Friday, 29 October 2010

Thursday, 14 October 2010

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.

Monday, 4 October 2010

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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