Interview for double page spread

 Beth, all of us here at Beat are happy to see you back. How are you finding the return to fame? Aww thank you, it's lovely to be back and I have found that fame never really left me so I'm just re-adjusting really.
So in your new book 'Beth's back & all grown up' what can we expect to read?
Well it is basically my story through my eyes. I have written the whole book myself. I found it important to write to show how fame can effect young stars.
So do you believe fame effected you when entering the charts at a tiny age of 13?
I believe it had a massive impact on my life, I do believe it effected me however I'm not sure whether in a bad way. I do believe that I miss a childhood, however I gained so much from my chart success.
Once the book is out are we right to assume that a come back single will follow?
Well I have spent over a year working on my book so there hasn't been much time for music. However I am working with a team of talented producers to make a single which I believe will be out for the summer. I don't want to rush my music I just want to get it right this time.
So what can we expect from the all grown up Beth?
Well I think people need to remember that I'm still only 18 so I will still make mistakes when living my life. However I believe that one thing I have gained from been such a young person in the music business is learning how to keep my private life private.

Current contents

Over the past few lessons I have created my contents page. Although I chose a very safe layout for my music magazine, I believe that my magazine contents needed more of an edge due to the genre of a magazine. So therefore I decided to generate my magazine contents in a different format.

Current Contents Page

I believe by having a unconventional large image down one side of the contents allows my magazine to have a unique edge. I also believe it allows the information presented to be read easily and is very clear. Also with the images placement it gives the impression that the artist is presenting the information. The image also has direct eye contact with the reader so therefore makes the information seem personally presented to them.

lesson update

Throughout this lesson I have been editing my images to be used in my contents page. I have also completed all text on my contents page and will post next lesson.

Lesson Update

Over the course of this lesson I have started to generate the final copy of my contents page, I will finish this next lesson and post it to my blog.

Front cover with image.

Below on this post is my front cover development of my front cover with my images now added.

First draft with image.

This is my first draft with my image placed on the front cover. I believe there is major faults with this front cover. My main issue with this font cover is the colour of the background, I believe that the grey draws colour away from the masthead and corresponding features and therefore makes them less bold losing their effect. I also believe another fault is the font of the splash and the story of the font is not very strong. The splash can not be seen well and once again looses it's effect and therefore this is something which I will need to change in my next draft.

Feedback - When I asked for feedback on this first draft the major issue which was brought up from my target audience was that they did not like the grey background and thought that it was to strong for the colours used for other key features. They also said that the font of the splash did not work well and they found it hard to read.

This is the second draft of my front cover, as it is clear I have changed what I thought to be my major problem and changed the background colour to black. However I left other features the same to see if the worked well with a background colour change. I believe the masthead works perfectly now and stands out the way it should. However I believe that the splash still does not stand out and the font of this text needs to be changed. I also still believe that the splash is not strong enough to draw readers in. However another fault I picked up with this draft is the fact that the barcode is not straight, this is only a small issue however this could make my magazine look very unprofessional. And a final fault which I found was the tag I had chosen to use, I believe this does not work for a music magazine and would be better suited to a fashion or gossip magazine.

Feedback - On this draft the main problem that came up from my feedback was that I still had not changed the font of the splash. Although I was seeing is this font was going to work with a black background I am now going to change the font as my target audience still found it hard to read. On this draft they also said that the tag was to bold over the picture and that they would like to see something on the right hand side of the magazine such as a pug.

This is my third draft of my front cover.On this cover I have changed the font and the text within my splash. I believe the effect of my new splash is much more stronger and works more effectively. I also believe it is easier to read which draws the reader in more. I have also made the barcode in the corner straight so that my magazine can maintain it's professional look. I have also removed the tag from this page as I believe myself this wasn't working and the feedback I gained also showed that my target audience did not like the tag. I have also placed a pug on the right hand side to see what my target audience thought.

Feedback- My target audience said that they thought this copy carried a more clear and professional look now that I had removed the tag. They also said that they thought the tag worked well but it would not been seen when buying the magazine so they thought that it needed to be removed or placed some where else.

This is the fourth draft of my magazine, on this draft I have kept everything the same as my third apart from removing the pug so my target audience could see the cover without it. This will allow them to see if the prefer the front cover with or without the pug.

Feedback - My target audience agreed that the magazine front cover looked better without the pug on the right hand side as it now did not look like the main image was looking at this pug. However they said that the right hand side now looked empty again, so therefore said they would like to see the pug placed somewhere else.

This is my final copy of my front cover. It is very similar to the fourth draft, however after reviewing my feedback I have added the pug once again. By reviewing my feedback I discovered that the pug needed to placed somewhere else, so from this I decided to move my masthead slightly to the left and place my pug in the right hand corner. I believe this has worked very well and given my magazine a more professional look.

Feedback - My target audience said they loved the new placing of the pug and agreed that it gave a more professional look. They also thought the magazine was very clear which attracted them as it symbolised that the magazine would be easy to read. They also agreed that the magazine looked better from changing the original font of my splash. Also although they agreed that the tag was a good idea they commented that the magazine carried a better look without this tag.



Contents page layout

Before making my contents page I wanted to create a layout in order to get a basic view of what the contents page would look like. It would also allow me to see any possible faults with my contents page.

This is the layout of my contents page. I believe it is clear and allows information to be seen clear. I would like to include a message from the editor on this page, so my next step is to re arrange the layout slightly to fit the message in.

This is my adjusted layout which will now include a message from the editor. I have moved my layout down slightly so the editors message can fit on the top under contents.

Second draft

This is a copy of my second draft. I have made some changes such as font and have included a price. I have also changed the shape of the tag slightly.

I believe this draft is an improvement of the last, however I believe the tag colour does not work and to maintain a professional look across the magazine I need to change this to the purple used through out.My next draft of the front cover will include an image, which I believe will give me a clearer view of how the magazine will look.

First Draft

This is the first draft of my front cover. At the moment it has no picture on, but it has my masthead and possible story lines.

I believe the masthead on this copy works very well, however I believe the tag which I have used to present information does not look very effective and needs to be more shaped as the shape is to blocked. I have also not included a price on this draft so will therefore have to include this in my next draft. I also believe I need a stronger headline for my splash.  

Masthead

I have started to generate my mastheads. Below are two of my first ideas.

This was the first idea for a masthead. However I believe this really does not work for my magazine. I believe that it is not bold enough and looks unprofessional. I also believe that it looks more suited to a pop magazine than indie. So therefore I will not be using this as a masthead for my magazine.

For my second idea I decided to swap the colour arrangements around to see if it made the masthead bolder, however I believe this was unsuccessful. Once again I believe this masthead does not suit my style of magazine. I believe the main reason for this masthead not working is due to the font choice, so I am therefore going to create a masthead using the font punched to see if the is a greater success. If there is no success then I will have to re look at fonts in order to create the effect I need.

This is my third masthead I believe this font works much better. I also believe that this font suits my style and will work very effectively. So therefore I will be using this for my masthead. However I will make the text size much larger on my magazine.

I am now going to complete a first draft of my magazine for my next post.  

Fonts re-load

Above are the different fonts I have considered using to create my masthead. The most popular from my focus group survey is punched, orial and bubblebody. However I believe that bubblebody will be the most effective font for my masthead in terms of linking to the genre of the magazine. So therefore I will create my masthead using the font bubbebody.

Page Layout

Before creating the first draft of my magazine I needed to consider the layout I would use. Over the past lesson I have created a few sample layouts which I will now analyse in order to pick the correct layout. From these layouts I will be bale to see where key features of a magzine will be placed.

Layout one

The layout above was my first layout draft. After looking over this layout I have found key things which work and key features which are missing. For example this layout does not show where my barcode, issue number and date would be placed. These are three major elements which need to be added to a layout before I could complete my first draft. However there are also some key things in which I like and think would work brilliantly on my layout. The features which I like are the tag which would hold information about what the magazine contains. I believe this feature would allow my magazine to have originality.  I also like the idea of having a pug, this could have an offer or promotion on which could attract customers.

Layout two

This is my second layout, I believe this layout is not as clear as my first choice of layout. I believe this layout is not as clear as many key features are over lapping. Although the over lapping effect could show that I was confident in my magazine selling so therefore I did not need key features clear. However I believe the over lapping on this layout will be too confusing for mt magazine to seem sell able to my target audience. As with my other layout though I am still missing one key feature and this is where my price will go on my magazine. However I believe that this layout does not work as successfully as my first layout, so therefore I will not be using this layout.

Layout 3 

This is my third layout. This layout consists of all the key features in which a mag zine has to have, this includes masthead, price, barcode, splash, issue number, barcode and main image. However once again I believe that key features still over lap further and that this layout does not work as effective as layout one, which I believe works the best. However I do believe that this layout works more effectively than layout 2. I believe this as the masthead is larger and more visible to the target audience. So therefore I am going to now develop layout one and add key feature in which it is missing to have my final layout.

Final Layout

This is my final layout, I believe this will be effective as it has the clear view of my favourite layout (layout one) and also has the main features it was missing added on. After completing the layout I will now follow it in order to create mock ups of my front cover before creating my final piece.

First picture ideas

These images are my first shots before editing which I could use through out my magazine, for my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Front cover ideas & updates.

Over the two lessons today, I have been generated layout designs for my front cover, this is to gain a brief idea of whether my magazine will look right or not. It will also allow me to make sure all key features are on my front cover. I have also been thinking what I want on my front cover and have gathered my first initial photos. I believe with my magazine been a indie magazine then I need to have an upcoming or very well known artist on the front cover with the  main double page spread in order to attract my target audience. I will also need to include what is coming up in the magazine to add some little tasters of what's coming to attract people even more. I have chosen a colour scheme of purple, grey and black, I have chosen this as I think these colours link well to my theme and would work well on a front cover. I have also been thinking how much I will charge for my magazine and I believe a price which worked well and seemed affordable was £2.50. 

Page Layout Update

Over the last two lessons I have been creating possible magazine layouts and anaylising what key features work and don't work.

Colour schemes!

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Colour schemes!

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Fonts

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Fonts

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During this lesson I have been preparing more colour schemes to look at and see which will work best for my magazine. I have also made judgements of the colour schemes on a presentation and will be posted on slide share shortly.

Colour schemes

Colour Schemes

Over the course of this lesson I have been using a website called: www.colorschemedesigner.com. I used this website to generate possible colour schemes I may wish to use for my magazine. I have chosen a selection of colour schemes and added them to a PowerPoint which I will then look through and analyse which colour scheme will suit the magazine best.

Here is a print screen of the website I have been using.

Coursework - Fonts

Over the course of this lesson I have typed up all fonts that I may wish to use. I have also typed them up with my magazines name of 'Beat!' to get a clear view of which font will work best. I have printed the two typed copies off. I will then survey my target audience on which font they are first drawn to and which font suits my name best. And from these I will tally the results and review next lesson in order to gather the font I will be using for my magazine name (masthead). After completing this I will then move on to looking and choosing my colour scheme for my magazine.

Magazine names!

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Magazine names!

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Updates on Coursework!

Over the past two lessons I have completed my research for my music magazine, which has aloud me to see what I need and don't need in order to make a successful magazine. It has also aloud me to review in detail successful magazines also available and what I could to vary myself from the slightly. I have also began to start my own music magazine. The first piece I have started is to generate magazine name ideas, I have then got around 8 people from my target  audience to vote to see which magazine name would gain the most success. From this my magazine name will be generated. After completing this I have moved on to research which fonts I would like to use, what key features  they need and which my target audience believe are best. From this is will allow me to then have my magazine name and font for this magazine name, which will then have the basis for my masthead.

School Magazine Front cover and contents page !

Below are my final front cover and contents for my school magazine. By completing research I believe the style I have chosen will have great success and carries a professional look.

School magazine cover shots !

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School magazine cover shots !

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House style !

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House style !

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As media research

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As media research

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Q visual research

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Q visual research

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School magazine research!

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School magazine research!

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School magazine

Over the past couple of lessons I have been working on generating my school magazine. I have completed my research which involves analysing three existing front covers and two existing contents pages. I have then started to generate my front cover of my magazine. I have started to think of colours schemes in which I would like to use for my front cover and key pieces which need to be involed with the cover. 

What colours have I chosen and what needs to be included on my front cover?
There are many keys items which need to be included on my front cover before I started to think of my colour schemes. My front cover will need to contain: my  masthead, main heading(which may also be the magazine splash), school logo, cover shot of a pupil/student,issue number. It also possible may include smalller images of other happenings and subheadings.
Loooking into my colour scheme I firstly thought of what must be included in the magazine and how these must fit in with the intial colour scheme in order for the magazine to carry a professional image. I have decided to keep my colour choice limited to make my school magazine more professional. After considering these factors, I have decided to go with a blue and white colour scheme. I have decided to use these colours as they are found in the school logo which will be found on the cover. This will make the magazine easy to link to the school.

I will now continue with the devlopment of my front cover and then contiune on to make my contents page which will follow the same colour scheme as the cover, keeping the professional look through out. My research will also shortly be posted using slide share.

Mastheads

My genre choice is Indie/Rock as two main stream magazines really caught my eye and inspired me. These two magazines were Q and NME. So now I have decided to look at front covers in detail to get a view of there house styles. I am also going to look at their mastheads and how they work for that magazine.

Masthead
A masthead is part of a magazines house style and appears on every issue of the magazine. A masthead is used by a magazine as something readers can recognise when the magazine is sold in a shop. The mast head is ALWAYS on the top of the magazine and usually stretches across the whole front cover or is placed in the left hand corner. This is so when the magazine is sold on shelves in a shop it is always visible.

This is the masthead for the well known magazine Q. The masthead is very simple and contains of a bright red square with a white upper case Q. I believe Q have decided to create a very simple masthead as it will be easier for people to remember and therefore easier to recognise when they go to buy the magazine again. The colour choice that Q have used works very well as the bold red stands out on their typical white or black background, however with the Q been so white and crisp it stands even further out on the red bold background. Overall making the masthead one of the easiest items to be seen on the front cover of the magazine. Q made the choice to place their masthead in the top left hand corner of their front cover. I believe by not stretching their masthead across the cover shows how confident they are that readers will recognise them.

The masthead to the left is the masthead of NME (New Musical Express). The masthead is still rather simple as is Q's however I think it is slightly more detailed than Q's. A similarity I have seen between the two mastheads is that all writing is in block capitals and there is no lower case lettering. The main colour of the text is bright red and is outlined in white and black. However unlike Q's masthead there is no coloured boxing around the masthead meaning it could be difficult to make it stand out on a front cover. This masthead also have three smaller sized words under neither the main lettering. This is showing the reader what the larger lettering stands for. NME also place their masthead in the left hand corner of the front cover and this is part of their conventional house style.

By looking at the two mastheads I have disscovered how important one is to a magzine and that magzine been recongnised. I have disscovered that I will defiently need a masthead in order to make my magazine complete and give it a greater chance of becoming a success. By looking at the two I have seen that the colouring and size of the masthead is two of the most important factors. Both of the two above have used a bright bold red which will easily satnd out on a plain coulored background. From this I now need to think what coulor I will want my masthead to be and if the coulor will suit the rest of my house style in order to look proffesional. I have disscovered from looking at mastheads from previous magazines that they hace two main placements in the top left hand corner or stretched across the top of the cover. Also looking I have dissocvered that more recognised magazines tend to have a smalller masthead in the left hand corner so therefore they have more space on the front cover for the story. As my magazine will be brand new I believe that a masthead stretching across the whole of the front ocver will be better suited as it will be easier for my target audience to spot when been sold. In my design stages I may choose took look back on this post to gain inspiration for my masthead.

My magazine and genre choice !

On this post it is my continued research into magazines in order for me to eventually create my successful magazine. In this post I am looking into genres of magazines (mostly music) and seeing which I think I could gain the most success from.


General Magazine Genres
These are genres of magazines which are available to the public reader to by.
There is :

• Music (my main focus)
• Lifestyle
• Children's magazines
• Hair & Beauty
• Cartoons
• Fashion
• Gossip

And many more which could be listed but I don't need to research them as they are not relevant to my magazine. So now I am going to look in more detail at what music genres you can get and the magazines which can be brought.

Music Magazine Genres
These are the types of music magazines which are available.
They are:

• Pop - E.g. Top of the pops.
• Indie - E.g. Indie rocks.
• Electro - Traffic
• Jazz - Jazzlines
• Dance - Mixmag  
• R&B - Vibe
• Rock - Kerrang
• Heavy metal - Metal Manics
• Indie/Rock - Q and NME.
• Indie/Pop- Q .

Above are many music magazine genres I looked at front covers for to gain an idea of there style. I have also given an example of a magzine I found. From this piece of research I have decided I wanted to create a magazine with a similar style of Q. So therefore the genre of the magazine I am looking into is Indie/Rock. So now I will need to look more into this genre to gain a understanding of the colours layouts and stories. So the next piece of research I will complete is a collection of cover shots, double page spreads an contents pages.

Cover Shot Angles !

After analysing magazines from their front covers, contents pages and double page spreads I have now decided to narrow my research down and focus on one aspect of the magazine. The next piece of research I am going to conduct will be focusing on the cover shot and the angle is is taken from. I think these piece of research is relevant as it will help me to gain a knowledge of the shots available and I can then start to think which shot I would like to use and which will work best. So I started by gathering images of front covers with different cover shots so I can start to analyse them.

Magazine One - NME

This is a magazine cover from NME magazine and as with all magazine front covers there is a main shot on the front cover. This image usually takes up around 70% of the front cover. On this front cover around 70% of the front cover is taken up by the main image which is of two artists which are the magazines main story this week. A magazine tends to put a large image of their main story piece on the front cover as it tends to be the main selling point of the magazine. So therefore they advertise this largely in order to attract the most potential custom. The shot on this cover is a medium shot, which means you can see from the waist up of the artist. The two artists on the image are looking directly at the camera which then gives the reader direct eye contact. I believe this shot could work well if you wanted the artist to be in direct contact with the audience and it is more than one artist. I believe this shot would not have worked as well if there was only one artist on the shot. But as there are two males in the shot it would have been hard to have a close up.

Magazine Two -Q

This is an issue of Q magazine and the shot on the front is a long shot. The band on the front of the cover is the Kings Of Leon. The band shows attitude throughout their whole bodies which I believe is a reason for the magazine using this shot. This could also be used as the band may be recognised for their attitude and style so therefore this needs to be shown in order for the audience to connect with the front cover. I would consider using this shot if I was to use a band on my front cover shot, as it allows the reader to see everyone in the band. However if the artist I was using was a solo artists then I believe this shot wouldn't work as the front cover would be very empty.

Magazine Three -Empire

Firstly, I was unable to find a close up cover shot. So therefore I have chosen to use 'Empire' magazine. There is a close up of Bat man on this front covering meaning only his face can be seen. I believe this works well on this magazine as it is in direct contact with the audience. Bat man is also making direct eye contact with the reader drawing them in as they believe he is looking at them. And also wants them to read about his article. I believe this would not work for a music magazine as you will not be able to see muc of the artist meaning it they may not get recognised resulting in a loss of magazine sales.

Magzine Four - Vibe

This magazine is an issue of Vibe magazine with a medium close up, meaning the head and the shoulders of the artist can be seen. This shot is very cominaly used on music magazines from view covers on the internet. The artist on the front cover is in black and white I believe this shows he class. The medium close up allows the reader to recognise the artist easier than in a close up shot. Also I believe by allowing the reader to see slightly more of the artist it makes them seem more real and easier to connect to. However at the same time it allows the artist to still be in direct contact with the reader. Also on this front cover the artist is giving direct eye contact to the reader. From researching close ups and medium close ups always use direct eye contact as the artist or artists face is covering around 70% of the front cover. I believe this is the best shot to use from my research if I was to use a singal artist and I will consider using this cover shot in my desgin stages.

Analysing front covers research

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Analysing front covers research

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Work

Over the last two lessons I have managed to complete two more posts and another PowerPoint. However there are still problems with slide share so no work has been posted. Hopefully all work completed will be posted and visible to read soon.

Update of work :)

Hi,
Just a quick post to let you know what I've been up to in the last couple of lessons. I have firstly completed a power point analysing covers, contents and double page spreads. However there is a slight problem with slideshare so I have been uable to post this for you to view, but hopefully it will be along very quickly. I have also completed a post on cover shot angles which I am now going to contiune with and check so I can post for you all to read through. This is all adding towards my research and very soon I will be moving on to questionnaire and genere choice.

Thats all for my quick update and hopefully everything will be successfuly posted soon.
Abbie :)

First Post :D

Hello and welcome to my blog. My name is Abigail Green and I will be using this blog for my AS media studies course. On this blog I will be posting my research, design process and final pieces of coursework. And by following this blog you will be able to see my progress throughout the course and my coursework. That's all for no, hope you have fun following my work throughout this blog.