Conclution

To concluded I feel that my over all project went really well, there are some things that would have done differently, but in the all together not there is not a lot I would change to my final result. I found the experience hard and fairly stressful, but I loved the software and I am surprised at how much I learnt about such a complicated process.

If the hardware I was using had been a bit more up to date and faster I think the whole thing would have gone a lot smoother and been done a lot quicker.

I did find Photo shop hard to use at first but and was a bit of a chore. But once I got the hang of it, it became less of a chore and more of a hobby. Towards the end I became very attached to the magnetic lasso.

I found Indesign very stressful to begin with, but once I knew basics I found it easier to get along with. The only thing about it that annoyed me the whole time is the fact that it didn't save the fonts I was using which meant going on to dafont.com every time I logged on to the computer to find and download the fonts I was using, this became very annoying.

To sum up I found the whole experience to be a success and I feel I learnt a lot. I am glad I was able to be a part of the whole thing.

Evaluation Of My Magazine

When I had finished all of my research into existing magazines I went on to create the front cover, content page and a double page spread of what my magazine would be like if I was to make one.

Here is a picture of the end result of my front cover.

I was really pleased with my end result and would not change anything because it came out just the way I wanted it.

Here is a picture of my content page.

I felt my end result was good but it isn't exactly how I imagined it. I think if I was ever to go back and do this again I would maybe have a bit less black.

Here is a picture of my double page spread.

Once I had finised this double page spread I felt I had done a good job and it came out as well as I had hoped. But if I was to change anything it would be the layout, I think I played it a bit safe and went for quite a simple layout.

Fonts

To decide what fonts to use I will look a variety of fonts and see which one appeals the me the most, I will then take that font and compare it to the font on some examples of existing magazines and see if it works if it doesn't I will either find a new one or see if I can manipulate it using leading and kerning to make it a more suitable font. The font I use will be chosen on the bases of how it appeals to my target audience, because I want my magazine to appeal to teenagers the font has to be: young, hip and original. I will want it to stand out but I don't want it to look tacky, this will be hard.





I decided to use these fonts because after researching the type of fonts used in other existing Hip Hop magazines i thought these two fonts would fit best in comparison to the examples I looked at. I think the top secret font works well because it is the type of font used on a convict's file and Hip Hop artists are always refering to crime or being in jail in there songs.

I looked at some fonts from other magazines such as VIBE and THE SOURCE to see what types of fonts are used in hip-hop magazines.

This is an example of the type of fonts used by THE SOURCE, I thought a font like this would be great for my magazine and so i looked on dafont.com to see what I could find, this is when I found the TOP SECRET font which I thought was perfect for my tittle's font.

This is an example of the type of font VIBE used on the front of their magazine, I find this font a bit too dull and boring for my magazine so I did not look for any fonts similar to this one.

Flat Plans

I have drawn 4 flat plans, 2 front covers, a double page spread and a contents page.

Out of the 2 front covers I will use my second one because I feel it will look more professional and it just looks most like a magazine. I have not decided what font I will use yet but I will use a range of colours for the Head Mast. I will take the picture but it might not be exact there might be a female on the front instead of one of the males this is because I think it will give it more of an appeal to girls. I looked at some front covers from other "Hip Hop" (VIBE THE SOURCE) magazines to get some ideas and the really helped with would the picture should be like and how it should be placed on the front cover.

For the content I looked at an example of a content page from a VIBE magazine, this gave me the idea to have the picture on the page. The layout of the content page is simple and I think makes it easier to see what is on what page etc. I will use simple colours like grey and maybe a bit of red but it wont be full of really bright colours because I think this type of magazine has cool, plain but chilled colours to represent the type of music it is meant for.

The double page spread has a similar layout to a spread from an issue of THE SOURCE magazine. This helped give me the an idea of the sort of things that should go on the spread but I am not going to use as many pictures as the magazine that I looked at had because I think this will give the spread a busy feel to it which shows the reader that there is a lot there can read in this magazine. I am going to make this page fairly colourful which contradicts what i said about the content page, but i will be doing this because I think it will draw the readers eye to this page.

I have miss placed my media folder which contains my flat plans!

Analysis of Existing Magazines

Because of the genre of magazine I am doing there is not a lot of choice when it comes to comparing another magazine with my own ideas. I have taken this double page spread from a SOURCE magazine to give me a better idea of what my double page spread will look like when it is finished. From looking at this example I can see that my double page spread should involve quite a few pictures as well as large colourful fonts. The main two colours on this spread are blue and pink, this could be because it would appeal more to their target audience, the bright bold colours are eye catching. I will use some bright bold colours in my magazine to make the pages more interesting and will hopefully make the readers more inclined to read the articles on the page and pay full attention to them. The font used on this page is big and bold, this is the first bit of font i saw because of its size and boldness. The way this has been layedout and the images that have been used would really appeal to my target audience.


Now i am going to analyse two front covers to compare to different uses of font, colour etc.











From looking at this example of a front cover (THE SOURCE) I can tell that my magazine should have a big bright and bold Mast head. Although the picture will take up most of the page I think I will still try and squeeze in as many little flash tags as I can to make the page look busy. The main colour used on the front cover of this particular issue of this magazine is red, red is quite a powerful in your face colour. I wont be having just a single main colour on my front cover but I think I will use red on it. The layout used has been used to make the picture more visible than any thing else on the page, I think this because the image over laps the mast head.


From analysing this example of a VIBE front cover I can see that colour is spared, although there hints of the red the main colour/colours are different tints of grey. This sounds plain but in my opinion works very well, it still makes the cover stand out. The picture certainly dominates the page, you can barely see the Mast head but this is acceptable because the reader should already know what the magazine is called. The image, in my opinion is meant to stand out more than anything else, this to me is because it is a picture of Ciara who is pretty famous and very attractive so it would draw readers in.

If compare the two covers with each other there are some differences but I think they are very similar. Both images take up most of the page, but; each uses a different shot, THE SOURCE uses a close up of the upper body of Puff Daddy, where on the other hand VIBE use a medium close up of Ciara's whole body. This is my opinion give off two very different messages, the image of P.Diddy would appeal to anyone interested in hip hop, where the image of Ciara would appeal to a more specific audience young male hip hoppers. Both of these covers use red as their main colour, THE SOURCE uses it more than VIBE, even thought they both use red because of the difference in the background colours it makes them seem incredibly different.

Another difference is the amount of flash tags are used, THE SOURCE use quite a bit more flash tags than VIBE this makes the magazine look flashier but i think there is no need and they have over done it a little. I while be using ideas from both of these examples and incorporating them in to my magazine.



I will finally analyse a content page from VIBE.


Most content pages in my opinion should give the reader a fairly simple way of knowing what is on what page. This content I think is laid out very well, it has an image but the image takes up less than half the page so it keeps the reader interested but it still doesn't dominate the page which means they are able to get the full idea of what is happening on each page. A big heading has been used on the page to probably give the readers an idea of what the picture is representing. There is not a great deal I can say about this content page because it is fairly plain and is just a usual content page, but I can say it is affective and i will probably be using a similar layout in my magazine.

Target Audience

This is the kind of picture I would take for my magazine, from looking at this picture I can tell
that these magazines appeal to younger generations. Some people would say that maybe this magazine would be more appealing to black youth culture. But I will try to make the magazine appealing to both black and white youth culture, this will them make the magazine's target audience larger. My target audience is going to be the younger generation preferably teenagers but I think it could appeal to people slightly older than this.









This is an example of another front cover of a magazine called THE SOURCE, it is fairly similar to the front cover of VIBE. This does give the same impression about target audience, this cover to me still makes me think that this is targeted for a the black youth culture.




This is an example of a media kit created by the source which I think gives me a better view of who my magazine is aimed at.

Introduction to main task

i have been asked to design a music magazine that focuses on a specific genre of music, the genre of music i have decided to focus on the RnB side of music. I will use such magazines like "VIBE" and "THE SOURCE" to help with the layout and general feel of my magazine. During this task i will be looking at different fonts that i will use in my magazine, as well as finding out ways to increase my apeal to my target audience.

Michael Wood AS Media Preliminary Task

I have been asked to create a magazine for students at my college. i decided to call mine Y.O.U (young, original, uncut). My magazine is targeted at students that are aged from 16-19, i decided to target this audience because most college students are ranged from 16-19 years of age.


these were the flat plans I sketched out to give myself an idea of what my magazine was going to look like, I decided to use these layouts because they are typical layouts for magazines and i think my end product turned out very similar to these, not exact but i was pleased.

I took these pictures for the front of my magazine, both of the

photos are medium close ups but as you can see they are very different. I
chose to use the one on the right, this is because it is a more appealing photograph, where in the other photo he looks a bit like a convict. Not only this but i feel that the photo on the right gives off a better vibe.

I am fairly happy with the end result of my magezine, but there is quite a bit that a would change; i would try and get a better photo with a better backdrop, i think this would make my whole magazine look so much better. Its not the image itself but the backdrop is too plain, i think if i was to change to backdrop it would make the layout of the front cover look altogether more professional and just better in general. I asked a member of my class what they thought of my final cover and they said "it was nice but could have looked a bit more professional." Overall they I think i could have done better but I am pleased with what I have done.