Tuesday, 22 October 2013
Initial Ideas
My magazine will be aimed at a very niche audience of the Chiptune sub-genre. There are not any known chiptune magazines on the market, so this will make it very unique. There is not a huge amount of chiptune bands so it may have to have a blend of two sub-genres that are similar: Chiptune/VG rock, possibly.
Friday, 18 October 2013
Introduction to Main Task and Action Plan
The main task is to research and produce the front cover, contents page and a double-page spread of a music magazine. It will be of a sub-genre of my own choice, and must contain completely original text and images.
Action Plan:
- Week 1
I will post my initial ideas, institution research and an analysis of two music magazine front covers of my chosen sub-genre.
- Week 2
I will analyse two contents pages and two double-page-spreads and begin to develop a pitch.
- Week 3
I will develop and create my pitch and research further into my chosen sub-genre.
- Week 4
I will present the pitch and get audience feedback. I will create a mockup of my magazine pages, produce a "style sheet" showing brand identity and house style. I will begin organising models, props and locations for the photo shoot(s).
- Week 5
I will design the front cover of my magazine.
- Week 6
I will get feedback on the cover and make adjustments accordingly
- Week 7
I will design the contents page and adjust it according to feedback.
- Week 8
I will design the double page spread and adjust according to feedback.
- Week 9
I will finalize the design of all pages and begin drafting an evaluation.
- Week 10, 11, 12
I will develop my evaluation of the pages and post them onto the blog.
Action Plan:
- Week 1
I will post my initial ideas, institution research and an analysis of two music magazine front covers of my chosen sub-genre.
- Week 2
I will analyse two contents pages and two double-page-spreads and begin to develop a pitch.
- Week 3
I will develop and create my pitch and research further into my chosen sub-genre.
- Week 4
I will present the pitch and get audience feedback. I will create a mockup of my magazine pages, produce a "style sheet" showing brand identity and house style. I will begin organising models, props and locations for the photo shoot(s).
- Week 5
I will design the front cover of my magazine.
- Week 6
I will get feedback on the cover and make adjustments accordingly
- Week 7
I will design the contents page and adjust it according to feedback.
- Week 8
I will design the double page spread and adjust according to feedback.
- Week 9
I will finalize the design of all pages and begin drafting an evaluation.
- Week 10, 11, 12
I will develop my evaluation of the pages and post them onto the blog.
Tuesday, 15 October 2013
Music magazine research : Q Magazine
Q Magazine
Q magazine is a music magazine published by
Bauer Media Group. It is a magazine that focuses on the most popular modern rock
music. It was founded in 1986 by a different media group (EMAP) and sold to
Bauer in 2008.
It has an approximate circulation of about
59000. A magazine is released on a monthly basis.
Content
The magazine focuses mainly on interviews with
musicians, but includes things such as “best of…” lists and reviews. There are
standard features common in each magazine, such as “Q50” which is a list of the
vest tracks of the month, and “rewind” which shows an old article from the
magazine’s archives.
The magazine occasionally comes with a
compilation CD made by the journalists, such as “Q essential Jukebox” and
“Essential Glastonbury. The magazine is closely linked with the Glastonbury
Festival, and produces a newspaper and review magazine for purchase at the
festival.
Publishing institution
Bauer Media Group publishes the magazine,
which is a German company that produces over 300 different magazines. They
produce similar magazines, such as Kerrang and MOJO. They also produce many
other magazines of a different genre, such as AnglingTimes, Closer and Golf
World.
Audience
The magazine seems to be aimed at younger
adults aged around 18-28, and as the music in the magazine is fairly
mainstream, so would the readers in the way they act/dress. The readers are
likely to have a fairly high amount of disposable income due to the magazine
being priced at £3.99.
Layout
The magazine always has a similar cover.
There is always the “Q” Logo in the top right corner, and the general colour
scheme uses red, white and gold. The central image is always of a musician
featured in the magazine, and often overlaps the Q logo. The style is very
solid and does not have canted images or text. The font used is always
sans-serif and very clear and easy to read.
I feel that the magazine does not reflect
the values of it’s audience that well, as a lot of the music in it’s contents might
be considered “edgy” and “rebellious” whereas the magazine itself looks
somewhat sophisticated and clean.
Monday, 14 October 2013
Evaluation of Preliminary Task
In
what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
My magazine cover is unusual compared to other
student magazines. I previously looked at other examples as research, and
generally the covers had a rebellious and edgy style. My cover is more
sophisticated looking, but not too sophisticated.
This gives a fairly relaxed feel without it being too obnoxious. The articles
shown on the cover and contents page are based off what I would expect from a
student magazine, even If some are not particularly realistic. The title is
fairly short and easy to remember, and the mode of address is fairly informal
and relaxed.
How
does your media product represent particular social groups?
I feel that my magazine is relatable for teenagers/students
that are both male and female. I have avoided any stereotypes by making the
articles fairly wide-spread, with music, film, celebrities and things happening
in the college. The images and connotations is not particularly unusual for a
student magazine and do not challenge the generic conventions of student
magazines.
What
kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The college itself would be the publisher and it
would be distributed to students of Ludlow College. The price would be £1.99,
as it says on the cover. It would likely be sold inside the college grounds
somewhere, so only the students and staff would be able to get hold of it.
Who
would be the audience for your media product?
The magazine is aimed at the students of the college
mainly. This means males and females in their late teens. There could also be
sections more aimed at the staff of the college. The students buying it would
most likely have a fair amount of disposable income and may have a job.
How
did you attract/address your audience?
The cover has a large image of somebody around the
intended audience’s age, looking pretty and relaxed. This gives the reader a
feel of how the magazine is going to be to read, as it may cause them to think
the whole magazine is a nice easy read. The images on the contents page depict
people having fun and being silly, which gives the sense of the magazine not
being too serious.
What
have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Creating the magazine’s cover and contents has made
me realise the work that goes into creating a magazine. I have learned how to use InDesign in quite a
lot of detail, and have the ability to make somewhat good quality files with
it. I am completely inexperienced with the program itself, but am quite
familiar with similar programs by Adobe such as Photoshop. Because of this I recognised
a lot of the tools and picked it up fairly quickly.
Friday, 11 October 2013
Thursday, 3 October 2013
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Colour schemes and fonts
When coming up with a colour scheme i put together different colours to see how well they fit together. I found that the colours shown below work well without appearing too obnoxious. The colours are quite gentle to the eye and not difficult to look at.
I needed to find a font for the various different sections of the magazine. I need something very clear and readable for the title and headers, and something easy to read and sans-serif for the main body text. The "OCR A" font may be appropriate if the magazine is more technology based, so i believe that the "Menlo Bold" is the most appropriate for my magazine.
The header needs to stand out above any body text or images. Out of the 3 that i chose below, I found that the "Britannic Bold" is generally inappropriate as it appears fairly old-fashioned. The "Gill Sans" font appears too thin, so it may be difficult to make it stand out on a complex background. This means that the "Krugenthep" font would be the most appropriate for my magazine as it is bold, chunky and fairly modern-looking.
For the body text, all of the fonts that i have found are fairly similar. I feel that the body text needs to be clear and easy to read. The "Geneva CY" font looks a little too chunky for body text, as does the "Verdana" font. The "Microsoft tai le" font is possibly a little too thin, so the "Helvetic Neue" font seems the most appropriate.
Initial Ideas
Title ideas
The title needs to be something fairly
short, snappy and memorable. It would be a bonus if the title related to the
theme of students and how they think.
- initialised title - eg. SBmag (student break)
- Modernize
- StudyBreak
·
House style
My student magazine will make use of either
a quite powerful colour scheme of darker greys and aqua/cyan blue that will
stand out against one another, or use a more sophisticated scheme of colours
that are easier on the eyes. These could be softer colours such as white and
light orange. I will try to avoid using colours together that might be hard to
look at.
The magazine will be laid out very straight
and solid, with no tilted or angled text or images. Shapes used will be squares
and rectangles only. Few curved lines and a somewhat sophisticated but
comfortable and relaxed look.
Fonts will be solid and blocky for
headings, large and bold for the masthead and basic font for the main bodies of
text.
Content
The magazine will contain different
articles that most students will be able to relate to: Sections of music,
film/TV, games, books, study, clothing, and things that are happening in and
around the college.
Images
The central image on the cover will be a
MCU of a student, possibly in or near the college. Facial expression will be
very relaxed and melancholy, and the photo will be taken at eye level. One or
two smaller images will be used around the edge of the cover relating to
articles inside. The contents page will contain two or three photos relating to
the most “important” articles inside.
Mode of address
I think that my magazine needs to be quite
informal without being too informal. This means educated and semi-serious
articles and writing style, but without use of over-complicated words. I personally
find reading a passage with long complex words and structure to be difficult
and even stressful, and with a student magazine it needs to be fairly relaxing
and comfortable to read.
Price
As this is a student magazine and will not
have a huge amount of content, nor will the audience have that much money, it
will be very cheap – about £1.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)