Conclusion of: Organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props

At the start of this product I gave a specification of my artists and locations.  A review of these points has shown...

 

As I wanted to create a hidden personality throughout my character, his costume would play a vital role in showing his confidence and the locations and camera shots used would portray this deeper.

For example, the pose used and explained in my cover page has been used to show a shy, covered up personality.  His costume relates to this as I have used a puffa coat.  This coat appears bigger on the character in the image.  This makes the character, neorix, look smaller and hidden within his clothing.  I have presented him with a number of layers.  By wearing layers of clothing, creates the same effect.  It displays his attempt to cover up and hide away from the line light.
 

 My first double page spread, down and dirty, neorix is wearing black.  I have chosen black as neorix is currently positioned at the front of the media coverage in my story.  The page describes the top places to visit.  The colour black, as a known tale, draws heat from the sun.  The phrase, drawing heat relates to him being the biggest DJ around at this time as the term hot/heat is found to be dominant.

My second double page spread, this was the best by far, is showing neorix in a more casual form. As the story progresses throughout the magazine, neorix is showing to be coming more and more out of his shell.  I have therefore removed the effect of the puffa coat, as position him wearing jeans, casual trainers, yet still wearing a black top as he is the dominant image across the page so I contrasts well against the white background.

The common use of the SnapBack cap is used as a trend throughout my magazine.  As the snapbacks commonly have a large peak, I have used it to create a shadow effect across his face.  This relates well to his hidden personality.

 

Finally, my last double page spread shows my artist wearing a jacket with leather sleeves.  This has been used to link well with the location of the shot.  The location is designed to look gritty, run down and out of the high street or line light. Leather jackets were commonly used to show a rebellious side.  Therefore, this links well with the location as back streets and run down areas are linked with crime and rebellious acts.
As for the image on paper, the pixels and presentation of the image are focused out.  I have done this to create a representation of a blurred past or future.  Life is taking over Neorix and it is almost like he is living a blur/dream.

Features

 

I got inspiration from NME when designing part of my front cover.  As you can see above, NME hides half of the image off the page.  To me, this makes me wants to read on and turn the page to see what it says.  Therefore I feel this technique in my magazine would want to entice people to purchase the magazine.  As you can see below, I have used the same format (the yellow text box) as NME but related it to my magazine, character and colour scheme.

 

 

 

Cover Page Development

 

After feedback from classmates on my previous designs, the above was the popular choice.  They liked the image and colour scheme and thought the banners and house style linked well with the genre. 
However, after asking for feedback from persons out of the classroom.  Issues and faults began to arise.  For Example, the "Exclusive" badge didn't really look like a sticker.  Instead It looked out of position and ill proportioned to the rest of the magazine front page. 
Another point raised was that the left hand side looked to open/bland compared with the right hand side.  Also, my previously design Masthead and its grey print appeared to sit in the background compared with the white and yellow text.  A finally criticism was that the magazine looked to linear or organised for my genre of dance music.

Therefore, I have taken these points and re-thought my design.  First of all, adding more text to the left and redesigning the artist's title, also adding sell and cover lines.  I have removed the exclusive badge and replaced it with something that looks more sticker/leaflet like.  This has text written on it, designed to draw the reader into the magazine through the point of some of the text being hidden off page to the right. 
I have then added another colour.  Having concluded that the majority of 2 colours looked to plain, I have added a 3rd contrasting colour of red.  This will link closer with my contents page.  As well as adding red, I have now made the banner stretch complete across the bottom of the page, with a "PLUS" icon added at the bottom left.  This draws the reader attention and may lead to them finding something extra they like. 
Removing the grey over my Masthead has lifted the Masthead "off" of the page and made it stand out.  This was an important added feature as all magazine must catch the eye of the consumer in order to look attractive and make a sale.
Finally, I have now angle features such as the sticker/leaflet on the left.  I have also added "Wacky" text on the right.  I have achieved this by setting each letter slightly off alignment from one another.  This took time but this has now addressed the issue of the magazine being to linear.  I feel that it now suits my genre more professionally and adaptively.

 

Evaluations and Third Party Opinions

 

Despite asking for constant opinions and feedback as I have been designing my work, I created/built a wall on Padlet.com which allowed fellow class mates to critique my work and give me feedback.  This has meant that I have been able to improve my work to the specifications of my target audience that my class mates fit into.

 

My Wall

 

Flat Plans

 

 

My front cover has a compact and varied layout designed to draw the attention of young minded fans.  My audience are students often with hyperactive lifestyles, therefore I have related the design of my front cover to this criteria, for example, positioning angled text, 3D designed banners and a mass of scattered text and imagery.  I have tried to equal out the sides of my magazine compared with my last design, therefore the magazine should look more professional.  I have achieve this with help from my research.  Typically I found that most text was positioned on the right and the main Artists heading and stand out stories where positioned on the left.

 

 

 

I have chosen a text based design.  As my target audience are students, I plan on having some interest but short and sweet text, as interest can be lost in long bodies of text.  I have used an interesting layout to appeal directly to the dance music genre of "mixing things up."  As advertisements, I have included a subscription advert for all consumers.  This will improve the professionalism of my magazine as it follows trends seen in my research of professional magazines like DJ and Mixmag.

 

 

 

I decided to use an image which covered the whole of the right hand side of the page. From my research, I found that on a lot of double page spreads, the main artist photo does take up a whole page, or even one and a half pages.  On this particular double page, I decided two images would be appropriate on their respective pages.  As it was mainly my artist, if it was across two pages, I could lose part of his face within the gutter.  The image is the main focus of the double page spread, so therefore I have tried to make it a dominant feature by being innovative with textures,  making the artist image looking hand produced.  When this is added to my flat plan, I should hopefully give the reader an impression of the life of the artist.

 

I placed the title central, to the left,  on the right hand page, and made it quite large, as from my research, I found a large heading was used to capture the readers attention and instruct them as to the main purpose of the page.  I achieved this by using synergy within my title to create a hidden meaning, whilst having it in the largest font on the page to capture the readers attention.

 

Below my title is my lead, which will give the reader a small introduction to the purpose of the pages body text.  This is a convention of all media magazines and so is necessary to my magazine.  I will also use language that will intrigue the reader and convince them to carry on.

 

In my research I found that the image usually comes with a tag line or pull quote or caption, and so I have included one to the bottom left of my image.   I have also used a 3 column structure for my body text which will not make the page look to overcrowded.  Despite this, it also follows common trends found in my research of existing magazines like DJ and Mixmag.

 

 

Following on from above, the same conventions apply.  However, on this page I want my artist image to stretch across both pages and reach into the body copy.  Above I stated that it would be an issue to hide the artist's face in the gutter, and therefore I position my artist in such a way that only his legs would be positioned across the gutter.

Bellow the title and within the article I also included a pull quote.  This is a common convention within media magazines.  However, referring back to the gutter, it is important that text is not lost within this space and therefore it will need to be positioned correctly.

I also included a caption next to the artist, so that it ties the image in with the article.   

 

 

 

 

Here Is my main text based double page.  My artist image on the right page is suppose to look 3D, I so stretch's in from the bottom of the page and merges into the body copy area.  This then flows around the image as if the artist is impeding the text.  I found from research in DJ magazine that this is a common way of producing an effect image with a powerful meaning. 

 

For this double page I want a strong, youth ideology behind the image and design.  Therefore I have produced a page using striking and dynamic shapes to capture the eye of the reader.  Each shape penetrates or overlaps the other to create a feeling of convergence.  On to of this, my artist will be stood in a powerful pose using a low angle shot to increase/enhance the audience belief in the artists dominance. 

 

 Here, I wanted to show another side of Neorix, a quite more conservative personality.  Therefore, I have created a simply layout.  Both pages have a different story, the left being an article and the right being a page of advertisements.  The article on the left sits above a main image with Neorix planned to be standing on the right, facing the text.  I will allow my image to show his hidden worries and conservative personality through the setting the scene.  Also, through his costume, for example, a hooded jacket or coat.  I plan on positioning my artist under a bridge next to a quite canal.  I feel this would be a setting associated with a location where people would go to escape the chaos of society and modern life. 

Further Development

 

After the completion of my contents page, I decided it may be a good idea to add some red into my cover page to allow a house style to follow through.  Above is my first design.  I decided to switch it up and change the picture back to my original.  I feel this cover flows well and looks professional.  I also changed my heading to block white which also gives a more professional, common image.  I have used the same principle in the fact that my artists name is positioned central, to the left and in a large, stand out font.  The same font family is used over the whole page to keep it flowing and sticking to the style used in real media products. 

 

This is another design.  I kept almost everything the same as before.  However, I changed the "EXCLUSIVE" to the text used above, and changed to colour in certain areas.  Improving the sell lines (below NeORIX) in both these models has had a dramatic effect on the impression of the magazine.

 

Despite myself liking my top design on this post.  I conducted a "survey" with classmates and concluded that my original design to the proposal above was the most popular choice.  As my classmates are part of my target audience, I think it might be recommendable to follow their suggestion, even though they are a small representative sample.

Cover Ideas

Here is my original idea.  After looking at other magazines I decided to try different poses.  This is the more common position for a dance or rap artist to be stood in.  It is a medium shot with the artist either look directly at the camera, or off to the side.

 

 

Here is my second design.  I think this has more potential.  It has more colour and looks overall, more attractive.  His pose gives and atmosphere of a hidden identity with this artist.  Also my research does not have the artist covering the Masthead, which means this is a more relevant design for my research. 

 

Here is my final design.  Despite being my final attempt, I feel this is the weakest proposal.  It was difficult to Photoshop  was with Numerous creases in the artist's clothing.  I also believe that the purple and blue, on the black background does not work very well.  It merges in and becomes hard to see.  This means that it would not stand out on a shelf, compared with other competition.

 

I have used research to come up with my colour design.  I found that yellow and black, black on yellow and white thrown in, gave the most legible writing.  Therefore I have used this theme throughout this page, and on some of my double pages.  I have used Font families to keep the theme running and sans serif and serif fonts appropriately.  Using banners has made certain things stand out which give the magazine a unique selling point, eg, competitions or party guides. 

Photoshop

Here I am creating the image for the left page on my 1st, down and dirty.  I have redefined the edges of each image, and added them to the same sheet.  I have provided them to the each individual layer.  Then created a 4th layer and painted it black with a soft brush.  Going back over each layer, I have painted around the edge of each image to fade it into the background.

 

 

 

After this, I wanted to change the effect.  For example, add a graffiti effect.  I did this by selecting the boundaries I wanted to (any skin showing, and the cap with headphones), shown by the white outlined area above.  I then went on Filter - Artistic and Poster edges.  This created the effect shown above.   

Now to crop the image into A4 and add it to my page.

Producing my final drafts

The next stage was to insert some of my images and to see what they look like.  I have only added them to 3 of my 5 double page spreads, and not yet my contents page. 

I have set up an online wall for my class mates to provide feedback on my magazine.  Therefore I can take any suggestions on board, to hopefully improve upon my design.  Not only this but I can have my work proof read by fellow class members.  This will eliminate any spelling issues and punctuation.

 

Cover Page: 

 

 

I have changed my artists clothing slightly from my cover page.  He still has his hat on and headphones, however no jacket. 

This is a mistake, more variation should be used.  Although my research uses the same clothing throughout, some other magazines in my research do not.

 

Double Page 2:

 

Double Page 3:

 

Double Page 5: