Dec Calendar

This is my calendar for December. Due to headaches and migraines, I spent some time away from my media sorting out my eyesight. I am still happy with what I achieved and will do more next month.

DPS #1 and #2 - Feedback

My cousin is a member of my target audience as he is a twenty year old man with a well-paying job who enjoys indie music. I asked him to look at the draft I've done and give me one-on-one feedback to help me improve:

I like the fonts on that one. I like the picture too. It’s really interesting with the sweets. This one’s really colourful and the title really draws your attention in. The pull quotes draw your attention in well as well. I think that’s cool. You need to add things to that black bar on the top though.

The background’s nice because it adds to the theme. I’m not sure if it looks unprofessional though. Also the writing on the black bar is good. The ‘big story’ would attract a readers attention.

9th Dec

Aims:
- Produce two DPS drafts

Reflection:
I've done this but I desperately need feedback. I'm not sure how I feel about either of the products I've created.

DPS Draft #1 and #2

Both of these were done in one lesson and I'm not sure about either of them. Whilst I like them on their own I'm not sure either of them fit in with the rest of the magazine and this will need to be something that I work on. I feel as if they fit conventions fine and they both look good. I will need to receive feedback on them.

8th Dec

Aims:
- Begin writing article story

Reflect:
I made a prezi describing what sort of things I would put in the article. This will keep me on track.

Article story

I made myself a short Powtoon to make sure that I know the story that I will have in my article. This makes sure I don't contradict myself if I have the bands details in this PowToon that I can refer back to at a later date.

I have learnt the story that I plan to follow. This will make the writing process easier for as I know that I will manage to be consistent throughout the article which will aid me in looking professional.

Front Cover #3 - Feedback

My cousin is a member of my target audience as he is a twenty year old man with a well-paying job who enjoys indie music. I asked him to look at the draft I've done and give me one-on-one feedback to help me improve:

I like this photo the best. It’s more exciting than the other two so it belongs on a front page more. And this one’s got more colour. And it looks more like the competing magazine you showed me so you can tell it fits its genre. The layout is really professional but I don’t like the font I think it looks a little childish. Also I think it’s a little too dark.

7th Dec

Aims:
- Produce second front cover draft
- Receive feedback on front cover
- Receive feedback on contents page

Reflect:
I am happy with the feedback I have received and with the progress I'm making with my front cover.

3rd Front Cover Draft (writeup)

This is the third draft for my front cover. I really like this though I know there are some things I will have to tweak. I feel as if the image is now too dark and the font is too childish. I'm also not sure if I like the black box surrounding the title. I need to experiment more with colours and text placement as a whole. 

6th Dec

Aims:
- Redo front cover flatplan

Reflect:
I have made my flatplan better. I feel as if it fits the product I am trying to create better now. I will continue to develop my ideas.

Front Cover Flat-plan (RE-REVISED)

This flatplan is based off of Under The Radar

This magazine looks vibrant and exciting, which is how I want my magazine to look, thus, I'm mirroring what they've done. I've added two additional sell-lines as well just because they fit the curve of my image better.

I am putting the title central so that it catches attention straight away and is the clear focus of the page. I will also have my masthead behind my model so that it's clear who is the most important in the shot. 

My sellines should be short and snappy and I may be able to include more than one sellline in the boxes marked sell line. I will expiriment with this.

I want my product to be as bright and colourful as the image I am taking reference from.

Front Cover #2 - Feedback

My cousin is a member of my target audience as he is a twenty year old man with a well-paying job who enjoys indie music. I asked him to look at the draft I've done and give me one-on-one feedback to help me improve:

   I like this one a lot more. It’s a nice photo and I like the fonts. I think it’s a good idea to include something like free posters because it’ll inspire people to buy your magazine. You’ve got quite a few different articles so that makes it look more interesting. And your main band, Platinum City, has a bigger font so it’s very clear what the main article is. I think it needs more colour though because it looks a bit bland at the moment. And the image needs a bit more editing to look really professional. And maybe change some of the fonts and move them around to fill all the space on the page.

Contents Page #2 - Feedback

My cousin is a member of my target audience as he is a twenty year old man with a well-paying job who enjoys indie music. I asked him to look at the draft I've done and give me one-on-one feedback to help me improve:

You’ve changed a lot here but I like it. It looks a lot more mature now. The colour scheme is really peaceful and the font is more mature. I think the editor’s note is a selling point because it appeals directly to the audience – a direct mode of address. And I think the photo is more suited to this part of the magazine 

Contents Draft #2

I've changed a lot here to make it fit a more mature audience and I've based this front cover more off Mojo

I added in an editors note but I feel as if my editing style has been similar. This was to appeal to an older target audience but I feel like I've made it look a little bit too old.

2nd Front Cover Draft

This definitley looks more like a real front cover that the other pieces I've done. I don't like the way the fonts seem to blend into the background and I'm planning on changing them around. However, I do like the way the masthead dips behind the models head. I still want to see how Leah would look on the cover before I make any decisions. 

Contents Page #1 - Feedback

My cousin is a member of my target audience as he is a twenty year old man with a well-paying job who enjoys indie music. I asked him to look at the draft I've done and give me one-on-one feedback to help me improve:

This is a cool layout. It looks a bit like one from Q. I think you need to crop these images a bit so there’s less white and make the features section a bit bigger and easier to read. I like the ‘contents’  font. It’s different and it stands out. It looks like you’re appealing to a quite young audience though so you might want to make it more mature.

Alternate video:

2nd December

Aims:

- Produce a contents page draft

- Revise front cover flatplan
- Receive feedback

Reflect:

I'm not happy with the contents page draft I produced but I am happy with the front cover flatplan. I think that I am making improvements and will continue to do so. The feedback I received from my uncle was also very helpful. 

Front Page Flat-plan (REVISED)

I like this flatplan a lot more. It does not have an actual base on any real magazine but I took inspiration from Under The Radar. This feels more professional and there's a lot more going on that would make it interesting. I listened to my survey results and decided to add in free gifts. The subimage down the left will be the posters that come with the magazine and the square blow that will have the text about the free posters. I also have more sell lines now which boasts that my magazine will have  more content which will help it sell and appeal. 

I based my title position off the of Under The Radar as they have a successful magazine and therefore I feel safe taking inspiration from them. 

The other sell lines have not taken the focus away from the main band as it still has the most room on the page with the enlarged band name at the bottom. Having it off centre creates visual interest. 

I will try to go for a red colour scheme once more and edit my photo so that the headphones on the photo are red whilst the body is B&W like I was initially planning on having on the contents page. 

Contents 1st Draft

This was my first contents draft. I don't like it very much. I definitely left too much white in the images and need to crop it down. I also don't get a very professional vibe from it and need to work with image editing and different fonts. I do like the red colour scheme in this though I need to experiment with colour further. Editing the headphones to make them the only thing not greyscale was surprisingly easy and had a very dramatic effect that was exactly what I wanted. 

Nov Calendar

I did not spend this month as well as I could've as I was very sick. Still, I am happy with what I did achieve.

Contents Page Flatplan REVISED

This is a lot more mature and less cluttered. 

It feels more clean than what I produced before and morel like a real product. I'm very happy with it. I will keep the red colour scheme because I think it's strong. 

The photo will still be the main focus although there is more of a focus on the text as well now because I don't want to infantilise my audience by completely relying on visuals and ignoring text.

 I will also include an editors note this time at the top of the page - so that it's separate from the main part of the contents page and doesn't disrupt that - and the editors note will bring a personal feel to the contents page and make it more relatable and personal to the reader.

I took some inspiration from Mojo 

Though, I have lowered the title down to add in the editors note. Still, I like the simplistic layout here and I feel as if it makes the image look very powerful and professional. 

14th November

Aims:

- Do a deconstruction for a magazine

Reflect:

I deconstructed Q magazine and I think I really found out what made its pages so good. I can apply this understanding to the pages I am working on now.

Q Deconstruction

Alternate link:

- I would like to use red on my front cover, perhaps with oranges or yellows also

- I should use a prop that has a connection to music 

- I should use a range of fonts on my front cover

- I should designate equal amounts of space to my text and my image to place equal amounts of importance on them

- I don't like the layout on the contents page, I will not be basing mine on Q's

- I must use conventions that appeal to young people and conventions that appeal to an older audience to balance out my T.A.

Manuscript beneath cut:

4th Nov

Aims:
- Make a final decision on colours and fonts

Reflect:
I created a prezi to look at colours and fonts and I'm happy with the decision that I have made. The prezi took a long time to make because I wanted to make sure I was making the right decision.

Font And Color Decisons

This prezi was done so that I could explain my final decison behind fonts and color schemes. These are the most appropriate choices and I have looked into why in the past in posts such as 'Color association' and 'Font inspiration' and covered briefly in this prezi also.

3rd Nov

Aims:
- Receive group feedback

Reflect:
Today, I have and received feedback on a range of people's work and received a lot of feedback on my own. My class contains a range of people so I got to see what a lot of different people thought about my work. I also got to see where other people are going with their magazines and compare that against my own.

Peer Feedback

Over the course of our previous lessons, I created this draft. It's a slight alteration of my first draft that  took slightly more inspiration from Under The Radar. I did not make a separate post because all that has changed is the placement of the text and two additional buylines. I no longer have the images saved from the magazines I worked from but this was all heavily inspired by Under The Radar.

It had some of the convention that my front page will have when it is finished.  Our class, at the end of an assigned time period, went around the room with post-it notes leaving behind with instruction on what we can change to make the final product look better or fit the genre better. My draft was unfinished so I already knew there were things I'd have to change but this gave me some more ideas and things to consider. 

I've already noted that I will need to add more sell points to my final product. I will do this with competitions, tagline, coverlines, and - potentially sub images.

I've chosen to make my masthead smaller this instance to mimic the style seen in my competitors magazine, Under The Radarr. This may change as I experiment with my masthead or it may not.

This is a valid suggestion that I will likely follow

I don't think that a plain background translates to a bland background and the entire cover will look less bland when it is full

I am not sure about sub images - if I use them I will only use a select few as that fits my target audience best

I haven't had a chance to implement the red colour scheme in the way I want to just yet. I'm still experimenting 

 I will need to add features such as an issue number and a barcode to my final products

I agree with this and will focus on my use of color in drafts to follow.

Front Page First Draft - Feedback

My cousin is a member of my target audience as he is a twenty year old man with a well-paying job who enjoys indie music. I asked him to look at the draft I've done and give me one-on-one feedback to help me improve:

Alternate video:

I don’t really like it. It’s very plain. The background is boring. It’s really hard to read the text that says ‘Ignition’ on top of the checked shirts. Also, I wouldn’t say that the image looks like a front cover image. It would look better with text down the sides. The font for the title is good – simple and bold. I also like the fact that Becky is in front of the word Jukebox because it looks professional and it brings her forward.

2nd Nov

Aims:

- Create a first front cover draft

- Receive feedback

Aims:

I'm not very happy with the way that this product looks. I'm considering revising the flatplan I created earlier and doing something different and more exciting. I will be experimenting with it these following days. 

Front Page First Draft

I need to practice with photoshop and consider how I will edit the photos of my models. I took a simple approach inspired by this magazine.

This was quite difficult and I had a lot of things to consider. This lesson was mostly experimentation - I need to make final decisions soon. I had looked into replacing the image with the umbrella with this image as my girls are a lot closer together and it fits easily on the front page but I'm not sure that I like using this image due to a multitude of reasons.

- The checked shirts make the text harder to read

- This image is not exceptionally exciting 

- There is not much room for text down the side

What I did like about this draft was :

- The list of names along the top looks very nice and professional 

The font for JUKBOX is aesthetically pleasing

- Using a 'fade' effect on the image can look quite nice though it does erase some detail

Poses - Revised

As you can see, this pose does not fit an A4 sheet. Other images taken at different angles and lengths do and can be manipulated to however this was the best photo taken and I believe it would be easier for me to use another image rather than to spend additional time working on manipulating this image. I am considering using this image on my double page spread. I will be changing which poses will be on which pages.

I originally experimented putting this on the front page but due to the flannel shirts worn in the photo, any text put on top of the patterns became hard to read. This photo will be used on the contents page where no text needs to be overlaid.

This image will go on the double page spread in a style similar to that below. It's possibly the strongest and most visually exciting of the group shots that I took. This allows the image to bleed across the page slightly and creates visual interest.

I will experiment with these images to see which looks best and make my decision from there. These are both powerful, dramatic images that will stand out and look good. I prefer the photo of Leah slightly as it is an action shot and therefore is very exciting.

1st Nov

Aims:
- Look back at poses

Reflect:
 I've made a post looking at poses once more and I've decided, after some research, to change which photos with which poses will go onto which page. I believe this will look even better than my initial ideas.

Oct Calendar

This is my Calendar for the month of October. I worked very hard this month and I spent all of my time productively. I don't think I will be able to keep this speed of work up but I am pleased with all the progress I made.

Contents Page Flat-plan

This flatplan is very exciting is full of interest.
 I think that it covers many conventions and will appeal to an audience because of the visual interest. The amount of subimages may be too many for a mature audience and could alienate older people - however, I will see how this looks when I fill this flatplan with the images
. It's very different from the minimalistic front cover but this will create contrast between the two pages and separate the two function of the pages.
 I will be going for a red colour scheme here and I will expiriment with less standard fonts on the page title - though the features section will only have standard fonts as I need it to be readable or it doesn't do it's job.
The photos that I use will be filtered and edited slightly. The photos will be the focus of the page instead of text to reflect my teen/young adult target audience as they are quite young and will prefer visuals over blocks of text.

29th Oct

Aims:

- Create cover flatplan
- Create contents flatplan

Reflect:
I have created two flatplans. Both are similar to magazines that already exist so that they will look professional. I believe that I've covered many conventions and that these will look professional.

Front Cover Flat-plan

This is a very simplistic flatplan and I've based it from this image:

The Fly is a British Indie mag like my own and they were relatively popular. I feel as if the simplicity and minimalism is aesthetically pleasing and I could base my magazine around it.

This flatplan appeals to me because of the minimalism. I think it would stand out from its competitors because of its simple approach. It would look different clean amongst it's competitors crowded pages that are over-stuffed with content. I'm going to have the background white like done with The Fly (to further my attempt at minimalism.) The fonts I use will emphasise the minimalistic approach and they will be simple.

28th Oct

Aims:

- Look at photoshoot images
- Choose best images

Reflect:

I feel as if I've chosen the best of the images though it was a tough choice because there were a lot of good images to choose from. I will use the images I have selected in my final product.

Photoshoot

Overall, my photoshoot was a huge success and we made the most of the two hours that we were in there, taking a range of photos. We took the photos that we needed in just over an hour and then had just under an hour left in the studio. Because of this, we had a chance to take some additional photos. As I said in my minisite on model choice, I have some very creative girls who had a lot of ideas of their own. When our ideas merged, we came up with some additional poses together. All of the girls understood the importance of their facial expressions and body language - which was much appreciated. 

To look at the photos we took, I have put them into gifs using imgflip. This is a good way to show off all the photos that I took.

Pose 1:

Pose 2:

Pose 3:

Pose 4:

Pose 5:

Misc poses:

Best photos:

This photo was the final one of the set. After we took the first photos, we reviewed them and we looked at how to improve - then we took this one based on the improvements. What set this photo out from the others was that Leah's stance was a lot more relaxed and natural. Her facial expression was meant to mimic the invitational expression and I felt that she did it best in this particular photo. Eve struggled with having her hand against her face as it didn't look or feel natural. The more that Eve worked with it, the more comfortable she felt. In some of the other images, she'd struggled with her smile as well - either smiling too wide or looking too uninterested. With this one, she had the invitational face was perfect. Becky managed to do almost all of her photos well as she managed to have a stance that looked relaxed and natural, however, in reality was totally focused. In the earlier photos we took, the girls were more spaced out - which I wasn't too fond of. However, in this image - the girls were close together. I wanted them like this to show a bond between them and show them as a group of friends. 

Eve nailed the super smiler expression just as she had done in the earlier post on facial expressions. We took photos from different angles and we experimented with the intensity of the smile. However, this photo was, firstly, the most attractive in my opinion and, secondly, her facial expression was very vibrant and exciting. Another reason I chose this image was because the headphones were very visible.

Becky did very well with her pose. Her body is on a slight angle, tilting to the left. This is an interesting pose. Her head is also lifted ever so slightly more than it was in some of the other photos that I took.  In some, her face was barely visible at all - which wasn't optimal. The headphones had to remain visible at all points - though the parts her hands resting on are not visible at all due to the nature of the pose.

This is one of the most exciting photos that I took because it's an action shot. This was taken when Leah was throwing her hair around and back. Because we used a very professional Canon camera, I managed to take these shots. If they'd been taken on a weaker camera, this photo would've been blurry. One of the reasons that this photo was so difficult to take was that the hair kept going out of shot and facial expression was hard to control. Leah did better than most would have done I think and managed to keep her face from becoming too scrunched up but a little scrunching was impossible to avoid. Also, if the hair got in front of the headphones, the shot was ruined because the headphones needed to stay visible. In this shot, they remain fully visible.

This photo was one of the most difficult to take. We ended up changing this the most from the original shot from which everyone was sitting on the floor. This photo was taken with the addition of a couch. The reason we chose to make such a change was that Leah firstly felt uncomfortable in the position. Plus, the pose that Jesy from Little Mix was doing, the one we were taking inspiration from, was quite difficult for most people to get into as her back was quite curved. It's quite likely it was made this way through photoshop but also from the fact that Jesy is a dancer and therefore is more flexible than the average person. Another problem that was evident was that the girls were too far apart. This could have been an oversight on my part as Becky is the tallest of the girls and she was the one standing. She towered over the girls and it was difficult to get them all in the shot. Bringing in the couch and having them all on the same level made the shot easier to take. One more problem was making sure that the candy fell in the right place. Our crew was limited. I was taking the photos and my models were modelling. Thankfully, my mother stepped in to throw the candy onto the umbrella. She could only throw it from the side of the set though and therefore we only had candy on one side. This can be fixed later using photoshop and editing. 

 

               These photos are very ranged. I may use them as subimages. I need to look into making flatplans and decide whether or not I will use subimages. If I decide to use them, I will analyse these poses more then. Each pose was talked through and has been done for specific reasons. 

Whilst we had the studio, we took this photo of me to use if I decide to have an editors note. Editors note tend to very chatty and informal so I went for a pose that was quite informal and fun. This pose has open body language and isn't very serious,  so I feel that it would fit perfectly.