Research- Front Cover

Research- Front Cover

I liked the appearance of both these magazines as I think the way it has focused on the individuals face and put that in the centre of the magazine is a good way to catch the reader’s eye. I think having the majority of the words and little writing going down the side of the magazine makes it easier for the audience to read. There are little colours involved in both magazines but I think it works well and makes the magazine blend together. They also use poofs in them which would be a good advertising technique to attract people to buy this, using it as incentive. The mastheads are placed over the top of the individuals heads which allows them to blend with the magazine.

With this “RWD” magazine I think the layout and design of the

magazine has the potential to be good and I think it is a good

way of setting a front cover out which would do its purpose of

appealing to the audience.  However I don’t like the colours and fonts used in this magazine, I think the colours are too bright which has affected the font making it harder for the audience to read. I like the way in which the magazine had placed the featured artists name underneath the individual. I think the deign of the masthead used is good because it catches the eyes of the reader and can be easily recognise, It can also be changed slightly with each issue by changing the colour.

This magazine is different because it has words in it which act as an incentive to the audience. By saying such things as “review of the year & 2011 preview” it makes the reader want to buy and even subscribe in.

It is eye catching for the audience but I feel that it is too bland, the fonts are too plain which make the magazine look to boring. These features may restrict the range of audience, which means less people will buy/suscribe.

Proof

Editing


After taking a variety of images to use in my magazines I was able to alter them on Photoshop to improve the quality to more of a professional standard. As you can see in these two images above I have used different tools on Photoshop to hide facial blemishes. The image on the left is the original photo, one main blemish on the face in the cut lip and imperfections on his forehead, on the right is after I used tools such as the plaster tool to hide them. When editing all images in Photoshop I used as many techniques and tools as possible .The most common ones I used were LAB colour,curves,hue,saturation,plaster tool,invert,filters and many more.

Images


Below I have a couple of other images that I considered using for my magazine. I took about 70 pictures in total for my front cover and contents page, they were all taken to a professional standard with a good quality camera. I chose the locations of my photo shoots to get the best photo quality and magazine look possible.


Audience

My target audience is someone around the age of 15-25, and they would probably be interested in the most recent mainstream music. Music would play a large part in the audience's day as they would listen to it for entertainment, when working and every other way. They would buy/subscribe to my magazine because of the information of latest artists and free additions inside such as posters.





Time Management


I used my time wisely when creating my magazine because I set myself targets when to have completed the different parts of my magazine by a certain time. I left myself 2days to collects all pictures needed for my front cover and contents page. I set a target of 2weeks to finish my front cover but my target had to be extended by a couple of days because I decided the font needed changing to make it look more professional. Once all photos were taking for my contents page, I left myself a further 2weeks to complete it. This target was shortened as I found after finishing it earlier, all that was needed was small details to enhance the quality.







Organisation

When I was planning my photo shoot I decided on going to a near by location which was provided lots of foliage and natural backgrounds for my pictures. In my photos I took pictures of my actor stood up,lead down, sat on a bench, bridge etc, I wanted to take such a wide range of images so I had more of a choice. I planned the day in which the weather was good for taking pictures.

I asked my actor to wear the clothes and jewellry he did because I felt this would be how my ideal reader would dress. The t-shirt worn by my actor in my front cover is music themed as it has music tapes on it. On the actors t-shirt in my contents page it has "Musicism" printed on it, when created my contents page on Photoshop I cropped the image so it said "Music".

I felt that because my magazine is music based, the images of my actor should relate to music itself. I used props such as "Beats By Dre" headphones in the images, the headphones are extremely expensive,good quality and highly rated. By using these headphones it gave my magazine and more professional look, I was also able to link the headphones into my contents page and stories.

Layouts


Both of these layouts I created on Word, I used them to help plan out my front cover and contents page. By creating this layouts it was able to then give me an idea to follow. On the left is my front cover and the right is my contents page, although they are both simple in looks it helped me be more organised because I was able to adjust it and focus more on the minor details to give my magazine a more professional look.

House Style


I have tried to keep a constant house style throughout my magazine, as a professional magazine would. I have used the same font that I have found on the Internet as titles and subheadings, I have also used the same image in both corners of my front cover and contents page.

Contents

Contents


This image shows my final contents page design, I have used various styles I have emulated from my magazine research below. After searching on the internet,viewing different pictures I found the image I though suited my contents page the most. I designed my magazine on Photoshop, using a variety of techniques I was able to ensure my contents page was the best quality I could make it. On the image I first changed the hue and saturation to a more purple colour, I then altered the contrast and brightness effectively. After using these techniques I then changed the look of the image by chosen a pencil/grain filter, I then  decided what levels each slider should be. I then cropped the image and trimmed it down the middle and moved it because I felt it looked better.