on Below is my first draft for my contents page, giving the initial, general idea of how I want it to be laid out and the content I want to display, however of course I intend to add more on the lower half of the page. Nonetheless, I am happy with the product so far, especially in it’s continued conformity to the house style, as well as smaller details such as the model overlaying the title, contributing further to the rough, thrown-together style of the genre.
on A contents page serves an important role in a magazine, acting as a menu to the reader from which they can navigate and choose what they want to know more about. Due to this, it is important that information is clear, easy and engaging to read, without overloading them with information in a massive body of text; since readers go to a contents in order to decide if and what they want to read, not having to read a massive paragraph before they can even make that decision.
Some technical conventions of a contents page include;
Possible Headlines;
on Despite already having previous experience and knowledge with Adobe software, especially Photoshop, I have still managed to learn some new skills in both InDesign and Photoshop as I work on the magazine.
In Photoshop;
I have learnt to change the workspace style, in this case to Photography, in order to much better facilitate the actions I will take with my photos, and more easily find any toold I may want to use (such as burn, dodge, sponge etc). This allows me to work much more efficiently and therfore spend more time concentrating on creating high quality images rather than trying to find the right tools.
In InDesign;
Since I have less general experience with using InDesign compared to Photoshop, I have learnt many more skills as I used the software, gaining experience as I work. As a lot of the skills I knew from Photoshop were generally transferable, I have learnt a lot more about text formatting and editing since this isn’t as much of a focus in Photoshop. Notably, working with how text wraps can be applied around images (and in turn, how these text wraps can be removed for overlay text), as well as how to change line spacing and apply drop capitals.
By learning and utilising these skills I can better create more unique, stand out genre-specific imagery as I’m more comfortable with the software, allowing me, for example, to make the custom paper-tab assets seen on my cover page, fitting the rough-around-the-edges style of the punk/alternative genre and clearly conveying this idea to the viewer.
on After reflecting on my first draft, I have worked on it and developed it into an improved version. In doing so, I have successfully covered all the issues mentioned in the previous post, as well as adding extra details such as background graphics. Overall I am very happy with these improvements made, however still feel that there are a few areas that I could further improve after talking to my peers;
Side by side comparison:
on Once I finally had all the elements needed for it, I can begin putting them together as a double page spread, creating this first draft shown below.
Overall, I’m happy withe direction it’s going in, however can recognize where it needs to improve;
on To proceed and create a double page spread, I completed a second photo shoot in town, taking advantage of the environment and choosing to take more photos in the grungy, urban locations around the area such as a small sheltered alleyway with steps shown and a dark empty indoor market space. Both scenes were fitting to my genre in their reserved, out-of-the-public-eye location and muted, grey colours, making the bright yellow i used in the costumes and props stand out more. This lead to a successful shoot, shown below, which I feel the setting contributed nicely to and resulted in some usable and relevant photos.
From this shoot, I then narrowed it down and chose the nine best, as they were the most successful in terms of framing, focus, and lighting in order to convey the mood and genre.
And from these, eventually decided to use this one;
on After taking in the feedback given and reflecting on the points listed in my previous post I have created a final draft of my feature article content;
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Reinvented, refreshed and ready for action, previous Komodo Dragons frontman Luke Halker (guitarist and vocalist) joins together with Patrick Curk (drummer) to expand his career to focus on new horizons as they form the alternative punk musical duo that is Hazard, releasing their debut, self-titled album next month.
After announcing his decision to take a break from Komodo Dragons last year, Luke has finally made a return as he declares this collaborative project with Patrick Curk. This dynamic duo allegedly first sparked the idea for this two-piece band when Luke noticed Patrick’s potential and unique character as a drummer when visiting a local gig night, taking the young and spunky percussionist under his wing. We were lucky enough to catch the pair between rehearsals and recordings;
Had you known each other before or was this a case of band-at-first-sight?
Luke: “I’d seen him around before, living in the same town we’d crossed paths at a couple local gigs and have plenty of mutual friends, but I’d never really seen him drumming before until more recently. Since breaking off from KD, I’d been considering working on something new for a while, but wanted to find someone else who could bring a new spark to the sound, turns out this someone else was Patrick, immediately catching my attention with his drumming style, it wasn’t like any approach I’d seen before, it was exactly what I’d been looking for. From there I made sure to track him down after the gig, invited him to join me for a jam session and we hit it on straight away.”
What are your aims for this new project, what message are you trying to convey to the listeners?
Patrick: “Whilst Luke obviously has some previous experience, this’ll be my first major music release, so why not make something big of it? As a standard we want to make an impression to listeners and stand out from the crowd.”
Luke: “Exactly, we want to show people just how much we can achieve, even if there’s only two of us, creating a sound that’s refreshing, stand-out and unique. We don’t want to be limited by a specific genre or by having only two members, because our overall message for the album is to tell everyone that however small people are they can make a noise and be heard. Everyone deserves to be heard and acknowledged.”
Patrick: “ ..And when they are heard they can be a force to be reckoned with; a Hazard, if you will.”
What are your inspirations behind your new sound, are there any particular artists that have influenced you in making this happen?
Patrick: “Personally, I’ve always been inspired by Green Day, especially when covering a theme like this, inspired by some of the messages from Revolution Radio, as well as the inspiring amount of energy that Tré Cool [the drummer] has in all of their performances.”
Luke: “For me, I feel that there’s a whole collection of other influences rather than one pinpointed artist, for this project in particular I’ve been inspired by the powerful sound that Royal Blood can achieve with only two members, as well as the genre-defining style of My Chemical Romance, and how they can tell such a convincing and heartfelt story through their performance.”
After this release, do you have any plans for the future?
Luke: “We don’t want to reveal too much too soon, but there’s definitely some more big things coming up to do with this release that I’m very excited about…”
Patrick: “Definitely, not to give too much away, but I can say there’s a good chance of some concerts coming up that we’ve been looking forward to and working on for a while, as well as some potentially new merchandise releases that we’ve put a lot of effort and consideration into, in order to bring you something worth every penny! So watch this space and stay up to date with our social media [@haz_ard_band] for more information!”
Have no fear, as we at LFX magazine will be sure to keep you all updated as these two release some more info. You can also expect and album review in next month’s issue, as well as more regular updates on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to keep you in the loop!
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By making these changes I have made sure to include more information about upcoming projects to really create excitement in readers,a s well as generally ensuring the article remains engaging and interesting throughout as well as easy and clear to read.
on In order to create a proper double page spread I needed to create some content to fill it, that being a written article, as shown below. Whilst the whole text won’t be included on the page due to the formatting and size of it, I still made sure to write a full piece, including an introduction, context, the discussion/interview itself, a reference to the future of the project and a conclusion, directing the reader to further engagement if they’re interested.
Once the first draft was written I used a method of recording myself reading the article out loud to check that it all made grammatical sense and read clearly and easily, shown here;
Click to open full PDF
After some feedback and reflection from my teacher I feel that I need to include some more exclusive information / gossip to further draw the reader’s attention and make them feel as if they’re included in something more secretive and exciting by reading. I will do this by adding more information regarding the future of the band, without giving full details I will drop more hints to add intruige and build anticipation in the audience.
on Before writing my article in full, I first worked on this planning document in order to get a better idea of the format/structure I’m going to use and how the content of the magazine fits into it;
Research/Notes
| Possible Topics / Formats | Q&A
Interview New artists Release review |
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| Key Terms / Language | Genre specific terms, adjectives relating to the group’s newness and use of strong, confident vocabulary (use plosives?) and terms to reflect aggressive nature. | |
| Questions | Inspiration? Motivation? Plans? Writing process? Relationship? | |
| Uses and Gratifications | Reader wants to know more about the new group and learns about them from reading, with a general introduction followed by Q&A section the reader can align themselves with the perspective of the interviewer as they learn more about the music/band members in digestible sections. | |
Planning
| Topic
Introduce the issue – sum up what the reader is likely to discover in the article. |
”Reinvented, refreshed and ready for action, previous Komodo Dragons frontman Luke Halker (guitarist and vocalist) bands together with Patrick Curk (drummer) to expand his career to new horizons as they form the alternative punk musical duo that is Hazard.” | |
| Background – Context
The article is likely to outline a brief history of the person or event which the article concerns, so that readers are fully aware of the background facts… |
”After announcing his decision to take a break from Komodo Dragons last year, Luke has finally made a return as he declares this collaborative project with Patrick Curk. This dynamic duo allegedly first sparked the idea for this two-piece band when Luke noticed Patrick’s potential and unique character as a drummer when visiting a local gig night, taking the young and spunky percussionist under his wing.” | |
| Discussion, Q and A or interview.
The article is likely to return to the present-day situation at this point, discussing and giving different viewpoints of the person or event, with details and examples and quotations, and making comparisons with the past or with similar topics. The writer’s own viewpoint maybe inferred, alternative views might be given equal weight. |
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| Prediction – Future?
At this point the article may deal with the future developments or predicted outcome of the present situation: That the star will go on to become even more famous and successful, or that a current predicament will become worse if nothing is done about it. |
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| Conclusion
The article needs a neat conclusion, which may be an ironic reference or humorous comment, or an evaluation of the different viewpoints, or a reference back to the standfirst or a quotation from the star. |
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on In order to acheive a better understanding of what to feature in my own article, I looked to analyse the styles and language used in a real world article that covers a similar topic as I plan to; this being the construction a new band/group.
As a provided example by our teacher, I have analysed and commented on this article by Billboard magazine.
For a general overview, this article is written as an introduction to a new music group, beginning with a general description of the group and following into an interview with the members, the readers are introduced clearly to the who, what and why of the artists, including clear titles, photos and information to convey this. The attention is immedietley caught with the title spanning the length of the page, unconventionally formatted vertically to further draw attention, this is accompanied by clear photos of each band member as well as their names clearly listed above the article content itself. The introductory article is written in a third person voice, followed by the interview questions and answers that are written in first person from the perspective of the intervewer/band members respectively, this creates for the readers a clear view and outside look to contexualize and familiarize themselves with the characters of the band before they move to a more personal interaction with them, creating a natural progression and introduction to them as a new, upcoming group.
The reader is then drawn into the text itself, with an initial drop capital to catch their eye and make the beginning clear, the article sets the scene with a descriptive, narrative tone; “The three men gathered this sunny Memorial Day afternoon on a patio in Los Angeles could not, in some ways, be more different.” illustrates a clear image to the audience and sets them up to find out more, as they ask themselves what these differences are, and how, from this declarative statement, the three men came to form a band. From this opening sentance, the article immedietley answers these questions, satisfying the reader’s needs and describing each member individually to continue building a mental image of the scene and context. This descriptive, clear and declarative style fits well as an article as it clearly conveys to the reader’s the information they want to gain in a standard rhythm, as they are proposed an idea which is immedietly followed by it’s context/answer, consistently stimulating them as they read on and learn more.