Final Post - Note to examiner

Hi. I hope you have enjoyed reading through my blog. Throughout this time of making my magazine, I have learnt lots about new techniques and my creativity skills have improved vastly.
Thank you.
Pat Mills.
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Front Cover

Contents Page

Double Page Spread

Preliminary Magazine Cover

Preliminary contents

Evaluation question 1 - Final

Evaluation question 2 - Final

Evaluation question 3 - Final

Bauer Media on Prezi

Evaluation question 4 - Final

My audience would be fairly typical for the alternative music genre. They would be interested in fashion and culture. Would often attend musical gigs/festivals. As it is aimed at a fairly young audience they would mainly be students from universities. The clothing these people would wear would be brands such as Edwin, Farah, adidas originals, reebok, Dr Denim and other vintage clothing. Music they would listen to be would be artists like Crystal Fighters, The Maccabees, Foals, The xx, The Strokes and other guitary/synth bands. Other interests would be Dj’ing, art and technology.

Evaluation question 5 - Final

To attract my audience, of young alternative people, on my front cover, I made sure that my masthead stood out. At first I had a font with quite thin letters, so making this wider made it stand out more, making it more aesthetically pleasing, which would result in a greater attraction Mentioning well known artists on the cover would also help to attract to fans as my target audience would be interested in these artists, giving the magazine a bigger draw. Also mentioning such a large festival such as Glastonbury will draw in and attract to the audience, as it is likely that members of my target audience would have been to the festival. Putting an appealing photo on was key, so using an attractive model helped to relate to the audience. Also, using the shadow feature helped as it adds a sense of mystery, making people want to read on, attracting the audience. The unique selling point for my magazine was that not only do you get a music magazine, you also get pictures to a high standard, which have a very artistic feel to them. People in my target audience are interested in art, so will find this a nice feature

In my contents it was quite similar to the style of Esquire, which might not be a predominant music magazine, but has elements that I wanted to incorporate into my magazine. Members of my target audience will probably look at Esquire for fashion and art, so I felt that this would attract them well. Having a large page spread also will attract readers as they will be interested in some of the elements. 

On my double page spread, I chose to have a simplistic feel, as when I have spoken to people who would be in my target audience, they said this was the best layout. Also the pose is similar to pop artists, so this would draw in another genre of audience. It is also fairly conventional for a music magazine, similar to a double page spread that Mojo or Q would run, making it fit in with the current market.

In addition to this I used the social networking site twitter and a small questionnaire to gain information on what my target audience would want from the product. The feedback I got was that they wanted a simplistic magazine, full with information. They also wanted to pages to look creative and be different compared with other music magazines. 


After showing my friends, who would be part of the target audience my final magazine, their comments were;

• "I like the double page spread a lot, the positioning of the text boxes and the photo make it look realistic"
• "The contents is a bit messy, could do with tidying up. But other than that looks nice and realistic, could be a real magazine"
• "I like the front cover a lot, looks quite different, but would fit in well in a mag shop"

Evaluation question 6 - Final

Evaluation question 7 - Final

Evaluation DRAFT is BELOW!

Below this is the draft evaluation, above this is my final evaluation.

Evaluation question 7

Compared with my preliminary task, my overall magazine is a completely different standard. Firstly the cut out of my model was poor, looking jagged at the edges. Also the size of the photo is not fitting, with a lot of space available. The cover-lines just look randomly scattered and there is too much unused space. Also the fonts look like they should be used in the title and the font used for my masthead is too basic.

Compared with my front cover now I feel i have a good quality image, with a near perfect cutting. I have also added the shadow effect which brings another element to my magazine. The masthead is bolder, with a gradient making it look more interesting. The cover-lines are positioned better, making it look more like a music magazine.

On my contents page for my preliminary magazine, there is only a small page spread, and the information is brief. The photos have no real relevance and the alignment is poor.

With my contents page now, I have used a very large page spread and the pictures are relevant to the stories. The page numbers are aligned at i have added the masthead at the top. Also I have used some more fonts to make it look more interesting rather than the same font throughout. 

In my double page spread, before I would not have been able to do it to such a high standard, but because of me developing my photoshop skills, I ahve managed to produce a far better piece.

Evaluation question 6

In this task I have used many technologies. I used a nikon d40 camera to take my photos with, which I borrowed off my friend. This part of technology was something i had to learn, as I had never really used a camera. I also relied heavily on my MacBook Pro, using it for blogging and then photoshop when making my magazine.

Evaluation question 5

To attract my audience on my front cover, I made sure that my masthead stood out. At first I had a font with quite thin letters, so making this wider made it stand out more, making it more aesthetically pleasing, which would result in a greater attraction Mentioning well known artists on the cover would also help to attract to fans, giving the magazine a bigger draw. Also mentioning such a large festival such as Glastonbury will draw in and attract to the audience. Putting an appealing photo on was key, so using an attractive model helped to relate to the audience. Also, using the shadow feature helped as it adds a sense of mystery, making people want to read on, attracting the audience. The unique selling point for my magazine was that not only do you get a music magazine, you also get pictures to a high standard, which have a very artistic feel to them.

In my contents it was quite similar to the style of Esquire, which might not be a predominant music magazine, but has elements that I wanted to incorporate into my magazine. Having a large page spread also will attract readers as they will be interested in some of the elements. 

On my double page spread, having that simplistic feel shoudl attract my audience, as some will be interested in art. Also the pose is similar to pop artists, so this my draw in another genre of audience. It is also fairly conventional for a music magazine, similar to a double page spread that Mojo or Q would run, making it fit in with the current market.

Evaluation question 4

My audience would be fairly typical for the alternative music genre. They would be interested in fashion and culture. Would often attend musical gigs/festivals. As it is aimed at a fairly young audience they would mainly be students from universities. The clothing these people would wear would be brands such as Edwin, Farah, adidas originals, reebok, Dr Denim and other vintage clothing. Music they would listen to be would be artists like Crystal Fighters, The Maccabees, Foals, The xx, The Strokes and other guitary/synth bands. Other interests would be Dj’ing, art and technology.

Evaluation question 3

A publishing company is like the manager of the magazine. Companies will watch over the editorial, production, circulation and sales. Some publishing companies take a hands on approach, getting involved as editors. However some publishing companies take a back seat role, allowing the magazine companies to deal with the editorial phase, as it can cause conflict as publishers want lots of advertising. 

The distributor I would use would be bauer media as it has big magazines such as Q an Mojo on their books. However I feel that my magazine is a little bit different  so would be better, as if it was on IPC media, NME’s distributing company, it would struggle as NME would take priority as they were quite similar.

Evaluation question 2

Evalaution question 1

For my magazine, I chose a fairly unconventional title. When researching words i could use I looked at music related jargon, but I felt that none worked for my magazine. So I choose to use “vuze” as my title, as it rhymes with the word news, giving off the suggestion that it has news. It also sounds like the word “views” relating to the audiences views, showing that is going to be an opinionated magazine. For my title font I used the website da font to look around. The fonts I looked at all had a simplistic feel, but I wanted to make sure that it stood out, so used one with quite thick letters. I also manipulated my title font in photoshop, adding a gradient and a slight shadow. My magazine title does challenge some conventions as it used a word which is not that related to music, making it unconventional.

The graphology I used on my page was quite conventional for a music magazine. On the front cover, I had my masthead in the top left hand cover, a mid-shot of my model in the centre, I then had most of my cover lines in the upper third of my magazine. I also put a small issue number in the top right hand corner and in the bottom right hand corner put a barcode with pricing above. For my contents, I went for a fairly standard layout in the left side, with a list of features. At the top I put my masthead and then on the right, put some stand out pages, with photos for all. On the double page spread I went for a fairly conventional method, putting the image on the left of the page, with the band name above and then the actual article on the right. Also in the bottom corners I put the page number and other small details.

The outfit I used for my model, was very fitting for the alternative/indie music genre. I based her look on the way Laura May-Carter (Blood Red Shoes) and Coco Summer (I Blame Coco). Both these artists have male influences in the way they dress as they are often seen wearing shirts, but with female touches. I decided against the use of props in my photos, as I felt that the best way to draw all attention to the model would be to just have her, on a white background. I also tried to incorporate her personality on the photos, for example on the double page spread where the model is winking. This is similar to pop artists such as Katy Perry and Rihanna. It shows her tongue-in-cheek view to pop music.

The camera angles I used for my front cover were mainly mid-shots, as I felt these were most appropriate, so that most of the attention was on the model, but some attention fell to over cover lines. For these midshots I used a variety of angles and it resulted me having 2 photos that I could have used for my front cover; one being straight on midshot and the other take slightly to the left, which was the one I chose as it was a more attractive photo. For the contents I used a distant shot for one picture, as I felt the background helped to make the photo significant, as it links into the unknown genre of music the band play. The photo of Julez was a close up and I feel it was a good photo to you, as the eyes are directly into the camera, and the angle shows the audience as if they are looking down on her. The photo of the festival review shows two stereotypical of my target genre, at the festival. Having the background with festival-goers in adds to the realism element.

The masthead font I used was a font called “beer”. I felt it was nice and simple, but was quite bold and stood out for the magazine. I aslo maipulated the font in photoshop, adding a slight gradient. Other fonts I used on my front cover were fairly basic (dusseldorf and helvetica). Both these fonts fitted well into my magazine. For my title I used the font “antidotes”. I felt theat it was quite edgy, fitting in with my model’s style and also feel it suited the simplistic feel on my magazine. Throughout the rest of my magazine I kept these fonts. On the contents I mainly used dusseldorf, with antidotes on the page numbers. On my double page spread I again used antidotes, with helvetica font on my article.

The music genre I chose for my magazine was that of indie/alternative. However with this being quite a broad genre, in this issue focused on a synth esque artist. Putting my model on the front in the clothing she is wearing links into the genre, as it is typical wear of artists in the field. The coverlines also relate to my genre as they  have alternative music references. In the contents page there are references to indie music bands. Also the font is quite unusual and different, making it quite alternative. Again in the double page spread what Julia is wearing fits in with the genre. The way I have set out my page is also similar to other double page spreads in alternative music magazines like Q and NME.

The colour scheme I used throughout was that of white, black and blue. I used a few different shades and on my front cover had the contrast of the blue masthead with my model’s red shirt worked quite well.

Update

I have chosen a new masthead and title font for my magazine...

One thing I have been struggling with, is making my 2nd cover, similar to that of Esquire. Trying to make it extremely simple and minimalistic does not work as in most cases, it just looks bare. So I am going to experiment, but if needs be may drop the idea.

Masthead

After looking at my masthead, I feel that I would be best changing the font style. So here I have had a look at what looks best, and I feel that the bottom two are my favourite.

Update

After completing my draft, I now need to make certain amendments to try to get my magazine up to a level 4. 

Front Page: I am considering re-doing it, by changing the font of the masthead, and changing the photo. 

Contents: I am considering keeping a similar sort of layout, but also adding a box along the left hand side, so I can add more depth. Also, I need to take a few more photos of other people, to put into the contents. 

Double Page Spread: I feel that my double page spread is the strong point for my magazine, as it has some real in depth elements in. I would like to add a few more photos to make it more realistic. With regards to the article I am going to make it longer, but instead make it a story rather than an interivew.

Test Shots

I realised that I have forgotten to add some of my test shots to my blog. On my flickr are all the photos I have taken so far, check you updates.

Flickr

Draft Magazine Double Page Spread

Draft Magazine Contents

Draft Magazine Cover

Another Update

After experimenting with fonts again, I have decided to use the telegraphico font for for my front cover, rather than telegraphico, as it looks more fitting.

Double Page Spread draft article

So what can we say about Julez? After emerging in late 2010 with breakthrough single “nightrise” and being lauded in the press by a certain Steve Lamaq, it ended a good year for the four-piece. Although not everything was as bright as July’s blue sky. They were snubbed by the BBC for the “sound of 2011” list and after lead singer Julia’s antics, were brandished “poor role-models” by David Cameron, after Julia said that he was a “typical conservative c*nt”. Julia joined us for a few drinks at there local in Buckinghamshire.

P - So, Julia, how are things, what is going on at the moment for you?

J - Well I’m okay, a lot of writing is happening I suppose, obviously after Nightrise we have big pressure to produce the goods again, which is going to happen, but I am feeling the pressure, so yeah, just writing and recording mainly... Oh and I am working with Pete (Doherty) on a track which will probably be let out in sometime around April/May.

P - Oh right I see, all sounds pretty exciting for you then, so with the writing, is that going toward and album, or just an EP?

J - Well I dunno, aim to release something in the summer, for festivals and what not, so we will see, could be an album, could be an EP, all I know is there will be some stuff from us in the summer.

P - Right, so David Cameron, whats the verdict? J -  (laughs) I don’t want to get in any more trouble ha ha, but yeah, what i said before, what was that again? P - I think I will leave that there ha ha, but yes we understand. So obviously you must have been on quite a high after nightrise was released, but then BBC obviously didn’t include you in the sound list, were you disappointed? J - Well to be honest not really, it’s all bullshit. But like some of the artists on there, will go mainstream because of it, James Blake and Jessie J for example, we don’t want that. But I suppose it would have been nice to be recognized for what you do. P - I still think that you should have been included. Anyway quick last 5. Favourite artist? J - Hm. Today I’m going to go The Pixies P - Interesting. Favourite food? J - Spinach. P - Erm okay, sweet or sour? J - Sour, so much more interesting, nothing to sweet. P - Batman or Superman? J - Batman, I love bats. P - Last one, David Cameron or Gordon Brown J - Neither, both idots. P - Haha! Thanks for that, see you soon.

Update

Last night I took lots of photos to use for my draft and some for my final piece. I have decided that from all my mockups I am going to use a similar style contents to the one in the middle of my contents post and I am going to do something to what I have done on my second double page spread.

Character Profile

Artist name: Julez, she is the lead singer of the self titled band.

Type of music: Indie with electro vibes, lead singer, plays synth.

Musical Influences: Joy Formidable, Blood Red Shoes, David Bowie, Euthymics...

Fashion Influences: Uffie, Coco Summer, Vivienne Westwood.

Public Image: Quite outspoken, hates the way the music industry works today, is not intimidated by the male dominated genre

Associates: Mark Ronson, Orlando Weeks, Laura-Mary Carter, Coco Summer

Double Page Spread Mock Up

Contents Page Mockups

Mockup Front Covers

Media Questionnaire

Media Questionnaire

Magazine Title

After weeks of deliberation, I decided upon using the name Vuze. Although there is not a close link to music, I think the name sounds perfect for a magazine. I also feel that it has connotations of news as it rhyme with it and also suggests that you are getting a view into this music lifestyle. When putting the title of my magazine on the front cover, I will use the eurofurence light font as I feel it fits really well, for the simplistic but quirky magazine style I am going for.

Audience Profile

Audience Profile

Photographic Influences

On this website, there are many photos taken, using HDR cameras. The resolutions are put together to show a variety of colour in the images, to make them look simply stunning.
Website.

Fonts

The fonts I have looked at for my headlines are all a little quirky. I think I will probably use the "telegraphico" font in my double page spread. I may also try using "euphorigenic" but I feel could be quite risky due to it being fairly hard to read. I think I will use "dusseldorf" for my main headings on my front cover and then use "euroference light" for cover lines.

For my basic fonts out of the 4 I have looked at I think I will use "Helvetica" as it is simple, basic and looks formal. I am also considering using "gills sans" for some pieces on information, maybe for use on my contents page.

Colour Schemes

This is a colour scheme I am considering for my main front cover, with cover lines and one main image. I am considering using a grey background, with my model wearing black, grey, white and red clothing. I also think my magazine title will be in black and grey.

After looking at Esquire magazine, I feel I could add another element to my magazine by using 2 covers. This cover will be a lot more simplistic, with no cover lines and just the name of my magazine at the top. The cover will be primarily focused on the image of the person on the front. 

This is another colour scheme are considering using, either for the front cover or the contents page. The black and white colours would be used for the main writing, with blue being used for titles and texts boxes.

This colour scheme I felt would be a risk, as it takes away the simplistic feel, but could work for something like my double page spread, as I feel there needs to be a standout colour.

Coursework Schedule

G321 AS Course Work Schedule 2010-2011

Media Pitch

Inspiration and Ideas

After looking at some Esquire magazines, I am considering doing two front covers for my magazine. Similarly to what Esquire has done in the past. I was going to make one, full with information on the front cover, with an image of the person involved in the main article. I was then going to make a more simplistic and artistic cover, which could be used for subscribers of my magazine, like in Esquire.

Double Page Spread Analysis

Double Page Spread 1:

I think this double page spread is quite unique. The title fills the top two thirds of both double pages, which helps to intertwine the pages. What is interesting is that the title is filled with colour, as all the letters are made up of every day clothing and a lot being work attire. The use of this makes the graphology interesting as it makes an uninteresting topic such as the credit crunch livened up by this colour. Everything in the double page spread looks quite quirky with a small introduction paragraph in the bottom left in a white font, with a black background/ The overall colour scheme consists mainly of black and white, but the title features many different colours. One thing I have noticed from this double page spread is that “less is more”. By having the colours only in the tile it works well and keeps a simplistic feel.

Double Page Spread 2:

In this double page spread I think the colour scheme fits as it is the same colour as a ducks feathers. Using these colours also helps the page look neat and formal, which is fitting for the magazine. There are few fonts which again add to the simplistic and formal look to the spread. Using the title of “change in the feather” relates back to the picture of a ducks feather, and this helps to link both pages together. Having a large image also attracts readers of the magazine as it will stand out and will make them want to read the article. One thing I do not like about this double page spread is the first letter of the article. I feel that it is right to enlarge the letter but I feel the shade of green does not fit in well with the colour scheme.

Double Page Spread 3:

This double page spread for fourfourtwo magazine is showing the build up to the next La Liga season. It uses in a large and powerful font the saying, “two tribes”. This adds a war like feel to the two teams, Real Madrid and Barcelona. I feel that having pictures of both teams celebrating on both pages, fits in with the war style theme as if these two tribes are coming together. The colour scheme is again quite basic, white a black background, white font and red headings. These colours also fit in with the teams kits on the images which looks good. One thing I am not to keen on is the layout of the article. I feel that the spacing between the two columns is too small, then the spacing between the 3rd collumn is too large, so this will have to be something I must seriously consider when thinking about my magazine layout.