Choosing the Colour Scheme

The Task
I decided to choose a colour scheme now so that when I am taking my photos I have a clear idea oaf what the model will need to be wearing as well s ensuring that the style of clothes fits in to the genre of pop. I ensured that three colours were the same in each idea as I feel that Black, White and Beige are key to my magazine, as they will help bring out article or details that other colours may not.

The Research

The first colour scheme idea uses blues with the three main colours, the reason I chose to use blues rather than pinks is because I am aiming to create a different pop magazine to the usual ones out already. By choosing to move away from this conventions I am aiming for my magazine to be something my target audience enjoys as it provides a different alternative to the gender stereotyped pinks on pop magazines

Finding the Right Font

The Task
I decided to put together a document of different fonts that I found really interesting and fonts that I thought would work really well on a front cover.
I chose nine different fonts and wrote the name of my magazine in all of the fonts and the name of the font next to this. From this list I only chose one font to feature in my magazine as I did not think that any of the other fonts featured on the list would work well throughout the magazine. For example I do not believe they work to the conventions that are used in magazine article fonts and contents page fonts.

The Conclusion

Out of these I chose to use the font Edo SZ, for the title of my magazine name as well as headlines throughout my magazine ( the contents page and the double page spread). I think this would work the best out of all the other fonts as it is the one that caught my attention the most. I also made sure to ask a few members of my target audience their favourite font and most if not all of those asked chose EdoSZ. 

Cover Line Audience Feedback

The Task
I decided to ask my target audience their opinions on which cover line would work best as the main one and maybe which would work better as a smaller story cover line. I used survey monkey to do this, as it is a quick and easy tool to get answers on as you can send someone the link to the survey for them to complete.

The Research
Underneath I have placed two images of the data I collected the first a chart to show which was more popular the second a table showing how many times a member of my target audience clicked on a certain option for that cover line.

The Conclusion

From this data gathered it is clear to see that the favourite cover line is -(insert name of artist here) The story so far. This will be the main cover line I now use on the front cover of my music magazine. I think this is a good choice as it is intriguing and will hopefully make my target audience want to learn more. Looking at these results I can see that other cover lines were popular and will look to include some of these inside the magazine for example in my contents page.

Cover Line Ideas for Magazine Front Cover

The Task
I came up with six different cover lines, that could feature on the front cover of my music magazine. This will help me be able to see which one will work better later on, and will also enable be to decide whether asking my target audience would be a better way to decide because then it would be directly working with what they want to see on the front cover.

The Research

The Conclusion

From doing this I can clearly see the six options I have to use and later on I will be able to quickly look back to choose the one that will work the best or from these I can ask my target audience to vote on there favourite.

Audience Feedback on Magazine Names

The Task
I presented my mind map of ideas for the magazine name to 30 different members of my target audience, and then placed the data I received in to a bar chart. This will make it easier to analyse and view the results in a clear way.

The Research

The Conclusion

From doing this research I have now got my title for my music magazine. This will be 'Fixate' as it was the option and idea most liked by my target audience and as my magazine is designed to attract and appeal to them it would be the best option to listen to what they say and choose.

Ideas for My Magazine Name

The Task
For this section I decided to mind map ideas for the title of my magazine front cover. I approached this in three different ways, firstly I thought of names that included the word pop to help relate the genre of the magazine and to clarify it when readers pick it up as well as creating different.

The Research

When creating this mind map I was thinking about different things that come to mind when thinking about pop and the other parts that are associated with the genre. I started using with word pop in idea to help get an idea as I thought that it would be good to let people know straight away what the genre of my magazine will be.

Plan of Double Page Spread

The Task
I carried on making plans of and for my final product so that I could go in to production with a clear idea on my mind. I found making the double page spread plan the hardest as I haven't shot my photos yet and I am unsure whether these will be portrait or landscape, and whether they will be close ups of long shots. These are decisions I will need to make during my planning so that I am prepared for production.

My Research
As it can be seen below my plan looks quite bare, however this is due to their only  being a few parts to the page and that means only a few boxes were needed to section these parts off. Like I have mentioned previously this plan will be used as a rough guide when I am creating my double page spread, and will allow me to feel more prepared in the making of the page rather than feel stressed that I don't know where things are going to go.

Plan of Contents Page

The Task
I have created a plan of what I think my contents page will look like, this will help me during production as I will already have a clear idea of where each part should go. This is useful as it will save me time later on and it will mean that I have more time to focus on getting the elements of the page right not the positioning or placing. However like the plans for my front cover I will make sure I am flexible with where things may need to go to ensure that I achieve the best result possible.

My Research

I based this plan off a number of magazines, merging lots of different ideas with some of my own new ones to create this. It is quite hard to come up with a completely original contents page as many follow the same conventions, and use the same style/pattern to create one.

Plan of Front Cover

The Task
I decided to do a plan of what I imagine my front cover to look like, so that when it comes to placing all of my info together I already have an idea of what goes where. However I had two ideas an couldn't decide between them so I will have to decide what looks best when I have all the different parts together (e.g. photo, name, colour scheme, font..etc) 

The Research

This was my first plan and I liked the way the feature stories were all on one side as this is something I haven't seen in any other music magazine I looked at. However that could cause a problem as it may be hard to recognise what genre of music it is if it differs from usual conventions of my chosen genre of Pop.

The second plan that I created followed the more common layout of a magazine, and the features on the front alternate sides with the main article/feature in the middle. This will hopefully inform members of my chosen target audience more, and may look neater compared to the other plan. However I will try them both out, if I haven't decided during production.

My Conclusion

From doing this task I feel more prepared to make and create my final product when every other aspect has also been decided. This will help me with my organisation nearer the time as I have a clear plan of what I need to do already. However a problem with this may be that I feel limited and don't experiment during production and this could mean my product is not the best it will be. To stop this from occurring I will ensure that I don't feel pressured or limited to stick to these plans completely and will allow myself to have freedom to move things around the the final product looks the best it can.

Preliminary Contents Page

The Task
To create a contents page to accompany the school magazine front cover that I created previously. This contents page gives an insight in to other articles within the magazine and was another way for me to get used to using photoshop before I have to create my final front cover, contents page and double page spread. 

The Research
I was disappointed with the result of my contents page and I felt that if I spent more time on it I could of produced a much better and more effective result. The contents page doesn't really link to the front cover that was created and this is something that I will need to make sure happens in my actual task. Creating this has helped me see where my skills in photoshop need to improve for example the font used is not that suitable for a contents page and this is something I will take in to consideration when planning my final pages. I am also aware that I should of included the page number down the bottom as this is a key convention in magazines and one that I will be certain to stick to when creating my later contents page, I will also make sure to include a website address. 

Conclusion

I think that this highlights the weakness's that I have when using photoshop and this is something I will work harder on when producing my final pages for a music magazine. I will also ensure that I use more stories and articles as three is not enough for a contents page and something that I should of considered more in the planning and creating of this preliminary task

Preliminary Front Cover

The Task
For this task I made a front cover based on school and events happening around it, the task description was to create a magazine about school life and using pictures that were taken around the school. The first time taking pictures a fire alarm interrupted causing me to have to do another session taking pictures.From these pictures I chose a front cover as well as attempting to slightly edit it for the purpose of the front cover.

The Research
I have attached an image of the front cover that I created, for the purpose of a school magazine.

Conclusion

There are many things that I would improve on this front cover, this is useful for me to know as for my final product I will be able to ensure the same mistakes are not made. Some of these mistakes are the font size and width changes lacking consistency throughout the front cover, however due to them all being the same font ( which is a factor that will be the same for my final front cover) there is some flow to the cover. Another weakness with this front cover is the background is very busy and detracts from the main image of the two girls on the sofa, however I do like the effect of the faded background to help them stand out more. Another strength of the front cover is the use of direct eye contact from the girls to help connect to the audience and this is something I hope to replicate on my actual front cover. Something I would change from this front cover is the distance of the main image and would prefer a closer up image to connect even more with audiences and to make the person a key image drawing people in.