Project Brief

I will be working in the medium of print. I will create a front page, contents page and a double page spread for a brand new music magazine.

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 2: How does your media product represent a particular social group?

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 5: How did you attract/ address your audience?

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Final Music Magazine

My Final Contents Page

My final contents page was influenced by Rolling Stone magazine. I followed their style and design and made it my own for my contents page. I continued to use the same house style of colour (red, black and white) and the revolution title/logo. The three colour scheme throughout the magazine has been used and this is very conventional. I have stuck to this colour theme including grey, black and red text on my contents page. 

I have used 3 images on my contents page. This is so the page is not overloaded with images. I made sure that the two models in the images at the top of the page were making eye contact with the reader, and the model in the bottom image was looking away from the reader. I wanted to give a bit of a variety within the three images through eye contact, gender, and music type. The main featured article has been made a less important article on the contents page so it does not overcome the reader. It is a female figure with a direct close up of her face making eye contact, and she has the element of a rock chick for more rock and roll viewers and customers. The second image on the right side of the page is the largest image out of the three taking up over 1/4 of the page. the male model is making direct eye contact with the reader and has a long body shot showing his entire body to make a statement of his importance. The third and final picture is of another female. This image has been placed at the bottom of the page. this model is looking away from the reader showing some sassy attitude and some self confidence of herself. All of the images are of the three different shots; close ups; mid shots; and long shots. This is so it creates a variety and a sense of order within the page. All three images have been purposely made different to create and effect on the reader. The difference in attitudes and themes being presented creates a larger and wider audience for more people to buy my magazine as it creates different interests. 

There has been a lot of text put on this page to make it organised and informative for the reader to know what they need to know about the magazine. The language that has been used is formal and informal at the same time. I have included page numbers that go up to 94 which makes it realistic like a selling magazine on the market. The list for the contents page and has been justified left as this is conventional and is where most people immediately look when they are directly looking for the list of articles. The page numbers have been made red to stand out, and the information about the articles have been made black to contrast the different pieces of information to make them stand out. Headlines have been used to introduce the articles, these have been made black and bold and put in a larger font size to make them stand out and be eye catching. All text has been thought out and planned to ensure an organised and neat page. Text has been justified left and has been lined up directly with certain margins. 

Lines have been used to cut off different articles and pieces of text. These lines are to make the different articles stand out and be more apparent rather than blend in with one another, which would make it look messy. I have also placed a single black lined border around the whole contents page to create a neat and organised effect.

All of the images, colours and text work well together creating my house style. I feel that my contents page suits and fits convention and fits with my magazine front cover and double page spread. I am very happy with my overall outcome. 

Music Magazine Double Page Spread

 Here I have created the title in a unique and different way, with the text different font sizes and in two different colours. I love how this is really effective and eye catching and will draw in the readers attention. The size of the title also helps emphasize the importance of the article.

My double page spread also includes a drop cap, a caption of the article photo, page numbers, the website and the magazine company. These are all things that should be included in a double page spread. I specifically placed the page number on the right hand side of the page and ensured that it was the closest to the edge of the page as this is where the page number is supposed to be.

Ensuring to make my double page spread look as professional as possible I made the article text font size 10, as this is the font size of most articles. I made the text a grey colour, and made the drop cap and the running head in black to make it stand out more. In the article the interview questions have been put in a red font to tell the reader that these are questions, and to make the article more interesting and eye catching.
I have included the lines to make it organised and neat, giving the article a format. To ensure that the article and lines are lined up and neat I used the grid tool. The tools I used where the text tools and the shape tools to make the right hand side of the double page into the article.

For the article photo I made sure that in the photo shoot she was against a white background. I used the lighting behind the models head and from the right to light up the side of her face. This is to make her hair stand out and to also help with the effectiveness of the closeup shot.
In the article photo I used the brightness and contrast tool to lighten the image and to take away the blue tint around the figure, and to take away the rest of the blue tint I smudged it out.

This is the image that I have used for the double page spread. I chose this image as it suits my style and magazine theme.

Here is my final and completed double page spread. Compared to the other finished double page, I have sharpened and improved the resolution of the whole page, including the text and the image. I improved the Revolution title and this will be used all the way throughout the magazine as it is my house style. I used a large drop cap R and kept the backwards red word "love" and then kept the "ution" the same. I feel that this is more effective and stands out more, giving it a distinctive house style. 

I rearranged some of the layout on the double page to improve appearance. I also changed the text in the article back to it all being black font as this is easier to read. The interview questions have been made red to stand out in a more obvious way and to show the question from the answer. This difference makes the double page spread look more professional and effective. 

Overall, I am very happy with my final double page spread and can see that it links with my overall house style. 

My Magazine Double Page Spread Photoshoot

Double Page Spread Development

 Here are some existing double page spreads. These all include elements in which I want to use in my double page spread.

In the Adele double page spread, I liked the close up of the female musician and felt that it was very effective. Also, the title of the page is very eye catching as it fills at least half of the page and is used effectively with different font sizes. I will be using this style for my title.

 In this article of Guns n Roses I will be using the font style as it fits with my house style and theme.
The article appeals to me as a whole. I will also incorporate the three colour theme as it is conventional. the three colours I will be using is red, black and white as these are used on my front cover as well.
I will use the the effect of the caption included in the photo, and that will be placed on my magazine double page spread photo.

From this magazine I am going to use the style of the title as it is different and effective. This also links with my masthead of my magazine of "revolution" as it is different and rebels against conventions.
The article has 4 columns, but I will use three columns for my double page spread. I will also include a drop cap at the beginning of the article, like in this double page spread.


Overall from these images it has helped me choose and decide what will go into my double page spread.

Final Front Cover For my Magazine

 My final front cover I had to make the bar code slightly smaller as it was too prominent on the page. This needed to be sorted as this was the first thing that caught the readers attention instead of the feature article photo. This is my final product.
My music magazine suits and challenges convention of a regular music magazine as i have included a long masthead which is not conventional. However, the layout and style of the magazine is conventional. There are elements within my magazine that are conventional and unconventional.

The colour scheme is red, black and white, this is continued throughout my magazine to suit my house style. I have included cover lines that are flushed left. There is a bar code, date, issue number and website placed at the bottom for the readers benefit.

The feature article photo is a close up with direct eye contact, this makes it personal and interesting, drawing the reader in. It is a clear image with no noise, and the direct eye contact and her smile make the magazine approachable. With my model, her smile and her clothing choice with the wristbands make her look her age, and not to sexualise her like most women or girls are within the media. It shows how my magazine is made for all people, ages and genders. My magazine is for males and females from the age for late teens to people in their 20s - 30s.

The overall house style of my front cover and my magazine has been shown through colour, typography and text, and the style and genres of music.

Here I added in a bar code and a price for my magazine. I looked at my magazine and saw that there was something missing. I re-evaluated my product and knew I had to add in a bar code and price to make it more conventional and to use it as a filler.

Fourth Front Cover for my Magazine

Third Front Cover Development

Second Final Front Cover Development

Here I decided to change the style of font for the text. I knew I had to make the text more visible and stand out to the reader. I made the text bold and changed the colour of the text for some of the different pieces. 

First Final Design of Magazine Front Cover

This is the first final design of my front cover. Here is the first basic layout of my front cover. The resolution of the JPEG file is not very good, so I needed to improve this aspect. Also, certain fonts and colour`s do not match the the image or the house style. The font colour needed to be changed in certain parts of the magazine front cover. 

For effect i decided to justify the text left, and slightly misplace them so they are not inline. This breaks convention and does not make the magazine look organised. So another improvement will be to justify them left and ensure that they are in line along the left hand side of the page. 

The text needs to be more visible as it is hard to read some of the text on the page. I will find a way to improve this and ensure that everything is clear. 

Third Front Cover Picture Design



Here I began to work on this photo. I loved this photo the most out of every picture I took. The picture is clear and has no noise to the image, the lighting hits her head perfectly from behind and on the right side. However I began to experiment with placing the masthead on the image. This did not look right, so I decided to increase the brightness and the contrast on the image to brighten her face and the background. This immediately made the image look magazine front cover material and would allow me to add text to the white background.

I decided to take the picture in front of a white background and used a bright light behind the hair to make it stand out. The effect of using the white background and the lighting the hair from behind allowsme to have the perfect background and does not mean i have to cut out around the tiny detail in the lose hair.

I also loved how the masthead match the image and they both compliment each other. The lighting and the pose, will allow me to place the text where I want it to go in the right places for me to justify the text left.

This image is the feature article photo that I am going to use for my magazine front cover. 

Second Front Cover Picture Design

For my second front cover design I used a close up of my models face. I liked this photo as it stood out to me. The close up shot makes her eyes stand out, making it feel very personal.

The contrast of the light coming from the right side of her head makes her hair look as if it is glowing, and the shadow on the right side of her face makes the image and figure stand out from the page.

 Here is a screen shot of how I made and developed this front cover photo. On this front cover I used the exposure tool too increase the brightness and decrease the contrast in this image. The extra brightness on her face makes the feature article photo stand out even more making it look even more appealing. 

I did a similar technique for the masthead on this front cover. I used a Stencil STD font, and instead of using a black font I used a white font to make the masthead stand out more, but I kept the reversed word "love" in red. 

In this front cover, I love the the feature article photo, but do not like the masthead that goes with the image. I think in order for both of these to work the masthead needs to be a smaller title, with possibly on letter, like in Q magazine.