Construction

Final Construction of Music magazine

Front cover

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 Contents page

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 Article page

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Feedback from article

I had to produce a feedback sheet for my target audience to fill out giving me comments on what they would change about my article. This is the sheet:

1) What did you enjoy about the article?

The general feedback I got for this question was that the article was "cheerful" and "casual", but was "still professional". This was what I was aiming for so I was very pleased my target audience could see this too.

2) Were there any parts of the article that you found dull or boring?

For this question, only one person told me specifically which section they found boring. The question they found dull was "Do you think you've grown or changed at since when you started out?". And I think this was because the answer was not strictly about the music, and some people may not enjoy this.

3) What was your favourite thing about the article?

The answers for this question were similar to that of the first, people felt it was "realistic" and also "relatable". I was very happy with this.

4) What would you change about the article?

This question showed me that the target audience wanted "shorter answers" and I think the reason for this may have been because I had not done anything to the formal of article I gave them, and therefore it seemed very slow and there was a lot of text on one page for them to read. For my real article, I will improve this by formatting it so that it appears to be less text. For example, by adding pull quotes in the middle and maybe different features in boxes. 

Planning Photographs

A very important part of the construction of my magazine was planning and taking the photographs for the magazine. One key part of this was the planning of who I was going to take photos of and what they would be wearing. These are my mood boards for what I wanted the models to look like and dress like:

Male

This mood board showed me that male indie artists often wear plain clothing and dark colours. Also, they often have an interesting haircut or facial hair to make them stand out more. Because of this, all of the male artists featured on the contents page will wear dark clothing. One or two of them will have indie hair.

Women

This mood board showed me that female indie artists wear quite bright colours or patters or they wear plainer colours with patterns. Because of this, I will dress my indie artist in a brown patterned clothing item that stands out on the front of the magazine. They also have quite a range of hairstyles and there is no way to say a trend. I feel this helps them to show their individuality.

Taking the photographs

I decided to take the photographs in the half term at the end of October because the people who would model for me were not busy then and also because of the weather. I wanted to do it as soon as possible because the weather was going to get colder and the clothing I wanted my main female model to wear would be hard to wear when it got really cold later on in the year. As well as that, the end of October has really nice coloured trees for the background of the image, which went well with the clothing.


The first pictures I took were contents page photos so that I could get a sense of the camera and how to use it, ready for my main photos a few days later. At first, I struggled with how to focus the camera on the foreground when I didn't want the model in the middle of the frame, e.g. for the article page. I overcame the problem by asking my friend who's camera it was and she taught me how. After this, the photos were a lot better and looked a lot more professional.

These are some of the photographs that I took during the half term week for my magazine.

Article Page

The first thing I did in making my article page was making the background layer. This needed to be International paper, A3 and white. After this, I had to mark the half way point with a line because I cannot put any part of the article or any images over this centre point.

(These are some of the images I took for the magazine)

Next, I had to decide on an image and input it into the document. I didn't find it too difficult to decide on an image for this page because I could remember my favourite one from when I took them. I really like the one I chose because it shows the genre because it is similar to some other images from the indie genre and also because there is enough space to put text over on the right. I then had to re size the image as it was the wrong size. One key point I had to make when resizing the image was that I needed to make sure I held shift down. This would ensure the image would be re sized in proportion, otherwise the image would get distorted and would not look professional.

Then, I had to add the heading text. I used the same font website as before, however I used a different font for the heading than I used before because the ones I chose before do not go with my image very well. I chose the typeface called "Chunk Ex Five" because it is Serif which gives my magazine a mature look to it and will also help give it a house style. I also chose it because it is similar to the typeface used in the NME article I used to compare my first drafts to and I really liked the look and style of that article.

After this, I then cropped the print screen of the heading so that the words did not have a background to them. I did this because it makes the article look more professional. Also, I then changed the size of it.

I then decided that the heading did not stand out against the image very well so I chose to crop the image so that one size of the double page was white. I made sure, however, to make the image go over the half way point because it helps to show that the two pages are linked. I also made the heading bigger and the last line of the heading bigger and in another colour. This helps it to stand out and the colour I used links to the image because it is the same colour as in the models jumper. I then added speech marks to show that it is a pull quote. I'm really glad I made the decision to only have one page have the image on because I think it looks a lot stronger and more striking this way. It also goes with other articles of the indie genre because my research shows quite a few magazine articles do this.

After this, I added a pull quote over the image. The image helps to draw the readers eye to this page and the pull quote over this will help keep their attention and make them want to read the article. I chose to use the same typeface as in my heading because it shows the two pages are linked, the colour scheme being the same also does this. I also put a white background behind the pull quote because this also helps it to stand out against the image as well as giving the article a certain style. The pull quote I used uses alliteration, "Performing is my Passion", and this helps it to roll of the readers tongue. This is especially useful as my target audience is quite young, so they will want to read an article which is a relatively easy read and this will show them that it is.

The next thing I had to do was add the name of the artist. I decided to put this over the image because the reader can then clearly see who the article is about and it also links to the text. The typeface is the same as the pull quote and heading to keep everything connected as well as the colour being black to link to the text. Again, I added the white background to the text because it matches the background of the pull quote and also helps the text to stand out against the image. As well as that, I have added a bar going all the way across the top of the page to show that kind of article it is and that the pages are linked. I think this helps the article to look very professional.

The last step of making the article was to add the text. This was quite difficult to figure out a size and typeface of the text that was big enough to read, but small enough to fit all the text on one page. In the end, I chose to use the serif font Vani because the serif means it matches the heading typeface. I also chose the size 8.5pt which is big enough to read quite easily and still small enough to fit all the text on the page.

I recently got some detailed feedback of my media product from my teacher and this is the feedback I got from her for my article page. It showed me there are a lot of grammatical changes to make, but other than that there was not a lot for me to edit to make it look more professional.

The first change I made was to move the image to the left to remove the space next to the tree in the background. This was a good thing for me to do because it meant the artist in the image was further away from the centre fold. My feedback also suggested that I move the name of the artist off of the artist herself because it covered her and distracted from the image. I decided to move it only over the tree and so it stands out without being too distracting for the reader.

Next, I added an introduction paragraph which opens the article. I decided to make this bold and a bigger typeface than the rest of the article because I feel it shows the reader where they should start reading and guides the readers eye here.

After this, I had to change and edit my many grammatical mistakes. I then had to make the questions in the Q & A stand out more so I decided to put a coloured box around them. I chose a light gold colour using the eye drop tool from the artist's shoes and I also made the typeface bigger and in bold for the questions to make them stand out. To make them look even more different to the answers, I chose to put the text in white. By changing some of my grammatical errors, the text was made shorter and this meant it wasn't covered by the page number. At the end of the text, I was also planning to write a summary sentence. I did some research by looking through some other music magazines to see what to write in the summary sentence. From my research, I could see not many articles had a summary sentence. Therefore, I decided not to write one and just added a name of who the article was by instead.

Contents page

The first stage of making the contents page was to make the document. To do this, I had to make sure it was international paper and A4 as this is the size my contents page needs to be. I then added lines into the documents so I know the layout of the page and so I can tell what size each picture will need to be. I decided to have the lines on the document because it looks quite similar to the style of magazine NME is and this is the look I am going for. I split the document into 3 vertical sections, with the middle section being the biggest. Next, I started adding the images of artists into my contents page.

I then added a few more images into the page, making sure the images in the middle are bigger then in the other two columns to make the stand out more and attract the reader to these pages. I also added tag lines and names under each image in the typeface Vani. I used this typeface because it is serif which continues my house style. I also put the artists' names in a bigger typeface than the rest of the writing to make them stand out more.

I then had to change my layout and some of the images because my teacher feedback suggested that my images were all very similar to each other. I really liked the new images and the layout of the page because it shows a wider range of articles the magazine would include. I also added white boxes to the corners of each image. This is for the background of the page numbers of each article. I chose to put them over the image and have a white coloured box because I feel this will make the numbers stand out to the readers and make it easy for them to get to each page. As well as that, I put a "plus" column on the contents page because if a reader does not like any of the artists featured in the pictures on the contents page, then this will help them to buy the magazine for another article. Also, it also helps show the magazine is full of interesting articles for the reader and doesn't look empty.

One of the images I had to change on my contents page was this. I had to make it look as though it wasn't another portrait of an artists so that there was a variety in my magazine. My plan was to make this into an album cover. This first thing I did was choose the image and upload it into a document. I chose this image because I feel there was a lot of potential to edit it and it also looked quite similar to other album covers of artists in this genre.

Next, I cropped the image to the size of a normal album cover. I also added a filter onto it because I felt it gave it a more district style and also my research showed that artists in the indie genre have filters on their images a lot. The filter I chose was a cooling filter because the outfit I put my artist in was quite a wintry outfit and therefore I thought it was best to make the image look more wintry.

I then put text with the artists name and the song name onto the image. This was to follow a convention almost all album covers follow which show what it is the song is for ease of use for the listener. I used the models real name but initialised it to sound more like an indie artist name. I also called the song "Waking" because my research showed that this was the kind of name a song in this genre would have.

After that, I decided to change the image again. I used the album cover image I made on photoshop and put it onto a song on my phone. I then took a picture of the song playing on my phone. This makes the image look very different to the others on my page and I think it was the right decision to do this. I chose to an image with the phone plugged in because I think it makes it look more music based. 

Next, I added the new image back into the contents page and because of this image, I had to change my layout again. At this time, I was glad I had the grid layout I did because it was very easy for me to change the layout if I needed to. I this this new layout works extremely well because it follows indie magazine conventions. For example, the editorial is at the bottom of the page and the plus column is on the far right. 

The next step in making the contents page was adding the page numbers in. I chose a typeface for the numbers called "Muro" because it was quite a bold font which stands out, but is not too distracting from the articles and images. I also chose a dark red colour because I had used this colour previously in the article, and I think it shows a nice house style to the magazine. Also, it goes well with the main article image as the model is wearing this colour.

After this, I added a heading into the page, a banner and a subscribe box. The heading is a serif typeface which matches the typeface used in the rest of the page. I decided to make the banner black because I think it looks professional and it doesn't distract from the rest of the page. I have not yet finished the subscribe box and the rest of the page because I ran out of time and had to make my feedback sheet. Because of this, I will need to do extra work to catch up in the coming weeks when I come back to work on this page.

I recently got teacher feedback on each of my pages and this is the feedback sheet I got for my contents page. It showed me different key things I need to change about this page to make it look a lot more professional and connote more about the style of music. 

The first thing I did to start making these changes was a mixture of different small changes. Firstly, I switched the articles on the far left around to make the phone image smaller and the singer in the street image bigger. There were a few reasons for doing this. The first was to make the singer bigger in the image, with less background around him. And secondly to make the weaker image of the phone smaller and therefore less eye-catching to the reader. I then removed the text saying "Contents page" at the top because my feedback showed it was not constant with the house style of my magazine. After this, I changed some parts of my editorial and general layout because of this. I made the image of my editor smaller because it needs to appear less important to the reader than the articles. I also made the text for the editorial smaller and changed the name of the editor into handwriting. Because of this becoming smaller, I had to move my layout around quite a bit to fill up this space. Firstly, I moved the two bottom article down. I then made the main article image and text bigger, as well as making the artist's name stand out more with colour. Next, I flipped the image on the right facing into the page because it makes the readers' eyes go with it and not distant from the rest of the page. Finally, the last small change I made in this time was take away the numbers and heading for the plus section so this was ready for me to change.

Next, I added the heading of the plus section and the numbers back into the page. The changes I needed to make to this were the size/location of the numbers and the value because my feedback showed it needed to be a higher number. 

After this, I put the text back in. I changed some of the names for this section as well as adding in brief pull quotes or descriptions under the names. This entices the reader to turn to the page and read the article because they get a better sense of what it is about. Because I added these descriptions, I needed to make the names stand out more so I put them in bold and this made them look better against the descriptions.

Another part of my contents page my feedback suggested I should change was the heading of the page the the heading of the plus section. I decided I wanted them to match each other more so I wanted to make them the same typeface and colour. I chose the same typeface as the headline on the font cover as well as the same colour scheme. I did this because the feedback said they should link more. I also added a small copy of the masthead from the front cover to show that they link. This is a major magazine convention I followed. The black background really shows that they are titles and makes them more important looking. I also changed the words to "Inside this week" because even though it is a monthly magazine, I want it to only be available to by for a week, so available every 4 weeks. Also because "Inside this week" has a much better ring to it and I think it will roll off the readers tongue easier.

The last change I made was to the subscription box at the bottom. I wanted to keep it simple by just having a web address to go to. The feedback I got reminded me of a very good magazine convention of having an image of the front cover by the subscription box. I wanted to follow this convention, however I came across one problem with doing this in that I couldn't fit the front cover picture in without moving my layout again. I decided to make the text of the editorial move around this so that it wasn't covered by the image. I then also removed one of plus information lines and re-organised some of numbers so the magazine was just as long. Once I managed to do all this, my magazine looked instantly more profession because of this convention.

Front Cover

(These are some of the images I took for the front cover)

Firstly, I made the document. I made sure I had international paper and A4. Then, I added the image into the document. It was very difficult for me to decide on an image because I had so many good images to choose from. To overcome this problem, what I did was I asked my target audience which one they thought I should use. They ended up saying this one and I'm glad they did because it is a really good image for a front cover. I like it because there is lots of space above the artist's head for the masthead to go. I also light it because the artist looks really happy and that was the look I was wanting to come across from her article and this issue of the magazine in general. Also, the lighting behind the artist is very bright and makes the image look even better.

Next, I put the masthead on the front cover. I used the same typeface as I decided to use in my planning because my it was my target audience's favourite typeface. I also kept the same name as in my planning because of my target audience. However, when I put the masthead on the image, it didn't feel quite right. I then looked back at my drafts which helped me to see that it was the fact that the masthead was in front of the artist which made it look unprofessional. To change this, I added a layer mask to the masthead and then erased the parts of it which were covering the artist. After I did this I changed the colour of the masthead. I decided on the same dark red colour as in my contents page and article page because it shows a strong house style as well as matching the artist's clothing. It also stands out agains the background which is mainly green, brown and white.

Then I added some cover lines and the issue date. I chose a serif typeface again because it continues the house style from the contents page and the article page. I decided to make the title of each cover line a different colour and size to the lists of articles because I feel it helps give the magazine a wider range when it comes to it's look, otherwise it would be all in one colour. The issue date I put really close to the T of FLEET because I think it helps hide it and so it doesn't distract from the image or cover lines.

I then decided to add white backgrounds behind the cover lines for a few reasons. Firstly because it makes them a lot easier to read. Similarly because it helps them stand out and helps the reader to see it. And finally because it also continues the house style from the contents page and article page. I really like this detail because it makes it look a lot more professional and gives a strong house style to my magazine.

Next, I added another cover line. I chose to have a question as the description of the cover line because I feel it will intrigue the reader to find out more. I also added a headline. The background colour of the headline contrasts with the background of the cover lines and this helps it to stand out more. Also, I made the size bigger and so it goes across the whole of the front cover. The typeface also matches the typeface used in the article which helps them link together. I have also put a pull quote underneath the headline to help entice the reader further.

After handing my first drafts to my teacher, she gave me some very detailed feedback on what I need to change and how to make the layout of my front cover (and other pages too) look better. Using the feedback I got, I began to make amendments to my front cover.

I began by using the piece of advice to make the masthead smaller. I did this because it was taking too much of the page up and distracted too much from the image of the artist and cover lines. I then also removed my cover lines so that I could start fresh on them because the my teacher did not like the white backgrounds behind them.

Next, I began adding my cover lines back into the page. My feedback suggested I remove the white boxes and change the typeface of them. I decided to use a typeface already on photoshop called Agency FB. I chose this typeface because it is formal without being serif so that it is more appropriate for the target audience. One problem I faced during adding the cover lines was making them stand out against the background without the white boxes. To overcome this issue, I asked my friend who also does media. They suggested putting a shadow behind it and showed me how. (see right) this made the cover lines look a lot better and stand out against the background more. I also wanted to link the cover lines to the masthead and I wasn't sure how to do this. I decided to link the colour with the masthead to create a stronger house style. I also decided to not put all the cover lines in this because I wanted the colour to vary a bit so I just put a box behind the heading of each cover line to make it stand out more and catch the readers attention. Another thing I changed here from my feedback was to make sure the cover lines don't cover the image of the artist at all.

The last thing I changed about my front cover was also suggested to by my teacher in feedback. I needed to change one of my cover lines into a Pug cover line. I also decided to change the name of the artist mentioned on this cover line because I felt it was a better name and fits better in the size of the Pug. To make it a Pug, I put a white box behind the text. I then made the artist name the same red colour as the mast head and headings of cover lines. I also changed the colour of the text under this to stand out against the white box, as well as making them bold. I also kept the headline the same as before because my feedback liked this.