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.