Working with existing forms and conventions
Researching magazine conventions that are commonly used in all types of magazines and applying them onto my own magazine allowed and helped me to relate my magazine to other existing music magazines.
My preliminary task helped me to get familiar with most of the conventions which made it easier for me to deal with the layout and design of my music magazine. I already knew that the masthead colors must never blend in with the background as it wouldn't be eye catching.
Meanwhile working on my front cover, I found out that using bigger font for the cover story is more conventional, therefore I used bigger font and also different color for my cover story as it would attract more readers. The captions i put in would include names of other famous artists, which would tell the readers that the magazine features stuff that the ideal reader would be mostly interested in.
While analysing the images used for front covers, I noticed that magazines tend to use an image of a band dressed in dark colors to symbolize that the rock genre, and image of just one person for genres like pop. Considering this being a convention, I used an image of a girl with an acoustic guitar and that would suggest the artist makes pop or alternative music. Designing a school magazine also enabled me to fully understand how to choose the correct mode of address. This would include using appropriate use of language and colours which is linked to the age of the ideal readers - in my case 15 - 19 in both tasks.
Name of the magazine was easy to choose for both tasks as I have created a surveys for my classmates. Each time I would make up names that would have something in common with the school or music magazine and as my school magazine was focused on art, I ended up calling it Colours, however in the survey this name didn't get the most votes.
For my music magazine I had done the same thing as it was conventional from my research; where all music magazines had catchy, short and easy to remember names . The language I have chosen was informal and was used mostly in my double page spread interview as the artist's answers were not hanged, however i did not use a lot of slang words and the text was clear to read therefore the style of language was kept conventional.
Researching magazine conventions that are commonly used in all types of magazines and applying them onto my own magazine allowed and helped me to relate my magazine to other existing music magazines.
My preliminary task helped me to get familiar with most of the conventions which made it easier for me to deal with the layout and design of my music magazine. I already knew that the masthead colors must never blend in with the background as it wouldn't be eye catching.
Meanwhile working on my front cover, I found out that using bigger font for the cover story is more conventional, therefore I used bigger font and also different color for my cover story as it would attract more readers. The captions i put in would include names of other famous artists, which would tell the readers that the magazine features stuff that the ideal reader would be mostly interested in.
While analysing the images used for front covers, I noticed that magazines tend to use an image of a band dressed in dark colors to symbolize that the rock genre, and image of just one person for genres like pop. Considering this being a convention, I used an image of a girl with an acoustic guitar and that would suggest the artist makes pop or alternative music. Designing a school magazine also enabled me to fully understand how to choose the correct mode of address. This would include using appropriate use of language and colours which is linked to the age of the ideal readers - in my case 15 - 19 in both tasks.
Name of the magazine was easy to choose for both tasks as I have created a surveys for my classmates. Each time I would make up names that would have something in common with the school or music magazine and as my school magazine was focused on art, I ended up calling it Colours, however in the survey this name didn't get the most votes.
For my music magazine I had done the same thing as it was conventional from my research; where all music magazines had catchy, short and easy to remember names . The language I have chosen was informal and was used mostly in my double page spread interview as the artist's answers were not hanged, however i did not use a lot of slang words and the text was clear to read therefore the style of language was kept conventional.
Working in media production contexts
When deciding on appropriate images to use for my music magazine, I was recommended to take my own pictures and therefore I had to organize a small photo shoot with which involved my friend posing and my classmate advising and helping me on which camera angles and positioning would create powerful images. This was successful as I had my own camera and the photo shoot was arranged outside school which meant I could take my time and do everything properly. However, when designing my double page spread I realized I had only used two different places - my house and the school stage. The school stage was appropriate place to take images but as I did not have the chance to get more people involved, as it was during school time and I was unable to create an image of a concert where the viewers would be able to see the crowd of fans below the stage.
Nevertheless, I found it easy to edit these images and arrange them professionally.
Changing the layout of my music magazine was difficult at first, as I had trouble with the making the magazine look professional at the same time conventional.
To solve this problem I have asked my classmates for feedback every time I have made a change to the layout, and that helped me with deciding on which design I will use as my final.
When deciding on appropriate images to use for my music magazine, I was recommended to take my own pictures and therefore I had to organize a small photo shoot with which involved my friend posing and my classmate advising and helping me on which camera angles and positioning would create powerful images. This was successful as I had my own camera and the photo shoot was arranged outside school which meant I could take my time and do everything properly. However, when designing my double page spread I realized I had only used two different places - my house and the school stage. The school stage was appropriate place to take images but as I did not have the chance to get more people involved, as it was during school time and I was unable to create an image of a concert where the viewers would be able to see the crowd of fans below the stage.
Nevertheless, I found it easy to edit these images and arrange them professionally.
Changing the layout of my music magazine was difficult at first, as I had trouble with the making the magazine look professional at the same time conventional.
To solve this problem I have asked my classmates for feedback every time I have made a change to the layout, and that helped me with deciding on which design I will use as my final.
Using technology
I have decided that that best solution my front cover, contents page and double page spread design would be photo shop as it has the same qualities as DTP, however it allows me to manipulate images and text better than DTP. I knew this because I used the Internet to find appropriate font for the front cover title and this type of font was not available on either of the softwares, however using photo shop and print screen allowed me to save the chosen font as an image, cut it and arrange it onto my front cover.
As I already have experience with photo shop it was easy for me to handle the basic editing such as cropping, resizing and changing the color and applying effects to my images. Throughout my research, I had noticed that some of the main images of artists for the double page spread are cut out from its background or have something added to it, which I was unable to do at first, which slowed down my progress. I was then given a useful website which was provided with tips on how to cut out only certain parts of an image, and that helped me to apply this to my front cover and double page spread.
I have decided that that best solution my front cover, contents page and double page spread design would be photo shop as it has the same qualities as DTP, however it allows me to manipulate images and text better than DTP. I knew this because I used the Internet to find appropriate font for the front cover title and this type of font was not available on either of the softwares, however using photo shop and print screen allowed me to save the chosen font as an image, cut it and arrange it onto my front cover.
As I already have experience with photo shop it was easy for me to handle the basic editing such as cropping, resizing and changing the color and applying effects to my images. Throughout my research, I had noticed that some of the main images of artists for the double page spread are cut out from its background or have something added to it, which I was unable to do at first, which slowed down my progress. I was then given a useful website which was provided with tips on how to cut out only certain parts of an image, and that helped me to apply this to my front cover and double page spread.
Thinking about audience
To make sure that my magazine fulfilled its purpose and attracted the ideal reader, I have created surveys for my classmate and people aged 15/19, either asking them for an effective name for my magazines, or the information used in the magazine - e.g. what the audience would and wouldn't like to read in the magazine. Doing this helped me to keep my designs appealing and eye catching to the right age group of people, which made them more successful and effective. During each draft I've designed, I asked for a feedback where my classmates would tell me what is good about and bad about e.g. the layout and also what they think I should change in order to keep it more conventional. For example, at first my music magazine cover was meant to be designed simple and professional but when I asked for a feedback I was told that it would be more conventional if my front cover included more cover lines and range of colors for the text instead of just using black.
Representing
To make sure that my magazine fulfilled its purpose and attracted the ideal reader, I have created surveys for my classmate and people aged 15/19, either asking them for an effective name for my magazines, or the information used in the magazine - e.g. what the audience would and wouldn't like to read in the magazine. Doing this helped me to keep my designs appealing and eye catching to the right age group of people, which made them more successful and effective. During each draft I've designed, I asked for a feedback where my classmates would tell me what is good about and bad about e.g. the layout and also what they think I should change in order to keep it more conventional. For example, at first my music magazine cover was meant to be designed simple and professional but when I asked for a feedback I was told that it would be more conventional if my front cover included more cover lines and range of colors for the text instead of just using black.
Representing
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