Front Cover

This is my front cover. This is the most important part of my magazine as it sets the first impression of it. A magazine front cover should have a big bold attractive Masthead and other details. My front cover has a very attractive and eye-catching masthead which I made my self-using Photoshop and After-Effect. My masthead is multi coloured outlines and has a chrome coloured text. This combination is excellent for artistic and exciting look. I have an eyebrow article advert to show that the magazine is very detailed in a professional way. The masthead is in the middle and the letter ‘A’ goes behind and around the Artist hoody to split the reader’s attention to the 2 columns on article adverts. For the cover’s main article I have chosen to go with a new artist review as it is more suited to go with the theme of Appling an image to the front cover. This model/artist agreed for me to take pictures of her in my college’s photo studio. I have used my Photoshop skills to edit her features to suit my front cover. Her style and fashion shows she is a Hip-Hop/ R’n’B artist. I have done this to represent the main genre of mu magazine.

Contents Page

This is one of the most important parts on my magazine as a potential buyer will judge the magazine on its content so it is expected of a contents page to give as much information about the content without giving away the actual content in a short and simple line for each part and be very attractive. I have done exactly that. In my contents page has simple yet detailed introduction to each article my magazine would have. I have given clear page numbers on the contents page. In terms in attraction, I have carried the trend of pink outlined text from the front cover as it shows style and is very striking. The page numbers are in red to be carried on to the Double Page Spread background which will be red. The red stands out and it introduces a new colour scheme. The background was planned to be just plain black. But as there is not much text on the contents page, the background must be interesting. So I gave it a gradient background from black to grey (top to bottom) and to give it some extra ‘kick’ I applied a pixelated and bubbly effect to it using Photoshop to top it off I added some images to some of the articles to show what they are about and to make the contents page more relatable to the articles. This made the contents page some character and made it very professional.  The main change was the actual layout. Before I was going to use the plan (which is in a post below) but I changed it to a list format. I did this after some research where I found  that it is more easier to read. Also there were too much content to fit into the plan and the list format was the best way to present so many titles with the images.

Double Page Spread

My double page features an article about the latest album releases. I can across the idea when I was doing research on music magazine features. I thought this idea was very good as it has a connection to the genre of my magazine and it is something many readers would find interesting. Latest gossip and latest news is what my audience desires. My audiences want to know all the latest news and this article is the best way. My mind came across many other ideas such as gossip on celebrities, upcoming Artist reviews and interviews but the album review idea outshone the other ideas as it was the most relevant to my audience. The layout was designed this way as it made the article look less confusing and more attractive. The bright red background goes well with the magazine as it is a bold colour and I have been using bold colours like red throughout the magazine. The main point is that each review is my own honest opinion on each magazine. I had some of the albums and I borrowed the others so that I can listen and I can review them. I scanned the album covers in so that the reviews have an image to tie in together. The images make the article less bulky and more enjoyable to read. The album; ‘The E.N.D’ was on my friends album so I thought I can take an image of the that to show music being played on an IPod which ‘cross promote’ my advert.

Advertisement 

This is My Advert that will go opposite the contents page. I have tried to lay it out like most magazines do. As the contents page is very important, it is a good I idea to put an advert opposite it to attract the attention of readers. The image is my own. I borrowed my friend’s new IPod touch and made it into an advert. The reason I choose an IPod is because my magazine is about music, so it was wise to do an advert that has a relationship with music. Also my research shows many IPod owners are teens and young adults who happen to be a part of my target audience. The IPod touch logo is also my own creation although I tried to make it similar to the original. My first idea was to advertise my own brand of headphones but as I designed it, it started to look plain, unappealing and unrealistic so I decided to change the whole concept.

Evaluation

Punit Patel Evaluation

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Mock Ups/Plans

 

This is the plan for the front cover. I have designed this layout as it is very practical and it works well with the concept of a Hip-Hip/R’n’B magazine. It is well spaced out but it have a few cramped areas the cramp look is well suited to my magazine.

 This is the Contents page. I have designed it like this as it is quite spaced out. Also the contents page shouldn’t be too detailed as it is mainly used to give the audience a ‘taste‘ of what the articles are about so I have left space to add images to represent the articles

This is my main double page. The layout suits the article as my article is a review on the latest hip-hop/R’n’B albums. I have chosen to do this article because it appeals to my target audience and it is quite practical as it is information people want to know about. The layout suites the article as it is orders and it has sections for the album reviews, however I am still debating where to make it a normal latest album review article of to make it a top ten albums review article.

Frontcover Image

For my front cover I have taken a photo of my friend Leoni Wick. I took this photo in a Photography Studio in my college. I have chosen to take a photo of her as fellow media students and I think her outfit and herself portray a hip-hop symbol which is best suited for my magazine as my target audience are hip-hop and R’n’B fans. For example, She is wearing a Hoody with the hood up, many Hip-hop/R’n’B Artists like Eminem have this style too. The photography studio in my college Have a plain green canvas as it is ideas for editing the background which is what I plan to do in Adobe Photoshop CS4/5.   

Masthead Ideas and Main Masthead

Masthead Ideas

These 4 mastheads were primary ideas for a masthead that will comply with my music magazine and that will attract my target audience. I tried to use colourful and interesting themes for the masthead yet the 4 ideas were not attractive. The first idea was created to show simplicity but the bright green colour was too bright and did not suit the theme of my magazine. The second idea was a good concept but the chrome colour did not attract my target audience. From this point I thought of using a more mixed theme. This led me to idea 3 where I used 3 different colours and a more attractive effect of flames. Idea 4 was just an experiment of simplicity but with a range of multi colours but yet again it became too simple.

 Main Masthead

 

Then I came across this design I instantly knew that this design was perfect. It was eye-catching and attracting my target audience. The multicolour theme was used very well and the design tied in well with the colour scheme well. I prefer this design rather than design 3 because it uses more colours and I received more positive feedback for this one from my peers in my media class. I have decided to make this my main design for my masthead, now all I need is a front cover image of photograph.

Preliminary Exercise

Preliminary Exercise

Front Cover

Contents Page

 

The Preliminary Exercise gave me an opportunity to use Adobe Indesign. the exercise was to to create a front cover and contents page of a college magazine. The exercise allowed me to became familiar with the software so i can use it for my music magazine. In the exercise, i had to take my own photographs to put up on our front cover, this helped by introducing me to different photo shot sizes and different types of meanings and connotational effects that some shots portray. Also at the very beginning, my first task on Adobe Indesign was to duplicate a double page spread feature from a local magazine. this helped me understand basic functions on Adobe Indesign. When it comes to making my own music magazine, the preliminary exercises have helped me understand Adobe Indesign and will have made it easier for me to use the software.

AS MEDIA STUDIES

CASE STUDY

ANALYSIS OF CONTENT AND DESIGN OF A MUSIC MAGAZINE

By Punit Patel

Analysis of the Front Cover

The photo on the front cover is a medium shot. The portrait shot is of Eminem based in the middle, taking up most of the page. The image is important because it is of a musician that many readers can relate to. Eminem is an iconic symbol as the photo represents his image. The shot looks like it is taken when Eminem was in a live concert, this represents him as an authentic musician.  The image attracts the public because it is very large and is of a known famous rapper. We know what is inside the magazine because on the ‘ears’ of the magazine, it reveals popular topics inside. The information is arranged in a disorganised fashion, Eminem’s photo is overlapped by his name and a title of his article. Then some other article titles are displayed in the ears. It has been arranged like this so it can attract people and also let them know what is in the magazines. Black, White and red colours have been used. They have been used as they are dark colours as the colour scheme relates to Eminem’s clothing. These  colours conflict against the conventional colours of the magazine as the title and the subheading are in white and bright red which are bright colours.  Eminem is an iconic symbol as the photo represents his image. Although the barcode is not a sign, it is displayed so that information like number of buyers can be monitored and recorded buy the publishers. Eminem’s photo is an iconic symbol of Rap. appeals to the public as some people listen to his music. The Masthead (NME Logo) is in white. It is significant because it is bright and so it stands out from the dark background. The Masthead is in “Arial” and the subheadings are in “Sans Serif”. The bold font for the masthead is chosen because it is attractive and eye catching. And the subheadings are quite plain so it can easily be read. The barcode has the website address which is www.nme.com. The website is cross media promoting the NME radio, magazine and television. The price of the magazine is £2.30. The price is stated above the masthead, top left and on the barcode. It is predominantly for males with a cross over of females. The language is quite informal so people with high to mid classes can follow(A,B,C1). The producers are IPC media. IPC media cross owns and publishes other magazines such as ‘look’, ‘tv times’ and ‘nuts’.

Contents Page

The denotation of this page is: there is a small picture of Eminem, an image of a singer, Yannis, and a picture of a band. It has been laid out in columns. The connotations’ are; the 3 columns show the magazine is neat and organised, each part in the contents page has an image to represent it unlike standard content pages. The use of different fonts and sizes differentiate the mentioned articles to make each individual and important. Also if all the article summaries were in one font, the readers wouldn’t be interested in the contents page and therefore not interested in the magazine, Most pictures are the same size, but some are bigger than others, this may be because the bigger pictures represent more interesting or larger stories and the smaller pictures represent quick reviews and stories/articles.

 Arial is used the titles as it is a bold font. Images of bands and artists are on the contents page because they relate to the articles, this is ideal as the readers don’t want to waste time reading each article to see what each one is about. The images represent the bands but in different ways, for instants, Page 40 it represented by a photo of RPA and the united nations of sound all looking directly at the camera lens to give an effect as if they were looking at the audience, as if they were trying to connect to them. The language in the contents page is quite basic so it is easily read quickly. For example; “T in the park”, it is basic and is detailed. The Contents page has no connotation in it as all the images of the bands and artists. The contents page it simply tells the reader what is coming in the magazine. This is efficient as the readers are rockers and informal young people who are the main target audience. The contents page only uses black and white, white for the background and black for the text, the black is a good colour for text as it is bold and eye-catching, the white background compliments it to make it ‘stick out’ more.

Double-Page Spread

The plan of the double page spread shows pictures in definite angles and the article is laid out into eight different columns. Moreover, approximately one quarter of the page on the right side of the page is taken up by a picture featuring the “Bombay Bicycle Club”. Pull quotes next to the pictures adds an emphasis for younger readers as they would read these quotes first then they would read the article fully as they may be interested and may want to know more about the article itself. The article name and pictures connote that the “Bombay Bicycle Club” are performing for the love of music rather than the fame and the money which is what most of today’s artists do. There are many columns in the article because the article is portraying the front cover of NME, making the article appear to have a great amount of information. There is also footer at the bottom of the page to show that the article is consistent of NME magazine. The colours of the magazine are very colourful (orange and white) this is a total opposite colour scheme to the rest of the magazine, which shows that the article is most likely to be different than the rest of the magazine, it represents a change.            

Nme analysis final