Research and Planning: Music magazine collage

Research and Planning: Shot type research

Research and Planning: Completed college magazine and evaluation

The material featured in this college magazine is appropriate to the target audience. All of the images are of college students, this makes them relatable to the target audience (students) as they will notice the age of the subjects in each image are similar to their age. Also, every image is set in college, with the exception of the image of the college. These are all appropriate as they are college images for a college mgazine, as is required within this task. Another thing is the articles, all of which relate to the college or life at the college.

The layout of my front cover is typical of any magazine, including a college magazine. It has a large image in the centre as the centre of attention, a large, bold masthead at the top, of a strongly contrasting colour to the background. 

On the contents page, I created two columns, as is the case within the majority of magazines, although more columns are frequently used. I again placed the title at the top, bigger and bolder than the other text, with images either side of the page, and the main article centred at the bottom.

The front cover and contents page both have the largest text at the top of the page, as titles/mastheads commonly do have pride of place at the top, usually the largest feature but for an image. The next largest font on both page is the main article, because it is the main article, however, the descriptions about each article are in a different colour, as they are to develop interest in them, not to grab attention.

The smaller fonts around the pages for other articles then the main one all show that they are not the main article, but they are still there, there are enough to read through and create a sufficient amount of interest for someone to want to read on through the magazine.

The language used is of a simple nature, though not childish. Also, it is very informal, as it has to relate to a teenage audience, who wouldn't be interesting in reading a very complexly written article which seems to be too impersonal towards them. 

I created the magazine using only Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. The front cover was created entirely through adding each new feature on a new layer on Photoshop and positioning it after I had decided on the exact content, for example a cropped image being placed in the centre would be in a layer on its own. Using InDesign, the contents age was created. I had more difficulty with this software, as everything was done on one layer. I had to create a shape to add a background before completing the rest of the page, components like columns and the heading were straightforward enough though I had to use the "file' menu and 'place' for any images, with I then had a little difficulty cropping, often using the 'fit content to frame' option.

The illustrations all have a caption with them, each linking to the article they are about, most notably the contents page, with the article about the NUS where I have an image of the student president at the college. All images and captions are done in this manner.

My images, although all set within or around the college, are not very similar, each has a degree of individualism to it, meaning that it is obvious which article it relates to.

My images that had too much in the frame, like the one of the front cover, in the centre, needed cropping before it was enlarged to show it as the main article. On the other hand, on the contents page, a lot of images needed re-sizing to be smaller so that the could sit on the page next to the text which went with them.

The font sizes of the masthead and header are both larger than anything on the page, a typical magazine convention. However, smaller pieces of text do all have matching sizes, except from the main article about the NUS, with a slightly larger font.

The magazine has three main colours, black, green and white, as with most magazines, it has to keep to a house style. 

The contents page and front cover have an identical colour scheme, making it obvious which magazine they are both from. 

All photographs are very straightforward, yet feature all the content needed to relate them to the article they are related to.

The cover only has three stories, all of which are appropriate to a college magazine by being set at the college. However, many more stories are featured on the contents page, as is to be expected as a convention of any magazine.

I am happy with the way the magazine turned out, particularly the colour scheme which looks effective, though it isn't too complicated, which is a good thing. If the page looked too busy, it may look quite intimidating and seem too much to take in if it were read. 

I dislike the lack of effects I have on both pages, with the only real stand-out feature being the drop shadow I used on the masthead of the front cover. 

 If I were to go back I would definitely add more effects to the components within the magazine, particularly images on the front cover.

Research and Planning: College magazine so far.

Here is what I have done so far with my front cover and contents page for my college magazine.

Research and Planning: Photos taken for college task

The following pictures are the one I have taken for my preliminary task of creating a front cover and contents page of a college magazine. 

Research and Planning: college magazine draft

Here is what I drew as a draft of what I want the outline of my college magazine front cover and contents page.

Research and Planning: College magazine so far.

 

My magazine so far.

Research and Planning: font designs

I designed a variety of fonts which I feel fit with the title. For example The "Heavy Metal" name of a magazine would need a bold, powerful looking font, as shown in the first font.
"Popworld" would need a more cheerful, softer seeming font, also a little girly as pop magazines are more commonly read by girls.
Finally, a film magazine named "Popcorn" needs something cheesy, yet with a slight catch to it.

Research and planning: Audience research.

Today I interviewed three people in order to find out things that they would want from a college magazine. Here is what they said.

Adam

Dan. W

Dan. G

Common features I found were:

• that £3 would be a reasonable price for the majority of people purchasing it.
• Interesting things about college vary between each person so there should be a variety of articles in the magazine.
• The college magazine would help the majority of people pass their free time.
• The majority of people would look in the magazine to find out about enrichment activities.
• Nobody has any idea for a slogan for the college magazine.

Research and Planning-examples of medium close ups

Research and planning-college magazine analysis

I am going to analyze a college magazine for the features of both a general magazine and those which make it obvious it's a college magazine.

Large masthead at the top, which is typical of any magazine.
The image has a guy with books, this is a stereotypical image of someone from a college.
The stories inside have very short names, to catch attention, there is no depth as young people lose focus more easily.
There are only 3 main colours, stereotypical of all magazines, this is to keep to a house style.
The main feature inside stands out, in this case it is pink, this is to make sure it is what the target audience direct their focus to the most.
The slugline is at the top, it is tiny as it doesn't have much important, but it keeps the same every edition and is never changed.
Bar code in the bottom corner, all magazines need one.
The image is of a young guy, fits in with the target audience of college students, they can relate to him.
Very few font style and size changes, too many would make it harder to keep to the house style.

Research and Planning-Indesign trial

I have used indesign to create a page for a film review I found on the internet.

1. I found a review online for the Inbetweeners movie.
2. I copied it onto a word document and saved it.
3. I then found a picture online which is from the movie and saved that.
4. I created an A4 indesign document and used the layout menu, then create guides, and added 2 columns.
5. I went to the file menu, and clicked 'place' to import the review I had already saved.
6. I then used the same tools to add the photo.
7. After this I added a text box and created a title at the top, then clicked the bold colour 'T' to change its colour when it was highlighted.
8. Finally, I created a rectangular box around the whole piece, double clicked the colour tool to change its colour and then used the object menu, then went to arrange, send to back.

Research and planning: Another photoshop challenge

Today I was set a task of working through a number of activities using the tools on Photoshop.

• These included:
• Opening an A4 document-File, size A4
• Writing "AS Media Studies" in Century Gothic in size 24 font. Done using the text box at the left of the page to draw the box, then finding the other tools at the top to modify it.
• Colour and centring of text, tools were again at the top of the page, right by each other.
• Background colour change, done by selecting the background and pint bucket and clicking.
• Highlighting text and adding a drop shadow. Done through the layer menu, layer style, drop shadow.
• Place a picture from the computer under the text. Done by opening the picture separately and dragging it onto the image to place below the text, again dragged.
• Hair colour was changed using polygon lasso tool on the left, highlighting the hair, creating a new layer via copy, then going to the menu 'image' at the top, adjustments, colour balance.
• drawing a border around the image. Done using rectangular marquee tool, on the left, then going to top menu 'select' modify, border.

Research and Planning: Photoshop Challenge

I was set the task to find myself an existing film poster and add another person's image to it.
I did this by saving the image of Jared Leto and dragging it into the poster image and cutting out his figure from the plain background using the magic wand tool. I then faded the opacity a lot to make him completely blend into the poster.
I also did the exact same with an image of Bert McCracken.

Research and Planning: Skin Tutorial

Today I familiarized myself with more aspects of Photoshop, most of which were new to me.

To begin with I used the spot healing tool, which I used to take away the girl's spots by zooming in and clicking on each one until they were all removed.

After this, I then added blue eye make up, using the brush tool, making it small enough to put the make up just above the eyes without making it look silly. Right after I did this I made the brush even smaller still and drew on eye lashes in black, rather than blue.

I also used a reddish shade to draw on a bit of lipstick, which was also done using the brush tool.

Finally, I added a black shade to the girl's hair and then put a tiny bit of blue in it, yet again with the brush tool.

Research and Planning: Introduction to Photoshop

 

Here is what I created today, I used a series of elements which were all separate images and added them to one main one I used as a background. I then edited these using a number of tools. 

I have learn't colour balance tools, which I used on the cd to create a green effect. 

I also edited the colour of the horn to make it look more brassy.

I also added a motion effect to the musical notes, to 3 pixels of distortion. This is the first time I have done this.

The text I added I changed the font and colour and also added a black border around it to create a bolder effect.