Tuesday, 3 March 2009

Inspiration for the photo on the front cover

I like the photo on this cover of NME. Because there's two people and it's on one side of the magazine, the text can go on the other side.
When i take a photo for the front cover i am going to keep this style/pose in mind, because then it will look abit more professional.

Monday, 2 March 2009

Preliminary Task

Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photgraph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriatley laid out text and a mast head. Additionally candidates must produce a mock up of a layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.
I produced the front cover and contents page for Chew Valley. I called the magazine ChewVal, and above the masthead is Spring 2009 and below is Our New School Magazine. As we had to use our own photos on the front cover, i took a medium close-up photo of a teacher laughing and a 6th form student. I chose to do this because it looks natural and shows what the school is really like.
I kept the text on the front cover to a minimum, and just put taglines of what was inside. For example, there is Whats inside.. and underneath are short tags of the main articles like The School Council. Also, i kept all the font on the front cover white, except for the masthead. This is mainly because it stands out against the photo and also it goes well with the colours of the masthead.

On the contents page, i was going to write Contents in the same font as the masthead on the front page and use the same colours too. But then when i tried it, it looked to similar so i changed it for something abit different. I used a different font in black and wrote a single letter in each text box and then put them at different heights so it would look squiggly. I think this works better, because the magazine is for children as well as parents and it looks fun.
I wrote the contents in a smaller, different font and for the page number i put it bold and in red. I also added two lines down the left handisde of the page. One in green and one in red. This was just so that the colours were still there on the contents page and just to add abit of decoration.
I have two photos on the contents page too. One is of a teacher and another 6th form student and the other is of a dinner lady in the school canteen. At the top of each photo is a text box with the page number and article it goes with.
Next to those photos, i have a text box with a note from the editor of the magazine. Basically, it just explains the magazine and tells the readers what her favourite parts of the magazine are.


Tuesday, 27 January 2009

Research

I have started researching music magazines like NME, Rolling Stone and Q to get some ideas and to find out what articles go into them and what features appeal to their target audience.

Rolling Stone
This magazine targets the younger generation who are interested in music. It doesn't only have interviews and articles about music artists, it also has 'The Rolling Stone Interview' with celebrities like Brad Pitt, the girls from 'The Hills' and many more.
The USP of this magazine is definitley the interview. It normaly has the front cover photo of the person they're interviewing to let the audience know who it is. The style and design of the front cover is bold and stands out. The masthead is the same font in every issue just a different colour.

NME
This magazines audience is 17-30 year old men. It isn't a very highly produced magazine, because compared to the other 2 magazines i looked at it hasn't got a glossy cover and doesn't advertise the kind of brands that they do either.
The interviews and articles in this magazine is more with low fame bands and artists that are just starting out. They do have well known artists aswell like Lily Allen, but more often it is bands that men like and that aren't high up in the music industry.
Again the front cover stands out because the masthead is red and always is on every cover. It is in capitals too which looks bolder.

Q
Q is aimed at older music buyers who are serious about music. It is also probably more for men. You can tell this because when you read it there are adverts for expensive watchs, beer and trainers.
The content of this magazine is abit like Rolling Stone in that it has famous people like Coldplay and Madonna being interviewed.
The front cover is glossy and on every issue there is a different message on the spine. Readers are supposed to work out what the message has to do with the content of the magazine. The masthead is a single letter and this has been said to stand out more in a newsagents.

I am going to take different elements from each magazine to use in my own.