Change of issue cover and photographs taken for new cover/contents/double page spread

After looking back at my cover for my music issue and start of my double page spread I didn't feel pleased with it and decided to start it again. This is my final front cover. I felt it should look modern and attractive instead of crowded like Kerrang and NME. I took the look of vice magazine, which is simple yet effective. the photograph I used is from a disposable camera, giving it a raw edgy look that vice has. Adding to this, I thought because I decided for this issue to be on electro, I used futuristic fonts and colours. I’m going to do the contents and double page spread in similar colours and style.

Photographs i have taken for this issue, i wanted to take photographs using a disposible camera and polaroid camera as well as some digital to give the photos a more raw and realistic appearence. These show teenagers/young adults having fun and looking care free. I used to college scanners to upload these photographs and then used photoshop to adjust contrast and colour:

First Draft of Final Cover

model: rhea
taken in the studio at college with a Olympus E-410 SLR
yellow background. trying to get a I-D/VICE style cover. although these magazines have a split of music and fashion, i really like the photographs of artists/bands, they're slightly more artistic and interesting

Contents Page Draft, Double Page Spread Draft & Finished Cover: finished january 12th, posted late

i stuck to the idea of simple yet affective as i did with my cover, taking inspiration from Vice & I-Ds simple yet modern layouts. i want to use a white background, black text (except for the side title which will match the front pages colour scheme) and good pictures to match my stories. As well as this i decided to advertise a festival and also a subscription offer at the top of my contents to add to the realism of it. By using simple layouts but effective text and layouts, i think it will make it alot more eye catching and contemporary.

Layout Ideas, Font/Colour Scheme ideas and Music Magazine Analysing. (Double Page Spreads, Contents and Front Cover)

Layout ideas (above)

Colour Schemes and Font Experimenting (above)

(The work in this entry was completed between December 20th - Early January 2009, Due to computer problems, this has been blogged late.)



In this blog i have included magazine analysis' and my layout designs for my front cover (first picture of the blog entry.)

Front Page Analysis

Earlier in my blog, i have analysed music magazines such as NME ( http://wykeemilymaetobin.blogspot.com/2008/10/in-media-we-have-been-looking-at.html )
and I-D magazine ( http://wykeemilymaetobin.blogspot.com/2008/11/magazine-analysis-2-done-october-2008.html - second magazine). I will be using those two as influences in my magazine, however, to vary my range of research on music magazines, i have also analysed Rolling Stone, VICE (which has a record company, i think will be handy for further research in the music industry) and Q magazine:

ROLLING STONE:
Rolling Stone magazine which covers Music Artists and Events. Usually includes more well known and successful artists. On the front cover the tag line reads ‘An Intimate Visit, BRUCES DREAM’. The words in the main tag line don’t include any slang which makes me think that perhaps the magazine is aimed at a more mature audience. The cover is simplistic and not too crowding for the eyes, which gives me many ideas on layout for my music magazine. The main photo is centred at the bottom, 3 subtitles at the very top of the page for other stories and the magazine name underneath.
I think this magazine is for the older audience and not so much teenagers. The target audience for Rolling Stone, I think is mid 20’s + as there seems to be older and more established bands and artists appearing in it. I think this magazine represents more classic bands and artists, from Rock to Indie, but probably not pop or R&B from the style.

Analysis of Content Pages

(i have gotten my sources from the Internet, the following contents pages have been saved from google, i searched 'content pages')

'Drummer' Magazine:

The contents layout is moderately simple. Like most content pages, it includes photographs that represent an article, These photographs are captioned with the page numbers of the articles, making it easy for the reader to recognise a band/artist they like, and then be able to go straight to the article. Usually content pages include a large photograph that links to the cover story (which usually attracts audience to buy).

At the top of the page it has the name of the magazine, and the date of the issue with "contents"

underneath has features with numbers which are red and text that is black. this makes it easier to separate the storeys and easier on the eyes. under neath the months contents, it has the monthly articles such as album reviews which are in every issue. This has been headed as "regulars".

the background is white, which i find good as it doesn't make the text hard to read and makes the page look less crowded. I think I will base my contents on this magazines.

Double Page Spread

NME:

this double page spread covers on a band called The Teenagers from Paris. The left/first page has a large photo of the band with a "Need To Know" box in the bottom corner with quick facts about the band. The colour scheme is all Blue and white. At the top hand of the page has 'Radar' which is their monthly focus on a band. The Title is "The Teenagers" which covers the two pages at the top, overlapping the photograph of the band. On the right/second page, it has the story on the teenagers, with a quote from a band member in the middle of the page. This in music magazines in usally a humorous or something dramatic/shocking they have said. This stands out, and grabs the readers attention. This then leads the reader to want to read on! The background is white which makes the text easy and readable. At the side of the article is a every ones talking about section about bands the artists like. I think this is pretty interesting as usually double page spreads focus on the artist and not other bands.

I like the idea of the first page being a photograph and second being the article. i will bare in mind this for my double page spread.

magazine analysis & evaluation.

click photograph to enlarge image which the analysis for my magazine cover. and again below for contents.

Evaluation:
I think, personally my magazine went well for a first attempt at creating my own publication. I used Picasa which is a google image manipulation program to edit my work and put the front page together. For my contents, i used paint. I took all my photographs on a digital camera and the front cover photograph was taken in the town center of two friends. I tinted the photo with yellow to match the colour scheme of the writing better. I used basic magazine conventions, a main photograph, other article subtitles, issue number and attractive slogans. If i could change anything it would be my contents page. because i did it on paint due to lack of time i don't think it looks as well put together as my front cover. For my next magazine i will use the same programms and try to colour scheme and lay them out better.

CONTENTS PAGE

magazine drafts

last draft / final cover ^^first draft ^^
draft for layout.^^