-
Start of Preliminary Task.
I started my Preliminary Research by researching and evaluating existing school magazines. Following that I analysed existing fonts and took a survey to help me with the designing of my magazine. -
Period: to
What have you learnt since the start of the Preliminary Task?
-
Preliminary Task Final Product
This is the front cover of my school magazine. I included all the necessities such as a masthead, image, date and logo. Although I used Photoshop to edit this, compared to my music magazine it looks very amature. I think the main reseason for this is because I becamse more experienced with Photoshop and I did a lot more research for my music magazine. -
Preliminary Task Evaluation
This is my school magazine evaluation which I created on Prezi. I wrote about the fonts I used, my design and layout, the improvements I could have made and an overall conclusion. -
Start of Research
This was the start of my research for my music magazine. I started by looking at three existing music magazines and analyised their front covers. Compared to my preliminary school magazine analysis I think I have done this is greater detail. I wrote a lot more about the main image and added detail whereas before I just briefly wrote about the masthead and the colour scheme. This helped me a lot because I was able to look at and analyse all the different components that make up a magazine. -
History of Music Magazines
I create a timeline about the history of music magazines so I could compare what they used to look like and what they look like now. -
Institutional Research
This is where I looked at eight different music magazine institutions. I learnt about different publishing companies and all the other components involved with publishing a magazine like the frequency their produced, the price and what genres they are. -
Instituional Research Video
I decided to create an Institutional video to get a better understanding about three major music companies. By doing this I gained more knowledge about different types of music magazines and what people are interested in which helped me when making my music magazine as I had a better understanding about the music institution. -
Annotation of Music Magazines
I annotated the front cover, contents page and double page spread of a KERRANG! magazine so I could learn about the different techniques they use to make their magazine so popular. -
First Article Draft
This was the first draft that I made for my double page spread based on my country band. I added an interview at the end because I thought that it would help the audience to feel more involved. -
Music Magazines in a Shop
For this piece of research I went to my local shop to look at their magazine section. It helped me to see how shops position their music magazines and why they do it in a particular way. I found out that the more popular magazines are put at the front at eye-level, the least popular ones are put at the back but still have an eye catching masthead so it can be noticed. It helped me to think about the layout of my front cover because it will need to have a visible title. -
Audience Research
This is where I looked at different factors that magazines used to attract their audiences. I learn about what people are attracted to when it came to the layout and colour scheme which gave me an insight into what I should include in my music magazine so it appealed to my target audience. -
Rate Card Comparison
I compared two different rate cards, one for NME and the other for KERRANG!. This helped me with creating my own rate card because knew all the different components that I needed to include on it. -
Small Focus Group
By interviewing a small focus group I was able to find out more about what people like and dislike about magazine front covers which helped me with the designing of my own. -
Representation Research
This part of the research help me to see what magazines used to attracted their audiences. I looked at the fonts, costumes, colour and camera angles. I looked at this part of the research when thinking about the model/models positions and the type of masthead on my front cover. -
Contents Page and Double Page Spread Research
I looked at contents pages and double page spreads from different magazines in more detail. By doing this I found out about how the pages are put together which gave me inspiration for my own magazine. -
KERRANG! Flat Plan
I created a flat plan for a KERRANG! magazine that I bought to which helped me when making my own flat plan because I could see what they included on each page. It also helped me to think about the advertisement that I'd include in my own magazine. -
Formatting Research
This was the first basic plan that I did for my magazine. I used keynote to create a rough layout for the four of my pages. Compared to my preliminary task I think I improved a lot as I have a better understanding of what looks good and what doesn't. -
Camera Angles
I made a video on different camera angles to help me decide on what types of shots I wanted to use on my four pages. -
My Concept Mind map
This was where I started to think about the concept as a whole for my magazine. I looked at different genres, colours, names, typography, main image and more. -
Second Photo-shoot
This was my second photo-shoot which was also an outdoor one. I used an image from this shoot on my double page spread which worked out really well. -
My Flat Plan
I made a flat plan to show what I'd include on each page of my magazine. I used previous research to help me with things like competitions pages and different adverts but I mostly based each page around my target audience. I had to think carefully because I wanted to make sure that I included everything that a music magazine needed. -
My Rate Card
The rate card I designed helped me to think about the kind of audience I was aiming at. This was useful during the production of my magazine because I could come back and look at my rate card to make sure that it would appeal to the different demographics that I had chosen. -
Logo Idea
I created a mind map of different logo to use as my masthead. I found this useful because I could experiment which different shapes and fonts to see what they'd look like instead of just going for one idea. -
Typography Mind Map
I created a mind map on different components all involved when using text which helped me to explore different techiniques used like the spacing and drop caps which was something I didn't look at during my prelim task. -
Photo-shoot Planning
This is my photo-shoot planning that I created to help me with each shoot. I had to decided on the location for my shoots, the outfits I wanted my models to wear, lighting etc. By doing this I became more prepared for my shoots so I didn't feel rushed and the photos looked professional. -
Costume, Location and Actor Planning
I made different collages for each photo-shoot on the location, clothing and poses. This was something I didn't look at during my preliminary task so I wasn't as prepared and my photos didn't look very prepared or professional. -
Second Article Draft
I decided to re-do my double page spread article because when looking at other existing magazine articles I realised that their articles were a lot longer. -
Page Mock Up
I created mock ups of the front cover, contents page and double page spread for my magazine. This helped me get a general idea of what I wanted my final product to look like. -
First Photo-shoot
This was the first photo-shoot that I did. It was supposed to be used on my double page spread or my contents page. In the end I didn't use it but it was good to have as a back up shoot and it helped me experiment with different camera settings and model positions. -
Third Photo-shoot
The last photo-shoot I did was in a studio. I used photos from these on my front cover and my contents page which turned out really well and they looked quite professional. Compared to the image on the front cover of my school magazine it definitely looks a lot more planned out. -
First Outcome
Once I thought I had finished my magazine pages I realised that they weren't quite as appealing or professional as I wanted them to look. When looking back at my target audience I realised that the front cover looked quite childish and the fonts weren't right which is why I decided to re-do it. -
Final Outcome
Overall I am really happy with the final products. I think that the new and improved pages look a lot better that my first outcome and I'm gladded I re-made them. When looking back at my prelim task I feel as though I have learnt so much in terms of the research and designing which is shown in my music magazine.
