contents

contents
Originally uploaded by Chris Haylett

college magazine

college magazine
Originally uploaded by Chris Haylett

soup magazine

soup magazine
Originally uploaded by Chris Haylett

college magazine cover analysis

Original Photos

These are all the original images which i took i havent used all of them as some looked better than others plus some of them were not suitable for the magazine.

Skills Development

(covers) before

after

These are the two front cover pages which i have created. the preliminary task of making a cover for the college magazine is a lot more basic design than my final music mag piece. There are many reasons for this mainly because of my skills on photoshop have improved a lot since when i started at the beginning of the year. firstly the more complex nature of title on my final peice is because i have found pictures of speakers and cut out parts and put them onto to my title text. This makes the letters of the text themselves looks like speakers i think it does this to good effect. i have also used the clone stamp tool from photoshop to help get rid of all the brand logos on show, this allows for the customers to not be distracted when looking at the cover on display.

(contents) before

after

These are my two contents page which i have made. Once again the final design for my music magazine is more complex than the first one. Firstly i have incorprated a picture as the backround image of my final page which takes up half of the page so it doesnt look stretched out i then filled in the other half of the page with a blue block then i used the gradient tool to blend in the picture and the colour block so it looks apart of the picture. The second techniques i used for my final contents page was changing my picture of one of the artists on the page to black and white. I think this adds a good efect to the page as the picture doesnt stand out too much from the rest of the page and distract the reader.   

Technologies

          

I have used many different technologies when i created my final peices. varing from adobe photoshop, flikr and blogger

 

 

Firstly from using photoshop i have learnt various manipulative and editing techniques. All these new techniques i have learned helped me to add my own personal style to my magazine and give it an almost professional look which could look believeable. It has also helped me when cutting out the backdrop of the photos because i could smoothen the edges of the image to make it look like it hadn't been cut out. When i used flikr it allowed me to upload my pictures to my blog and also it allowed me to annotate them by highlighting the specific partsonce you have done all this you can access the picture and the annotations through clicking on the link on my blog. Blogger is the free online blog which i have used to upload all my work onto the internet. it allows me to keep all my work in order and displays everything for people to see. 

Addressing my Target Audience

My product speaks the language of the my taget audience because it is easy to read and uses the sort of language a 16-21 year old can understand. the style of the magazine attracts the readers because of the simplicty of the design and the text is easy to read. This also helps when people are looking at the magazine from a distance as the text will be clearly visable and not an eye sore. my audience would like to be asociated with buying my magazine as it has a cool name and has all  the latest chart music news available.
My magazine's uniques selling point is by showing large pictures of related artists which the audience like on the front cover of the magazine each month.

Artist picture is key selling point

Target Audience

This is an example of a person from my target audience. This sort of person has an interest in hip hop and RnB music. They also like to visit all the latest gigs and festivals where all their favourite artist are playing. when it comes to fashion they are a great lover of fashionable brands and like to spend money whenever they have it.

I think people should buy my magazine because it gives you all the latest news about all the latest artists around. it also tells you about all the latest fashion trends and cheap deals on clothes and outfits. It also gives people an insight on who will be playing where and when in the upcoming months. This will keep the audience wanting to buy my magazine every time a new issue comes out, to see what is going on in the music world.

There will many types of products advertised in my magazine ranging from hair products to the latest video game releases this will be very helpful for the businesses to put these adverts in because the people who read my magazine will want to buy their products.

Media Institution

Every magazine has publisher which makes it, depending on the size of this publishing company will entirely decide how successful your magazine through the publicity it may receive.

There are many different publishers out there some are larger than others. Firstly there are large companies such as IPC which is the current publisher of NME magazine, IPC is owned by time warner which is one of the biggest multinational media companies in the world. There are also large private publishing organisations such as bauer which is the biggest in europe. The third type of publishing company which could be used is a medium sized publisher or you could even make your own publishing company just to make your magazine.

          

There are many different advantages and disadvantages for choosing a certain publisher over another. If i was two choose a large company such as IPC i will have the advantage of being published by a large company and therefore will have publicity but they're maybe too much competition for my magazine to be a success, i may no have enough independance when finalising the print. Whereas if i was to go down the root of using a smaller publishing company i may not have as much publicity but i will have more independance when editing the magazine because it wont be big international company publishing it. If i were to choose a publisher i would pick IPC over bauer because they have a lot more competion for similar magazines. I may not have as much independance this wont matter because i believe that there experiance and knowhow will help it become a success.

Representation of Social Groups

The type of social group which my magazine represents is casuals. I looked at a demographic profile and psychographic one to analyse what appeals to this type of social group. I firstly looked at the demographic profiling which gave me information such as they like to spend when they can and the typical age range is around 16-21 year olds who will be intersted in my magazine. I then moved onto the psychographic profile of the social group and found that they are a lover of fashionable brands and are fans of video gaming. all this profiling of the people who would read my magazine is very helpful especially when you are considering the advertisements to use in the magazine itself.

       magazine image                         my image taken                    

There are quite noticeable differences between my photo and the one from the magazine which i looked at such as the look of the two people and the pose. I didn't want to copy the magazine cover so i took it as inspiration for the shot size which is a medium close up showing waist up. The magazine picture also gave me the idea for the gaze of looking at us; i wanted to use this for the look i needed. Which moves me onto that i have used a young person on the front cover of my magazine to reinforce that the audience who will be reading my magazine are mainly of the age range 16-21 year old. I believe my magazine is pro-consumerist which it means it focuses on advertising fashion and lifestyle of my audience, it shows them tips and whats cool to be wearing and what they can do for fun.  

         

CONVENTIONS

Conventions are an important thing to consider when designing any media product. They make a media product recognisable. When I started designing my music magazine I had to consider what the conventions were for magazines, these are things such as the masthead this is the main title for the magazine. There is also a picture located normally in the centre of the front cover. The picture is normally a medium close up of a person. There are also many cover lines on your generic magazine cover. They offer you an insight into the things you will find inside the magazine to get you to pick it up and buy it. You also have the main cover line which normally relates to the picture in some way, this is normally a lot larger than the other cover lines so it is easier to identify it with the picture.  

There are also many forms of conventions to follow when making a double page spread article. Firstly there is the article itself which is the body text of the pages, it is normally separated into a layout of gutters which split the text into thin columns on the page.  It is also conventional to use a drop cap at the start of the article to indicate where to start reading.  These pages also contain pull quotes which are enlarged pieces of the article which are chosen to get people to be interested in it. A main part of it is also a large picture which takes up a fair amount of the spread.

The type of genre I chose for my magazine was hip hop/R&B.  When I was planning my magazine, I looked at many different types which are already around to try and inspire me and give me ideas for my final pieces. For the front cover for instance I took a liking to a magazine called vibe I liked the type of picture which was on the cover and I also liked the fairly simple but structured layout.

I also used the picture on the right hand side to inspire me for idea of my double page spread I liked the way it was laid out with all text on the right side while the pictures and the title are on the left hand side.

CONNOTATIONAL ANALYSIS 

Cover page

·         My cover page has its masthead located at the top of the page above the picture to help illustrate to people what my magazine is called. It is bold to help stand out and for people to easily read it.

·         It has a picture which takes up most of the page which is a medium close up of the person who is a part of the main cover line of the magazine.

·         The page also has many other cover lines which are located on the right or the left side of the picture which is centrally positioned this is to keep with the main structure of the cover in giving it that neat look.

·         The final things at the bottom of the page are the bar code and date line which are located in the right hand bottom corner of the page this also goes along with the neat look I am going for with the cover.

Contents page

·         Firstly the contents title is located on the left hand side of the page with along with the logo of the magazine. The reason for this not being central is that you can see the picture which is located directly bellow

·         I also decided to locate the text and the picture of an act to be located in the bottom half of the page. This allows for the reader to be able to see the background of the music stage and then to still see the text clearly bellow that.

·         Using the contrast of a blue background with yellow text works well as the text stands out extremely well from the background.  

Double Page Spread

·         The text of the article is located on the page on the right hand side.  I have set it out by dividing it into two separate gutters, this is a typical convention when making a double page spread article in a magazine.

·         I also have managed to put two pull quotes from the article onto the pages one on the left hand side and one on the right. These quotes are a different colour so they stand out and allow you to get a taste of the article.