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.