Front Page Layouts

To further understand the front cover of a magazine – I compiled 10 magazine front covers that I liked the look of.

One aspect that I am interested in including in my magazine would be the use of image manipulation. This would allow me to create depth in my magazine and it would let me have a front cover that is unique and appealing to the eye. In particular, I like the ‘Clash’ magazine, this is due to the image manipulation being detailed, well thought out, and put together. I feel that the use of image manipulation to create a collage creates a quirky and eccentric look to the magazine, and this would appeal to my target audience.

Furthermore, I especially like the typeface used in the ‘Elle’ magazine. I feel that not only does the light blue colour give it a playful, youthful look – the addition of the angled text adds to the joyful mood and further uplifts the magazine. Not only this, I like the main cover star’s pose and positioning on the front cover due to it being compelling and not what you typically see. I also like how the model is incorporated into the masthead – as this makes the magazine look more put together.

Another thing I love is the layout of the ‘Aaliyah’ magazine, I feel it is unique and comprehensive with the addition of the four image boxes along the bottom of the page. This adds depth and dimension to the magazine – making it look more intriguing and striking. Moreover, I love the colour scheme of the magazine cover, it is subtle yet still effective.

Focus Forward

This task has enabled me to understand different aspects of magazine front covers that I liked the look of. It has allowed me to recognise why the designers made certain decisions and the impact they have. It has also shown me different ideas I could include in my magazine and helped me make some design decisions. In my magazine, I will definitely include image manipulation and have a unique masthead to create a cohesive magazine that appeals to my target audience.

Star Image – theirs and mine

In this task I analysed how Lorde is presented in the media to understand how a star of my genre uses the media. This helped me understand the key features of how to use the media to promote yourself and your work. I also created a ‘My picture perfect design’ to plan my photoshoot for my magazine cover.

By analysing Lorde and how she uses the media, allowed me to understand that she is both ordinary and extraordinary. This can be supported by Richard Dyer’s Paradox of the Star theory, where we could depict a star’s image through two key paradoxes, such as the star being absent yet present. Furthermore, we can use the metanarrative to portray the star’s presence in media. I found this task extremely helpful as it allowed me to highlight the dos and don’ts for when I will present my cover star. It also let me have an insight into different opportunities an artist in my genre would take up.

On the second slide, I created a mood board to describe my ideal scenario for my first front cover shoot. I came up with a colour scheme and began planning what my pictures would look like. This helped me because it allows me to have a fixed idea and not worry or stress If I didn’t have a particular vision. I will use this slide to help me take my images.

 

My Audience Profile

To help me further understand my target audience, I created a dating profile of an individual that would be the perfect audience member for my indie pop magazine.

I also used a website called ‘YouGov’ to analyse data and marketing information that helped inform who my target audience would be (see slide 2). I found this website extremely helpful as there are many artists to choose from, and it gives you a deeper understanding of your audience. It allowed me to discover different interests that my audience members had, such as a love for smoothies.

This profile allowed me to refine the demographics and psychographics of a perfect audience member and gave me new ideas for my music magazine to help it appeal to the target audience. Not only this, it helped me understand the different uses and gratifications of why somebody would want to read a music magazine and gave reasons for it. All of this information in the future will allow me to create a comprehensive music magazine that fits all of my audience’s needs.

So what am I up against – the competition?

To understand the genre further I created a piktochart to discuss and analyze the competition that is present within the indie genre. It gives an insight into the general conventions of an indie music magazine and informs me on some things that I will include in my magazine.

Focus Forward 

This task allowed me to understand the key conventions of a indie music magazine. It allowed me to recognize the good and bad features and make some decisions on how I can make my magazine unique and well put together.  I will use this information in the future to ensure I have included the key characteristics of an indie magazine and improve my work.

Branding Ideas/Marketing Strategy + Mission Statement

To begin brainstorming about my indie pop magazine, I created a word cloud to highlight different words, ideas and artists that relate to my chosen genre. I also decided on a name, I wanted the name of the magazine to be a word that reflected the ethos of my magazine and that has good connotations – the word I chose was ‘Elation‘. 

Mission Statement

Here at Elation, our aim is to create a feel good, fun and artistic magazine that provides opportunities for smaller artists and those who are looking for that ‘break’. We hope to empower and inspire people to be their true selves and be apart of a wider community. We are passionate about the content we create and aspire to do good in the world. If you’re looking for an authentic magazine that keeps you up to date with the latest indie pop music news – then elation is for you.

My Tour Poster

We used images previously taken in the ‘My image that uses mise-en-scene to communicate meaning’ post and created a tour poster. We used Photoshop and Indesign to create our posters – my genre was punk.

Focus Forward 

I have learnt a lot doing this task, not only have I explored the Punk genre and learnt the key conventions, I have also learnt several photoshop and Indesign tips and tricks that will help me make my music magazine in the future. In photoshop I learnt how to accurately cut out a model and have no background, to do this I used the mast tool where unlike the magic wand you can accurately select and remove different parts of the image. It also helps with different hair types as curly hair can be difficult to cut out. I also learnt on photoshop how to make an image black and white whilst also leaving part of the image in colour – I feel this really uplifted my final design. Moreover, I learnt how to download fonts from the internet and put them into Indesign, I did this with the masthead font and I will also do this when I create my magazine so that I have unlimited options to make it the best it possibly can be.

My Magazine Front Page Swede

With this task we took an original copy of a magazine and replicated it on a software called indesign. We aimed to manipulate every detail and learn the key tools and skills required to create our magazines in the future.

My Magazine Swede

Original Magazine

I feel that I made a good attempt at replicating the NME magazine, I think the overall look of the magazine is replicated well and that I made good progress in learning how to use Indesign.

I particularly like how I created, represented and replicated the ‘Foo Fighters’ pug. To do this I created a circle, placed it in the corner of the page and coloured it a dark burgundy to match the border of the picture. I then added the text and chose a typeface that matched the original copy best. Next, I then rotated the text to add a slight angle. All together I feel that this is the most accurate replication on my magazine.

The masthead on my magazine is slightly incorrect, this is due to me not finding the correct typeface to use as we had a limited selection of fonts. Next time I will find a more accurate font online and download it to create a better replication. Not only this, the text also needs to be thicker.

The cover lines on the magazine in the top right corner have the correct and accurate proportions. In addition, the highlight behind the text matches the original copy well. I think that the title text (white highlight) matches almost perfectly. However, the text below does not match as well and next time I will have to find a more precise font.

A part of my magazine that didn’t go as well would be the main cover line, I feel that the typeface is not accurate and that the proportions are slightly off. Next time, I would reduce the height of the ‘F’ and the ‘L’ due to it not matching the original copy of the magazine, I would also choose a bolder typeface.

Another feature that could’ve been better would’ve been the caption underneath the main cover line, this is because even though I feel the typeface is correct I didn’t manipulate it in the correct way. Next time I would make it larger and make it more spread out.

One thing I do like is the colour scheme match, I feel the orange background matches up well but could be a little lighter and brighter. I think the burgundy/black colour matches well but could still be slightly darker.

By doing this task I learnt the basic skills and knowledge required to use Indesign, I will apply this learning and understanding when I make my own music magazine. One feature of the programme I particularly liked would’ve been the wide variety of fonts to choose from, I will use this to make my music magazine better and add more depth. However, I still have some areas that I need to work on, these include things such as image placement and text manipulation.

Some tutorials I will use to improve my skills…

A Front Cover Analysed – Attracting ‘that’ audience

See below my front cover analysed…

From this task I have learnt key tricks and ideas to support my magazine production and make my work of a higher standard. I understand how a key target audience must be identified to create a successful magazine otherwise the key messages may get confused. I chose this magazine because I show an interest in music and therefore I would’ve been the key target audience. I have also learnt the difference between the audience demographic and psychographics and how they are important to convey a key message.

Conventional Design Features of a Magazine

We annotated a photo of a magazine cover to annotate the main technical design features.

These features include:

  • Masthead – The main heading and title of the magazine
  • Plug – Selling points of a magazine eg. the best magazine ever
  • Pug – Used to catch the audiences eye can be a graphic or symbol
  • Captions – Writing to describe an inset
  • Main Cover Star – Picture about the main article eg. a person
  • Cover Lines – Other articles that the magazine contains, however aren’t as important as the main article
  • Inset –  A small picture in the corner of the page
  • Main Cover Line – The main article that the magazines focuses on, usually has the biggest text
  • Issue/Date
  • Price
  • Barcode

This is the magazine we annotated, we learned and understood all the different features of a magazine and will use this analysis to help us better understand the magazines that we will make. However, we did make a mistake and the label ‘caption’ should be ‘cover lines’.

The Camera Talks

This is my mood board of different angles and framing.

From this task I have learnt and understood how camera angles and different shots can portray the mise-en-scene of a photo. I particularly like the canted angles and how that adds variation to the images. Not only this I like how the light is reflecting onto our model, I feel this adds another dimension to the photo.

We used a range of different shots that included:

  • Extreme Long Shot
  • Long Shot
  • Medium Long Shot
  • Mid Shot
  • Medium Close Up
  • Close up
  • Big Close Up
  • Extreme Close Up

By using these shots we continue to add another layer of meaning onto the image adding depth. Furthermore, we used a camera grid to ensure that the models were positioned at the points of interest (where the lines crossed) to make them of better quality. We also used a a range of different angles which included: high angle, low angle and straight on. The high angle portrayed to the audience that the subject was in danger and scared. However, with a low angle shot it conveys the message that the subject is of power and is dominant.