I have now completed my second draft of the front cover of my music magazine. I and am inserting it here next to my original front cover to show the changes I have made. The second image (draft 2) links to a pdf so the adjustments I made are more noticable when the image is enlarged

I have made a few change in order to improve the overall look of my magazine. I will now list the changes I made-

• I added an issue and a date
• I made the writing either side of her head slightly smaller so it fits the page better
• Added a subheading to the title ‘meet ruby’ to give the reader more information
• Made the price and barcode slightly smaller
• Spaced out a few of the letters from the masthead so it is more ledgible

I have been using the photos from my studio shoot to create a front cover for my brand Reign. Here is my first draft of the front cover of my music magazine.

In my previous post I have uploaded contact sheets including all of the images I took in my photoshoot. I picked my favourite image to use on my front cover, that being this image. I then exported it into InDesign where I began to add all the features of a conventional music magazine. After playing with fonts, colours, backgrounds etc I have completed my first draft.

Above I have an evaluation of what a classmate thought of my first front cover. I have put all of her feedback into a document so it is organised for when I make my seconds draft, I can access this constructive criticism easily.

I now know what I can change to improve my magazine, such as the shades of yellow I use and I also want to adjust my masthead so the overlap of the letters look neater.

Once taken all of my pictures, I made a contact sheet via photoshop. I put all these contact sheets into a slideshow; here are all my images put into contact sheets so they’re all together.

I then picked my favourite images and turned them into a new contact sheet with just my top 7 pictures that could potentially end up on my front cover.

I think the top 3 images, with the jacket on, are my favourites and most likely to be used as I think a brightly coloured masthead would contrast well with the colour of the jacket. I also think the close up where my model is looking sideways is very effective because of the glitter however I would like my model to be looking at the camera for my cover image; yet I may use this in my double page spread.

I met the aims I set in my production plan as I aimed to braid the hair 4 times, as I did for the shoot. I did purple, smudged, glossy eyeshadow and glitter freckles for some of my shots. I feel as though the outfit came together nicely as the zebra print top is very effective especially when close up on the front cover of my magazine. I prefer the pictures where my model is wearing the jacket as it is eyecatching and bold.

I chose my favourite image, the top right image, as she is looking directly at the camera and I wished to use a midshot as the image for my front cover so I thought this image was perfect, I also like how my model is forward facing compared to a few of the other images I took.

I had the opportunity to test out some fonts and mastheads on InDesign to try and figure out what style I like for my real front cover. Here is what I came up with

Here are a few practice designs of some fonts I may choose to use for my masthead.

The first font is called Prisma, I like the colour and shade of pink I used also. This font is my favourite out of the 5 I tested.

The second font is called Rosewood and is very unique but I don’t think it fits the word ‘Reign’ well as it isn’t too easy to read as it has lots of details to it.

The third font is called Stencil, I like how it is very symmetrical yet I find it isn’t very eye catching and it is difficult to make it one specific colour.

The fourth font is Niagara engraved and I really like this font and the colour I use, however I don’t think my masthead should be in lowercase as I want my masthead to stand out.

The final font is Niagara engraved in caps, in gold and I really like this font as it looks very royal. I like this one as well as the first one I used, Prisma, so I will choose one of these for my masthead.

In conclusion, I really like the boldness and style of the first font, Prisma. However if I were to use this for my masthead I think I would change the colour from pink to gold to make it more fitting to the ‘reign’ and royalty theme. I also think the crown shape above the masthead is very efffective as it fits to the theme, it is also very eye catching so I may choose to use this little symbol of the crown in my real masthead, depending on what cover picture I choose and whether it will suit the colour scheme.

On Friday I will finally shoot my model for the cover of my magazine. My aim for my shoot is to get as many pictures as I possibly can; this is so I have a variety to choose from when picking the front cover of my music magazine. I have chosen my model to be my friend Ruby, I chose her because her hair will suit the hairstyle (braids) that I wish to do on her. I have planned my costume, hair ideas, makeup and the equipment I will use, I have put all this information into this google document as a plan for my shoot.

This document will help me stick to my brief so I get the best possible photos. It is useful to have on my blog so people can gain an understanding as to the look I am going for.

I have created a slideshow on google and linked it to the voicethread application. I made a voiceover to go with the slides and I describe the competition my magazine will face. Along with this, I have included what my magazine will have inside it.

I now know what is good to include in my music magazine and what the reader will be interested in. This will help me when I make my music magazine as I have an idea of eye-catching mastheads and also what articles are interesting to the reader; I will keep this in mind for when I make my double page spread.

A meta-narrative is a narrative of historical meaning, experience and knowledge combining together to create one source.

Richard Dyer, a media theorist, came up with the idea of ‘Paradox of the star’. He states that star are extraordinary and talented, yet are also ordinary as they go shopping and do day to day activities. He also states that they are both present and absent. This is because of their tweets and social media being very present, yet they also perform in concerts and interviews meaning they are out of reach.

I made my meta-narrative on the website Prezi, I chose Florence and the Machine to analyse. This is because they are an Indie band which fits my topic well. I have included information about the history of the band and also their experiences.

Please click on the image above to take you to my Prezi website where you can access the information on the various segments in the picture above.

This will help me when I make my music magazine because I now know how much detail to go into with the ‘look’ my model portrays and I have realised that all aspects of the star are noticed by the reader. After this task I have come to realise that I need to include lots of information about my star, for example, the history of my star and how this can relate to the demo and psychographics of my target audience.

Next I created a moodboard of my star, this included ideas of hair, makeup, outfits and props to give me a guideline of what my star will look like and more ideas to work off. Here is my moodboard.

This moodboard will help me when it comes to my shoot as I will remember all my props, it gives me inspiration for poses and angles.

Next I created a moodboard on the website pinterest including all things I thought related to Indie pop. Ranging from clothing to makeup to colours to artists to hairstyles. I feel this will really help me get my head around the idea of branding and how important ‘looks’ are.

This moodboard really inspires me to create a similar magazine front cover and gives me an idea of what I want my model, front cover poses, colour and makeup to look like; so I believe this is very useful for me to continue to look at.