Diary 29/09/11

Currently in my media lessons after creating our preliminary tasks we have been researching into music magazines. I am currently not sure on what type of magazine I want to create but just have a rough idea on the genre. This meant that this would be a great opportunity for me to get some ideas on theme, layout, articles etc from some successful magazine companies. I have been analysing front covers, contents pages and double page spreads. I think the two most influential and biggest magazines I have looked ate have been Q and NME. They among the others have given me some good inspiration and a better idea of how I look to create my own magazine more successfully and to a higher standard.

Double Page Spread Analysis

In my research I have looked at three double page spread articles...

Double Page Analysis

Contents Page Analysis

In my research i have looked at three different music magazine contents pages that have all been very different...

Contents Pages

Front Cover Analysis

I annalysed three front covers of music magazines they were: Q, Gramaphone and Fortune


Front Covers

 For my preliminary task I had to create a school magazine and produce a front cover ‘Hot Haydon News’. To begin with I sketched the magazine front cover and contents page out onto plain A4 paper.

After I had finished I got a learning partner and did a photoshoot for my magazine. I then uploaded the photos and started to create my front cover on photo shop. Once on i placed my image on my page and I used the Horizontal Type Tool to type my magazine title at the top of the page, using the font ‘Stencil Std’ because it is large, clear and bold therefore will catch the attention of my audience. I named it 'Hot Haydon News' to imply that this was the magazine to have with all the hot school gossip. My title is blue as this matches with the haydon sceme of colour. I then began to create my sell lines using the same tool, However i changed the font and size as these are of ess importance

I tried to appeal to a younger school audience for my magazine. This involved lots of bright fun attention grabbing sell lines and also one to promote folowing the magazine on facebook (A hot zitegyst). I did this by locating a facebook logo image and incorporating it into my front cover design. Finally i added a date and issue number as you would find on all magazines.

I then went on to start developing my contents page. To start with i used the same header font and colour for the words 'Contents'. I then created 3 circles with the shape tool and made them all different bright vibrant colours. After this i used the magic wand tool to cut out images of three different people. For my magazine i wanted these people in different cirlce. To do this i placed the image layer next to the circle layer held shift and clicked inbetween the layers. This placed to person inside the cirlce. I then went onto effects and bevel embossed the circles to give them a better effect. After this i needed to input my contents. I used the font 'Rockwell Extra Bold' and made it black to contrast with the title and stand out. I then inputed my text. When certain parts were moved to the next line it left too big a gap inbetween the words. I combatted this my going to text options and changing the distance. My magazine was now complete so i exported them as jpegs in high quality.