Magazine Production: Details

Adding details to the magazine is important.

Magazine Production: The Image

These are the images I took for the new front cover. In my presentation you can see the chosen image and the potential ones.

New Style Model

Since I have changed the idea for my magazine,  I have selected new style models.

Magazine Production: New Cover, Big Change.

After trying to build my contents page for "The Stonehearts" magazine cover, it wasn't looking how I imagined it. I wasn't happy with my front cover either as I thought I could do much better than that. I also had a problem with all of the images I took in that photo shoot as I thought they weren't good enough, they had green glows around them from the lighting and the green screen. It was proving too difficult to cut out accurately and edit to make them look better. I also didn't think the models complimented each other and didn't like the idea of a duo anymore. This is why I decided on changing my model for the front cover and the design. Therefore I have had to chose new style models for my magazine which can be seen in the presentation below.

Magazine Production: Adding Detail

Adding detail to my cover is important to make it look like it could be a real magazine cover. Most magazines have taglines on their front cover and the magazine that I was using to inspire this front cover had a tagline feature, therefore I wanted to use this feature also.  

I started by thinking of stories that would be related to my music magazine's genre. I then added this text and put effects on it to make it stand out on the page more. The effects I used was outer glow, bevel and emboss and stroke. I used these to create a stand out effect on the page.

Another small feature I done which is important is added a barcode which I found online and the price of my magazine which is £3, the usual music magazine price in this genre of music. I also included the month of publication as this is common. I advertised the magazine's website in pale font beside the logo to show that my magazine is versatile.

Magazine Production: Changing my Logo's Font and Colour.

Before

I decided to change the font of my logo from the one shown at the top to the one in the above two photos. I think this was important because the first font had a slimy kind of effect to it and although they are similar fonts, the second one is more sharp. It was also important for me to change the logo font's colour to white because it made it look more sharp against the background of the logo. I first tried a black background for my logo and changed it because I thought the colour scheme looked too monochrome and was needing a bit of colour, therefore I changed it to a red, I matched the colour of the logo background to the lipstick colour shown on the model to the left, I done this by using the colour picker tool on Photoshop. I think the red background has more of a professional look and compliments the white font colour more than the black does as it makes it look bold and fresh. 

 

Magazine Production: Adding the Artist Title

I want my magazine to follow the conventions of a music magazine, so I need to outline who my cover artists are by using a title for them. I called my duo "The Stonehearts". I messed around in dafont trying to find the right font for the cover and discovered this one. I chose this font because of the bubbly effect and has quite a fun look to it.

I firstly positioned it on a slant mainly over the second model however I didn't like this and moved it over the both of them, making the font bigger so it stands out more and turning it on a straight line, I done this when I had made other changes to the magazine such as changing the background, the font and the font's colour. 

I am much happier with the font like this as opposed to the original. This way, I think the magazine still has a professional look towards it and the font stands out way more. I added an effect to this font layer called "stroke" this allowed the font to have the black text outline shown, I thought this was better because it defines the text more than the original. 

 

 

I then added a tagline under the artist title because I wanted the audience to have an idea what the cover story is about. I put this in a teal kind of colour because I felt like my magazine cover needed another colour to make it look good.

 

Magazine Production : Changing the Background Colour.

This is the changes I made to my magazine in the second week.

 

Before

I changed the background colour from the gradient to a full light grey, I done this because I didn't think the gradient looked good and didn't follow many conventions of rap magazines, due to me wanting to have a professional magazine cover, I had to make this change in order to achieve this.

Magazine Production: Building My Front Cover

Now that I have started creating my magazine, I am going to log how I am building the front cover and note down any issues that I may face or problems that I fix.

1. The first thing I done was use the gradient tool to decide which colour I wanted my background to be, I went with a silver/grey and white. After trial and error of finding the right combination, I settled with the one you see above.

2. The second step was finding the right fonts, after looking through the ones already built into Photoshop, I decided that none of them were what I was looking for. I went onto dafont.com and browsed through their graffiti/marker fonts. For "The Stonehearts" I used DK Downward fall. For the logo I decided to put a stroke around it and fill the font with a dark grey colour, the font I used was called Handbrush cre.

3. I chose this specific photo because it fits in with the rap theme and the idea of most rappers not to be messed with, after cutting this out using the magic wand tool, I adjusted the colour to remove some of the green reflection that was appearing on the image.



Chosen Style Model

These are the style models I have chose to base my magazine around.

Mock Up: Contents Page

The final mock up plan is for my Contents page.

Mock Up: Double Page

This aim of this post is the same as my previous. This flat plan is for my double page feature.

Mock up: Front Cover

I am now near the stage where I will be able to start creating my magazine but before this, I want to have a rough idea of what I want my magazine to look like. The aim of this is to see if when I come to making the front cover, if I stick to the plan or have to change it.

Publishers : Hearst

The 2/3 magazine publisher I decided to research was Hearst Publications. I done my research on some of their top brands that they publish. I created my presentation on emaze.

Publishers: Bauer

One of the tasks we have to carry out is some research into magazine publishers, I have chosen to do three. This is what I found out about Bauer Media.

Photo Analysis: LA

The second photo analysis that I done was a landscape picture of LA at sunset. This shows how different techniques are put into place.

Photo Analysis: Audrey Hepburn

When it comes to taking the photos to create my magazine, there are many different factors and features that I have to take into consideration. I have to be able to correctly position the model in the frame and think of what the photo could potentially be suggesting.

My Reader Profile

To conclude the reader profile research, I had to create one for my magazine.

Reader Profile: XXL Magazine

Another thing I have had to do in order to produce my magazine is research different magazines reader profiles. I decided to analyse XXL magazine because it is the same type of genre that I plan on having.

Reader Profile : NME Magazine

I have to analyse magazine's reader profiles and one that I analysed was NME, I done this beacause it is a different music genre to the one I plan to have my magazine based upon,this is what I came up with.

Theory: Marjorie Ferguson's

The third theory I studied was by Marjorie Ferguson's and here is what I found out

Theory: Uses and Gratifications

Uses and Gratifications is part of the three main theories in relation to media, I done some research to see how this can be used in the magazine industry.