Testing out my title!!

When I had finally decided on what title I think would work best with my magazine I then moved on to using photoshop and 'ready made'  covers to paste my title in to and therefore see what it will look like and whether the look of the title works. Below is the magazine (Mojo) I used to paste my title in to, to show what it will look like. 

I like this magazine front cover because instead of the reader being immediately drawn to the image, the readers eyes are drawn to the bold texts around the image first and then to the image in the middle.

Organisation

In order for me to be able to make all of the work possible and it be done properly I decided to create myself a small calendar to keep myself organised.

Below is the calendar for November showing how I structured the amount of work I had. It is also a good way of showing the progress which I have made since the beginning of one month to the end. (Like from the beginning of November being planning and ending with creating front covers and titles!)

Title Style Ideas

Here I have experimented with different colours of the font I have chosen to use on photoshop. 

I have chosen simple colours because I want the house style of my magazine to be based around the colours and ideas of the title.

Chosen Title

After thinking through which title I would like for my magazine I narrowed it down to a choice between 2. These are, Controversial and T.M.I (The Music issue).

In the last blog entry I explained the meanings to the titles and decided that these 2 are both connected and related to the these of my magazine very well. (I like this because, as I explained, I don't want my magazine to be called something for the sake of it, I want it to have some kind of meaning.)



I have chosen...... T.M.I (The Music issue). I chose this because I thought it had the most meaning behind it and also has potential when it comes to creating the logo for my magazine.

Titles

Even though I had done brainstorms about titles for my magazine I was still unsure of what to call the magazine because all of the other titles I had come up with on the brainstorm's (below) didn't seem right to me and I felt as though I needed to do a bit more research into why I would call a magazine that certain name because I would like my magazine name to have meaning and not just be called that for no reason.

I got more ideas from looking through other music magazines and picking out words which I though could have potential to be a title of a magazine. I wrote them down and came up with:

P.B.R (Passion Beyond Reason) - I got this from GQ as it was the title of 2 albums in the top 10 albums of that month. I think it has a meaning as musicians have a passion for music like no other and I think they have to in order to understand the reason why they have to do everything in order to succeed in the music industry. A musicians passion for music is beyond reason.

Controversial - I picked this from the magazine as it was the one word which stood out from the whole article written on Oasis which featured in GQ magazine. I think this was very typical as the article was about Oasis and they have to be one of the most controversial bands of our time.

Live - I think the reason I picked this word for a title is pretty obvious because music is always going to be played live at least once. The meaning of this word to me is that music always sounds best when it is heard live.

Exclusive - This word was also taken from GQ and it is pretty self explanatory and music can be exclusive in many different ways. One way is by the track being played 'exclusively' to the the public, and another way is by the album of the artist being sold exclusively to certain people or a certain number of people.

T.M.I (The Music Issue) - I chose this title as it is still along the lines of using letters and abbreviations as titles etc. Also, it relates to the magazine as it is obviously a music magazine and so therefore, the magazine is called that!

Low-down/The Low-down - I wasn't really sure as to why I chose this to be a title because it only has slight relations to music and magazines. Yet, magazines are always advertising how they give the reader the 'low-down' and 'gossip' about music, musicians, where to find new singles and albums etc. So, it is still a possibility for a title for my magazine.

Music Talk - This was the last word which I got from GQ and put onto my brainstorm as I didn't want to find myself with too many titles to choose from and therefore have more work to do. This is also a self explanatory title as it is basic and relates to music and anything also related to music very well.

Now I have figured out the titles which the magazine could possibly be I will ask people in my class which they prefer and will carry on from there with the title which has the most votes.

Titles, Articles, Logos

After I had brainstormed and thought up ideas about what kind of exact look I would like to create for my front cover and double page spread I then moved on to the more important task of picking a title for the magazine, what the articles in the magazine will be about and what logo to use for my magazine. 

I began by brainstorming different things what I could write about and things which would incorporate my brother (as he is going to be my model). The main idea which I think will work and 'make sense to do' is to have an article on my brother Ross, being the 'new act' on the music scene and create a sense of newcomer, being top of the charts, everyone likes his style kind of thing and then I can do a mock interview and photo-shoot which will take up most of my pages in the magazine. I decided to do this because I seen in a magazine by Q that they created basically a whole magazine about 'Oasis Coming back' which included a large picture of Liam Gallagher's face on the front cover, interviews with the band and pictures of the band in various clothes and in different poses. So, I think it would be a good idea to do this. I will go into more depth later on telling you what I will include in the interviews and what kind of pictures I will have in the photo-shoot. here is the brainstorm I created to help with the title and articles.

Once I had brainstormed articles it then gave me idea as to what to call the magazine. I created a brainstorm of titles which varied from calling the magazine letters such as Q, R, E etc. to abbreviations of 'phrases' such as M.O.T (Music of Today). here is the brainstorm to show you the ideas I came up with.

More mood boards

Here I have uploaded the mood boards I have been working on when I have free time to get more ideas from my head onto paper.

The first mood board is to get ides for front covers to see whether I wanted a head shot or a full body shot of the model on my front cover. This helped me in a big way as I was really unsure of which I would choose as they both have their pro's and con's.

I then eventually decided to use a head shot because the ideas which I have for the whole magazine will ft in with the layout I decide to use on the front cover. And then therefore, the style from the front cover follows through the whole magazine so the reader becomes comfortable and familiar with the house style. You can see on the mood board how I have thought about both possibilities and outlined things which have to be on the front cover so I have an idea of the kind of space I have available to work with etc. 

As I said in my previous blog entry I had then moved on to focussing on double page spreads and what I feel about them. I have created this small section os a mood board to show the possibilities of what could be don't. I included an idea and copy of the double page spread I previously uploaded of the 'girl in the jeans'. I like this double page spread as it is different to others you would usually see in magazines and it shows that possibilities are endless when creating a magazine as long as the point you are trying to make gets across to the reader. So, here is the blog I created to inspire me with what to do with all of the space!!

(Also, here is the original again so you can see the comparisons.)

Double Page spreads

Now I have finished creating a mood board for different front covers I like I am now going to start creating double page spreads.

When creating the covers I realised it was a lot more attractive and more of 'my own style' to do a head and shoulders shot rather than doing a full length shot. When the image is just head and shoulders you can see the image in more detail and it stands out more to the reader.

Below are some double page spreads I like the look of and think will look good with the style I will be trying to crate in my music magazine.

I like the style of this page as it is unusual and attractive to the reader. It has the text shown in a diverse way which is also easy for the reader to read yet still has a large attractive picture which makes it look modern and interesting.

 

This double page spread is even more unusual and different to others you would see in 'regular' magazines and will fit in perfectly with the quirky, rock star look I am trying to create.



I really like this spread as it is completely different to the other 2 I have posted and said I like. It is different in a way that on the other 2 there is not as much going on on the pages yet on this double page spread it is very busy yet doesn't have much text. All three of the spreads are good in their own ways whether they are simple with the style of more is less or whether they are going all out with busyness and pictures of the page.

What Next?

Now I have finished my Preliminary Exercise I will now move on to doing planning for my actual music magazine cover.

I have had lots of ideas from books, other magazines and the internet to help me decide on exactly what look I wanted to go for. 

I originally wanted to do high end fashion which didn't work out as it had to relate to music. So, I came to the conclusion that I could still incorporate all of the fashion but just into music as well/ I though of this as the musicians I will be focussing on, even though their image doesn't tend to look as if they have spent long getting it, when it has really taken them hours and many stylists to get there!!

The ruffled hair, baggy clothes, just got out of bed look is the exact look I will be going for and I will be showing this all through my planning stages.

I have recently been working on another mood board which I will up load soon but I will give an idea of what will be on it.

There is a sketch of a GQ front cover which I have copied and then posted the original next to it so you can see the style which I have copied. I have then taken photos of myself  in the same position as the model on the front of the magazine and then tried to replicate the cover just like the one of GQ. it has worked really well as even though they look so similar in many ways they still look completely different and have a completely different style to one another.

As well as a replica front cover I have also copied a contents page and a double page spread to get the idea of what it is like to have a house style and why GQ have chosen that particular one.

Why does it work so well?

Why is it so popular?

Once I have uploaded a image of the mood board I will give feedback on what I think will work for my magazine and what I don't think will work so well. I think  this has been a major help in actually getting ideas from my head onto a page seeing as there are so many to think of at once. With  magazine the possibilities are endless!! You can basically do anything you like as long as you think it will work. 

Below are the pictures I took which are in a similar pose to the ones of the GQ magazine. (There is also the cover so you can see the contrast and similarities in the pose.) I have also uploaded the finished version of my magazine cover to show how I developed it. I found it a lot easer to do this cover on Photoshop because I had got use to the program. I didn't do every detail of the magazine the same because I figured it would take a long time and I could use the time it would take in a more effective way.)

Preliminary Contents page

After completing the preliminary front cover I then moved on to the contents page which is above.

I again, found this easier to do as I had even more experience of using photoshop and had began to find my way around photoshop quite well.

One of things I noticed and Mr B told me about was that contents pages which have pictures on never have 2 pictures with the same page number. I was confused at first as to why but then I realised it was because magazines pay so much money per page of a magazine that they would want to use it in the most productive way possible.

So, therefore, the magazine would put as many different picture from different events of the contents as possible, so basically not 2 pictures from the same, event, article, issue.

I enjoyed doing the preliminary exercise as it gave me a chance to be using photoshop in more depth and focus on one activity for a few weeks. (This is why I hadn't done much on my blog for the past few weeks up until now!!)

I'm now moving on to completing plans for my main cover, the music magazine. I will sketch ideas for what I want the cover to look like. These will then be scanned into my blog and I will add comments.

preliminary front cover

This is the final for my preliminary exercise.

I started by choosing the background colour and then worked my way round everything else like editing the actual picture.
I chose the text because it is bold and attracts the eyes straight the cover which I wanted because it then shows the reader exactly what the magazine will be about straight away.

I think the picture has developed so much from the original and looks a lot more attractive with so much going on which makes the reader want to pic up the magazine. The small captions dotted around the page such as 'first interviews' and 'special edition' also make the reader want to pick the magazine up and see what else it has to say about the main issue/article in the magazines content.

I like the way the picture is quite central and the text compliments this with its boldness and main title which eyes are immediately dawn to.

The part I found difficult was managing all of the layers and finding ways of putting text over certain images and backgrounds, but apart from that I have really learnt a lot from doing the 'practice' front cover earlier on in the blog. The Rolling Stone Cover which was my first attempt at a cover, I found much more difficult to produce as I had to previous experience and it definitely looks a lot less professional and advanced than the preliminary cover.

Front cover and contents pictures I have chosen:

This is the picture I have chosen to have as my front cover image. 

I chose this picture because I think it looks better with 2 students interacting and it shows them in correct uniform making them look smart and 'practical' for a school theme magazine rather than having them in non-uniform which would confuse the reader.

It also a good picture as it has space at the top of their heads for text to be used without having to edit the picture too much. It is a fairly close up image so this will help when it comes to using photoshop for the second time round. The closeness of the image is similar to previous covers I have looked at and researched so I have therefore created the image I wanted without having to zoom in using computer software.

 

I also wanted to have some smaller images on the contents page so that the reader will have an idea of what the article/page will be about before they have got to the page. For example, for a sport page I would have a small picture of a student in the school tracksuit to show that it will be about a sporting event or extra curriculum activity.

Below are the images I have narrowed down out of the selection I had to use on my contents page. These will relate to: Sport, Teachers help, Sixth Form, GCSE and A-Level and Extra Curriculum Activities. 

School Magazine Pictures

Here are some of the pictures I took this afternoon and the ones which I think I will use in my magazine on the contents page.

I am unsure of the picture I will use for my front cover yet but it will most probably be a picture of one or two students looking at the camera rather than doing something. (A posed picture rather than an action shot!!)

Next Step

Now I have sort of finished my first draft of a cover to a magazine and analysed what I thought was hard and what I though could be done better, I will now move onto the next step of the 'project'.

The next step is to create a magazine cover and contense page for a school magazine.
I will use a close up shot of 2 students, one sixthformer and one lower school student. This will show the differences in appearance and also the communication between both ages.

On the contents I will say what will be fatured in the magazine. Here are some ideas of what I think could be in a school magazine:

Extra curriculum activities (sport, cooking)
School Events (sports day, house events)
Interviews from students (why they like attending jcg)
Interviews from teachers (why they like teaching jcg students)
About sixth form (for younger students)

There are so many more topics which could be in the magazine, these are just a few.
The magazine will not be 'overly big' as it is just a school magazine.

The cover will have the picture as described above and some quotes from inside the agazine to encourage students or whoever want to read it to pick this magazine.

Some other things to think about are:
Free or have a price?
Large magaine or small magazine?
Shops/library/school?

Here is a contents and cover page which I think will work for the magazine:

First Draft

Here is the first draft of my own attempt at doing a music magazine front cover.

It isn't finished because I found it hard to actually do some of the things I wanted so it took longer than expected.

I have posted the original picture below as well as the cover because I think it's good to see what I have changed on the actual picture as in contrast, definition and changing skin colour etc. As well as making it look like a magazine cover with titles, barcode etc. 

I like this picture because it looks quite natural and not too 'posed' but the problem with it being so natural is that the background on the original picture doesn't really work as that is one of the main things which took me so long to edit. So, I realised that if I took the picture on a plain background/screen then it would be a lot easier to then edit later on if I wanted just a block colour as the background like I have done for the cover, white!

The background on the original was 'the sky' which was dull at the actual time so it didn't do anything for the person in the picture as as you can see eyes and skin look darker than normal and 'less attractive' than if they were highlighted by a studio light/un-natural light.

When I take the 'actual' picture for my cover I will use a screen background and lighting to make the picture do as much work on its own as possible and then I will therefore have less editing to do when it comes to using photoshop.

The main thing I found difficult apart from editing the background was editing the actual person. Making skin and eyes all the same colour was quite difficult because it either looked badly smudged or 'unbelievably  perfect'!

First attempt at cover

This week I have been working on a front cover.....from scratch!

I started by taking pictures of what I would like to be on my front cover, I have used a picture Jordana has taken of myself and have began to edit it on photoshop.

I'm finding it quite hard to remember how to do everything and effectively without looking cheap and un-finished, but I am getting there it just takes LOTS of practice!!

Below is the cover I am trying to replicate and I will later but my copy of the cover onto the blog.

I have chosen this cover as I like the background just being plain white and I like the colour of the text and the layout so hopefully after some work mine will look similar.

Mood Board

Now I have finished the research part of this 'project' I have now moved on to the actual planning and making of the magazine.
I have started by printing out the images I scanned in and liked from other magazines and will use these on the mood board because I think they will help when I begin making my magazine.

Here is the finished version of the mood board (posted Tuesday 21st October):

I found it really useful to do this as it gave me a chance to put down al of the idea I had about what I though magazines were all about:
Celebrities
fashion
Etc.

The one thing I found difficult when doing this was that there were too many things running through my mind at the time about what a magazine was about so I couldn't put it all down. But, I got down as much as possible ont the board and am happy with the outcome of it.

Things to do: Monday 15th Sept

Print Pictures and begin mood board and planning exactly what I am going to do.
Take pictures of Ross and decide how to present them for cover.
Decide what to base articles on and why.

All to be completed by Monday 15th September.

Target Audiences - Final Ideas

I have chosen to base my magazine on the Rolling Stone magazine edited by Will Dana.
I have chosen to do this because I especially like his style of magazine and what he chooses to put into it.

When you appear on the cover of Rolling Stone you know you are successful!! (Being on the cover is any 'new comer' into the music/media industries dream!!)

I will be focussing on targeting my magazine for older teens and young 'adult' music/media/fashion lovers!
The magazine will not just be based on music it will have all kinds of different things in it to interest wide range of people, both men AND women!! So depending on what mood you are in, this magazine will satisfy you as the Rolling Stone mag does this because it is known as a 'music mag' but doesn't just contain stuff about music.

So now you may have the kind of idea what I am trying to create, a magazine including: music, fashion, articles, ad's info and some sort of gossip but not the type you would find a classic 'heat magazine'. this gossip will be related to music and will be about the person's career and where they are going next with it, not what they ate for breakfast!!

Finally, I have chosen to use my brother on the front cover of my magazine and include an article about him and where he will be going with his music career as he is a musician himself and even though it might sound quite 'typical' seeing as he is my brother but he actually does have the indie/long hair/musician look! So I think he will work perfectly!!

magazine Report

While looking through some magazine focussed on men I personally found that there were a lot of fashion ad's which kind of defeats of point of it being a man's magazine as it should feature more 'man stuff'!!

If a man wants a magazine about fashion shouldnt he buy Vogue or Elle?

Most of the ad's which appeared in the magazines were for Diesel, Ralph lauren and Tommy Hilfigure.
These makes of clothes are usually represented with 'pretty boy's' who enjoy fashion and looking good and not being manly and being a lad!

The differences I noticed between all of the styles and layouts of the magazines:

Backgroung colours

Text size

Text style

Picture of man/woman?

Price location

Barcode location

Other pictures on front or just main photo?

Promotion of free gift?

 

There were a lot more differences but these were the main ones I noticed and questioned about. 

The things I have listed above are also the main things which make up the front cover of the magazine. A main picture, a barcode, a price, a title, briefs of what is in the mag.

These are the compulsory things which have to be on the mag in order to give the buyer enough infomation about the magazine without opening the cover and actually reading or looking at the magazine. 

Homework for Thursday 11th Sept

Go through 'Stuff" and GQ magazines and mark pages which give ideas.

Ad's
Pic's
Articles

Why women on covers?
Why magazines focussed on attracting men to buy them?
Do women not listen to music?

Change of Plan

Instead of going on the 'High end Fashion' route using Vogue as a main example to follow, idea has changed to producing a music mag instead.

Kerrang


GQ


Rolling Stone

These are a few magazines I have looked into and will do further research into to choose one to follow.

What to look out for in the magazines:

Layout of the front cover?
Who is on the cover?
What the articles are about?
Who are the articles on and what about?
Photographers used?
Writers used?

Planning 1

Use Tasha prince's shots from her profile ( www.chicmanagement.com.au)
Base magazine (Main article) on tasha and use her story from 'liverpool echo' as the text. (Double page spread).

Tasha's model career
SEP 3 2003 BY RACHAEL TINNISWOOD, LIVERPOOL ECHO
THERE aren't many girls who can command £30,000 a day and who can count Bryan Adams as one of their best friends.
But as one of Britain's top models, Tasha Prince quite literally has the world at her feet.
Since she was spotted at the tender age of 17, Tasha, from Aughton, has gone from strength to strength.
Not only has she appeared on the covers of some of the world's best read magazines - French Elle, Italian Glamour and German Vogue, she has also mingled with stars such as The Corrs and top designer John Richmond and appeared in Robbie Williams' Rock DJ video as one of the skaters.
And now Tasha, who can be seen modelling in this month's edition of Elle magazine, is about to join the ECHO as a columnist for LOOK!, lifting the lid on the world of models, rock legends and film stars and telling us exactly what goes on when the models strut off the catwalk.
"I am really excited to be joining the ECHO," she says.
"Over the next few months I am looking forward to telling the readers all about the sort of things I do and the places I go to in my role as a model."
Tasha's job has taken her all over the world - she has lived in New York, Tokyo and Paris - and as her status has grown, so have the pay cheques.
"It is a lot of money for my age," she says, "but I worked so hard for so long for no pay at the beginning. Usually when the money does come in you think, well I've worked for this."
"I have worked on some great jobs - when I appeared on Robbie William's Rock DJ video we had to meet at 6.30am and got driven with Robbie and his crew to a studio and spent the whole day skating and dancing around.
"Robbie seemed quite intimidated by all 40 models, but was still very cheeky and funny! It was so much fun. I will never forget that day."
And, she says, even top models have "ugly days".
"People might think I always look beautiful, but I actually have worse ugly days than everybody else.
"I am used to looking my best on shoots, but the next day when I see myself I may think: 'What am I a model for?'"



Modern Vs Retro
Expensive Vs Charity shop
Black & white Vs Colour
Creative Vs Tacky

Planning 1

Above is the 'Daily News' section from the Vogue website.
This will help by giving me topics to have in my magazine which I can relate pictures and articles to.