Research and Planning: Music Magazine Drafts

This is my first draft of what my music magazine will roughly look like. I have chosen to name my masthead 'hot in pop' because I think that sums up what the magazine is about in a clear, punchy way. I have chosen cover lines to grasp the readers attention as, through my research, I have discovered that most students (teenagers) reading pop magazines are looking for stories relating to the artists's love lives and the latest fashion in which they are wearing - this is because most music fans look at the artists are their idols and therefore 'copy' what style they have. I will obviously still incorporate music news into the magazine, and this will be profound on my contents page (I will have a title of 'hot in pop' music reviews), and also, I will ensure that my model is dressed as a pop artist and that her makeup/style is appropriate to the task at hand.

Research and Planning: Music Genre Collages

Here are my three collages surrounding what the basis of my music magazine will be. I have noticed that most popular artists singing pop music are quite young and therefore I know that I will have a young(ish) model on my front cover. Also, I have found that generally the usual colours used by pop music magazines are light, bright and girly. I understand that the colours are of this nature because they have to attract a young audience, and these colours do that. Lastly, I researched and found different mastheads of existing and successful magazines, and found that they are all quick and easy to understand - the text is always bold and stands out. I will ensure that my magazine masthead follows the same rules.

Research and Planning: Music Magazine Analysis - VoiceThread

Research and Planning: Analysis of 2 Music Magazines

This is a popular 'pop' music magazine. 
There are many reasons why I can immediately tell that this is a pop music magazine.
Firstly, the masthead is called 'we (heart) pop'. This is a clear indication that the magazine is for a younger audience (as the language is informal and also the font is very bold and capitalised). Immediately the audience can tell that this is a magazine most likely aimed at teenagers, and we can then assume that the majority of teenagers listen to new pop music as that it is what is in the charts for example UK Top 40. 
The colours on the front cover are all bright and noticeable, which clearly shows how this is to attract attention for the front cover as it catches your eye instantly.
The singers/artists themselves are all associated with 'pop' music; Taylor swift, One Direction, Jessie J and The Wanted.

My second magazine also indicates that it is a pop magazine by the masthead 'Top of the Pops' and also the artists on the front cover (Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, Rita Ora, Tulisa etc.) These artists all sing pop songs, and therefore the audience is most likely to be aimed at teenagers and young people. Thirdly, it is obvious through the use of bold fonts and colours on the front cover that this is an informal magazine focusing on media-related aspects of the celebrities lives. Lastly, the cover lines are all surrounding the same type of story; love interests, which young fans are normally most concerned with.

Research and Planning: Evaluation

Firstly, I think that my font sizes are correct and are also suitable for a college magazine as I have compared my fonts to an official magazine and have seen that they are similar. I think that my masthead is very good and professional-looking because it is the largest font on the cover page and also catches the audiences eye.

Secondly, my magazine does conform to the three-colour rule (red, white and blue), as I have the text on the main cover as red and white but then on my cover page it is mainly blue. I have done this to show a clear definition between my cover page (I did not think that blue would be attractive on the main image) and my contents page (I personally believe that the colour blue suits the contents page much better as it is more neutral, and therefore it wouldn't be suitable to put on the cover page as neutral doesn't necessarily attract attention in my opinion).

However, one downside to my design is possibly that I am not very confident in saying that the contents page matches my front cover. I think this is because I did not spend as much time on my contents page as I did my front cover, and therefore it is not as good.

In my opinion I think that my images are very suitable as they were shot in the library which is extremely academic (and this is a student magazine so obviously that is the message I wish to give the audience). My model is smart and presentable, and I have also ensured that my images are mid-shots, which was in the design specification. My photographs are also clear and sharp which makes them good quality (like a professional magazine would have too).
Lastly, I think that my cover lines are most definitely suitable to the magazine as they are articles concerning student services advice on dealing with work load, and the other article is an interview with Deborah Allen talking about why the A-Level results have improved and are improving…! I think that both of these cover lines are relevant to the magazine and are also up to date with activities at the college. 
Overall, I am pleased with my college magazine as the only element that I would change/improve is my contents page.

Research and Planning: My College Magazine Contents Page

I have used InDesign to make my college contents page.

Research and Planning: My College Magazine Cover

This is my final cover for my college magazine. 
I have made this cover page using Photoshop.

Research and Planning: My College Magazine - First Official Draft

This is my first official draft of my magazine. I have now got my model for the front cover and inserted it into the draft, along with the font that I want. I have made sure that the shot is a mid-close up, and I am very happy with the result. I chose the background behind my model to be in the library to indicate to the audience that this is a magazine based around education (as my target audience are students for Hyde Clarendon).

Research and Planning: College Magazine Drafts



Here are my two initial drafts/outlines of a college magazine. However, my official magazine will not resemble this; I did these two outlines to show that I understand the magazine outline and also how to structure my magazine.

I have chosen the following model to be on the front cover of my magazine and these are the photographs that I will use on the front cover/contents page: 

Research and Planning: Costumes and Props

    I will need a female model for the front cover of my magazine and also for two small images on my contents page.

    I will also need some studying books for my model to be holding.

    I am going to have the background as a shelf of books (from the library) to make it look more academic.

    I will ensure that my model is wearing smart clothes and looks presentable to represent the college as a sophisticated place to learn.

Research and Planning: Mastheads

I have chosen three different images for different masthead names for music magazines. I chose the first font for 'DeathMetal' because it is a very mysterious font that would give readers the initial impression of a darker genre of music. Using Photoshop, I have tilted the writing to make it come out to the reader which I feel would grasp their attention more.
For my second masthead, the name is 'PopWorld'. The name 'PopWorld' immediately makes me think of artists such as Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and One Direction. This is because they are associated with pop music, and therefore I have made the font more 'girly' by making it a light purple colour, and I did this due to the statistical fact that the majority of people that listen to those artists are female, so I have purposely changed that to appeal to them.
Lastly, the third masthead is for a movie magazine named 'popcorn'. I have chosen a font that personally reminds me of 1930s film credits at the beginning and end of a movie. I made the font colour Red to stand out and grasps a passer-by's attention.

Research and Planning: Audience Interview Videos

I have interviewed three different people which are the age of my target audience and asked them all six specific questions regarding the design/information included in my magazine. Overall, I have realised that they are all first attracted by a magazine by the main image on the cover, and therefore I will spend more time/focus on this element of my final design than anything else. I have also concluded that the majority wish that the model would be a female, and so I will find a female model. Thirdly, I have discovered that popular colours include Red, White and Blue, and so I will incorporate these colours into my design as much as possible. Also, I now know that I should have cover lines regarding upcoming events at the college, student services advice and lastly, students past achievements.  Due to their comments, I have decided to name my college magazine 'student' because I feel that it sums up the magazine very well in one simple word. I will also, because this is a magazine particularly for Hyde Clarendon, make my 'selling line' read something along the lines of 'Everything you would need to know about Hyde Clarendon in one magazine…'.

Research and Planning: Interview Questions For Target Audience

1. What is the first thing that grasps your attention on a magazine?

2. What are the type of cover lines/stories that you would be interested to read in a college magazine?

3. Do you think the model for my magazine should be a girl or a boy?

4. Which three colours do you find most attractive/appealing on a magazine?

5. What would you name the college magazine (the masthead) and why?

6. How much writing do you think there should be on the front cover of my magazine?

Research and Planning: Medium Shots

  By researching mid-shots and finding these images, I now understand fully what a mid-shot is and how to achieve it for my college magazine.

Research and Planning: College Magazine Analysis

I can easily tell that this is a college magazine and that it's audience is young college students for many reasons.
Firstly, the masthead reads 'college' and this clearly shows that the contents of the magazine, or the whole premise of the magazine is surrounding the topic of 'college'.
Also, the model in the main picture is of a young-male adult holding workbooks that read 'law, business and society'. This indicates that he is a student studying these topics.
Thirdly, the cover lines are student related, for example, 'Make Money on Campus' highlights that this is an article for people on 'campus', and campus is always associated with college/university, and obviously the people that would be making money on campus would be students that live there during their time at the college/university.
Another way that I can tell that this is aimed at young adults is the publication/selling line which reads; 'Your exclusive guide to everything hip, hop and happening'. Those word choices indicate that this is a informal magazine when compared to a newspaper such as 'The Guardian'. Although the language will still be formal, the style and the way that it is presented is more likely to be informal as young adults are generally not attracted by formality when it comes to what they read in their leisure time.

Research and Planning: College Newspaper - Initial Ideas

I have looked online at many different college/school newspapers and I have reached many conclusions regarding how the design of the newspaper is subsequent to its target audience, and I have then decided on what I am going to use in my own newspaper.

Firstly, I will ensure that the design is light-hearted and easy-to-read and understand. This is important because I believe that a college magazine is quite informal when compared to something such as 'The Guardian'. I will ensure that the language is professional etc. but I want the front-cover design to be fun and eye-catching, to make sure that it grasps the students attention. My initial ideas for the design colours would be bright colours such as yellow, green and red.

The type of articles in the newspaper will have to be uplifting and interesting - this is because students are very busy and so for them to take time-out and read a college newspaper, it must be intriguing enough for them to do this.

Some of the reasons that I could tell the target audience were students at college were; it was very colourful and this made it look young and 'fresh'. Also, the language was formal but not to the extremity of a newspaper such as 'The New York Times'. Thirdly, the articles in the newspaper were varied - some were about student achievements and others were details of new trips and extra-curricular activities. This made it obvious to me that this was a newspaper based on informing students of college life, not on world news or unrelated information.

I will ensure that all information/articles in my newspaper will be relevant to the college, and also be fun-looking and vibrant in colour.

Research and Planning: InDesign Film Review

For this tutorial we had to copy and paste a film review (in my case the inbetweeners 2) and then place that into InDesign and transform accordingly to make it resemble an article in a newspaper, in this case a film reviewing newspaper. To do this, I had to acquire many new skills and incorporate them into my work, such as; colouring the background, adding pictures to the article, copy and pasting the article and then editing it across the page in the traditional 'style' of newspaper fonts, and lastly, I had to create the title (masthead).

Research and Planning: Photoshop Challenge

This is my photoshop challenge. On this I had to complete a series of tasks on a sheet that concluded in the above picture. I had to add backgrounds, add a photo of a person (Katy Perry) and also add text and add a drop shadow to it. Then I added a black line border around the photo of Katy Perry to make it stand out more. Lastly, I used the brush tool with a low opacity to change her hair colour from black to a purple shade.

Research and Planning: Photoshop CD Tutorial

Today in Media Studies I learnt how to do a lot of different techniques on Photoshop and I then used these new skills to create the above picture. I edited the CD to make it a different colour, I also added font to the picture which reads, 'Sarah's Jazz Classics', I edited the trumpet image and made it more 'real' looking by changing the colour to a brass tone. Finally, I changed the background using 'warp' and colour balance. I have learnt many new and helpful skills to use on Photoshop.

Research and Planning: Photoshop Skin Tutorial

With the skills I have acquired during my first lesson of Media Studies, I have used different tools such as removed blemishes from the womans face, I have changed her hair colour to a darker blonde. I have also added eyeliner (using the pencil tool), lipstick (using a brush tool) and also blusher using a low-level opacity brush, however I am not as pleased as I wanted to be with the blusher effect. Lastly, I have emphasised her eyebrows  by using a thin pencil tool and filling them in and I also lightened her complexion slightly.