Construction, Contents Page

The construction of my contents page starts off by referring to my front cover to transfer similar elements into the contents page in order for them to be similar and look like they belong to the same magazine. Here I have used the same background as my front cover and added a black rectangle box in which I will use to type up topics and their page numbers. I then added a drop shadow (as seen when making the front cover) in order to give off a 3D effect.

 I then added a red box going across the top as this colour was also interpreted in the front cover and added a drop shadow (the same as the black box) again to give off that 3D effect and to keep the style constant throughout the page.






I looked back at the front cover I had previously made in order to extract the title and substitute it into my contents page as in many music magazines that I have seen, the title is written in the same style, form and shape and is commonly included on the magazine contents. I did this by creating a duplicate layer of the title of my magazine front cover and dragging it into my contents page. I then positioned it where I thought was best suitable and moved on to the next step.


 
Because my magazine is designed to be published weekly I decided to put 'THIS WEEK' instead of just writing 'contents' as I thought it was too common. I also thought about the audience and if someone was to buy the magazine would they be able to define whether it is weekly or monthly. I did this simply by adding an outer glow to the text and changing its density until I was happy with it.

The text tool was used in order to create the list of artists and story lines that the magazine would consist of. I used font style 'Base 05' to create the subheadings at font size 30 and 'Abadi MT Condensed Extra Bold' to list the artists and topics included. The colour scheme of my magazine is BLACK, white, grey and red therefore I used these colours significantly to help the audience establish the different categories.

 As you can see, there has been quite a big transformation from the previous picture to this one. Here I have constructed different sections through the use of the rectangle tool as my first attempt with the line tool failed. I created what I like to call the 'dividers' by simply extracting the red from the front cover, clicked on the icon and horizontally dragged my mouse down and adjusted the length and width of it. I created only one line using the rectangle tool and decided that the easiest and quickest option would be to make a number of duplicate layers to assure that the width of each would be equivalent. I changed the length of some of them which wasn't a problem as not all of the rectangles needed to be of the same length. After eventually placing them where I wanted them to be I used an outer shadow to create a 3D effect and moved on to making 'mini boxes' which was used to put numbers of pages of the main stories in the magazine which would later on be followed by a picture behind it. I used an inner shadow this time to have the shadow drop down from a corner instead of beneath it. This was followed by making another rectangle by using the rectangle tool which was coloured in Grey to separate the first section 'ARTIST INDEX' from the next section which would be called 'FEATURES'. I had to juggle the layers around as I realised that I should have made this layer before making my dividers as it was appearing above everything instead of beneath it.

 
Here I have interpreted the number of my three main stories and also the heading 'FEATURES' and 'PLUS'. I did this simply by typing up the text and positioning it. The subheadings consists of drop shadows in which I have decided will be a design element going throughout my magazine. I done this simply by clicking on the text and selecting drop shadow from the effects tool. After all the text was added into the columns I made sure everything was positioned and the aligned correctly to my satisfaction in which I then moved on to importing my images.

When importing my images into my music magazine I noticed that a few of my pictures was dull and could be edited to make it stand out and look more professional. I did this my opening my images as a new document, then going on image and adjustments which allowed me to change the brightness, contrast and saturation of the image.

As I had edited the picture on a background layer I had to find a way to transfer the image from the document to the construction of my contents page therefore I made a duplicate layer which would allow me to drag the image into my contents page tab. I did this to all three images which are featured on my contents page. After importing all images my contents page was finally completed in which I moved on to making my double page spread.

Peer Assessment, Contents Page

 



At the finishing stages of the construction of my contents, I decided to collect feedback from a few friends incase any adjustments could be made. Here is what they had to say:

 



Jessica:

• A very good images. The models are dressed wellto suit the genre of the magazine.
• Good use of space and structure.
•  You can see where you have extracted elements from the front cover to the contents page such as the colours and the font styles.
• Love the way you have duplicated the 'Urban' title from your front cover and interpretted it into the contents page.

Zainab:

• Layout of the contents page is different from many other contents pages.
• could add a competition box or something more exciting at the bottom to draw the readers attention.
• All images are clear and look very professional.

Velina:

• The colours of the page all compliment eachother well.
• The models suite the genre
• Maybe you could change the glow of the 'This Week' to another effect that could potentially help emphasise the genre of the magazine.

Planning, Contents Page

         

The above images are the images which I have chosen to feature on my contents page.

These main images will be used to highlight the main stories of the music magazine. They will also if needed be edited in order to make the magazine look professional. This may include changing the brightness and contrast of the images in order to pursue this.

Here we have a flat plan of my contents page. I have decided for the contents page to be called 'URBAN THIS WEEK' instead of calling it 'CONTENTS' as my magazine is aimed at a young audience in which calling it contents would have been abit too formal. I have decided that I am going to extract my URBAN title from my front cover into my contents page (for the 'urban' part) and then type out 'THIS WEEK' which will be accompanied by a glow effect and will be written in white.

Underneath this will be the images and collumns. There will be three collumns within the contents page as many contents pages have shown this. The first collumn will be called 'Artist Index' Which will give the audience a list of artists featured in the issue. I also decided to write out the page numbers beside them as I thought this would make the construction much quicker. The next collumn i have decided to include is called 'Features' in which will have a list of interesting events, feedback and stories for people to look into. Main topics of the magazine are also displayed through the use of mt images which will have page numbers beside them along with possibly some text to demonstrate that the images represent main stories of the actual models in the picture. The last collumn will be called 'Plus Interviews' which i decided was a good idea to create a list of different artists who have or would possibly do interviews at this present moment due to how much they are in the public eye.

Research, Contents Page

For the planning of my contents page I collected a variety of music magazines from 'NME' to 'KERRANG' and 'Q' as well as looking at contents pages on line for magazines such as 'VIBE' as they are very scarce and hard to find. I picked out elements from each magazine that I liked and thought about whether these elements were suitable for the genre of music that I chose my magazine to be based on.

If you look at the NME magazine on the left, you can see the more significant and dominant features of the contents page. I found out that the colour scheme is consistant throughout the contents page as well as the style and font type. Here you can see NME has used black, red and white as the main colours and are used significantly helping readers to determine different categories and sections. Also the contents page is very well structured in column's therefore baring in mind that my magazine therefore needs to be structured in columns also.

Here (on the right hand side) we have VIBE contents page. as you can clearly see the main colours of the contents page is black and two different shades of grey (one almost white) but the use of red was used to help a certain object (in this case the heart) stand out. This research helped me a lot as it made me realise that if used correctly a certain colour can be used to signify or highlight something to the audience and make it stand out. By looking at this contents page, I got the assumption that the front cover consisted of some of the elements portrayed on the contents page such as font styles and colour scheme. Also the use of the grey 'V' in the background is an element brought across from the front cover keeping it branded which taught me that in order to make both the front cover and the contents page look like they belong in the same magazine, I needed to find an aspect of my magazine that can be interpreted in both pages in order for the audience to identify the fact they are from the same magazine.

The Kerrang contents page also shows similar elements as VIBE and NME. For one, the contents page shows a very structured layout making it easy for the audience to read and is structured clearly through the use of columns. 
The use of images help the contents to stand out as they present main stories of the magazine. Also the house style is consistent throughout the page, as we can see the main colours are yellow, black and white and have been used effectively to display page numbers and headings. The contents page has used space very well and is full with alot of contents.

Construction, Front Cover

Firstly, I created a grey/white background using the gradient tool in order to blend both colours together to give a more professional effect and also thought the colour choice would go well with my chosen front cover photograph. I Then used google in order to find a font that I thought was most suitable for my magazine and had relations to its genre. After choosing the font I then resized it to the size that I thought was suitable for the cover.

 I added text above the title in white accompanied by red bullet points to separate each topic. I decided to put this above the title as these would be the least important topics within the magazine therefore not needing to stand out as much as other cover lines. Also the use of this gives the audience quick insight into some of the things the magazine will consist of.
 

Here I organised what I'd done so far making sure everything was aligned and in proportion to each other. I then opened a new window on photoshop and used the lasso tool to carefully separate the image from its previous background. After this I used Photoshop tutorials on Youtube to teach me how to smooth out the edges of the image as some of the corners were "sharp" and looked noticeably cut out. I re-sized the image and placed it centre of the page adjusting it until I was satisfied with the outcome.

This is where I began to add more cover lines. I had to think carefully on how they were to be positioned and the colour of the text making sure that it matched with the colour scheme and house style of the magazine. I also added more text at the top as I felt it looked a bit plain and that adding extra text was more effective and made it look better. I played around with different fonts and font sizes again making sure that the font styles didn't tremendously differ from each other in which the font style is to also be carried out through my contents and double page spread.

As you can see here, I have gone back and edited the title of my magazine as I thought it was pretty plain and boring and looked like It could have been created via Microsoft word. I edited the title by adding a glow on the outside of the text along with a shadow to give a 3D effect and make it stand out on the page as the title is one of the most dominant features of a magazine cover. I also changed the shade of red on some of the text, I did this by extracting the colour of my models lipstick and using this to type up any red text required on the page as I found that the previous red was too bright for the page and stood out too much. I also added some text at the bottom of the cover advertising the main topic that the magazine will consist of, again using the glow tool to help the text stand out and preventing the red from blending in with its background which the audience would find difficult to read. A 'sticker' was also added on the top right hand corner again extracting the red from my models lipstick and infilling the circle that I drew with it, then I added a shadow to the outside of the circle by clicking on the effects tool. Some text was added in the circle in font colour white but I found that it looked too 'flat' compared to the circle around in therefore I used the shadow tool to give the text a 3D look which was also done with the use of the effects tool. 

Here I've simply added more cover lines in various sizes and two different types of fonts. I used the same technique (glow and shadow effects) to keep the magazine style consistent throughout the cover. I thought carefully about the position and alignment of the text although I didn't have to think that much as I already had a flat plan, yet when creating it on the computer I discovered that it was very different from creating it on an A4 piece of paper as measurements and positioning isn't always exact. I focused a lot on the alignment making sure everything was structured, neat, parallel and very well presented.

At this point, I assumed that my magazine front cover was complete, although when looking at it again, I realised that the 'quote' cover line at the bottom wasn't very effective and the chosen font was not suitable for the magazine therefore I edited the font to what I thought would suit it best, although I found this very difficult as the cover line at the bottom is meant to represent something quoted from the artist portrayed on the front cover therefore the look I was going for with the 
 font choice was an italic, calligraphy style therefore I looked for a font using google in which I found a website called www.dafont.com; a site for people like myself to download all different types of fonts and font styles. This site was very useful to me as it was easy to use and managed to find exactly what I wanted. After finding the font I created a new quote and added it to my front cover.

This was the end result of the magazine cover:

Peer Assessment, Front Cover

This is the point at which my magazine was peer assessed by members of my media class.

One person said "the type of font used for the title of the magazine reflects the genre and name of the magazine. The house style is good and the colours are consistent". They then went on to say "The magazine was good with a strong and clear photograph centre of the page" Then quoted, "Possibly, the text/headings at the top could be moved to the bottom and the design feature could be enlarged - made bigger for it to stand out". Although another person argued that "the position of the text/heading should remain where it is and that a barcode and cover lines should be added". They also said, "Love the image, it sticks with the Urban theme and the header is very effective".
The last person to peer assess my work so far said "I like the picture, its crisp and strong and doesnt look cut out, but more work needs to be done on the coverlines" which at this point I do strongly agree with.
 The use of peer assessment helps me to establish the things that need to be done and ways in which things can be improved in order to make the magazine a success. Peer assessment helps me to create an understanding of what the public eye would want to see and buy therefore this is useful as taking tips and constructive critisism can help to improve my magazine.

Planning, Front Cover

 

This is the image which I have chosen for my front cover. I chose the picture first before flat planning so that I could base my planning around the image. I had to think about the colours that my model was wearing as this would affect the colour scheme of my magazine. I Also had to think about the genre of my magazine to determine the type of cover lines seen on the front cover, for example the genre of my magazine is Urban music, therefore the cover lines would be based on artists who produce Urban or hip hop music such as Lil Wayne. My goal whilst planning was to portray some sort of originality with something that will make my magazine differ from others. I used other examples of music magazines such as 'NME' and 'VIBE' as an inspiration for my magazine and to help me decide on the type of look that my magazine is going for. To make things easier for the production of my music magazine via Photoshop, I decided to note the colours that would be used for every aspect of the maagzine i.e. the title and cover lines which took alot of time and thought. When producing the cover lines in my planning I had to think of relevant stories that were music related and believable and the most important story line in order to link to the double page spread which would later on be produced.

Research, Front Cover

To start off with, I had to think of the genre that my magazine is and find magazines that would be an inspiration towards my idea, therefore the first front cover I decided to research was 'VIBE' magazine.
VIBE magazine is a well known urban music magazine which consists of genre's such as Hip Hop and R&B which is the genre I chose for my magazine as I myself am an audience of this type of magazine.
I focused on looking at the layout of the magazine front cover and how this may portray the presentation of an urban magazine and what elements that I could include on my own front cover. When looking at the layout of VIBE I realised that the front cover had a main image centered of the page of someone who looked part of the urban music industry which would stand out to buyers as its a give away of what the magazine would consist of. I also noticed that the title was big going across the entire top of the page from left to right. The name VIBE connotes the style and genre of the magazine as this is a well known term (phrase) that is mainly used with people who listen to Hip Hop music as a description of the type of 'feel' the music gives them.
As clearly demonstrated the colour scheme is black, white and yellow. This flows consistantly throughout the front cover and is used effectively to make certain words and phrases stand out on the cover lines. Also the cover lines are very well structured and not all over the place which makes it easier for the audience to read. All of these aspects is what created a good music magazine, therefore I realised that I needed to consider these elements presented on the page and how this contributes to the genre and how I would interpret my own presentation and style of music magazine that would clearly reflect its style.


I then went on to research on another magazine which had a similar genre. This is where 'NME' comes into the equation. Instead of just researching on one magazine I thought it was best to research on more than one to see what was similar and different about each magazine cover.
This example of one of NME's front covers presents the title of the magazine also in bold just like VIBE but only on the left hand side at the top of the page. As we can clearly see the colour of the title matches the most dominant cover line 'RIHANNA' which contributes to the presentation of colour schemes and how they work through out the front cover. As shown on VIBE magazine, we see an image which also dominates the page, which I decided that the picture of my model must be a picture that stands out and that can dominate the page. Its common for the main images to be at the centre of the front cover and often have the image either going through the title (over laying the title or simple on top of the title) or behind the text (the title written across the top of the image) Here we dont see that much of a variation in cover line size and font which contrasts with VIBE magazine which has a variety of different font sizes to make certain cover lines stand out. This put me in a situation as to whether it would be better to vary the sizes and font styles and is it more effective. Apart from this both magazines have similar elements such as the date, a barcode, a main image, consistant colour scheme and good alignment.

Front Cover, Contents Page & Double Page Spread Photo's