Social Networking Sites Comments

I decided to post my first draft of an indie rock music magazine front cover on the social networking site Instagram. I asked for constructive criticism which could lead to me improving my magazine as getting other peoples' perspectives is always better. 

First Front Cover Draft

This is my first front cover draft which I created after the research process of music magazines. I went with the many typical magazine front cover conventions as I wanted my first draft to look as professional as possible but still be able to improve and become more adventurous with the layout/font when continuing with a second draft. I chose to go with a simple layout which proved quite effective as my first draft. 

The layout of my magazine front cover was chose after various research of other music magazine front covers. I wanted the text to fit around the cover photo so that it wouldn't cover too much of it and therefore I kept to a specific font. Each different piece of text was typed in the same font which was Bookman Old Style as I felt it looked more appropriate and less amateur. The masthead is larger overall with a font of 130 as it needs to stand out and grab attention.

The colour scheme I chose was blue, white and black which I thought was basic but still very effective as it doesn't make the front cover look messy. A fault with the black text is that it is slightly difficult to read when placed over my model's black top and will therefore need to be changed.

Overall, I feel this firsts draft has enabled me to understand how to construct a magazine front cover correctly and will help me go on to develop a second draft. 

Focus group video: Indie rock

My focus group video is based around indie rock music and was posted on my YouTube page. Emily speaks about her favourite indie rock bands and festivals/gigs/concerts that she has been to/plans to go to including Leeds fest. 

These photos are what I took for my first photo shoot with my model, Kate for my indie rock music magazine. Some shots are badly angled and the lighting is reflected badly but I made sure the photo I chose was a flattering angle with good lighting so that my magazine looked as professional as possible. We used varied outfits for some shots but finally settled with a red velvet skirt and a black grunge inspired shirt. I felt that outfit and the makeup (which was black eyeliner and a natural skin tone) used made the photo more effective for the indie rock genre. 

Indie music prezi

I created this indie music prezi to enable me to get ideas across and help inspire my own music magazine.

It contains information such as conventions of a magazine front cover, indie/indie rock bands, album artwork and the reason I chose to do indie rock. This way I felt more confident in how I was making my front cover and why I chose the specific genre.

Different font ideas

These are my different font ideas which I used from Dafont.com and Microsoft word. I felt that creating a board of varied fonts would help me decide what would look and work better for my front cover.

Digital mock up of front cover, cp and dps

This are four screenshots of all my digital mock ups that I originally made on publisher but then put them onto powerpoint in order to label them.

Page one gives information of what the powerpoint is about.

Page two shows a labelled front cover mock up.

Page three shows a labelled contents page.

Page four shows a labelled double page spread.

Indie rock clothing ideas

These indie rock clothing ideas were taking from clothing websites such as Topshop.
Dark colours tend to link to rock and therefore that's the main theme of colour for my clothing ideas.

Test shots

Close up (bad framing):

This photo is an example of bad framing; it's clear that the camera is tilted and that half of her forehead has been chopped off due to the bad angle.

A posed shot: Posed shots typically show an image of people/a person posing but I personally believe they look too exaggerated. 

Medium close up:

This photo is an example of a medium close up. The upper body is visible and she is centred in the middle of the shot. 

Two shot:

Two models are placed next to each other in this shot and are shown posing individually. 

Group shot: A group shot contains three or more people. 

Google mock up 2

My second google mock up was made on Photoshop and shows the basic layout of how I will do my own magazine front cover. The light blue goes well with the background and I therefore think I will use it for my own front cover. The darker blue is more difficult to read and would look okay on a white background. 

Google mock up 1

I made my first Google mock up on publisher which was quite simple to do but the editing wasn't very advanced. The colour scheme I chose seemed to stand out to me and I thought it was an effective choice as the red is very visible against the black and white. 

The image was taken from Google images and seemed suitable for a magazine front cover as it had plenty of space around it in order to add the masthead, features, plugs, etc...

A minor fault with this mock up is the text inside the plug seems to be placed too far to the right and therefore collides with the black outline. 

Colour Scheme

First hand-drawn drafts of front page, contents page and double page spread

Demographics and Social Class

Indie music PowerPoint

Indie music mood board

My mood board includes items such as Indie Rock music merchandise, current Indie magazines, band logos and different fonts.
The fonts include Cooper Black, Bodoni MT and Mangal because I feel they seemed appropriate for the genre.
The merchandise shown can be easily accessed and I felt it was interesting to my target audience.
The whole mood board in general is relevant to Indie Rock music and would appeal to my target audience as I specifically chose items that are up to date and attract large amounts of attention in the Indie Rock scene.

LIIAR analysis of an NME front page, contents page and double page spread

Language: This NME front cover is set out in a rather odd and individual way. The cover model is a well-known American singer/songwriter, Lana Del Rey who alone is able to attract attention from thousands of people because of her fame. The colours and layout of this page seem to match up to Lana's flamboyant posing and infer an exciting/fun magazine. The background is an American flag which obviously represents Lana Del Rey's Nationality and could possibly show a theme throughout this issue of NME. The font is bold and very visible which may reflect Lana's personality and the general theme. The front cover is very vibrant and colourful which seems to portray the magazine as something that's passionate yet shouldn't be seen as too serious.

Ideology: The front cover needs to come across as professional but not boring. Here it's also shown as slightly scattered which reflects the music genre the magazine mainly promotes. They are promoting to all social classes and age groups (mainly teenagers/young adults) which is obvious from the use of font, colours and imagery.

Institution:  NME, the acronym for New Musical Express was created by Theodore Smythson and is a UK pop/rock music journalism publication which is published weekly and been publishing since March 1952. NME's aim is to promote music/merchandise/tours in magazine format and has always been the main aim. 
Information found from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NME

Audience:  NME don't have one specific audience as they promote so many various genres of music although teenagers/young adults are probably the most likely to buy the magazine. The bands/artists, tours and merchandise published in the magazines are often advertised for the general public but people interested in pop/rock are most likely to buy it.

Representation: This front cover seems to have a fun/young outlook which would definitely attract it's target audience. The use of text and layout make it seem exciting and would easily have attention drawn towards it but it also needs to be seen as professional so it still follows many of the necessary conventions.

Language: The colour scheme of the NME contents page stays partially similar to the typical front cover's of NME with the black and white (minus the usual red) although the front cover that I previously chose changed the colour scheme around and changed the red to a blue which could possibly link to that specific issue or cover model.
The text and images are spread around the page which could link with the individual music genre they promote and isn't portrayed as a typical contents page layout. The main stories inside the magazine are written in a larger font with a photo which could possibly be linking to the front cover features as well. This tells us they're the main/ most important features of the magazine. The use of various images may interest people and influence them to read the magazine. The language shown gives the idea that although the magazine company is professional they are still able to be creative and promote the bands/artists that their target audience enjoy in an individual way.
The font varies on this page but the title 'Inside this week', which is a convention of a contents page, stays black and bold every week which gives off a sense of comfort as people will continue to recognise the page throughout each issue. The black text against the white background makes the text easier to read and placing each individual feature in it's own box makes the contents page easier to follow as a whole.

Representation: The representation of this contents page is clear by the use of text and placement of each feature. It obviously wasn't produced to be completely serious and it reflects the creativity of music. The colour scheme makes the magazine appealing to all genders as black and white is used as opposed to blue or pink.

Language: This specific double page spread seems to be advertising dancing/singing and therefore a man is shown several times in different dance positions. The colours and layout make the page seem fun which could be reflecting what the article is about and how the man could have a bubbly personality. The bold font 'Let's dance' gives us the main clue about what to expect in the article and as it's the largest font on the page it attracts attention. 

Representation: The representation of this double page spreads seems to obviously show a fun/bubbly outlook. The use of repetition with the model placed around the page in different dance positions which aren't serious shows that the page is exciting and not to be taken too         seriously. 

Ideology, institution and audience are missing from the contents and double page spread because I believe as they're all from the same magazine, 'NME', that they're all too similar to write separate accounts for. 

NME double page spread conventions

NME contents conventions

NME front cover conventions

Examples of indie music videos

Alt-J: Breezeblocks

Arctic Monkeys: Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?

The Black Keys: Little Black Submarines

Of Monsters and Men: Little Talks

Two Door Cinema Club: Sun 

Indie Music Album Artwork

The brief 2

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.

Evaluation of my final product

As part of my planning process for my own college magazine front cover I analysed many other existing products including Vogue and specific college magazines therefore I could easily take in their similar conventions and apply them to my own front cover to make it look as professional as possible. I created mock ups of a magazine front cover, a contents page and a double page spread so that I got a basic idea of how things should look and where the conventions should be placed. I made an initial ideas spider diagram and a mood board to help review different options and I also took pictures of different shot types to find the best option. I also followed the brief closely as to make sure I didn’t complete any tasks incorrectly. As a result of research I came to the conclusion that my magazine should be aimed at college students and their parents.

I used the typical layout of any other magazine and it’s very similar as I used real magazines as a main base for my research so that it would fit with the correct conventions and not look out of place.

I used a photo of a college student in front of a college building to fit the whole criteria and added a feature about her which said ‘Top student goes to Oxford’ which not only explains the reason she is on the front cover but also makes the college look good. ‘Fresher’s party images inside!’ and ‘New York trip’s success’ are also featured on the front as they would be two of the main stories inside the magazine. The masthead covers a small amount of the top of the front cover and is in a large, bold font so it is visible. The colours used are purple which fits the whole colour scheme and makes it recognisable. The date and issue number are placed underneath the masthead and to the left in a much smaller font because they don’t need as much attention. I also added a barcode and price to the bottom right as it’s a main convention to any magazine and can be crucial.

My front cover needed to appeal to all social groups in a college so I tried to add points which each student/parent would be interested in. The colour scheme was selected carefully as it needed to appeal to both genders whereas if I chose pink it’s likely people would have associated it with girls and if it was blue people would associate it with boys. The font is also bold and plain therefore appealing to all social groups/genders.

As I have mentioned briefly I decided the audience for my magazine is college students and their parents as I believe it would be more appealing to those as opposed to anyone else. The features and the fact it’s a college magazine would appeal more to those people rather than anyone else as I designed the whole project on what their preference towards certain aspects would be and what they would be more interested in.

To attract and address my audience I added points that they would find appealing. As many students are involved in the Fresher’s party I added ‘Fresher’s party images inside!’ to attract their attention and make them feel the magazine is appealing towards them. ‘Top student goes to Oxford’ makes people feel ambitious and want to succeed throughout college as many students also have an ambition of going to a successful university therefore using this feature would appeal to those people.

The shot I chose for my front cover was a medium close up as it not only shows the expression clearly on the model’s face but also shows a large amount of her surroundings and her body language. Medium close ups are often used on magazine front covers as they show a clear image of the model and usually if a long shot is used it would be in a fashion magazine so the clothing is visible. I learnt that putting the model in an appropriate place for the photo can add a good effect and link the conventions together therefore my model was put in front of the college building as it’s for a college magazine. The model is smiling which creates the feeling that the college has a good/happy atmosphere and therefore makes it more appealing to other people. I barely edited the actual photo; I only made the model’s face look clearer and changed the folder colour to purple so that it fit the colour scheme. To make the features and masthead stand out and readable I added a white glow around the colours and as a result they didn’t blend into the background too much. Using Photoshop has made editing photos a lot easier and makes them look more professional. The original photo that I planned to use wasn’t appropriate for this specific task as the college sign was visible at the top and therefore made it too difficult to add a masthead and so I decided that taking another photo and using that would be much easier and would fit the task’s criteria a lot more.

As a whole I believe that doing the perfume task made this task much easier as I managed to get practice in Photoshop beforehand and I feel I know how to make a product look more professional. The perfume task helped me understand what is expected of the tasks throughout media studies, what conventions apply to specific aspects of tasks and how to apply them correctly.

If I could make my front cover differently I would maybe add a photo that looked more professional and possibly edit it to make it look a better quality but overall I am happy with my final result. The research put into the product definitely helped a lot as without viewing other examples of conventions I wouldn't have been able to make my own front cover in a realistic way.

Final front cover

Contents page mock-up