Mood Board for the front covers

I have noticed in most of the front covers and that the main image consists of the group or the person looking towards the camera in a way in a direct way, this would mean that the idea is to mean to bring the people closer to the artists this is also don’t for the reason that to have more of a personal feel towards the audience. I have also noticed that most of the artists have their own style however most of them where a suit or something “different”. By different I mean something like a mouse head or blue hair. When I mean something different I mean something that represents the person and makes them different from everyone else in the genre.  However most of the artists just have the simply clean style with a unique take on it. Although most artistes in any type of genre may have this kind of look, the people who have their own unique look stand out there fore making the magazine stand out more, for example Skrillex with his half shaved head which is know all around the genre, as it is his style. The same would go for Deadmau5 as he has his mouse head.  Each artist has his or her own unique on style and bring something new to the table. The unique fashion is a convention of these types of magazines and the genre. Another convention that I have seen is that the person or group and mainly centred or put to the right hand side of the magazine. I feel that this is done because it gives space to the magazine to put up any kind of headlines they want as well as any kind of information they want to put onto the front cover. However I feel that it is also done to show that the artistes are not always what you think they are as most of the time in most music magazines the artist is centred to show that they are part of the “mainstream” group however these artists are not only doing it through there fashion but they are also doing it in the way they are presenting themselves and even if they are centred they are giving of a vibe that would mean that “we are not the people you think we are” as the genre is all out getting hyper and getting excited. I have also noticed that the backgrounds for the magazines are also really plain and simply which would allow for the person to fit in with their background. Also having such a plain background and such a unique fashion it lets people stand out so much and also lets them get some much attention in the front cover as the shots are mainly mid direct shots and full body shots are rarely used. The reason behind this is they want to focus on the persons unique style more then anything else as it would bring out more of the person then anything else.

Evaluation of students work number 2

A mise-en-scene is the background; the background is a plain cream colour that doesn’t take away from the person and even points attention towards the person. This works really well as it makes the person the centre of attention and that is what music magazines are mainly focusing on. Also the colour works well with the colours of her clothes and her skin, as it makes those features stand out more and not blend into the background. This is also good, as it would mean that people wouldn’t look through the text to look at the background and can focus more on other features. As the background is just a simple colour it doesn’t have to do anything special, by this I mean it doesn’t have to mean anything to the person on the cover and it also doesn’t have to mean anything to the audience as it would mean that they can work more on the person themselves.

The person in the mise-en-scene stands out more and lets the audience know that she is the centre of attention of this magazine. This is good in the way that it allows to not be distracted by anything else and they would also be able to focus on the point at hand which would be the model herself or the text. Talking about the model, her costume is a blue jean jacket and a white top as well as a bandana. These clothing options allow her to stand out from the background and also have her not blend with the background at all. Also as her skin colour is a bit darker then the background it helps focus on her and helps her to stand out more with it. This was most likely done to show of her skin and show of her style. However there is also a down side to this as it might also be to dull for some people who are looking for a more exciting magazine, as the image itself isn’t really that interesting and only shows of her beauty and style. 

Evaluation of other students magazine

One of the Mis-en-scene in this student’s magazine is the background. This background is a graphite wall that is the colours of grey and black. It is also a bit off putting and doesn’t really suit with the whole magazine as it puts attention towards the background and away from the person. The background also is to dull and doesn’t bring energy towards the person who is in the magazine. I think that the background isn’t really good and could use a bit of colour, also they could of used a different background so it wouldn’t take so much away from the person who is in the front cover. I also think that it could of used a bit more work onto it as it doesn’t look natural and almost looks like it was forced onto the page.

Another mis-en-scene is of the person himself and how they are looking. The thing is how he is dressed by this I mean his hate and his shirt. I feel that the colours of his clothing is almost to bland and to simply for the style of the magazine as it looks like it is trying to be more of an urban magazine aimed at a more urban audience. This is shown through the clothes he is wearing and the background. Also the colours almost make him blend into the background and looks unpleasant to the eye, which doesn’t help with the fact that it is also stereotypical of that type of people. The position that the person in is a more of a high-mid shot so it doesn’t show his waist however I feel that it is blocked by the other images on the page making it some what of a high-mid shot. It is also a direct shot. Both these types of shots mean that the person wanted you to have some form of connection towards the person you see on the page, they are also getting this effect by having the person point towards the magazine to show that he is pointing at the audience.

Double page spread analysis

In this analysis of the double page spread, front cover and content pages tend to be similar as they both create something that is snappy however in a double page spread it is meant to tell you a story for the article. It is also on a larger scale so that you are able to convert that information across on as much information as you can allow you to tell the story you want. There are a number of conventions that this double page and others have such as have a piece of content over lap both the pages. For example here would be the name of the group. Normally it would be the image however in this magazine it is the text. I feel that this is done for a reason. The reason being that they are linking the image and the text that the name is under together, to show that they are part of one article. Another convention of this double page is that the image takes up most of the pages; I feel that this convention is done to show people what the main article of this page is. As in this case it would be “The Teenagers”. This would mean that people be directed right towards the article this would also have people know what they are looking at and who they are looking at. They also have some quick facts about the bands that most magazines have now.

Content page analysis

The layout of the content page is both complex and simply at the same time, the reasoning behind this is the way it is layout. By this I mean the way the images are places and the text, as it might look like its simply however there would be so much more behind it. The things behind it I mean is that the main information that they want to get across is related to the images. They do this because they want their most interesting stories to get the most attention, this would make the reader want to read it more or just have the reader want to read the story. Basically they are hyping up the stores saying that they are the most important ones. They also did this with their layout of text as yes you can see all the text and it might not seem that important but by having the text as bold and that size means that it takes some attention from the image so that the images don't away from the rest of the page. This is done to also give some attention to the information. This is to balance the page. On the bottom left of the page it has something called "Every Month" this could help people who are new to the magazine know what the magazine is offering every issue given that the magazine is released every month. The images in this content page are meant to show something about the genre of music and how the artist make the genre. They also have a "review" section which would appeal to people who are looking for more in dept look at a certain feature of that genre.

Over all the content page has a good look over it and appears to be more then what it just is. This would have a few people attracted towards the page as it would mean that there information is shown in a controlled and tidy but still putting a lot of information on the page. This page gives information to people who are new to the magazine genre and show them what they have to offered. This gives the people a look into the future of this magazine and if they should invest into this magazine as well as should they read it in the first place.

Front cover analysis

The layout of the magazines front cover is ever basic and doesn't over crowd the person and the information, The font that is used in this front cover is a really basic and bold text with it not really being to bright or to over whelming for the person looking at it. This would mean that almost anyone can pick this up and look at it without being over whelmed about the colors or the fonts. The colors that is used in the are mainly black and lime green, This might be because it is the artist style or it could be that style of the magazine. The colors might of been picked because they might be what people of this magazine and this genre of music like and find these colors appealing.

The image that is used is over the artist "Skrillex" who is an electronic musician, his main genres of music are dubstep and elector house. The image is a mid shot of the person and a direct shot this means that he is looking directly into the camera which could mean he is looking towards the audience. Having this kind of image would mean that he is trying to interact with the audience and maybe get something across. As he is the main focus of the image this would mean that the magazine is going to focus on him mainly. This image would be appealing to both people who know of him and the genre and to people who do not know him and want to get into the genre, The reason behind this is because the image isn't that of putting to someone new to the genre in the way that it is not some crazy picture that people of the genre would understand but people can just look at the magazine and understand that it is just a person and people might want to know about this person and what kind of music do they do. In the image he has two fingers over his left eye which are also painted, this would go against the gender stereotype as the stereotype is mainly that woman would have their nails painted and men would not however in this situation that is not the case this would mean that he is going against the stereotype, maybe to show some power towards the genre of music or to show the craziness that the genre brings to the table.

The magazine front cover appeals both to men and females as the genre of music is not aimed at anyone but at all. This front cover is really basic and in some peoples eyes boring however I like the simply style as it doesn't murder your eyes to look at it and it helps bring in newer people to the genre. Over all I think it is a good front cover from the image that was used to bring in people who might of heard about this person and people who might just want to get into the genre this front cover does just that.

Week 8: Production Diary

This week we did a lot of analysing content pages as that was our next focus for our magazine is. We had to analysis a magazine and look at how it might appeal to the audience and how it might be seen by the audience. We had to also look at how the magazine was layed out and how that would impact on the audience, this would mean that some people might not feel that a crowded page is a good thing and others might think that its distracting and how they don't know what to focus on and what kind of information they should look at. We were also told to start on a mood board which I will start next week.

Week 6: Producation dairy

The half term gave me a lot of time to work on analysing a lot of my work and also helped me catch up on any missing work I had. Over this half term I was able to get photos of my model for my magazine. I am really pleased with how the images come out however I do think that I could of done a little bit better on them, as I might of been able to get a better background and work with a better and easier to work with background. I also choice my genre of magazine as it is Dubstep/Eletro which are a genre that I enjoy a lot and have a lot of fun listening to as the music is up beat. I also wanted my magazine to have a simple style with it which would allow me to have a lot more different types of crazy pictures and other stuff that would impact on the genre of the magazine.

Week 5: Production diary

This week has been all about analysing and comparing magazine features. We have to discuss the different conventions about our target audience and how effective it is. The task we had to do was good and helped me with my magazine cover as it showed me what I should be looking for when I am analysis for cover.

Five Things I would change

These are my five targets of what I could improve on next time when I reach my final production; these targets are a result of my preliminary task and what I could improve on.

1. I would improve on how I would go about the publication as I would do a lot more research and have a lot of other work, with extra evaulation and more research into the publication. Maybe create some questions for people to answer and see what my public audeince would like.

2. I would change the style and the way I desgined it as that was a key things I wasnt to pleased with as I do think it needs some work and could be added towards, This would work towards both front cover and Content page is it would allow me to work on them more and have a better understanding of them.

3. Changing the colours would allow me to work with different colours and maybe appeal to a more larger audience, this would also mean that i would be able to have a lot more different types of colour combonations. Having all these different types of colours would allow me to have a better understanding of how differnt colours work togther.

4. The images, where not the best and could of used some work as it would allow me to create better images and have different types of people and also have a larger scale appeal to more people as i might be able to focus on a certain group of people like teacher, as students might want to read a story on a teacher that they like maybe understanding the teacher a lot more.

5. I would change the way I went about the whole publication as it would allow me to be able to creat a lot of differet work and be able to create better front cover and not to rush a lot of my work, which would allow me to have more time and create a better and more appealing publication which would have a larger impact on the audience.

Photos for my school publication

These are the pictures I took for my publication as I needed images. These pictures all helped me get a good idea of what type of publication I would be doing as it would allow me to be a lot more. This would mean that I am able to have a great idea of what kind of publication I can do and what kind of design I can work with.

Font chart

The font style I ended up using was more of a simple and bolder style as it let me be able to have many different types of style in my publication, The style of font also allowed me to be able to have a lot of different appeal and allow me to be able to work with a simply yet effective type of style which would allow me to appeal to the many different types of audeinces as it was such a basic style. However I did try out different types of font as it would mean that, I was able to see what kind of font would work and what wouldnt, This would also allow me to be able to see what needed to be changed and what I would be able to do with my different types of fonts that I wanted to try out.

Colour scheme

The colour scheme, I choice was difficult as I wanted to choice colours that would blend well togther but still work togther and appeal to the audience. This would also have them be able to be attracted to the cover of the magazine and have it more appealing to them, I choice for bright colours and experemented with a lot of different colours as it would allow me to see what colours would work well togther and see what kind of colours need to be inproved, I choice in the end a bright green colour as it would mean that it stands out and I can have it work well with other brighter colours as the lime green can be blended with almost every other colour.

Front Cover and Content Page Finished

This is the complete front page and Content page of my School magazine, The style is a bit different from what i had planned in for the drafts however, The color scheme and others like the font and style has stayed the same as it would allow me to make it simply and yet still have a lot of style in it. This would allow me to make it like i want but still applying to the audience. This would also have it be on a larger scale and have the style still appeal to the audience. This would have the audience attracted to the magazine and the way it is layed out as it wouldnt be to crouwd and have the person to distracted from the stories on the page. If there isnt a lot of on the page then they are able to focus on the page and what is on it, instead of trying to see what kind of story looks appealing to them and what story they want to read instead of reading the storys that are really there.

Second draft of my school magazine

This is my second flatplan for my preliminary task of the school publication; I have now added my colour scheme onto the magazine, to show the theme I have planned to use, by presenting it on my Front cover and Contents page. I am still very pleased with the layout and I feel the way I've made the colours sink in is done quite well, however, with using Publisher, I think the colours can not all mesh well together, so you have to stick to a variety of one colour, for example, Blue, like I have done, in order for it to look good. I am not disappointed with the way my ideas for my school publication look, although I would prefer to have used more of a variety of different colours.
On the other hand, by keeping the colours to a variety of the same (Blue in my case), it does tend to look quite professional and organised; sometimes with having a variety of different colours, it can look quite messy and not fit right. Simplicity can sometimes be the best with these types of publications, in order to look their best.

First draft of my school magazine

This is my first draft of my flatplan for the preliminary task for making a school publication; it includes both a front cover page and a contents page. I am really happy with the layout of my magazine, as I think it is nicely organised, with hardly any 'white-spaces', as well as having different ways the text and images are laid out on the magazine. I feel my magazine is going to be clear and organised, as well as being easy to ready, due to the way I have decided and planned to layout my magazine. The next plan to do with my school publication, is to start adding colours to my flatplan, in order to start showing the theme.