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Monday, 17 December 2012

Research & Planning: How that has influenced my Magazine and Styling Decisions

For my indie/acoustic style of photography I looked at Topshop's and Jack Wills photographs. These are emailed to me on a regular basis. The way they capture the faces of their models using the focal points and rule of thirds is really inspiring and something I want to use for my own magazine.
I looked into some video clips of the vibe of my magazine and how I think it would be if run professionally, with real models and shoots and the type of fashion and looks that would appear in the final pages.
^These above youtube links show the personality and the style of wardrobe and style of the stars that I will have as cover stars and what the people within the articles will be like. My target audience will be interested in these sorts of people because of their fashion sense and attitude. Below is the interview style that my chosen artists will have; very fun, upbeat and perky, laid back but really cool as shown here:

Something I think worked well for my Student Magazine was it's chilled, down-to-earth approach. For any of my 'new up and coming artists' this style of pose I think works really well. I really like the look of this model, so I am going to use this as my stimulus for inspiration. I like the outfit and the co-ordinated makeup, I shall use this technique to make my magazine appear more professional and successful looking. It fits in to my previous magazine work, where the outfit and colour scheme match. I think this sort of photograph has the young spirit my magazine needs to appeal to the target audience. I think will only work with an older looking female and and younger male, these are solo artists type of poses and not something that I think would work for a band.
I am going to lay out my main double page spread like this I think, as it looks classy and sophisticated without being over complicated and hard to read. It has a nice symmetrical layout and fits my genre conventions nicely. I like the light effect of the colours and how the lighting works well behind her head. It captures her hair well which will be a main point of my artists 'image'. I will focus on my lighting within my photographs to set tone and create atmosphere. I think this is a good example of female representation being ver independent and confident in themselves. The clothes will be quite simple, layered on occasions and blocks of colours that I shall fit my colour scheme around. I would like to use some chunky knitwear like this for my artists as I think it does give off the creative and comfortable look.

This Jack Wills Photograph has the fun free spirit I would expect from female artists in my style of magazine. I like the outside style of this photograph. This would work well for a spring/summer issue. I hope to recreate this image of the hair moving like this with my own model. 
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Music Magazine: Research & Planning

For my Research & Planning I have carried out my own research into my music magazine and everything that will go towards the creation of my final product.
  • Product: My Music Magazine - A new and interesting take on the indie/alternative & acoustic/cover genre conventions through the influence of stars and articles.
  • Target Audience: My target audience will be a young audience, very similar to my student magazine, it won't focus too much on only one specific type of music, but explore the genre and it's sub genre to interest a wider audience. Above is an Inspiration 8 IE diagram of my music magazine target audience and what type of things they would expect from a music magazine. By combining both indie and acoustic/cover music I can link it to mainstream followers who like Radio 1's Live Lounge and start to branch out from there. I can also mix the different styles of photography that are stereotyped with those genres and create a fusion of new trendy artists and the stylistic art form of photography to add a more editorial edge. I want to connect to the youth of today's culture by using lots of street shots, by connecting to the constant being out of the house and always thinking about image and how they look. By having the 'artists' on the streets it adds a modern landscape which can be grunged down by editing. 
  • Proposal: For my music magazine I am going to create a fresh new take on younger more modern music by combining indie and acoustic together, defining the genres with my photography and the type of article I am going to create. The design will be very sleek and aim for the 16-30 bracket. This demographic is more on-the-go, on demand and up-to-date with fashion and how 'image' defines people now. I don't want to go too overly stereotypical, but I am going to use models who have the look of the type of artists my music magazine would feature. 
11 Questions about my Proposal: 

1. Who are you aiming your magazine at specifically? (There needs to be a clear sense that you are targeting a specific audience)
The 16-24 demographic as they are the largest consumer of magazines and music (especially my chosen genre). They have the most disposable income for 'unneeded luxury items' and are most likely to want to read a magazine about the indie/acoustic genre. They are the largest age bracket at smaller gigs and mic nights for undiscovered artists and use downloads as a source of listen to music. 

2. What will your magazine be about? (What might the typical content be?)
Articles about new artists and their journey into fame, interviews with artists who are bringing something new and big, photo shoots with undiscovered artists who need coverage for a break though, gig and festival information, tickets and bookings, concerts and tour details, smaller nights out and free music scenes, new downloads from unknown artists, big star coverage, up close and personal with the musicians, band memorabilia and stuff. Lots of spreads on people int he industry and everything that keeps the fans of the genre up to date with new and old artists and the genre. 

3. What are your ideas for cover lines?
I want to use quirky band names to pull readers in and attract them to my individual style of my magazine. I would want anything cheesy that was similar to a slogan, as this doesn't relate to my target audience. I would want to use the interesting article titles and new information about people in the style of profile's to feed their intelligent thirst for in depth coverage of their favourite musicians. I still need to keep to the conventions of making the cover lines exclusive to my issue only and not something they could read just anywhere, but really focus it in on my research from their background and interests. My ideas included things about new bands/rising ones that my readership would want to know about, compared to already published magazines which focus more on the celebrity status of big names, rather than personality. Through researching my target audience I will be able to use names such as Two Door Cinema Club that are making a name for themselves that have the same style as my magazine.

4. What title have you decided on and why? (You could also include examples of titles you have rejected and explain why?
Being half Brazilian I want to have my title in Portuguese as I want something important and significant to me as the editor to reflect a part of me. Incorporating another language would maybe include a larger audience? 'Alto' sounds soft and lyrical and very stereotypical of the genre and acoustic music. It has connotations of 'auto', and gigs sets with the wires and the type of equipment that would be used to record indie music. I wanted something simple that's easy to say and has links to the sounds of the genre.

5. What fonts do you want to use? (You could include examples and if you have got as far as thinking fort he design of the masthead you could include these too)
I will use a serif font to connect to the mature type of music and fans of the genre. It would look good against the monochrome colour scheme, navy or soft indie look. The colours would work well with a more sophisticated and stylish magazine font.

6. What are your ideas for tagline (if you want to use one)?
I will not use one as I want the magazine to speak for itself. I think having a slogan type line with the title will make it too cheesy and won't give it the impression needed to fulfil the genre conventions. I don't want anything that my deface my type of magazine and I think that something catchy doesn't match the gentle music within the magazine.

7. When in the year will it be published? (Cover can reflect seasonal changes or events, consider academic year)
The seasons will affect the 'mood' of the photographs and not reflect the weather, but the connotations of how the people feel during that time of year:
Spring - soft florals and pastel colours, very cute and happy (cheerful/carefree) photos, very sweet and classic colours (sky blues, daisy yellows, pinks and white).
Summer - Festival fashions, outside shoots.
Autumn - Brown and Earth tones, moody and darker photography (shadows and grainy), shots looking out of windows and very bare houses. Jumpers and plain facial expressions. Still and statue like single shots. Record players, bedroom set and calming.
Winter - Very cosy, indoor house shots (wooden floors, kitchen scenes), props such as tea, books, floor shots with scattered objects. Very warm looking.

8. What kind of image do you expect to put on the front cover and how you go about getting this image?
Using a studio for the background and my friend Kiera to pose and look gentle against the background. Maybe black and white, if not then very plain colour scheme that doesn't over crowd the eye. Facial focus, expressionless and thoughtful.

9. How frequently would it be published?
Once a month.

10. What are the dimensions of the cover (magazines are now available in different size formats)?
'Normal' A4 dimension as it doesn't need to worry about travelling around, it needs to feel homely and personal to the audience. Each copy should feel individual to the reader.

11. What images/cover would you use on the contents page? 
Lots of different shot sizes that reflect the type of artist and their personality. Needs to look fun and make you want to flick to their pages and find out more about them and what they are promoting. Draws you into them from the photo.

For my research I have looked into how lifestyle has influenced the genre. I have chosen a genre that is more than just about the music, it is about the person as a whole and their background. To help my target audience understanding, for my research I have focused on these various media products as their areas of interest, how that has influence on their music choices and how that can be used for my design work. I have researched a photographer, blogs and social media. These key aspects of their life have aided my choices of design and content to help me meet the expectations of target audience from my knowledge of them as a person and what they want out of a new magazine. Knowing the conventions of how the genre and target audience is represented through these areas of research has shown me how their choice in music reflects this.

 1) Holga Photography 

  • This really helped me relate it to my own work as it showed me the different ways I could capture/edit photographs and how I could make them look more artistic. I really want to represent the type of artists in my magazine through my photographs and these are a good example of how I could do that.
2) Blogs: I also found photography blogs/sites which had lots of images and insight into different types of photography (such as Holga) that I could look into using for my magazine.

  • This really helped me relate it to my own work as it showed me how photographers use thier personality as inspirations for their photographs, and how they use things such as the focal points, and rule of thirds to create beautiful imagery.  It gave me different ideas for my own photographs.
3) Social Media: I used tumblr.com to find different ways of capturing people and how you can present photographs to represent different artists and their own individuality and style of work (music).

The five images all show the target audience in different ways.
  1. The collage style I think would work really well for a female artist or a new band as you could layer the artists to find a new way of presenting each person. So you are collectively grouping them together to show they are a band, however you are giving each of the an identity that makes them each stand out. This allows readers to become fans of not only the band but also individual members. That's what gives bands longevity as they have a specific following of the members.
  2. The palm trees I think would really suit arty males who are more into the professional look and sound of imagery and journalism. I could use this for my magazine to meet audience expectations by using a professional camera and Adobe photoshop to give them a sleek edit.
  3. The male wearing glasses would be a cool, fresh way to present a new artist in the magazine. The side profile fulfils the genre conventions of using different angles to show their own style. The light photography imposed over the top incorporates my target demographic's social lifestyle of being new and exciting. 
  4. The girl's unique look is something that is key to indie fans as it represents her personality through visual style, something that I will be focusing on in my magazine to show my understanding on how the music style reflects the readers.
  5. The girl on the hill is a nice calming image, with calming being associated with indie or acoustic artists or fans. This genre has connotations of 'Englishness' cups of tea, landscapes, artistic edge and being comfortable with yourself. This image represents this idea of being peaceful, something that magazines such as 'WIRE' magazine uses a lot for there profiles of people. This is something I can consider mixing with the picture of the male's side profile to achieve a collage DPS. 
  • This really helped me relate it to my work by looking at the different colour schemes and how I can help reach a broader audience by using both male and female artists to pull in both genders as readership. All the images are targeted to my target audience, which has made this research of how social media has used their interests as part of the individuals own self reflection a useful tool for trying to attract my readers. 
Flat Plan

Here is a rough Flat Plan of my Front Cover, it's only a first idea and could change once I have my photographs.

I created an example VoxPop to try some Q&A styled interviewing:

After my extensive research, here is my final mind map of Initial Ideas:


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Research & Planning: Music Magazine Inspirations & Photograph Ideas

When thinking about my photography, I think I would know more of what I want from the image and how I want it to look if it was female, so I narrowed down my research to just females, and look at their faces, body language and positioning.



Using my tumblr blog ( http://loveisfreehappinessisexpensive.tumblr.com/ ) I found lots of inspirations for my music magazine, from the fashion of my chosen stars, the style of photography/shots down to the locations of my photographs. Here are some examples:

  • The first photograph, has a carefree attitude I would use for a band coverage. It could be a smaller image on the double page spread.
  • The second photograph has the young vibe of a festival, a group celebration of music and shared interest, something I am very interested in incorporating that into my music magazine. The edited filter gives it a young look that makes instagram really popular.
  • The third photograph I also really like the simplicity of this shot. I think it would work well for a 60 second interview section. Maybe this is something I could incoporate into my contents page?
  • The fourth photograph showed me I want to use some editorial black and white photography for my main double page spread, as it's the big feature of my magazine. This simple 'street' photograph has a nice soft yet moody feel about it. I think this would work well for my magazine.
  • The final fifth image used the black and white photography I would want as the style of close up I would use for the main stars in each issue.
I then looked into more how you could capture women in different ways to give them a different sense of style and personality. There are less stereotypes for men or presentations of males I feel, so I think if I wanted to get my shots of females right I had to look closer at how photography can present them.

These photographs are the inspirations for my double page spread, the variation in shots, filters and colour scheme. I think these are very in with my genre and capture what I hope to in my own photographs. 

The photographs have a slightly grungy feel to the indie genre, the fashion, black and white and style of shot could be used on a either a front cover, contents page or double page spread. 

I really like the mix of focus and blur I find really interesting and creates a more visual appeal. All these photographs I found online.




After researching styles of image, I looked at the shots and how they could work on different layout designs. I created a prezi of my thought process as I was thinking of different ideas in my head. I wanted to explore all the options to help me decide if I wanted simple of different for my layout. 
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Research & Planning: Music Genre & Target Audience

As part of our Music Magazine study it was important to have an understanding of the types of genres that could be made into a new music magazine and what type of audience they would attract. I looked at 10 different genres and found some examples of the types of songs that would come under these genres.

Classical:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRsycxGgyuI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IafGYlAEZKc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0VJBvaO5G4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eClRtIv2gs

Rock:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyyhvu2Ry5o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn8-4tjPxD8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBmueYJ0VhA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSvFpBOe8eY

Dubstep:

For my music magazine I'm thinking they would have this sort of look and personality shown in this clip here: 
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Wednesday, 12 December 2012

My Student Magazine: Evaluation

My Reflection on my Work:
I was really proud of my completed student magazine, I'm glad that I decided not to include a picture of myself in my editors note, as I feel this would have appeared to pretentious for a down-to-earth, everyday students. I would however have had the word 'FREE' on one of the top hand corners of my front cover, as I don't think it was obvious to the audience whether you had to buy it or not. I didn't include a barcode as some kind of gesture to show it was free, but I think I could have done more to show this.
I would have played around more with the editing on the front page to give it a more 'hipster' edge and maybe had a filter on the photograph of a pattern or shape (i.e. a triangle) if I were to repeat the task. I think my chosen models worked well for my magazine and I would happily make another one.
I think next time I would have incorporated even more of my influence from COMPANY magazine when it came to layout and photographs. I may have tried to copy something similar to this digicover:


This is something to consider next time for my full task when I move on to make my music magazine and maybe look more at this funky style of photography. I really like how the cover lines look like they are on black tape, I think it works well against the photo as it really stands out. This is something I would use for my next piece of work.
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Tuesday, 11 December 2012

My Student Magazine: Working Progress

Here's my working progress of my student magazine. I have screen grabbed the selection of the screen to show the boxes I have used to create this final piece. You can see all the boxes and text space I used to create the cover.
It was a lot more simple than I had anticipated, but thankfully I managed it all ok.
The QR code I made online so the scanner actually works and sends you directly to the link as promised.
I didn't know whether or  not to have the banner across the bottom, I think it works well with or without but I decided not to use it as I think it makes it look slightly childish/tacky and less professional looking. It also clutters the bottom right hand side of the cover.




















Here is my working progress of my contents page. The picture of me on the bottom right of the left page I removed as I didn't feel it was necessary to have myself on the page - and I prefered it without. I think that having a random picture of me would have affected how the page turned out overall, so I'm pleased I made the decision to remove it. I really like the layout of the contents page and I'm really proud of the final results. It came out much better than I expected as it looked exactly as I wanted it to. 
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Friday, 7 December 2012

Target Audience: Student Magazine

For my student magazine I had to appeal to a 'typical student' between the age of 16 - 26. Within this 10 year age gap I wanted both males and females to want to read my magazine.

Education wise, I didn't really consider the background of the type of education because I felt the personality and style of the person was more important. I didn't want it to only be accessible to South Downs students and be able to be sent to college's around England and they still enjoy the features and get a lot out of the articles.

Because of this, lifestyle was a major factor on how I would achieve this. I wanted the lifestyle of the students to drive the magazine style and look, what would be in the content.

They are fun loving, up for anything, like their friends and social scene, listening to music, partying, having sexual relationships type. But smart and intelligent to read magazines and actually listen to the advice that they give.
My design reflects this from the poses in my photography. I didn't want static 'stood there' poses. My models had to have some form of expresion, through face, gesture, body language or how they translated in the shot.
The red colour has connotations of danger, and as teenagers/young adults can be seen as dangerous I wanted to use this connatation to be used simplisically in my magazine. The monochrome gieves it a stylish sleek look to the cover and I used the idea of creatively collaging my contants by using elements such as the font, colour and cover lines from my front cover.
They are very modern and part of this generation, through the digital culture so I wanted to use social media such as twitter and smart phones to be encorporated into my design.

I also wanted my design to look at the fashion of students as it is a passion of mine and the reason I chose Bee to be my cover star. The following images give examples of the students who would read my magazine's everyday college 'look' - using: google images.


After searching: Tumblr Girls Photography, Tumblr Photography and Tumblr Fashion I found the personality of the Jack Wills models to be a huge inspiration to the type of students who would pick up 'INSIDE' magazine, so I started to research how they behaved using uploaded videos by Jack Wills. Below are all the best examples of the look, age, and how my target audience would act.
I think overall I managed to achieve my goal by using young and fun looking models for my photographs, this was the key to starting the trendy vibe. I think the simple colour scheme didn't over crowd or over complicate my work and allowed it to look easy to read and stright forward to follow. I was incredibly proud of the end result, as my achievements proved I could complete my creative vision. I definately think my music magazine will be be much simpler to do thanks to this task before hand. 
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My Completed Student Magazine


Here is my final cover design for my student magazine. I decided to go for the sleek and co-ordinated design look, so it visually appealed to the younger audience by not looking to busy and chaotic.
I used 4 tag/cover lines all plugging the articles in the magazine, so readers can pick it up on-the-go and get straight to the parts they want, something I think is important when travelling around.
I'm really pleased with my proportions and layout choices.
  • My colour scheme of red, white and black matches my cover stars outfit. The use of 3 colours makes it bold and stands out to the human eye.
  • I've used the Rule of Thirds for the cover lines. Keeping them in columns to look neat.
  • My model is engaging with the audience by panning her eyes down the camera lens (as if looking directly at us).
  • The white background really projects my model and her backpack, making the readers aware of the target audience and the type of person who would pick up and read this magazine.
  • The main cover line 'THE DEBUT ISSUE FEATURING BEE ROGERS' gives it that star appeal that young readers want from magazines today, it gives it a USP (unique selling point) that grabs the audience's attention. It makes it sound fresh and exciting and not so focused on the educational stresses they may already have; this makes readers want to read INSIDE magazine as it separates them from all their work load and allows escapism.
  • It is also the most dominant cover line as it is separated from the other three by it's isolation. There's nothing clumped near it so it is obvious that this one should be read first. It has the most changes to the font size, colour and itallics etc.

When working I had extra time on my hands so I decided to make my magazine look even more professional by adding in an Editor's Note. This was the most fun to do as I could move away from the generic look that most magazine's have and create my own layout and play around with how I presented it. I would say I kept it fairly to the expectations of and Editor's Note, as I used images, the same fonts and colour scheme to stay with the continuity of my magazine and not look confusing to the readers. I did this by using the red font colour that I associated the link to Bee with for the small passage under her picture, to keep the connection there with her and the colour red. It makes her stand out as important and the red is loud and in your face against the black so it really grabs your eye. I liked how I used the screenshots of my twitter (http://twitter.com/B_ARose) and tumblr (http://loveisfreehappinessisexpensive.tumblr.com/) page to keep in with the QR codes that I made myself and the ideology of teenagers/young adults always being on-the-go and the digital age of social networking. The images gave it a stylish edge and I think to overall ideas and layout worked perfectly.
I used a slightly different font to what I had been using for all the main text, but keeping with the theme of my magazine by using the font I used for my QR codes annotation.
The sans serif font made it easier to read, which is why I chose it, as I knew that this would be harder to read having a block of text in the serif font I was using. However I do think it worked well for the contents page (below).

Here is my finished contents page. I completed it by using many boxes.
This is my favourite page out off all of them as I think it looks most professional, as it really looks like the piece of inspiration I stemmed it from. The use of the red white and black goes with my chosen photographs and how all the boxes almost collage together looks really cool.
I divided my magazine into sections and when typing the page numbers I thought about how long I would want each feature to be, rather than guessing the numbers, I strategically worked out a system of pages. The way the overlapping looks I think is what made this page successful as the layout is really what grabs you here. The choice of articles and features I think works well for a student magazine and the QR code links to them always being on their phones. The choice of the photograph I took of the two girls was made really suddenly on the spot. I needed a third picture and I didn't want to keep using Bee and I already had one of my boyfriend, and I thought have a random object might look odd but all my friends where to camera shy to pose for me. So looking through my laptop library of previous photos I had taken, this one I took on a college school trip and I thought the black leather jacket and the red hair worked well for my colour scheme and both girls have that fresh modern look and capture how my target audience look today. The posing was really chilled and I had two others to chose from (see below) but when trying to fit them in there were some problems with pixilation and getting the photo sizing to fit the page. I thought this pose was the most 'rock 'n' roll' it had the fun element I was after and this photo I had taken for fun. Because they both have red hair I could easily disguise them as sisters and they had a united look that would make them easy stars to feature. Overall they fitted exactly what I wanted.


These were my other two options however they didn't have the same look as the first photograph so I decided not to use them.



The top one, Emma (on the left) was looking away and although Lara (on the right) had the look, I needed both of them to look in synch with eachother. The bottom one they both look far too posed and Emma's parting doesn't match Lara's which visually looks slightly off. I do however still like the essence of these photographs.
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Monday, 26 November 2012

My Student Magazine Photography

As part of our course we had to create a student magazine using only our own original imagery that we had taken ourselves. I used a portion of one of my coursework lessons to take some pictures of my boyfriend on my digital camera and taken the rest myself in my own time. Using previous photography knowledge on angles, lines and how we can make the photo attractive, I tried to capture some artistic looking shots. Here are some examples of my work:

The Contents Page:

Here is my boyfriend posing for me to photograph for my student magazine. This is I have edited just using the photo gallery on my laptop at home and then I edited it further on an apple Mac using Adobe Photoshop CS6. I tried a high angle shot and the use of lines in the backdrop from what I learnt in the class photography lesson. I think the lines in the background have worked quite well and I am pleased how the photograph came out.
This was one of the first photographs I took and is my favourite out of the ones I took on the day.
It didn't require a lot of editing and only took about 5/7 minutes to do in total. It was really fast and simple and Photoshop was easy to work with.

Here is my photoshopped version of the above photograph. I airbrushed his skin slightly to remove the redness and dark circles using the patch tool and then adjusted things such as the exposure, contrast, hue etc. (general things) to make the colours and how the overall look of the photograph stand out and really come to life. I though it looked more creative and really captured the feel of my student magazine, with the essence of the type of reader shown here.















The Main Cover (and Contents Page):

For my main cover image I also wanted to have an 'on the cover' section using a different photograph but the same model for this and play around with the editing so it had the feel of my model in it? I was really lucky as I hadn't asked Bee what I wanted her to wear as her style is something that made me want to use her for my magazine and I thought leaving it to her would be more creatively interesting for me, to edit my magazine around the colour schemes she chose to wear. However, I did start the main bulk of the work before I took her photograph and used black, white and red as my colour scheme. I was going to use dark blues, blacks and greens to keep in with modern fashion but after looking to the style of 'NOTION' magazine I changed my mind at the last minute. Fortunately for me on the day I arranged to take Bee's photograph she wore a red shirt and a black leather jacket. which was PERFECT to fit my cover and my chosen colour scheme.


Here is the first photo I took of my cover star. I asked my friend Bee to pose for me as she is also studying AS Media Studies. Although she was really nervous I managed to get the shots I wanted. They looked really natural and full of personality which is why I chose her to be my cover star.
I used my boyfriend's laptop to edit the photographs I took on my fujifilm digital camera, which meant I could edit them to look completely different but only using very basic effect changes such us highlighting, shadowing, contrast, brightness, saturation, tint and colouring.
I used her edgy style to stimulate the editing, to make it look modern, funky almost like the instagram app popular with my age demographic for my student magazine. I wanted the style of photography to suit the readers and connect with them as something they would find visually stimulating.
I really liked this side profile of hers however this one her eyes are slightly squinting so I took some others and see if I got a better shot.

This was the second photograph I took and I wanted to play around with the editing and try or different looks. I like how changing the saturation so it's almost black and white gave it a totally different effect. I'm not sure the background works as well, even though I originally wanted plain white, having seen how just editing the colours etc could make the background more interesting - I don't know about this one just because of how I edited it. I do like the pose however because it's similar to the profile from before just on the other side.
I just made the saturation too low so her face doesn't have enough contrast with the background. I think the outfit looks really good as it really shows off her style.
 
This third image I took was more close up than my previous photographs, which made me tied between this one and the one below. I liked the way her hair and outfit looked, and it really showed off her amazing  skin and teeth. I liked that it was more noticeable that she was wearing a backpack as it gave her more of a 'student look' as it showed she was likely to be carrying revision books.
I didn't edit this one too much, just the contrast for the background, the saturation for the boldness of the colour and the exposure/highlighting to make each strand of her stand out better.










Learning from previous mistakes, I realised I needed room for my masthead and cover lines  and although I may have liked the above pictures, logically there wouldn't be enough room to fit all the other bits of text in. So for this photograph I really tried to make room for everything I wanted to fit on my student magazine. Knowing I wanted columns I knew I had to provide for those. I really liked this funky, fresh and happy pose that showed Bee having fun. It had a slightly quirkyness about it that stayed true to her spirit I wanted to capture but still fitted my magazine look. Having her hair to one side really showed off how beautiful her hair is and the fact she's wearing a backpack, which promotes an educational side, as well as looking stylish. Her smiling sends out a positive message to readers, whilst showing off her amazing teeth. I chose this image because as soon as I took it I knew I was going to use it, so it seemed right, natural and the perfect choice. I'm glad I chose this image as when it came to creating my magazine it fitted really well and I didn't have any adjustment problems. I edit this one in the same way as the one before, but I wanted the red to really stand out so I did less to this photograph to make it seem as natural as possible.



The above photograph I took straight after as I wanted to try and find the perfect one for my contents page. I was really inspired by COMPANY magazine's pages where they show who's worked on the issues as it has a real young, cool and new vibe about it. So when taking this I really thought about how I could play around with the tint, saturation, exposure, highlighting, constrast and a few other techniques to give it that same edge. I liked the previous pose, but wanted it to look more caught off chance, and as Bee was really nervous I thought using the same pose on a different side would give her a comfortable way of doing it. I really liked the way this was edited so I used this for the Editor's Note because I felt having her almost repeat the pose came across as if I'd found a star who had their own natural habits that everyone else has, making her seem more realistic to for my magazine and not someone who has randomly posed for me.

This photograph was trying to recapture the feel of the first photograph, by having a profile shot, however Bee moved when I took the picture and this is how it came out. I actually prefer this version as it shows her in action but at the same time has a beautiful stillness about it? The main reason I wanted to re-shoot this picture was because in the first one her eyes were slightly squinted, and I wanted her to look as beautiful as possible, so I had to retake this to make her eyes wider. This was achieved by having her not smile, so her eyes didn't crease. I used the same editing techniques I have been using throughout my photographs by just playing with all the different elements until I found somehting I thought had a nice quality, worked, looked good for the photo or I liked! I really like how the necklace falls in this photograph and her hair (the main reason I chose her and the height of her) looks captivating here. It's natural and looks down-to-earth, which was exactly what I wanted for my student magazine.

All together I'm really impressed with my photographs and my editing I think worked really well for my chosen style of magazine. I didn't have to take as many pictures as I did, as the first couple would have worked fine, but being a perfectionist I wanted to take more, enjoy the photographing experience and get the best shot I could.
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Class Task



As part of our coursework lesson we made comparison's between two music magazine covers and how the layout and photography has a different effect on the reader.


  • The layout of this 2010 Vanity Fair 'Style Issue' has cover star Lady Gaga off centred on the right side of the cover.
  • She has a triangle shaped position, giving her three main lines from her body.
  • It is taken from a low angle giving her pose a superiority to the reader. It makes her look admirable, because you have to look up to her - which connects to her style of music (which talks about empowerment and being the best you can be).
  • She has a large fan following, which is shown through her photograph and the coverline to the left of her right arm which says "the WORLD'S NO.1 POP STAR".
  • The cover lines have a column look about them which features straight lines going down the left and right third of the cover. They are composed around the outside of the focal points, which really makes her stand out. They are also the only cover lines that appear over her photograph.
  • The extravagant outfit she wears gives connotations of being regal or having a powerful hierarchy status from the mise-en-scene of the image.
  • The simple grey black background is plain, which contrasts to her detailed and intricate outfit. 
  • This clear use of left third has used the two cover lines on the left to stand out against Lady Gaga. It stands her out as a solo artist which represents her individuality within the music industry.
Over all the cover looks glossy and expensive and with money being something associated with Lady Gaga it gives off a contemporary and modern appeal to those interested in pop music but might be from middle/upper class. It doesn't look teen related, very much for an adult audience and gives the effect of being classy and full of images from how big the cover star is. 



  • The Source doesn't clearly display who the main cover star is. It shows a head shot/close up of an artist pointing a gun to himself with the main cover line say 'Suicide is not an option'. This is mysterious as to what it means. 
  • The red and white colour scheme works well to stand out against the picture, the vest co-ordinates with the font colour. The choice of red and white relates to the fact it's US based. The connotations of vests tell us it's hip-hop based and the genre is for a specific audience.
  • The cover looks aggressive with tattoos on the cover star, red to connotate danger or anger and the violence associated with the gun telling us it's not aimed at females. And rap is more for a male target audience.
  • The layout is  simple and spaced out like Vanity Fair's but in a different design. It has more of a working class look because of the stigma attached to rap and hip-hop 
  • The use of left and right third look very conventional with font's all co-ordinating. It shows it's a long running magazine that has it's own following.
  • The use of the same size used for fonts except for the main cover line on the left third shows which cover line is most important and relates to the main image.
Overall the cover looks quite cheap compared to Vanity Fair. This is because hip-hop is associated with the streets and starting in places that aren't glamorous  The main cover star looks well off despite how simply he's dressed. I think this magazine isn't as appealing to those who like other music genre because of how it's used font and design to attract it's target demographic. Vanity Fair you could pick up for the first time and casually read it despite knowing nothing about the history or anything it features, whereas this cover looks like it's aimed at those who know a lot about who's in it, what the magazine's about and are regular readers.

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Coursework: Photography

In class we looked at two covers and how the main images in the cover showed photographic technqiues to appeal to certain audiences and fit genre conventions.

We used two examples to compare how the rule of thirds had been used both similarly and differently to give opposite effects:


The first third features
the mast head, and the left third features the cover lines, which leaves the right side a centre intersections to focus on cover star Eva Longoria. Her eyes are looking down the camera lens, as if she is looking at us. Making her face the centered focal point, working well for the magazine cover with a pleasing look for the audience. It has a coy submissive look, which gives her as a woman a flirty but passive appeal, that suits her girly persona and fits the genre of magazine.
Her face looks soft and welcoming, which gives her an empathetic connection that a female magazine needs.
The left third's white font is hard to read, due to the light/pale background. Contrasting to the cover line just off the focal points that are centred to Eva's face - linking the cover line to her.


The NME cover uses cover star Morrissey's eyes as a focal point, with his aggressive facial expression using the eyes to look down into the camera lens.
He is slightly peering down the lens which has the slight effect of a low angle shot.
The left third like 'allure' is busy with cover lines.
Also like 'allure' just off the focal point near his mouth is a cove line. However using a rotate the line "BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN' in capitals is made to look as if it's coming out of his mouth, giving an angry shouting impression.

The ripped paper effect next to his face, just out of the focal point, reaffirms that violent thug like impression of the magazine.


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Sunday, 18 November 2012

Preliminary Task: Brief

 'Initial Ideas' - Here are some of my ideas presented in different ways:


Here is my initial Ideas Plan that show the basic thoughts on what I want for my Student Magazine Cover. I used Inspiration 8 IE to create my diagram and edited the font, colours and added an image to add interest to the design. 

My Proposal: My ideas have been inspired from Nicola Roberts after 'google imaging' "Nicola Roberts Magazine Covers"

Her current and 'out there' approach to pop culture isn't over powering but connects to the contemporary culture of students today. Her take on fashion, makeup and hair was something that gave me style ideas for the cover star, plugs for cover lines and how I could pitch it to students.
For the Bullett cover the name jumped out to me like Notion did - simple and memorable and sounds current. Below are two inspirations that I have based my ideas on as example covers:

  • My magazine is specifically aiming at College Students. I will show that I am aiming at a specific audience using a clear sense of genre and ideology. Using the Main Image to show the age (16 - 24) and the font to show that they are young. Block fonts and connotations of electronica music/DJ's theme (like a large house party) will appeal to a more modern, younger, trendy demographic. The simple layout and use of colour schemes will look appealing for students to read on-the-go and not feel they are being bombarded with information.
  • My magazine will be an up-to-date theme of music, fashion, what's going on in the local areas (film, music, shopping - student sales, discounts and food etc) to appeal to their interests and what's 'relevant' to their everyday lives. It shall include some short reviews, minor celebrity interviews (internet famous people) and articles on technology they are used to using such as: social networking, technology and applications. I do not want it to have an overly 'college' base and more be about the age group with some important (and sometimes shocking) health articles that are aimed at them or their relations. It shouldn't feel student specific, but have aspects of educational basis from things like: motivational quotes from celebrities and entrepreneurs who have excelled in life and pose as good examples and role models to aspiring students in various subject fields. I want it to feature current and up-and-coming stars, photographers, rising artists (all areas) new exhibitions and galleries, undiscovered talents and facts about various employment industries.
  • My ideas for cover lines are all going to be plugging what's inside the issue, I did have the idea of one largely centered to do with the cover star, but since seeing two interesting and catchy covers for two different magazines; I've wanted to explore the sleek design, I was inspired by Notion magazine and Bullett magazine.They will be mainly music, sexual health and star related and feature rhetorical questions to make the readers think and want to read the articles etc to answer their own personal questions. I want the cover to really connect to each reader by making the topics and themes unisex. So there is no gender target audience. (See picture examples above) these links have the style and 'arty' edge I want to aim for my magazine with a video to show visually what I mean: http://bullettmedia.com/about/ http://vimeo.com/45979203
  • For my title I have decided to call it: Inside because it's short sharp and relates to everything 'inside' a students world: music, food, fashion - the whole world of a teenager. It's not a complicated name to remember and has a direct link to inside a teenagers brain. The following names I all rejected because as far as I am aware they are already magazine titles: In, Out, Motion, Living, Up, Lowdown, Count, Live, L, S, C, U, I
  • I would want to use big block fonts, quite a lot of bold. Sans serif fonts to connect to a younger audience and for main feature pages that appeared every issue, using specialist designed fonts to look 'cool'. Some examples I found on the internet are below:
My favourite font is the 'A LOVE OF THUNDER' as I think it looks most appealing and most appropriate for standing out and grabbing a young audience. 
  • My ideas for taglines I hadn't originally thought of but after internet research, I brainstormed some ideas: 

I haven't decided yet on which one I think will work best for my student magazine, until I have finished the design of the front cover. Once that has been completed I shall select which one jumps out to me as more appropriate.
  • It will be published every three months, as the seasons change and the new college terms do. It doesn't over power the students with things to read (as they will have lots of coursework and exam revision to read anyway) and it allows significant change to occur that would lead to original and new articles etc. It would be available throughout the academic term until the next issue. The cover may have some iconography of seasons to reflect the change in weather and up-coming holidays etc, but the change will mainly be told through the articles and fashion shown in the imagery. Health and music will show what time of the year the magazine issue is as this socially changes with what things we concern ourselves with (e.g. in spring it's about hay-fever and medication, in summer skin cancer warnings (checking moles and sun lotion, hats and glasses etc.) and winter it's more for colds, flu and 'bugs'.) Music changes with what 'sounds' is more appropriate to listen to.
  • My front cover will have a young cover star to promote the target age, if I had a team to work with I would use a photographer to take some posed location shots or studio shots and edit the effects to give it a modern look. I will be using a digital camera myself to take the photos for the cover. It will be a medium shot - I will aim from the knees up, to get most of the body in the photograph. I do not want the photograph to look to 'fake' as I want a down-to-earth and realistic looking model.
  • Going from when in the year it would be published, if the first issue was from September to December (Autumn Term), the second issue was January to April (Spring Term), the third issue April to July (Summer Term) would mean it would be published three times a year.
  • The cover dimensions would be 210 x 148 mm or 8.3 x 5.8 inches for an A5 magazine. I think an A5 magazine would be a more appropriate for a student magazine as it will be cheaper to mass produce due to the smaller sizing and being smaller means it's lighter and easier for students to carry around and fit into their crammed bags. It's a nicer size to handle and not having large A4 makes it less daunting or patronising to read as it's handy and travel friendly. However if I was unable to have A5, the A4 dimensions would be 297 x 210 mm or 11.7 x 8.3 inches.
  • I would use lots of smaller images and some lighter shades of colour for the contents page. 
'Flat Plans' - Ideas and Inspirations for my Front Cover and Contents Page:

 Here is my first idea for my front page, presented as a flat plan which I create on an Apple Mac's 'Word Document'. I used shapes to create the black boxes and changed the font to the text.
Below is some inspirations for my contents page from existing music magazines I found on the internet: 

I like the layering and arrangement of the pages. The crowded but neat look is very appealing to a young audience as it reflects how they are and what they are into. Young people are into collages and building up collections of memories and I think these two examples show this.  I think the font choices are really well selected and it looks well co-ordinated with the rest of the text. The mixed size of images and 'busy' photography that's not studio posed gives it a teenager vibe.
  
Below is my Flat Plan for my contents page where I have used the above inspirations for the layering effect and the use of red, white and black as a colour scheme. I have used a purple triangle to look 'hipster' and the blue will be the main colour used the image. The light lime green background is not to over shadow the main design features that I have 'created' on Microsoft Word using shapes and Text Boxes.

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