Class Vote- Masthead & Font

After presenting my prezi to my class, I had a public vote about the masthead name and the font I will use in my real magazine. 6 people voted for 'LoudSound' and 8 people voted for 'Thunder' which means I will go with 'Thunder'. I was inspired by this word as it reminds me of the words loud and dark. In addition, a lot of people advised me to use the second font I presented which means I will use the second font. Some people said the second font was the best because the font looked as if it was melting and looked gothic which related to my genre which is metal/rock. 

Music Magazine Proposal Prezi

Using BlinkPlan + Prezi

In today's lesson, I started creating and thinking about the pages I am planning to have in my actual magazine. This specific topic helped a lot because I had to think about content that I thought would be interesting to have in my magazine, and this meant I had more and more ideas for my cover lines. It also helped me to think about my contents page too as It means I have an idea of where to place some interesting facts in the magazine and the pages. Whilst doing this task, I also thought about new masthead names for my magazine and the different fonts I might use. I will be creating a prezi to present all of my ideas, and share it with my class on Friday so make sure to keep up with the posts. I made a Prezi account and I will be designing a visually interesting prezi to share my ideas with my class and get their opinions.

Illustrator Workshop

In today's lesson, we had Tom who came over to our class to teach us how to use the Illustrator to create our masthead. We learnt things like duplicating, adding circles, moving specific parts of the letter and more. We were also introduced to a website called color.adobe.com where we could pick out specific colours that complemented eachother and saw different shades of a colour too. We then copied the specific code of the colour and pasted it on the actual colour part on Illustrator which changed the colour of the writing. I enjoyed using this software because it allows you to move specific parts of the text which you cannot do on other softwares like InDesign or PhotoShop. However, this is not my final design because I am still not sure about the colour scheme. Overall, I liked how I duplicated the layer and added a darker blue in the background which made the Masthead look 3d. In addition, I added white circles in the middle of the letters 'O's and 'D'. I added the white circles to make those specific letters thinner which I think made a big difference. I will probably use Illustrator when I create my actual Masthead because it has many advantages.

Magazine News-stand Task

Today I went to Asda to take this photo to see how magazines are placed on the shelves. The rock/metal magazines were on a different side of the whole magazine section and they were places with other magazines like TopGear which is a car magazine and Empire which is a film magazine. There were other magazines around it however those two magazines were the closest. From looking at the rock magazines, one of the things I have noticed is the skyline.As we can see, on the shelves the customers can only see the top half of the magazine which means the top half has to be eye-catching so the customers could pick it up. An interesting element that 'MOJO" and 'Classic Rock' magazines have is the "FREE CD!" puff that they have added on the top left side of the magazine. As readers, we learn from left to right and the first thing we see when we star reading is the free gift which automatically makes us want to pick up the magazine to see what the free CD is. Also, on most of the magazines, the top sky line has the most known band and singer names because people would be more likely to pick up the magazine if they see a band they have heard of or that they are a fan of.

Another feature of the magazine that is at the top is the masthead on all the magazines. There aren't any magazines that we can see from the image above that does not have a masthead on display, this is because magazines have a reputation and the first thing customers should look for is the name of the magazine so they could pick it up. In addition, usually on music magazines, the main cover image is in front of the masthead which may be done to show the cover model. For example, Kerrang magazine has Ben Bruce as their mover model who is the main singer in the band Asking Alexandria. As Asking Alexandria is a famous band, when customers see part of Ben Bruce's head they are more likely to pick the magazine up. This means having famous/known people on a magazines front cover would increase the sales as more people are likely to pick it up.

Initial Ideas for my own Magazine

Genre- The genre for my own music magazine will be Rock and Metal. I decided to include metal and rock together as some people might enjoy listening to heavy metal whereas some may listen to soft rock. By having both together, It allows variety and different audience members to buy my magazine as they all have something they may enjoy or be interested in reading.

Masthead:  My masthead will be rock related, for example 'MBS' standing for "Music, bands, singers" is a great same. Also names like 'Thunder' or 'LoudSound' could also be great as well as "Eerie"

Colour scheme- My colour scheme will include colours that most rock/metal magazines usually use. The most important colour is black as black is a Gothic and dark colour and along with yellow the colours would match as many rock/metal magazines have the colour yellow. Another typical colour for a rock magazine is red however I am not sure whether I would use the colour red or not because I do not want my magazine to be very typical. I want to add a different twist to my magazine and make it different yet visually pleasing.

New' Kerrang! Media Kit/Pack

 Each Kerrang! issue includes a balance of new artists and bands and the big things that happen in the rock world. They ensure that everything is appealing and also concentrate on younger audiences needs as well as older audience members highlighting the fact that they try to please everyone. This means more people would buy the magazine as it is entertaining for everyone.

The readers of the magazine are 8 times more likely to spend over £200 a year on albums and 5.5 times more likely to attend a rock gig,meaning that the target audience are essential to the sales industry also.

Kerrang! is considered part of the scene which means that the audience not only buy the magazine because it features popular rock artists but also buy it because it's considered essential with the rock genre fans. This means advertising on Kerrang! would be an advantage as people look through the pages interestingly reading everything as even the ads they use are eye-catching.

The median age of a Kerrang! viewer is 22, which fits perfectly into the style and genre of the magazine as having a younger target audience means that the magazine will become even more popular within the genre, with things such as social networking sites having a large impact on the influences of the younger generation. It also helps that this means that the magazine can not only feature solely music but can also have information on films and games; something popular with the age group.

Kerrang! readers like to show their interests to the world through their clothing which means again clothing ads in the magazine would get lost of attention. The readers are in love with music which means having new bands/artists featured in the magazine would make them have more things to talk about with their friends. 

Kerrang Magazine Distribution

The publisher of the Kerrang magazine is Bauer Media Group. Bauer Media Group is a large European-based media company and it was founded in 1875.
There are many publishers in the UK however the main publishers are IPC MEDIA who is owns the magazine NME. Bauer Media Group does not only own Kerrang but also owns 'Q', 'MOJO' and many other magazines. There is also Wenner Media which owns the magazine Rolling Stones. There are many other publishers however these are only a few that own many famous magazines.

Distribution Network:
Publishers use a network of distributors, who manage the flow of magazines from the printers to news-stands. Magazines are transported in lorries to regional distributors, who then move them into shops, majority of magazines are sold in supermarkets or newsagents.

Online:
Kerrang magazine offers subscriptions in many different ways. They have a print subscription where you have to pay £78 for a whole year. This would mean the customers would save £34 each year. This is a great deal because when customers see the amount of money they are saving, they would want to subscribe to the magazine. There are many advantages of customers subscribing to the magazine as they save a lot of money,but in addition get their magazine sent to their doorstep. Also, the customers receive the magazine earlier then how they would usually buy it which is also a plus because they can feel special Many people might subscribe for this reason as they might find it time consuming to go out and buy the magazine every Wednesday. However, the payment can only be done by debit/credit card which may turn away some customers.

Kerrang magazine also has an e-zine version which means customers can read short stories from their website. E-zines are magazines published in electronic form on a computer network.The content in the magazine and the content on the website is not exactly the same and the reason for this is because if all the content that was in the magazine was on the website, many people would not buy the magazine as internet is free. By having short but interesting content on their website, people that like the content on the website might decide to buy the actual magazine which will increase sales.

Magazines also have apps that people can download from their smartphones. Having apps would mean many people can easily access the key news and specific content through one click rather than having to always check their online website. Kerrang! magazine owns a radio app where people can easily listen to the new hits. This would also increase sales as they self advertise on their radio app and tell the audience about the content they may have in their newest issue which means people that listen to the radio are more likely to buy the magazine.

Electronic Grand Extension is when magazines use social media apps to expand their brand. Many magazines use social media sites like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. As we live in a society where social media is everywhere, using such apps would mean people can easily get notified when a special event occurs or where magazines can advertise and tell specific news which builds curiosity in people which may make people want to buy their magazine. On the other hand, following a magazine on a social media site may also be an advantage to loyal followers of the magazine as they may have content on the social media sites that they do not have on their magazine or their website. This would make more people follow them on social media which can also increase the audience. 

Ideas From My Case Studies

My case studies that I have done enabled me to learn key elements more in depth and helped me to get inspired to apply some of the elements to my own music magazine when I start creating it. Some of the things that I might want to apply/ get inspired from are;

Front Cover:
The camera shot: On Rock Sound magazine, I loved how the mid-shot image was taken in a way that the models looked straight into the audience's eyes. Also they were placed in a way where the main singer was at the front meaning people would be more likely to recognise him. I am very inspired by this as I would love to have a whole band on my front cover rather than just one singer. This would allow me to be more creative and experimental.

The colour scheme: On both of the magazines, the colour black was used. This is seen in many magazines as black & white do not count as the main colours however as the genre is rock, the use of the black colour adds a Gothic vibe to the magazine. Also, using black makes other colours stand out and make them the focal point which means I am looking forward to using bright colours with black.

Contents Page:

Layout: I loved how on both magazines, I chose pages where one side of the contents page was full of pictures and the other side with writings. I believe that this makes the DPS a lot more exciting because the audience has a page full of useful things they could read but also may have exclusive and down to earth images of their favourite artists which may increase the quantity. 

Images & Mood: On both of the magazines, I have noticed that the images on the DPS are not planned out. They are taken in the moment which makes the artists seem hard working and passionate about what they are doing. For example; Andy Biersack  was singing and the photo of him was a mid-shot on one side of the page, I would be interested in taking natural but presentable pictures as it almost reflects the artists true expressions rather than them posing how they are told.                                                                          B.

Preliminary Task- Contents Page Evaluation

To create a contents page, we used InDesign as we used InDesign before to create a double page spread. I wanted to use Photoshop to create my contents page however I was told not to because it brings the quality of the texts down. The reason I wanted to use Photoshop was because in InDesign I cannot crop or edit images which means I always have to go back to Photoshop and save the image as a JPEG later on to insert it onto InDesign which I find is time consuming. 

There are many strengths and weaknesses of my contents page. As I did not have enough time to create my contents page, there are many things I could have improved on which I will point out to later on in this evaluation.

"This is really impressive, the colour scheme works really well and it is generally aesthetically pleasing"- Serena B

Firstly, one of the things I liked about my contents page was the fact that I continued the colour scheme on my front cover to my contents page. I think this made my front cover and contents page complete each other because after flicking through the first page, it is not visually disturbing to see same colours being used. The extra colour I added was the colour red which I used on my add as red is an eye-catching colour and it would have caught the audience's attention. 

"However there are too many different colours which make the magazine look messy especially on the puff."- Mark Rivas

However, I also used the colour red on my puff/flash to equal out the colours. One struggle with using the puff was that I was not able to remove the black background because I ran out of time. I could have used the magic wand on photoshop to remove the black background but as I didn't have enough time I places the puff as it is. Also, I created the puff using powerpoint and exported the image of the puff as a JPEG then placed it on indesign. In a real magazine, seeing the puff with the background would have disturbed me as it makes the contents page look crowded and unprofessional. I would have definitely changed it if I had enough time. 

 "I like the ad at the bottom of the page because it is college related and does not look out of place. "- Joshua Michael

I decided to include an ad on my contents page because when I analyses the 2 case studies I worked on few weeks ago, I noticed both of the magazines I looked at had an advert at the bottom. I thought this would make my contents page look realistic and the ad I used was college related as Joshua pointed out. I decided to use the CVPlus ad because many students in college look for jobs and writing a CV is time very time consuming for very people. By having the CVPlus ad on my contents page, more customers would be more likely to check out the ad which means the more money the magazine would make.

This contents page is very professional looking with a consistent font and the layout is neat which fits the style of a college magazine, the images are also nice and the page is easy to read."- Mark Rivas

Another thing that I liked about my contents page was I not only continued the colour scheme but also the fonts used. I thought using the same fonts would have made my magazine look more complete and make both pages suit together. The fonts I used were "Myriod pro" and "Myriod pro bold". I used Myriod Pro font specifically because I really liked how it is bold, but yet also does not look harsh and big. However, for my puff, I used a different font which was Times New Roman which did not look nice. I did not notice this till I was done with the contents page and posted it and the reason for this was because the puff/flash was a last minute addition which meant I had no time to improve.

"One major improvement you could make is aligning the images and making them have the same width."- Kefentse Selah

"Swap the position of either 19 or 21 with 3/5/9/11 so that your text is more balanced because at the moment you have big chunks of text on the right and lots of smaller ones on the left Just my opinion!" - Serena B

One thing I really could have improved on was my layout on my contents page. One mistake that I made that I did not have enough time to fix was not putting equal number of texts on both sides of my contents page. I could have equalled them out however as I ran out of time I had to upload it the way it was. The reason for this unpleasant mistake was because on InDesign, when you place your text you end up with a blue border around the text box which means you cannot necessarily see where you place the text box. I had to save the contents page as a JPEG many times to see if I placed it right however from the comments I received, I clearly didn't. This experience of creating a real college magazine has taught me many things and also taught me the things I must avoid whilst creating my real magazine.

"This is really good, your photography is greaaat :)"- Serena B

" The images are also nice"- Mark Rivas

"I don't like the 3rd image in the middle because it kinda doesnt match"- Elenaor

Furthermore, another thing I liked was that the images that I used. I used photos of my front cover model which meant if people were interested in her, there was even  more to find out about her in the contents page. This also makes both of the pages link and the images does not look out of place. However, an improvement could of been taking more photos. This is because I had to use 2 images of my front cover model as I did not have enough time to take pictures of new people. If I had different variety of images e.g. the enrichment activities, my contents page could have looked more visually busy in a good way. I also could have used an image of an IPAD to make the give-away seem more realistic however I only thought of that after I uploaded my contents page.

Overall, there are many things I could have improved on. As a conclusion, I can say that the biggest struggle for me was the time because I spent a lot of time on my front cover and as a result I did not have enough time for my contents page. This means when I get to create my own magazine, I have to plan out my time and make sure I have enough time to make last minute improvements. Another thing I could have improved on was the images as I could have taken more images in different angles to have a variety. In addition, I could have improved on minor things like the background on the puff/flash and the equal layout which has major affect on the whole of contents page.

Contents Page- Final Product

Preliminary Task- Front Cover Evaluation

We were given a preliminary task to create a college magazine which consisted of a cover page and a contents page. We learnt how to use Photoshop and InDesign and we used our knowledge to create the front cover and contents page on those specific software's. I used Photoshop to create my front cover, and used InDesign for my contents page which I will evaluate separately.

"The magazine looks very personable due the model smiling and holding a folder. This allows the college students to identify with the magazine and more likely to pick it up." - Samira Ismail

"Well done Fatma!! The picture is very well thought about in terms of the mid shot and how the model is posing portraying the good college life." - Anieska

"the photography on this is bomb! she looks naturally happy" - Eleanor

BEFORE                        AFTER
There are things I like about my front cover and there are things I could have improved on. One thing I like about my front cover is the cover star's photo. I made sure she was smiling with her teeth and also holding folders on her hand because it shows that she is happy to be attending the college and that she is a hard-working and intelligent student. It also makes the college seem like a welcoming and lively place because when I was taking the photo, I captured the image when she was laughing. It looks natural and not forced which also adds to the happy, welcoming theme. I took the photo outside because natural lighting is the best lighting especially for a college magazine as an effortless magazine would catch many students attention making them feel no different than the cover star. However, the image I was planning to use for my cover image was not the one I used on my final magazine. The reason I changed it was because when I originally took my front cover photo, I took a long-shot image because I wanted to show the environment of the college. When I used the image, I was instructed to make it a mid-shot because that was the ideal college magazine my teachers wanted. However, after zooming in on the same image, the photo became pixalleted and blurry which decreased the quality of the image. This meant that I had to use a different image because having a pixalleted front cover would not attract the audience and it would have made my magazine look unprofessional. My new image I used is not as pixalleted as the original photo I was planning to use which is a good thing however one thing I could have done better is take an actual medium shot image so I wouldn't have had to zoom in and reduce the quality of the image. 

" The front cover looks very clean as a front cover as the brightness makes the cover star stand out with the bright background and the dark clothing worn by the cover star makes the cover star stand out from the background. "- Joshua Michael

To edit my image, I used Photoshop to brighten the image and also increase the contrast. I brightened the image because the place I took the photo was outside however there was no sunlight as the weather was cloudy. The bright image has made my photo look as if it was taken in a sunny area. Also, the fact that the background is very bright was an advantage because the model was wearing dark clothes as Joshua has pointed out, and this made her the focal point as the dark clothing was contrasting with the light background. 

 The masthead being wrapped around the main image makes the cover star stand out." - Joshua Michael

Another thing I liked about my front cover is the masthead. I erased part of the masthead (on Photoshop) so It could look like it is behind the model. This method is used in many magazines and it made my front cover look professional. I also like the font I used for the masthead because it is bold, yet the 'Style' part is italic and is in a different font which makes the magazine look more fashionable as it is a lifestyle magazine. 

"You could have added another colour to create a 3 colour scheme." - Ismail Parlakbudak
The colour scheme on my magazine matched the traditional 3 colour scheme where I used three colours. The colours I used were 2 different shades of blue and an orangey colour on the puff. I counted the orangey colour on the puff as part of the 3 colour scheme however someone commented saying I should have used a 3rd colour. This means maybe I should have included text in an orangey colour because the colour on the puff may have not counted as a 3rd colour. However, I do believe that my colour scheme was effective because I did not choose very bright and unappealing colours as it would have been pointless because my model was wearing dark clothes. The touch of the light blue was the bright colour which added a touch of colour but still kept the magazine looking mature and not colourful. 

"You're Mag layout and the way you have made it is good and appealing to consumers and its also attractive with the coverlines and the gift giveway. " - Ismail Parlakbudak

 " The cover lines are brief and precise to the information in the magazine. The skyline having to be linked with Leyton adds regulations to creativity but, you handled it to a point in which it is student friendly." - Joshua Michael

Also, I thought of my cover lines very effectively because the activity we done about the pages in our college magazine allowed me to pick out the most eye-catching cover lines which would attract more audience. I used the most useful and interesting three cover lines which I thought would attract more students because if people are affected by the cover lines, they would want to buy and view my magazine. My main cover star's story was my first cover line because her story was the main news in my magazine. My second cover line was about easy tips and tricks for staying healthy. I chose to use this because I know from many of my friends, that staying healthy is a real struggle so having easy tips would increase the audience's curiosity and make them want to buy my magazine. My third cover line was about clothes and the 10 outfit ideas. I think the number 10 added more quantity to the magazine as having 10 ideas would inspire the audience to build up on them and create even more outfits. This however would attract more female buyers rather then male buyers as the audience would automatically think the clothing ideas were for females only because the cover star is a female. I should have made it clear that the outfit ideas would be for both boys and girls however as the magazine had a feminine vibe I did not change anything. 

"The coverlines used are very good, and the colour scheme contrasts nicely with the image.The use of a puff is good as it brings another splash of colour to the page (other than navy blue and light blue). I like that you have included a price and date above the barcode, making it look conventional." - Melissa Hunt

I added a puff/flash to my magazine cover because majority of the real magazines have them which meant it would make my magazine look more professional. I wanted to achieve a professional looking college magazine which meant I had to use many typical magazine features. The colour I used on my puff/flash was an orangey colour which linked with the model's lanyard card. I did not use the colour green for my flash/puff because when I tried the colour, it did not look bright and it did not suit with the blue I used on my cover lines. I added the writing 'WIN a FREE IPAD" because the capitals would make the writing stand out and it would be more visible for the audience to see. I used this text because everyone likes to win things and if they can join the competition for free, they would be more likely to try as they would have nothing to loose but instead they could win an Ipad.

Furthermore, I added typical features in my front cover like the skyline,barcode, issue number, date and the price. My skyline was " Success at a caring college" which is Leyton's slogan, and as this magazine is a college magazine, having the college's name as a masthead and their slogan as the sky line was a good idea. I included the barcode, price and issue number/date at the bottom right of my magazine as many typical magazines have it at the bottom in small writing so the price does not distract the audience from the useful info on the cover. The price for my magazine was £1.50 which I thought was a reasonable price as it included discount codes and many exclusive information. 

Overall, I believe that I could have improved on the image as took a mid shot which means I wouldn't have had to crop the image to make the desirable size I wanted it to be and this would have stopped my photo to become pixelleted. Another improvement I could have made is add another colour on my colour scheme which means it would have been three colours because the puff/flash's colour may have not counted. Also I could have taken the picture in a better environmental place so I could have had more greenery which would make the college seem even more welcoming. The bricks in the background made my photo unprofessional because It looks as if it was not planned out although I did plan it out. Also, taking a photo in a better weather would have been better as I wouldn't have had to brighten the image so much because it reduced the quality of the image.

Magazine Cover Final Product

Work-In-Progress Contents Page

In today's lesson I have started creating my contents page for my college magazine and also attempted to finish my front cover. For my contents page, I have added gutters and also LSC logo. I added the image I wanted to use of  Mariam however I did not get to edit it on photoshop because I did not have enough time. I want to have a grid layout on my contents page and one thing I need to do is to take more images.

Work-In-Progress College Magz

In today's lesson I worked on my cover lines and my colour scheme for the front cover of my college magazine. I also added gutters to give me an outline of where I should not place things. I need to remove any writing and image from the gutter line next time I work on my magazine. In addition, I need to add a puff/flash on my front cover. I also have to add more cover lines and maybe re-take my cover picture. I will be criticizing the mistake I made in my evaluation, however the mistake I made was taking a long shot picture then having to crop most of it which made my image pixellated. I will be posting my contents page progress soon, so don't miss out on any of the good stuff that will come up.