Feedback: Magazine Cover

Feedback from my Media teacher : 
" Very nice work, really comes up to professional quality. My main concern is the main image its very distant whereas magazine covers tend to have a close up shot. I'm sure you have a lot more images you took that you can work with. Where's the bar code ?" 

I really considered my feedback and decided to look at magazine covers once again. I noticed that close up images are most featured and there was literally no use of the type of shot that I had chosen. This is something that's a fundamental point in the making of a magazine cover that I had clearly ignored. And I also didn't incorporate a bar code. I was not too keen on making the following changes but I think its something that needs to be done. 

My Front cover

This is the final outcome of my magazine front cover. my main inspiration when making this was from xxl magazine, I completely love the style of this magazine. I selected red black and white to be my colour scheme, I think that this works out very well, and there seems to be something that is very edgy about all the colours together. As I mentioned before I want to keep the simplicity there and I have managed to do so. The front cover is not at all bombarded with endless cover lines but they are all in moderation to the image. This is good because it means that the readers don't have to read a lot but instead the cover lines are quick, direct and easy to understand. I think the image also represents the genre of the magazine very well. I am very pleased with the way that this turned out. 

Music Magazine: Research & Planning

MUSIC MAGAZINES RESEARCH 

Task: You are now at the stage where you need to complete research and planning tasks which are specific to music magazines. You must conduct research into the product and target audience. You must relate your research to your own product. 

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Research:Different Genres 

These four magazines represent different kinds of music genres. Each genre can be clearly recognised from the style of fonts and from the celebrity that is on the front cover. KERRANG
has a masthead with shattered font, the layout, the rest of the font  and the artists on the cover clearly represent that is it a rock magazine. I like the style of the rest of the three magazines ( billboard, NME and VIBE). The way that they are laid out and the style of the magazines is the type of style that i am looking to go for, for my magazine. I am very much into rap/ urban mainstream music and i think using these three as ideas could help me to make my magazine a success. I have done some further research into other magazines such as XXL, and this has helped me to gain more ideas of that i could potentially use. 

The main image on this magazine is of Wiz Khalifa and his partner. They are iconic in the music world and having them there makes it easy for the audience to recognise them. From seeing him it is easy for the audience to recognise what they would expect to see in the magazine and the type of genre that would be contained within. I think this type of magazine is not for older adults but mainly for the older range of teenagers and young adults. It clearly doesnt cater for those of a young age as it seems a bit too explicit or in some way grown for them.

I know the basic style that I would like for the presentation of the front cover and now I have to think of the type of cover lines that I could have. Most magazines tend to have the name of the artist on the magazine so that its easy for those who are reading to know what they could be expecting to read about in the magazine. I don't really want to have a lot of cover lines, I want the image of the front cover the centre of attention of the magazine. With this magazine i like the positioning of Rihanna's name with the large font, with the Chris Browns name added to it aswell, they are a very hot topic and the audience will easily understand what will be in the magazine. 
I will also need to take into consideration the type of audience that I'm trying to appeal to and whether the cover lines and picture will be the type that would appeal to them. For example if I was targeting it to males putting a picture of a girl with a lustful pose is something that would draw them to the magazine unlike a family image.

Ideas for my Music Magazine

So for this task I will be designing a music magazine the magazine will mainly be based on urban music. So my target audience is for those who are interested in this type of music and for young people and young adults, mainly the ages of 16-25 or so. This is to be a magazine with a lot of entertainment, filled with celebrity gossip, fashion trends, top music charts and insights into a celebrity (one on the front cover). I have thought of a few cover lines that I could possibly use for the magazine front cover such as " tunes that are a must", "change to win tickets to see your fav artist" or "Lil wanyes disses Kanye". They are all simple but could really entice potential readers to look at the magazine. Its important that I do all I can to catch their attention as the music magazine is a very competitive market and there are plenty of music magazines that are successful. I want to be able to indicate the success of each magazine and find a way that I can apply it to my own one.


 I have to also take a look at a lot of Masthead names and consider my own ones, the ones that I have thought of so far are "DMX"  "WAVE" and "UNLEASHED. I am not too sure yet whether I am definitely going to use them, I want a name that is pretty short. I want a name that appeals to the reader and one that is also memorable and unique. The look of the magazine is a very important aspect, especially the main image, I want it to be very eye catching. 

The colour schemes, image and fonts are all very important and need to be taken into account. With whatever I choose to do I want to make sure that the magazine will still be relevant for both males and females, for the style of magazine that I want to do, for it to be successful I can't just categorise the gender. I will also need to take into consideration how I am going to take the picture this including the black ground colour of the image. I will also need to look at when I would be looking to publish the magazine and how often that would be. I reckon that they would come out pretty often, as there are always stories going around and different types of trends and seasons changing every now and again. 

College Magazine Contents page

I want my contents page to be very closely linked in some way with the front cover. I think I will make sure that I follow the same type of colour scheme. I still want it to be different and not like the usual boring layouts that some college magazines may contain. I have done a bit of research and looked at some contents pages. I mainly took at look at the contents pages of NME magazine, reason being I love the simplicity and its a type of type that I wouldn't mind having for my contents page and I'm sure that everyone reading the magazine would be in favour of it. 

Final Contents Page  

This is the final design that I have done for my contents page. It has the simplicity that I wanted, and I managed to keep some of the colours of the lines on the front cover on the contents page as well. I am sure that I could have possibly added a few more things to it. I don't really think that I followed the style of the NME contents page, I'd just say that looking at it was just a form of inspiration. I am pleased with the way that it turned out. 

College Front Cover

Getting started with me college magazine 

This is the appearance of my magazine so far. I had a few studio shots taken and out of all the ones that were taken i thought this one would be the most relevant one for this magazine. Its different looks a bit edgy ,modern and i think it makes the magazine look a bit more interesting. I had to use a bit of photoshop to edit the image so that it has the tone that it has right now. 

I went for a big and bold font in the end i decided to call the magazine "COOLAGE" something a bit out of the ordinary, simple and easy to remember. The imagine and some of the text had some dull colours and didn't really have much that would pop up to the reader. So because of this i decided to add a few lines with colours, it was simple but yet it gave the magazine an instant pop, a great look for it. I am still yet to consider what other types of coverlines that i would like to add to the magazine. 

I am actually very pleased with the presentation of my magazine so far. I think its very unique there are still a few things that I am yet to add, and i am considering playing around with some of the colours just to make sure that they are the way that i want them to be like. 

This is my final front cover now completed, I have changed just a few things one thing being the colour of the splat. I am very impressed with the way that it has turned out, I think that it is something that will be appealing to audience that I'm targeting. There isn't much of a great deal of difference to the first draft of the front cover to the final one. I think that's because i was already pretty pleased with what I had produced so I didn't see that there was much that I could have changed. During the making of the magazine cover I still continued to look through other examples of college magazines just for a bit of inspiration and to help me spot the typical trends that I didn't want to appear on mine. I decided to change the colour of the splat, this is because I wanted it to pop out and to be clear and noticeable so I thought the change in colour did just this. I decided to put '' 157 ultimate winter activities" because its very eye catching and could be something of interest to the college age readers. " Revise Strive" I thought this was something pretty simple but of interest, linked with something within the magazine to inspire college students to do well and work hard to strive. 

Task 5:College Magazine Research

My task is to design a college magazine. I have taken a look at some former college magazines, most based on a specific college but i intend on making my magazine relevant to anyone from any college or those looking for a college. So this will mainly be relevant for those between the ages of 16-18 but will also include some pages with adult courses and information. I am going to be focusing on the college lifestyle how to make it enjoyable and productive and helping them to find a college that is close to them. I am also going to be looking at the things that they should take into consideration when choosing a college. I do not intend on favouring another college in comparison to another this will just be a viewing of each one and what they have to offer. With the appearance of the magazine i will need to take into consideration taglines, coverlines, the main image and masthead. I want the magazine to be very relaxed more of a source of entertainment, i will do this by focusing on seasonal subjects or activities, and discount offers that would be available to them as students.  I have thought of some coverlines like "summer madness" or "revise strive", just simple but yet engaging. I want people to see it as something different a magazine that is actually relevant to each individual, filled with context that anyone can relate to, kind of just like a normal magazine but education based. I am going to take a wide look into other magazines before considering what i want to do for mine exactly. I have to also consider different types of titles for the magazine, one that is memorable. I don't want to go for the ordinary classical college magazine names, i want something that stands out and is seen as something unique, i am yet to think of some possibilities. I will also take a look at different fonts because as much as the name is important so is the font, it could really show the potential success of the magazine. I want to keep all the things within it modern based so i will have to take a look at different types of fonts. 

The overall look of my magazine is very important, all the colours, fonts and images all contribute to how appealing it will be to someone. If its just dull, boring and very information based it is very unlikely that it will be looked at by most people especially of that age. I want it to be for a broad audience, so i can't just have context that will only be relevant to females otherwise it will only be relevant to them. I want to use a variety of colours and images so that both males and females will take on interest. My magazine will be aimed at college students and also people that might be taking University courses at the college. I want the magazine to represent the culture of college, and to show the different diverse groups within the college and the different interests that people have, so that almost everyone is in favor of it.

As i have mentioned earlier on i would like to have seasonal subjects within the magazine, so when it comes to publishing i think it would be best to make it termly. I don't want them to be published to frequently that it would end up being a bore to people, but i want it to be an excitement something to look forward to. This would also work efficiently especially considering events and holidays that could be happening at the time. 

Here is are some examples of the type of work i would like to produce.