number of my audience is likely to be men I need to remember that women are still part of my target audience, so with this in mind I tried to keep the costume and colour scheme as gender neutral as I could.
Throughout my magazine I tried to go for a classy and clean cut look which was influenced by my style ideas and decisions of dressing my model, and using the iconic stylists that dress like 'Mods.' I tried to stick to the colour scheme of a simple, red, black and white to coincide with the simplistic style. I believe that my magazine attracts the audience through the iconic bands and artists from my chosen genre and through the simplistic and clean cut images and layout throughout my magazine.
Draft Evaluation Question 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
I feel that the look and price of any magazine is key to making it successful. If a magazine doesn't look good or is reasonably priced, it won't sell. After looking at other weekly magazines such as the well renowned NME, priced at £2.50, I thought that because my magazine includes a fashion section as well as a section on music, that I could price my magazine at £3.00. I based my pricing around similar magazines of mine, they ranged from £2.50 to £4.50. I tried to go somewhere in the middle of these two prices because I believe it is affordable for my target audience, whether they are in education or have a full time/part time job. I thought that it is curtail that my magazine is affordable because my target audience may be slightly tight money, especially for hose students so I believe that the cost is essential o create a successful publication. If my magazine was too expensive my target audience would look elsewhere to read about music and fashion news.
The audience for Mod are 17-30 year olds. I am trying to fill the gap in the market where people want a magazine that is pretty much solely focused on music and fashion as opposed to other magazine that write and talk about A list celebs. This justifies my use of popular artists of this age group such as Miles Kane and Arctic Monkeys but also fits in with my music genre of 'Indie Rock'
I feel that the look and price of any magazine is key to making it successful. If a magazine doesn't look good or is reasonably priced, it won't sell. After looking at other weekly magazines such as the well renowned NME, priced at £2.50, I thought that because my magazine includes a fashion section as well as a section on music, that I could price my magazine at £3.00. I based my pricing around similar magazines of mine, they ranged from £2.50 to £4.50. I tried to go somewhere in the middle of these two prices because I believe it is affordable for my target audience, whether they are in education or have a full time/part time job. I thought that it is curtail that my magazine is affordable because my target audience may be slightly tight money, especially for hose students so I believe that the cost is essential o create a successful publication. If my magazine was too expensive my target audience would look elsewhere to read about music and fashion news.
Draft Evaluation Question 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
After looking at the main institutions that are involved with publishing and distributing music magazines I have decided to use Bauer Media to be the publisher. This company are already being successful with the magazine MOJO, in the first half of 2012, MOJO sold a staggering 84,560 copies and has seen rises in sales ever since.
(taken from the Bauer Media website)
"MOJO is the world’s largest UK music magazine, delivering a monthly dose of world class journalism and iconic photography to an audience of extremely passionate music consumers. If you’re featured in MOJO, you matter."
I think that there is a gap in the market for a mainstream, weekly magazine aimed at 17-30 yea olds therefore I feel that Bauer Media could make my magazine successful. Bauer Media also have MOJO as an online magazine which I could use with my magazine. As my social groups of Indie Scenesters and Scene Kids are often downloading things onto iPads and iPhones and looking at things online they may prefer a digital version as apposed to buying a paper copy from a local newsagents like anybody could do. Social media is also a huge part of my target social groups, especially scene kids, which could be another way in which my magazine gets publicised.
After looking at the main institutions that are involved with publishing and distributing music magazines I have decided to use Bauer Media to be the publisher. This company are already being successful with the magazine MOJO, in the first half of 2012, MOJO sold a staggering 84,560 copies and has seen rises in sales ever since.
(taken from the Bauer Media website)
"MOJO is the world’s largest UK music magazine, delivering a monthly dose of world class journalism and iconic photography to an audience of extremely passionate music consumers. If you’re featured in MOJO, you matter."
I think that there is a gap in the market for a mainstream, weekly magazine aimed at 17-30 yea olds therefore I feel that Bauer Media could make my magazine successful. Bauer Media also have MOJO as an online magazine which I could use with my magazine. As my social groups of Indie Scenesters and Scene Kids are often downloading things onto iPads and iPhones and looking at things online they may prefer a digital version as apposed to buying a paper copy from a local newsagents like anybody could do. Social media is also a huge part of my target social groups, especially scene kids, which could be another way in which my magazine gets publicised.
With the great name and well known success Bauer Media has I think that they could take my magazine and create a great name for and continue their thriving reputation by filling the ago in the market with my magazine.
Draft Evaluation Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
During the research stages of my magazine I researched different social groups using UK Tribes. It helped give me a clear view of who would be interested in buying my magazine.
During the research stages of my magazine I researched different social groups using UK Tribes. It helped give me a clear view of who would be interested in buying my magazine.
Through looking at UK Tribes and deciding on what social group I would use I then began to make further decisions on my music gene and styling of models that I would use,The age range for my magazine is very wide ranging from 17-30. I have used a wide age range with a predominately male audience because, through my research and the style models I have used I came to the conclusion that the male audience are going to be the ones that are more likely to read my magazine.
The social groups that will mostly be interested in my magazine are indie scenesters, young alts and scene kids. The reason I have such a wide range of social groups is because of the alternative image I was going for. The 'mod' era, taking place in the late 60's doesn't appeal to everyone and not everyone is suited to that kind of style. I tried to incorporate the 'Mod' look but not to the extent that my target audience would not enjoy the way my model looked.
For my styling, I tried to incorporate the 'Mod' look and therefore wanted to dress my model (Luke) in smart clothing. I decided to dress him in Fred Perry as this is a brand that my target audience are likely to wear and style icons such as Miles Kane have been seen in.
I chose to use a simple and neutral outfit so that it would fit in and link with the type of audience I am targeting. I used the similar styles and brands that my social groups would wear, a few of which would be:
Brands
-
Shoot Outfit
Because my target audience is wide ranged , I have taken into consideration that they may not all dress like 'Mods' and that the indie style is very varied. Using UK tribes I researched the types of brands that 'Indie Scenesters' are fond of and have tried to incorporate topics into my magazine that my target audience would like to read about. For an example of this, within my article I have mentioned that my artist used to play football which I used because the majority of the target audience, and males of all ages, are interested in. I believe that this will help to attract my audience because it is a interest that most males enjoy to be involved.
The social groups that will mostly be interested in my magazine are indie scenesters, young alts and scene kids. The reason I have such a wide range of social groups is because of the alternative image I was going for. The 'mod' era, taking place in the late 60's doesn't appeal to everyone and not everyone is suited to that kind of style. I tried to incorporate the 'Mod' look but not to the extent that my target audience would not enjoy the way my model looked.
I chose to use a simple and neutral outfit so that it would fit in and link with the type of audience I am targeting. I used the similar styles and brands that my social groups would wear, a few of which would be:
Brands
-
Shoot Outfit
Because my target audience is wide ranged , I have taken into consideration that they may not all dress like 'Mods' and that the indie style is very varied. Using UK tribes I researched the types of brands that 'Indie Scenesters' are fond of and have tried to incorporate topics into my magazine that my target audience would like to read about. For an example of this, within my article I have mentioned that my artist used to play football which I used because the majority of the target audience, and males of all ages, are interested in. I believe that this will help to attract my audience because it is a interest that most males enjoy to be involved.
Draft Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Before starting the process of making our own magazines, as research we looked at magazines that already exist, analysed the typical conventions and used them as style models. During the research and planning stage of the coursework I used style models from the same music genre (indie rock) that I am using for my magazine. The style models that I used were predominately MOJO and NME. I have tried to incorporate several conventions that both magazines use as they are both similar magazines to the magazine I produced.
Cover Page
For the title I used a simple and conventional looking font called 'Freshman' to give my magazine the classy look and feel I wanted. I chose this font because it is closet thing I could find to my first style model NME. I used a black and white Wob instead of red on white as I thought that for my magazine this would be too bright and may stand out to look out of place. Although the style model, NME sometimes change the colour they use for different issues I decided to use plain black and white title so that I wasn't faced with issues that they may face such as clashing colours and colour combinations that don't fit. I thought that using a black and white wob for the title is a safe option and eliminates any issues I may have had with colour clashes. Throughout the magazine I wanted to keep the font styles consistent and did so with success. I chose to position my writing on the left side of the page similar to my style models. I also chose to place 'Ruban Royal' over the central image because after trying to position it elsewhere, on either side of the image I didn't feel like it worked. I played around with the positioning and ended up trying it over the image and it worked straight away and also fits in with my style models layout and design. I also found a couple of other examples where text is covering the image and where the image is place in the centre of the page and not slightly to one side.
In terms of positioning, I positioned my title in the top left hand corner the same as NME because I thought that this looked good on their issues and that it could be seen as a classic convention used by the NME. As the NME is also a mainstream magazine, similar to the ideas of mine I thought it'd be a good idea to use theirs as a style model to see how a successful magazine uses conventions like this. I tried to incorporate the positioning of how MOJO have their title but in the end found it too difficult to work around and saw that it didn't look as good as I had wanted, I don't know whether finding it too difficult was down to my skill levels using software such as Photoshop or that the position itself was hard to master.
I chose to have my models image crisp and as clean as i could get him to look so that it would be a representation of the 'Mod' kind of look as they are all clean cut. I chose to have him in plain clothing and wearing a Fred Perry polo shirt because of the importance influence that the brand has within this style image. I chose to position the image slightly off centre as apposed to one of my style models, MOJO that choose to position their images as dead central. This could be seen as a challenge of conventions as there are not many magazine that chose to have their artists off centre. Looking at other magazines I couldn't find many at all that didn't have the artist central to the page. Surprisingly I only found that one of my style models (the NME) used this off central image style in only a small number of issues.
Throughout my magazine i tried to use the same style models so that my magazine has consistency throughout and that it fits together. I tried to use MOJO magazine as much as I could because I feel as if its the same style as mine.
Contents
I love the style of MOJO's cover pages and the range of designs that they have. The main body and positioning of the title are rather consistent throughout but the vary in imagery and styling around them. For example, the image below of Florence and The Machine, the text is curved around her body and she is in front of the mast head within the page, where as the other page that is more like mine has a box where the text is positioned and the image is fits around that box.
With my contents page I incorporated the idea of having 'CONTENTS' as the mast head and to have the locations as 'LONDON, NEW YORK, LIVERPOOL' to show the movement of my artist. My artist is from Liverpool and is travelling the world, playing in places in London and supporting Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane on their world tours. I trie
d to make my artist as real as possible and have added background information about him which is my justification for making these decisions.
d to make my artist as real as possible and have added background information about him which is my justification for making these decisions.
In terms of colour i tried to keep the same colour scheme throughout the magazine which is the reasoning for predominately using the colours, red, black and white. I think that keeping this constant colour scheme adds to the consistency of the magazine and ties it all in together. I chose to use a black and white, or sepia image because I knew before I started to construct my magazine I wanted to include a colourless image into it somewhere because I knew that my style models did the same. I chose to controversially use the black and white image on the contents page instead of where you would typically see it, on the double page spread, because I thought that the colour schemes would work better instead of using the navy coloured shirt along side the red on shut a small and close scaled image.
Double Page Spread
For my double page spread I haven't followed the same style my model used as religiously as I did for the contents but have incorporated the majority of the same conventions that MOJO did. I chose to use the same layout for the article side of the spread but for the image I used one that was not as close up as the one I based it on. For the ones that I looked at the colour scheme of black, white and blue have been used repeatedly but as my colour scheme is different I stuck to my ideas of having red, white and black.
The lighting in each of the ones I looked at made the photo look darker than it was which I didn't think would look right if used on mine. I chose to use a image that included shadow as I don't see many magazines that use this convention. The slight shadow gives the photo edge and the photo itself is more expressionless than the ones I used as style models.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)