Construction - Poster

I noticed on an issue of NME that they had free posters included in that issue, so I decided to use this idea, as I knew a lot of magazines gave away free gifts, especially posters. I decided to use this picture (image right) because when I showed it to people they thought it was really cool and funny. I wanted to put a border around it, to give it more of a 'poster look'. 

I did this using the Rectangle Tool by drawing around the border of the picture (image left). I then altered the effect of the border using the Blending Options Window (image below right) and changed the effect to stroke, giving the rectangles a border like a poster (image below left)

 














I then rotated it using the Move Tool and placed it in the bottom right hand corner of my Front Cover (image right)

Construction - Artist list

When I did my original draft of the my front page, the main thing that people liked was how I did the artists with their own logo. So I decided to continue this idea by adding in a bands in their own logo. I already had Example, Ed Sheeran,  and Oasis in the proper logo, so I put them in straight away. I simply found what i recognised as the main logo for Example and Oasis online and put them onto the front page. But when I was looking for fonts to use for stories on 'dafont.com', I noticed a font that looked exactly like the one Ed Sheeran uses (Mom's typewriter), so I used this instead of having to cut his name out. When scrolling down the fonts I noticed that one of them looked similar to the one that The Killers use (Clubland), so like what I did with Ed Sheeran, I simply typed out 'The' using the Horizontal Text Tool in one text box and place another text box under it which contained: 'Killers'.

 For the other artists (Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight and The Kooks), I searched them up on google and chose the one that I felt was their main image. I determined this by going onto their respective websites and looking at the one that headlined the site. Kaiser Chiefs posed a bit of a problem as their main logo (image right) was too square and I needed a more rectangular shape so it would fit in with the other artists's logos. So I found one that was more rectangular (image above) that was from one of their albums: 'The Future is Medieval'. Razorlight's and The Kooks's logo was the one that they always used so I knew for definite that it was the right one.

The badges (image left) I used for Artic Monkeys and Kings of Leon were something I found when searching for the bands' logo. One logo of the Arctic Monkeys wasn't really clear enough (image right) and I found a good looking badge with their name on, so I decided to use this instead, as I knew people had badges of their favourite bands on items of clothing and bags. I knew the Kings of Leon didn't really have a proper logo, but when I searched for their logo online the second image that came up was their name on a badge. The same thought occured to me about the Arctic Monkey's badge, and I thought that the two of them together would look pretty good.

 I made the 25 Artist Issue (image above) using the Horizontal Text Tool and altering it in the Blending Options window (image left). I created the effect of the border using the stroke effect, and changed the colour of the text to white.






 I wanted something to accompany the badges, so I made this (image right) using the same fort as my Artist name, Christopherhand.


 I then added them all in on the left side of my Front Cover:

Construction - Artist Name

For the name of the artist on my Front Cover, I wanted it to sound cool and also have a modern sound to it. So I named my artist: Kudos. I liked this name as it sounded good, and kudos is something that shows how much respect you have. Literally, to gain kudos is to gain respect and recognition, and is derived from modern colloquialism. I already knew what kind of font I wanted for the name, something like what Q magazine had in their 25th Anniversary Edition. So I searched for a font on dafont.com that was similar to this, and I found this: Christopherhand

 I also wanted a tagline to go with the name, so I came up with this:

 I had the text white because I knew that it would blend in with the black on my artist's shirt and be difficult to see, so I put it over the name which made it clear and visible

 Using the same font as the name, I then had to decide where to put it on my Front Cover:

I decided to put it over some of my artist's face so as to keep it out of the way of the other things I was yet to put on the cover.

Construction - Header and Footer

 I originally thought to have these in my magazine as I thought that they looked good on other magazines and provided information without taking up lots of space on the main part of the cover. But I the main reason I put them in was because my main image was a bit short of the title (image left), and I wanted it to be partially covered by the picture.

To solve this I created a footer using the Rectangle Tool and changed it's colour to black using the Paint Bucket Tool that substantially brought the picture up higher (image left). But then I realised that if I had a footer, I also needed a header to go with it. I created a shape the same size as the footer and placed it at the top (image right), using the Move Tool to move the header and title into a suitable place.

I then added in text using the Horizontal Text Tool (image below), and added in 2 bullet points at the top to separate the 3 artists' names. The font I used was Brittanic Bold for the text at the top and BlairMdITC TT for the text at the bottom.

Magazine Front cover and Contents

Double Page Spread Flatplan

Contents Flatplan

Front Cover Flatplan

Contents Page research

The 3 contents pages I have decided to research are those from Q, NME and Kerrang!, them being the chosen magazines I have researched mainly into.

Some magazine contents are a double page spread, such as the Q 25th anniversary version, but they primarily have a single page for their contents. NME and Kerrang! also usually only have one page, as is normal for most magazines of any sort. I researched into only single page contents, as I wanted to have just the one page for my contents, as I prefered them over the double page spread contents, as these usually had lots of pictures and very little information about the contents of the magazine.

 I noticed on every NME contents that they always have a band index column on the left side of the page. The main feature is usually in the middle accompanying an image of the artist/s. Below the main image is the subscription advertorial. News is new about various artists, Radar is investigating new bands or artists, Reviews is album reviews and tracks, Live! is a review of the week's best gigs, and Features is the main stories in the magazine. I observed that an arrow accompanied 3 of the texts on the right which read 'on the cover'. I quite liked this idea as the reader would most likely want to know where the story is that is featured on the front cover, as that may be the reason they bought the magazine. I wasn't too keen on the band index however, as it meant that they had to always include those artists in every issue, which would take up a lot of space especially considering it is a weekly magazine, and because there are so many artists, there wouldn't be enough space to include that much information about them. I am going to include a review section in my contents, but not just for album and tracks but for gigs and concerts also.

 I rather liked this issue of Q's contents page as it is simple, easy to understand and find things, and looked good. The photograph covers 2/3 of the page and has a small amount of writing with it which indicates who the band is and telling the reader what page the story is on. I liked how it was laid out, yet I felt that it covered to much of the picture, and little space was left for the contents. Like NME, Q also have a review section, reviewing albums, music DVDs and books and studio recordings. The Features section is where the page numbers for the stories are, which is there instead of a band index. The Every Month section at the bottom is what is always in the magazine every month, such a letters to Q, subscriptions, crosswords and a feature on the last page of the magazine. This is usually a random, miscellaneous story, maybe an artist's take on a subject or a small interview.

 KERRANG!'s contents differ largely from the standard layout of Q's and NME's contents, for most of the space is usually taken up by pictures of artists featured in the magazine. These are used instead of just text, as it also includes a page number from which the reader can know where to go to find the story about the particular artist. There is only one column which dictates where stories and features are, and in each section very few stories are given, which are usually the most major. Like NME, they have included a a News section about artists, but similar to Q they have not restricted their reviews to just albums but expanding onto gigs as well. Something that is not featured in NME and Q is 'Swag', prizes and competitions to be won and free gifts through subscribing to the magazine. The offer of free gift is always very tantalising to any target audience, and is very common among all magazines of any type.

Construction - Title

The first thing I did when I working on my front page was decide on how the title would look. As I wanted my title to differ from other music magazines yet still retain a style that propelled it as a popular music magazine, I decided to go for a fairly simple looking font but looked good. Thus I choose this GunPlay (image right)

 As I knew I was going to have a blank white background, this bold font would easily stand out. It was also easily visible on the page; not too small and not too large, so as to accomodate for the other things I was going to put on there. I did try some effects with this title, such as having as: drop shadow, inner and outer glow, and bevel and emboss. Here are the results:


Bevel and Emboss - Although this effect looked quite good on my school magazine, this would not suit a music magazine

Drop Shadow - I quite liked this effect, but after some research I found that none of the major music magazines I looked at had a shadow behind their title. So I decided to scrap this idea

Inner Glow - On first impressions I thought this made the title look like glamourised; from a fashion magazine rather than a music one. But on second thought, this made the title look smoother, if a little blurred, but it reduced the sharpness of the title

Stroke - this looked more like the blueprints to building plan than a music magazine


 Based on the outcomes of the variations of the title, I might use the inner glow if it looks better than the original for the final product

 I decided to try some colours with the title, but as I expected, it didn't really fit into the house style. So I have decided to keep the title black until/if I decided to change it.

Front Page and Contents Feedback

Feedback

 The most common thing people said about my Front cover and contents was that they matched perfectly. They also liked the use of the artists names in their own texts 'Oasis, Example, Ed Sheeran'. 


 Even though the contents and front cover matched, there were also comments that said it was too basic due to lack of variety of colours. The other picture (bottom left) was also subject to critical analysis, as everyone said the writing and the image wasn't clear enough, but this is because I had just put the image in, and I put 'free posters' next to it to remind me to design the image as a poster featured on the front cover. The stories also weren't aligned together properly.


There wasn't much said about the contents, apart from that it matched the front page well. This is because I hadn't done much on it compared to my front cover. There were comments about how the text went well with the picture, and good variety of colours and fonts.


Based on these comments, I will align the text on the front page so it fits better, and I am going to put a border around the smaller picture that I will use for 'free posters', so as to make it stand out more from the main image. I will also attempt using some colours in the front page, so to make it seem less basic.

Stories and features for contents

 I needed to come up with some stories and features for my contents page, so I thought some up and put them in a mock-up contents that I drew on some paper. Here are some of my ideas:

Some of the stories were ones that I came up with on the spot, such as: 

Back to School - Bands to help you survive the boredom

Talihina Sky - Review of the story of Kings of Leon


oasis comeback!?!

 But I quickly ran out of ideas, so I looked at some of the stories featured inside magazines. These are the ones that I came up with that related to some of the stories I found in other magazines:

The countdown of the greatest 10 acts of the last 10 years - I got this feature from one of NME's front cover stories: "We reveal the greatest track of the last 20 years"

The Vantage awards - I noticed that a few magazines had features like this, particularly the "Q awards", which is where I got 'The Vantage awards' from.

15 up-and-coming artists - this one wasn't a direct translation from a magazine to mine, for this came to me when I was looking at some of the albums featured in one of Q's magazines. I noticed that I hadn't heard of the vast majority of these artists, and that Q was probably showing them so that the band/artist would get noticed. So I decided to have my own feature which made people aware of new artists, which I named the above: 15 up-and-coming artists, using coloquial language to give the title a friendly feel to it, something that readers could relate to.

Magazine front cover stories and contents research + some story ideas

 Generally, with all magazines, an interview is featured with the artist featured on the front cover as the main image, and this information is usually displayed on the front beside the artist. As well as the main story, I shall include several other stories and features on the cover. Here are some that I came up with:

15 up-and-coming artists
Our exclusive interview with Kudos
ignorance is bliss...
The countdown of the greatest 10 acts over the last 10 years
PLUS - Oasis comeback? -  ed sheeran / Example - Super Chemical Bros.???
Albums - and lots of them! 

 I got a few of these story ideas from other music magazines such as Q, Kerrang! and NME, such as NME's 'greatest track of the last 15 years', which I used for my 'The countdown of the greatest 10 acts over the last 10 years'. Q always feature a lot of album reviews, and they usually show this on the front cover: '145 albums to discover', so I came up with 'Albums - and lots of them!'. 

With the PLUS section, I included some stories that I knew people would be interested in, such as an Oasis comeback. ed sheeran / Example makes people wonder what that story will be about, perhaps the two collaborating with each other, or working on an album together, and I made a witty pun about the chemical brothers, comparing them to Super Mario Bros. by calling them: Super Chemical Bros.

Front Cover Backgrounds (+ possible new name)

 With a few of my pictures I discovered that the background would be unsuitable for writing on. So I cut out the person I had used and put them onto a white background (image right). But there was a flaw with this idea. Because my background was now completely white, it didn't look like a front cover for a music magazine. I liked some of these pictures I had, so I researched into some magazine front covers that didn't have a natural background I started with Kerrang!, for I had noticed in the past that a lot of the images they used for their front covers were didn't have a natural background, instead using either a dark or whitish background.

 With a lot of the Kerrang! front covers very few of them have a natural background, and a lot have a black background, such as this one. I tried doing this to my front cover, but the result still didn't look that good. I then observed that in all Kerrang! covers a vast amount of space is taken up by other images and text. I considered trying this, but I then thought this could take a long time, so I decided to look at some other covers before trying this idea. Another flaw with this idea is that my magazine isn't going to be based entirely around rock and heavy metal music, so I decided to scrap this idea

  I noticed the same thing with both of these NME none-natural background covers - they were both filled to the brim with text.

Again, before trying out his idea, I wanted to try a quicker solution. To make the picture have a more natural looking background, I need to make some areas appear darkened and shadowed. I attempted this using to soft brush on the white background, varying the opacity of the brush in order to make it look more natural. I also tried playing around with the modes, such as soft light and vivid light.

As another short term solution, I decided to play around with the effects of the background (such as the black and white effect) and added a few things that I may be considering using for the final front cover to fill up empty space. I have also experimented with the titles, for at times I felt that the title: Vantage, was taking up too much space. Thus I decided I would try a shorter word so I could have more on the front cover. The idea came to me as I was looking at some Q magazine covers, for I liked the look of them as well as the house style: Q stands out from other music magazines as no other magazine has a single letter in the title. I felt I would be copying Q if I attempted a single letter on my magazine cover, so I looked to NME. The masthead looked quite good and the full title, New Musical Express, was quite a good name for a music magazine. So I thought of a 3 letter masthead: M.I.A The actually meaning of this is a military term, Missing In Action, but I changed the 'Missing' to 'Music' and I then had a second title. This is not necessarily the title I am using for my final piece, as it may turn out that Vantage does look better on the front cover.