Component 1

My Moodboard for heavy metal tour posters/covers. These have been a source of inspiration and has helped me decide what elements contribute and make a tour poster heavy metal esque.

(Click on for image)

Mojo is a music magazine that releases issues monthly, targeting music enthusiasts.

Analyising this front cover has helped me identify key features and design aspects more accurately and effectively. As well as this, learning about the audience psychographic and being able to identify audience and intended audience better is going to help me steer and target specific, varied audiences when I design my front cover. Identifying the conventional and key aspects will make my poster more attractive to audiences, drawing in traffic.

(Added Slide 2)

Please click on the image to see the pdf

This is my mock of the NME Kendrick Lamar Front Page image.

This is the original:

There are quite a few differences, like the font used (however, I tried to get as close as I could to the original), a different photo, and the colour of text which I had to change as it would not fit the new image I used.

What went well?; My poster uses red to contrast the plain background and image, which makes the important information/advertisements stand out more. I think I managed to get the font pretty close to the original, and the image I chose I feel has the most potential to create a front cover on.

What I could improve; I feel the black text at the centre does not mesh well with the rest of the front cover, but I feel it does its job, and does not bring down the overall quality of the cover too much. Another weakness is the NME logo and the red block it rests on. I feel the cover star should be on the front, on top of the logo, since he is more important. It would also be a sign of the importance of the magazine, much like how other magazines have the cover star in front of the logo, like it’s showing off. Finally, I wish I could have used the original image rather than another one, since much of the original colour of text does not fit with the new image. However, I think I managed to work around it, and overall get somewhat close to the original. It does have quite a different tone and feel than the original front cover, though.

Creating this mock front cover on InDesign has taught me a lot about magazine design, and moving forward I will be able to research and create a much better looking front cover, using resources I have now learnt. I need to work on choosing images and fonts better, as well as getting used to the program as a whole, learning keybinds and bettering my skills with the tools.

Creating this moodboard has made me think more in depth about camera angles and how captions themselves work. Captions do not specifically have to be in depth and descriptive, or really vague and including no information. You can infer a lot through body language, and recognising what certain expressions and actions mean. We chose different angles and locations to take pictures at, to make each image unique and different in the message and emotion it portrays/gives off.

I am now more confident in creating moodboards and taking photos, as well as now knowing more about angles and how all these elements come together. When I make my magazine, I’ll be able to choose photos which can tell the best stories, without any text or audio, through body language and expression.

Masthead: The masthead is the title, and is usually the brand or something related to the main topic the magazine covers

Main Coverline: Battle of the Bands, the topic the issue covers. Important to tell people what’s being written about/covered.

Insets: Extra images, fill up extra space and use it for more advertisements of the contents of the magazine.

Plug: Extra things to advertise, using up space.  Draw more attention to some merchandising etc.

Captions: Extra information to inform the readers.

Barcode: To scan, pay

Pug: Extra advertisement, the price, logo etc.

Main Coverstar: The main individual or entity being displayed and written about in the magazine.

It’s important to know these elements and technical design conventions in order to create a higher quality magazine that can advertise more effectively. Better to understand the layout of popular magazines, so you can base off it and also improve.

While the poster may be quite basic, I believe that adds to the story as a whole. The artist’s general appearance and what can be denoted from the poster, it seems as though a flashy, filled with texts and bright colours, poster might not be suitable.

The poster itself appears melancholic, telling a better story more effectively by using a simple design.

Analysing this tells me a lot about the artist, through the design and the information provided. It has helped me more easily identify key information and imperative design elements that can help me create my own poster, and tell a story more effectively.

The poster itself has helped reaffirm my belief that using a limited amount of colours as well as how the information is presented can have a big effect on how the audience perceives the event and how it effects their interest in it. It’s also a lot more easy to connote and imply meanings/emotions behind the actions and choices in poster design, as well as creating media as a whole. Themes and emotions can often be more easy to denote with simplicity.

I chose this image as the main representation of all the photos we took.

The pose I have, mixed with my expressions and body language makes me appear stoic, lost in thought as I look in the distance, poised and ready for action

I’ve got a light smile, which shows I’m somewhat happy, but the expression itself is somewhat melancholic, especially with the empty space and isolation displayed; somewhat bittersweet.

The choice of outfit tells the audience that I’m more of an edgy outcast than a follower of pop culture/clothing trends; going against conventions and norms of the current society.

The empty space behind leaves me isolated from anything else. In the image I make up half the photo, but there’s a lot of empty space around me, which conveys loneliness, or stoic fortitude.

A Mise En Scene is a way to convey emotions/a story, and the story conveyed is what attracts audiences towards the media. With this, I know how to utilize Mise En Scene, and how “setting the stage” helps with marketing and attracting audiences.

This is a collage of pieces of media that have been annotated, and assigned uses & gratifications. I have done this to learn what pieces of media I consume put across and how they entertain/keep people consuming. Each of these serve their own purpose, which is where the uses & gratifications comes in.

We all consume and produce media for our own reasons, whether it’s for learning, relaxing, or socialising, each piece of media has a specific aim to accomplish. This is how new and old audiences are attracted to things, especially when something has a history or long track record for a specific aim. For example, David Attenbouroughs’ documentaries serve to educate the masses, but also serve as entertainment. People know what they’re getting into through the brand, and genre of the media. This helps to segregate and catergorise media based on their aims. For music, it may be for P.I or Entertainment. Podcasts, it could be the latter or for education.

When creating my own media, I will now be able to reflect and advertise towards an intended audience and what they want to get out of media. If available, implementing all forms of uses & gratification will increase audience size, as it expands the benefits/rewards for consuming a specific piece of media. Knowing this, overall, I will be able to tailor products to specific audiences more effectively.

Organisation & Time Management Skills/Technologies:

• I can section and cordon of blocks of time to dedicate to work.
•  I often make use of alarms in order to remind me of deadlines or times to work.
• I hope I will be able to perfect my time management skills  over the next couple years, as I on occasion fail to keep up with my personally-set deadline.

Research & Planning Skills / Technologies:

• I enjoy researching, so this helps motivate me and give me more drive.
• When researching I utilise multiple sources in order to make my answer/work all the more factual and higher quality.
• I often make plans in my head as more of suggestions rather than a strict set of instructions I have to follow.
• My plans need to be set down more often, so I can create more cohesive plans in the future.

Creative Skills / Technologies:

• I can be creative with how I write as well as how I use programs such as Photoshop.
• I need to work on expanding my horizons for creativity, rather than thinking inside the box as much.

Transferable Skills/Technologies:

• I enjoy creating presentations and slideshows, as it helps me digest information quicker and more easily.
• My presentations tend to be on the shorter side in terms of amount of slides,;which is something I need to work on; however, the information I include is often the main chunk or points of information that needs to be presented and learnt.