Adverts

As well as creating a front page, contents page and a double page spread for a music magazine, we are also required to find two full page adverts to go into our magazine. These adverts have to fit with the indie genre of my magazine as well as appeal to my target audience. I chose adverts from Osheaga music festival and Prada and my justifications for choosing these specific adverts are written below.

I chose this Osheaga music festival poster for an advertisement in my magazine as it is an indie music festival with artists performing that my target audience would be interested in like Tame Impala and King Princess. The poster also contains interesting and funky graphics which my target audience will be interested in as it makes the poster look quite unique and captivating. 

I chose this Timberland advert as it effectively portrays the individual and unique aspect of the indie genre. While I was researching my audience profile I found out that my target audience was most likely interested in fashion and creative industries so a brand like Timberland would engage the reader. Timberland is a very down to earth and care-free brand which fits in with the indie genre and would greatly interested the reader.

 

 

A New Improved Complete Magazine Draft

Improved Full Draft

Above is my improved full draft for my indie magazine. I think that the improvements that I have made to my magazine have made it look more coherent overall and have helped to better portray the indie genre. Improvements that I have made include:

  • Front Cover
    • Moved the cover lines closer together
    • Made the cross bolder
    • Made “Aware” bolder
    • Changed “The Future Issue” to blue
    • Changed the font of the cover line under the cover star’s name
  • Contents Page
    • Changed the colour of “Contents” and added a line underneath
    • Added a third contents section
    • Added a coloured emboss to each contents section
    • Re-arranged the numbers to be in numerical order
    • Added captions to the images
  • Double Page Spread
    • Moved article in from the top of the box
    • Made “The Marigolds” bigger
    • Added a caption to the image
    • Moved the drop capital to the first paragraph and not the stand first
    • Moved acknowledgments to fill the gap bottom left

However, as this is not my final draft I have received feedback from my teacher as to what to improve to make my final draft the best it can be. Her feedback was very helpful and informative and is written below.

Front Cover

  • Centre plug and change wording to include the indie genre
  • Move cover lines off the cover star’s face and format them the same
  • Change A in Aware to white
  • Add a banner over the masthead with low opacity

Contents Page

  • Make sure line spacing is consistent
  • Move “features” down
  • Centre captions
  • Add a banner with low opacity like suggested for the front page

Double Page Spread

  • Make “The Marigolds” bigger
  • Change the colour of the pull quote box
  • Edit line spacing to move the article away from the right edge of the box
  • Bold questions
  • Use drop capital tool to align the drop capital better

Complete Magazine Draft

 

Complete Magazine Draft

Above is a screen cast done by my teacher commenting on my magazine as a whole. Gladly, a lot of the feedback was positive however the criticisms will be highly useful in making my magazine more effectively portray the indie genre. I have summarised her comments below:

Front Page

  • Portrays the indie genre effectively
  • Reorganise cover lines so that they do not cover the cover stars face
  • Make “The Future Issue” bolder
  • Cross is effective
  • Add borders like on my DPS to create more of a house style
  • Change font of cover star caption
  • Add more of a stroke to “AWARE”
  • Change background colour so the baby blue colour is not used as much

Contents Page

  • Put numbers in numerical order
  • Add captions to images
  • Move the pink bordered image to the middle
  • Add borders from DPS to create a house style
  • Make the images stand out from the borders by adding a drop shadow
  • Add a third section e.g Regulars
  • Add a page number

Double Page Spread

  • Create a gap between the top of the boxes and first line
  • Change the drop capital to after the stand first
  • Lines and spots are effective at breaking up the questions
  • Add a caption on the image
  • Add a bigger strike on “The Marigolds” and move the headline lines closer together
  • Clear house style throughout

 

 

So… How is it going?

During the process of creating my magazine and learning about to effectively portray my intended narrative through media I have learnt many new transferable skills. A transferrable skill is a skill or ability that can be applied to a wide range of jobs and activities. These include:

  • Cooperation – While creating my magazine I have had to cooperate effectively with my peers to gain feedback on my work while also peer assessing their own work.
  • Time Management – To make sure I stayed on track within the process of creating my magazine I learnt to prioritise certain tasks that could only be done in school to make sure I kept to deadlines.
  • Creativity – To make my magazine pages interesting and engaging for my reader I had to think creatively and imaginativly which helped develop my artistic and visionary skills.
  • Critical Analysis – As well as peer assesments we have also had to critically evaluate our own work which has made me more able to pick up on flaws and improvements to be made in my own work.

Design Skills 2

Within the process of making my contents page and improving my DPS and front cover I have learnt more design skills to help portray the indie genre more effectively. Skills in InDesign that I have learnt include:

  • Changing the opacity of colours to let colours merge together. This creates an interesting page as it adds dimension and the illusion of many layers. This helps to portray the indie genre as it creates a unique and quirky vibe which is conventional of the indie genre.

  • Changing the shape of the elliptical tool to create interesting text boxes. In my contents page I created two boxes out of the elliptical tool and distorted the shape to create an individual and unrepeatable box shape for my contents page captions to go in.This created an appealing page layout for my target audience as the uniqueness fit with the indie genre while making the page aesthetically pleasing.

  • Using the drop shadow tool on the images on my contents page to make them stand out. This helps the stars to appear like they are coming out of the page and gives them an illusion of a heightened status. This makes them seen spectacular and extraordinary which fits into Richard Dyer’s paradox of the star.

I have also learned more skills on Photoshop. Specific skills include:

  • Using the brightener tool to make my stars appear more lively. I specifically used this tool on the star’s eyes to brighten them so that the stars look more animated and real so that the audience feel connected to them. This connection makes the star seem friendly and laidback which is a convention of the indie genre.

  • To cut images out I learnt to use the quick selection tool. I used this to cut an individual flower out of one of my images creating an interesting headline layout for my double page spread. The unique and distinctive vibe that the flower gave the headline fitted in with the conventions of the indie genre.

A New Improved Contents Page

Click the link below to see a clearer pdf

Contents Page Second Draft

Above is my second draft of contents page. Improvements I have made include:

  • Added another image to fill the empty space
  • Added page references on my images
  • Added more captions to fill the empty space
  • Added social media links so that my audience can feel included

I then asked a peer in my class to give feedback on my contents page. Overall the comments were positive, which is good, however their are still things to improve on. Her comments were: