Front cover progress

I have incorporated my masthead and splash onto the cover so i can get a rough placement of how things will look. I also added a grey gradient to the background to simulate what my central image will portray, being darker at the bottom and lighter at the top. I will next add the image and then other straplines.

Magazine names

Double page spread mock up

Contents double page mock up

My mock up of a music magazine front cover

Photography

Models

For my model(s) i dont mind if they are male or female, but i have some friends who i can ask to be models form my front cover and other images throughout the magazine.

Clothing

They clothing normally worn in Love Metal is mostly black and dark colours, however some people wear highlights of colour throughout their clothing such as dark reds or purple. Here are some examples of clothing from bands within the genre...

Black Leather jackets, both long and normal sized.

Band t-shirts are normally worn underneath jackets.

Womans clothing is normally big and baggy covering over shorts or skirts.

Black hats such as Beanies, or slouch beanies.









Props

I dont think i want to use props in my photoshoot, as i want it to be a close up posed shot. However if i were to use any props, i would use either a guitar or microphone.

Poses

For the pose on the front cover, i want either one person staring closely to the camera (medium close-up), or two people staring at each other. I think that this will help to portray the symbolism of Love Metal through the images.

Font Experimentation

I found it difficult to try and symbolize the genre of Love Metal through a font. I looked at different artists within the genre to get a better understanding of what type of typography they use and i tried to replicate the type of font they may use. I really like the top font, as it is distorted and replicates the truth of lyrics in most Love Metal songs.

 

Potential colour's for my housestyle

I am focusing down on the sub-genre of Love Metal, as previously stated, so i wanted to go with colours which existing bands from this genre use and also what colours i think will do my magazine justice. As you can see i am wanting to use darker purples and blacks for the House style of my magazine because i think that these colours will compliment each other, as well as complimenting the genre of music.

Definitions of 'Glyph' and 'Kerning'

Glyph

A glyph is where a symbol is used to represent a letter, for example the '@' can be used as an 'a' or a '©' for the letter 'c'.

Another definition of a glyph is derived from hieroglyphics, where the ancient egyptians used to write using symbols.

 

Kerning

  Kerning is the space between letters, which can be altered to your personal preference for example 'word' < no kerning,
'w  o  r  d'< has kerning.

Metal Hammer double page spread analysis

My initial ideas for the magazine i want to produce

Initial ideas

I wont to create a music magazine with the genre or sub-genre of Metal. I want to do a Metal magazine as it is my favorite genre of music. Bands such as; Trivium, Avenged Sevenfold,Children of Bodom and HIM. I will look at existing music magazines like MetalHammer and Kerrang, which include these bands.

Possible sub-genres of Metal

• Thrash
• Death
• Love
• Industrial
• Viking
• Pirate
• Nu
• Funk
• Rap

I have highlighted, in red, the three sub-genres that i am really interested in pursuing. However i want to continue with Love Metal, as my favorite band 'HIM' follows this genre of music and also created it.

Action Plan

 6th October

• Post initial ideas
• Post institution research
• Analyse two other magazines front cover

13th October

• Analyse two content pages
• Begin to develop pitch using prezi

20th October

• Present and post pitch and audience feedback
• Complete mock-ups of magazine pages
• Produce a style sheet
• Organize models, locations, props, photo shoot and blog progress

3rd October

• Photo shoot for front cover
• develop front cover: experimentation with layout, colour, font, language and photos

10th October

• Develop  front cover: experimentation with layout, colour, font, language and photos

17th November

• Develop contents cover: experimentation with layout, colour, font, language and photos

24th November

• Develop double page spread: experimentation with layout, colour, font, language and photos

1st December

• Develop design work in response to audience feedback

8th December

• Finalize design of all pages 

15th December

• Develop draft evalutation

22nd December

• Draft evaluation

5th January

• Develop evaluation 

12th January

• complete evaluation
• final blog check

Institution research

Range of music magazines

Genre Wordle

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I have used generic conventions of a real life magazine by incorporating media language such as a masthead, splash, headlines and a central image, making it identifiable as a magazine. I tried to give my magazine a subtle yet happy connotation to my magazine. Using an image of a student in every day life to show how friendly college life is. I used blues and whites for my house style as I believe it follows in the house style of the colleges colours. I also used the buzz word "free" on the cover of the magazine, to help aid popularity of the magazine among students, as I believe that students will not want to pay a lot, if any money for their magazine. Also including a puff to a free magazine where students can win tickets to a popular band, will help to encourage students in reading through the magazine and spreading the word to read it monthly.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Weekly Digestive is solely representing the student population of Ludlow college, or any college with the age range of 16- 20 year olds. I have chosen to represent the students within my magazine as happy people, who love their student lives at college. I tried to distance the magazine from your typical stereotype of a student, with such things as being lazy and party seekers. I have tried to create a more subtle house style to tone down the magazine to a more laid back approach, yet still maintaining a positive approach by adding headlines of constructive attitudes. Such as students going to study at Oxford university, a very prestigious place of study.

 What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I would like to have the collage art and media departments produce and distribute my student magazine as an enrichment option as I believe if the magazine is produced on site, it will add to the feel of a student magazine. Also having first hand students writing and producing the magazine will provide genuine articles and stories relating to student life for the college.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience for the magazine is purely for teenage students attending Ludlow College. I want to keep the audience to this level as producing the magazine for a wider audience base will make it very difficult to do. However it may be a good idea to make it for our partnering college Hereford too as we are all effectively one college.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I used the blue palette from Ludlow Colleges house style as i think it ties in well with other documentation from the college. By attracting my audience i used a competition for a prize to see a well known band from our age group, also as the magazine is free, it will get them to pick up an copy of the magazine. I also added stories for the audience, which directly relates to their lives at college.

 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I put all my design ideas together to create the magazine with the software InDesign. Whilst this is a great tool for arranging layouts and positioning, i didn't like the way everything was sized, such as when importing an image. I also used Photoshop for my images as i wanted to clean them up, whilst still maintaining the naturalist feel to them. I took these images with a DSLR camera which is a very good option to have, as it is almost flawless in taking images both at stand still and whilst moving. I found combining all these elements into the final product, made the final product a lot better than it could have been. 

Final Cover and Contents pages

Here are my final products of the cover and contents pages.

Research target audience

I asked 3 people what they thought the magazine should look like and this is their response.

What kind of title should i have?

1.A big title because its normally the first thing you look at.
2.Use bright colours to make it stand out from the rest.
3.Make it student 

Layout

1.Do it like Kerrang because the central image really pops out.
2.Use a big image, with smaller headlines.
3.Make it easy to read and understand.

Content

1.Things a student can relate too.
2.Money problems and food problems
3.Jobs and college/ uni work.

Price

1.Free
2.Free
3.Free

They all said the magazine should be free as they didn't think that a student would happily pay for a weekly/ monthly magazine.

Colour scheme

They all said use of bright colours would make it more of a student magazine. Also to use pictures in the title which a student would normally have in their bags.

Images

We thought that a casual image of a couple people from college would be best, as we can do this every week or month so eventually everyone would have their face on the cover of the magazine.

Initial ideas

House Style

My colour scheme will be blue on blue or yellow on black as i think these colours will stand out and catch your eye in a group of magazines. The black or dark colour would be the background where the yellow would pop out from it. The yellow in the colour scheme would be used for the headlines and coverlines, whereas white will be used for the main text throughout the magazine.

Mode of address

I will be using a more laid back cover image rather than a posed shot as i think it looks more natural and can relate to a younger audience. This combined with the font style and colour scheme will create more of a student themed magazine.

Central image

For my central image i will attempt an image with something more recent, such as students from Ludlow College, casually walking or sitting at lunch time, to portray a laid back image.

Content

For the content of the magazine i will include things such as, a student survival guide, to help with the stresses of student life. A media page for things like music, movies and games, as i think these are a big factor in students lives. I will also conduct an interview with someone relevant to student life.

Use of Language

For my use of language i intend to write it in a very informal manner, using words that a student would use in their every day lives. I want parts of the magazine to be fun to read, so providing joke language and comparing something to someone totally ridiculous, would get the reader enjoying the magazine.

Colours and fonts

A darker background with yellow headlines and cover lines, with white as the main text.

Mock Designs for magazine front cover and contents page

Magazine names

I played around with some different names to try and find what i was looking for.

Experimenting with different fonts and colour schemes

Generic conventions of a student/ college magazine.

Textual analysis

Introduction to preliminary task and action plan for preliminary task

Action Plan

• For my preliminary task I have to research and analyse other student magazines on the blog, to then create my own student magazine cover and contents pages. I have researched target audience, colour schemes, writing styles, photography and fonts all from the magazines on the blog, to try and find a similarity between all the student magazines.
• I will then plan the layout of what i want my student magazine to look like on publisher, to structure it how i want the magazine to look.
• Once i have mocked up my magazine on publisher i will organize a photo-shoot and take photos for the magazine.
• Complete the front cover and post on blogs.
• Begin designing the contents page
• Complete design of contents page and post onto blogs.
• Start drafting the evaluation and complete to add to blogs.