Research and Planning: Production Schedule

Research and Planning: Podcast

Research and Planning: Music Collage

This is the collage I made, featuring magazines and iconography that relate to the genre of rock music

Research and Planning: Front Cover Analysis #2

For my first front cover, I chose to analyse 'Classic Rock' magazine.

At the top of the magazine is the masthead, instantly informing the reader what magazine they are reading. Just below the masthead is the tag line "High voltage rock n' roll", helping to cement this magazines tone and genre.

The main body of the cover is taken up by the image of Muse's Matt Bellamy. He is posed facing towards the camera, engaging the reader in direct address. However, his body is angled away from the camera, creating a sense of distance between him and the reader. His arms are crossed, suggesting seriousness and attitude. The main cover line is in front of Bellamy, reading "MUSE". By using just the name of the band as the cover line lets the reader know who this issue is about, leaving no doubt in the reader's mind. Around the main cover line are the cover lines "Meet Rock's New Royalty" and "As epic as Zeppelin, as out-there as Floyd, as OTT as Queen". Describing Muse and "Rock's new Royalty" creates a positive image, and comparing them to bands such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Queen reinforces this idea.

Around the outside of the cover are the cover lines, which are the names of popular rock bands or artists, further presenting the genre of the magazine.

The magazine also features two pulls. "2013 Preview" and "The Doors - Strange Days and the madness of Jim Morrison". These pulls stand out from the rest of the cover, as their bright orange and red colours are a stark contrast to the grey background and black and white text.

Research and Planning: Front Cover Analysis #1

Research and Planning: Double Page Spread Draft

Research and Planning: Music Magazine Contents Page Plan

Research and Planning: Music Magazine Front Cover Plan

Research and Planning: Masthead Fonts

Research and Planning: Double Page Spread Analysis

Research and Planning: Contents Page Analysis

Research and Planning: Genre Research

Research and Planning: InDesign Contents Page Layout

This is the layout for the contents page of my college magazine. It include many of the conventions of a contents page, including the masthead, a table of contents, a main image, sub images, and focus on a few seperate articles, which are more important than others.

Research and Development: College Magazine Cover

This is the front cover that I designed for my college magazine. I created it in Photoshop. To make the magazine, In firstly took the picture in front of a blank white screen, allowing me to easily crop the background. I then added a blue, gradient background, before resizing and cropping the image, in order to get a medium close-up shot. I then used the shape function of Photshop, in order to create the coloured boxes for my articles and other information. The fonts I chose to use were all from DaFont, and I chose them because I felt that they were well suited for a college magazine.

Some areas of this magazine turned out well. The main cover image was successful, as it was a medium close-up (which was part of the brief criteria), and I was able to crop it because I took it in front of a blank white screen. The fonts I used also worked well, as they were interesting and unique, standing out and helping to add to the overall professionalism of the magazine. The colours I used worked well because they were consistant, but contrasted with each other, making them stand out more, and helping the magazine to look more professional. The layout I used was professional and used convetions of college magazines. All of the editing of images went successfully, and the end results looked professional. I also managed to include all the conventions of a magazine cover, and meet the specifications of the brief criteria.

To make my magazine cover better, I could have made better use of the space available on the page, as the cover had quite a bit of blank space that I could have made better use of by filling with more information. I could have also made the main cover line stand out more from the background, helping to draw the reader's attention to it straight away, so that they would know what the magazine was about. I could have also used more lighting when taking my original image, so it would be brighter, and there would be less shadows on the image.