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Compared pre-established school magazines
This was my first piece of research into magazine layout. Despite the type of magazine being different to the one I was eventually planning on creating, this task helped me to obvserve the ways front pages are layed out to draw interest. -
Completed my school magazine
My school magazine front page was fairly basic but I aquired some of the skill needed to visualise my final piece, and actually make it. -
Music Magazine front cover analysis
Similarly to the beginning of the plreliminary task, researching different covers for music magazines gave me more of an idea how they are set out, how they use this to effectively gain interest, the colours used and so on. -
Market research
The market research enabled me to ask people of my age, and older and younger, what they would like to see in a new music magazine. I tried to keep the options as open as possible, so people answering would be able to choose what they wanted. -
Analysis of Kerrang! Magazine
Because Kerrang! Magazine was one of the magazines I wanted to get inspiration from, it made sense to analyse the representation techniques that they use within their magazine to try and get some ideas that I could transfer over to my final pieces. -
Survey results analysis
The results from my market research survey showed that the majority of my audience wanted me to make a rock-based magazine. They were also very clear about what they wanted both in and on the magazine; they wanted a strong picture of the featured artist on the front, and lots of information about their favourite artists, including tour dates for example. -
Representation of Magazines
Looking at this helped me understand how magazines use things like colour, font, sizes and phrasing to catch customers' attention, and helped me to think about how I was going to use these things to create my own successful set of magazine pages. -
Flat Plan for Kerrang!
Going through each page of a Kerrang! issue and writing it out in a flat plan enabled me to realise how much I needed to think up for my magazine, and where I was going to put each story amongst the others. -
Thinking of a Concept
This task helped me gather all the ideas I'd had so far for my magazine and put them in one place. The mindmap layout made it easy for me to track thought processes and link ideas together. I also managed to finalise my ideas for what my magazine would look like when finished. -
Music Magazine name/Logo ideas
After establising a name in the previous task, I had to create a logo. I tried lots of different combinations, with colours from the previous task, and a font that I had decided to be best, I finally concluded that red would be the best colour for the logo, as it reflected the genre of music I would be covering in my magazine - rock. -
Rate Card for my magazine
This rate card helped me finalise who my target audience was to be. It includes all the activities my audience would be interested in, which helped me to cater my magazine specifically. -
Flat Plan for my magazine
This was a finalisation of what was going to go into my magazine. It helped me realise how much actually goes into a music magazine, and what kinds of things. -
Contents and Double Page Research
This task enabled others to offer their opinions on what would be make a good contents page and double page spread, along with examples of things I should include. -
Typography
This task helped me expand my knowledge on how I presented the text. I learnt about the size, the font, colour and drop caps, and what affect they have on the audience. -
Article first draft
I felt like I got my article draft right the first time. It was a good length, and had the right feel to it; formally written, but what it was quoting was informal enough so my audience could relate to it. -
Double Page Spread mock-up
My double page spread is quite typical, but was inspired specifically by an NME double page spread I found while researching. The big image ensures that it will catch the reader's attention, along with the title which I will try and make look quite abstract. -
Front Page mock up
My front page is inspired by both Kerrang! and Total Guitar, a magazine solely about guitars and gear. Because it is owned by a different institution, the front page layout is vastly different from that of Kerrang!'s. This is why my front page may not meet certain conventions of music magazines. -
Contents Page mock up
My contents page is vastly different from any other contents page I have seen before. This was because I wanted to approach it with a more minimalist feel, contrasting many already-established music magazines today, who's contents pages are quite full, and have lots of text. -
Front Page photo shoot
I wanted my shoot to be against a dark background, so when editing my front page (which would have a dark background itself), it would be less work to have to do. I also aimed to incorporate the subjects' instruments into the shoot as well, adding another element of interest. -
Contents Page photo shoot
With each picture, I knew what I wanted it to look like on the page itself, so I composed each shot with the subject as much to the right as was needed, so I could fit the necessary text into the space next to the subject when creating the final piece. -
Double Page Spread photo shoot
I used a white background for this shoot, as I was hoping for a white background to be used on my double page spread. Despite none of the pictures actually being used for the double page spread itself, I found other uses for them, as I made posters to put on the front page, and used two images from this shoot for that. -
FINAL Front Page
Since my preliminary task I feel I have learned a lot about designing magazines, and how the front cover should be big and eye-catching in order to draw attention to itself. I've also learned what colours work and what the best layout is for different styles of magazines. -
FINAL Contents Page
Although I only did a plan for a contents page for the preliminary task, I think my final contents page is a big improvement. Even though it doesn't conform to many rules of music magazines generally, I think it looks different and refreshing, and works as a contents page. -
FINAL Double Page Spread
Considering I didn't do a double page spread for the preliminary task, I still think I've done well in replicating certain aspects of double spreads and I think mine looks quite professional. All the colours work well together, and nothing seems out of place
