Improvements

After receiving feedback from my Media Studies teacher and fellow peers, I have made a couple of amendments to my work as I considered their perspectives of the codes and conventions used within music magazines. Improvements include:

Construction:

Front cover: 
Whilst comparing my front cover with some of Q magazine issues, I realized how empty the top part of my cover looks due to the positioning of the central image; to make the overall front cover look even more professional and believable, I increased the size of the image and made it large enough so that I could get rid of the unnecessary grey space that was clearly visible before. This is because after comparing my front cover with other existing magazine covers, I realized that in order for mine to be more believable and professional, I decided to follow the convention of how the close-up shot featuring artist always have their head touching the top edge of the page. Here is the final improvements made to the front cover:

Contents page:
Although the design and layout of my contents page looked believable enough to be handed out among other music magazines, it still didn't appear professional enough in terms of the detail of contents inserted. This is why I went onto InDesign to add more pages within the issue to fill in the empty spaces because when I looked at many of Q's contents page, their contents would be detailed and full of pages, usually around the average maximum of 100 pages per issue.

Double page spread:
My aim here was to keep it simple, neat and organized which reflects my publication. However, there were a few areas of my double page spread where it appeared to be too empty. To avoid this, I inserted a title for the image as 'Cover Star' (making sure to match my masthead as part of the house style) to make it even more obvious to the reader who the featured artist is of the issue. I also put a pull quote (a brief phrase from the body text) with the intention of grabbing the viewer's attention even more so they read the article as they get curious, and start wondering where the featured artist said that. In short; to add emphasis and interest. This has been placed to the top right side of the image because this was where the most space was for text to be big enough to read once it has been printed.

Front cover; Contents page (Updated)

I had a proper look back at my documents to thoroughly check the spelling and grammar specifically in my double page spread as this was the document with the most writing contents. However, I noticed that the same artist was mentioned twice on the front cover and there was a typo on the contents page (I got rid of the extra 'e' that was in the word 'delivery' and the unnecessary letter 'b' in the word 'Album' is now removed). I have inserted the updated versions of my documents below:

Evaluation Q7

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Q6

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Q5

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience

Evaluation Q4

Evaluation (4): Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Q3

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Audio;
 
Transcript;

Evaluation Q2

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Q1

Now that I have finally finished designing all three documents, I will be evaluating by answering seven important questions that will surely allow for anyone to understand the decisions I have made from the research section to planning, and lastly, to the construction process and exactly why I have chosen to make those decisions.

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Completed Products

Front Cover

Contents Page

Double Page Spread

Construction of DPS

I went for a very simple layout for the double page spread because it's good to be consistent with the clean, appealing impression that has been created since the front cover. An image will be placed at the left side of the model who was shown to be on the front page. The reason behind this decision is that by leaving a whole page for my made-up artist will ensure that he plays a dominant and significant role in the music industry. Also, during my research I found that most music magazines include only an image covering either side of the page, some with texts such as a quote around it or some even have maximum two images in small sizes, relating to the topic of article that is placed in columns on the other side of the page.

By placing the artist's name (in capitals, using a font that screams power) at the very top centre of the page will instantly catch the audience's view. 

The last few steps to get to the very end of completing my double page spread: I placed my logo and page number at the bottom right corner of the page that consists of only texts. Also, before placing the image to the left side of the image, I went ahead and edited this via Photoshop.

This is the final outcome of my DPS

To edit the image I chose from my contact sheets: First I cropped the top part of the image to get rid of the unnecessary white space. Then, I went onto Photoshop and used a few tools to do a few touch-ups. The screenshot above shows that I used the 'Spot healing brush tool' which gets rid of any blemishes on the face.This helps to make the image appear more professional because it was clear to me when looking through different music magazines that each and every image included always has a team of experts such as a photographer who also edits images. This can be linked to societies standards that in order to be attractive, you are required to have clear, smooth skin.

My second and final step was to brighten the area around the model's pupil. This is just to make his eyes 'pop out' even more because making it stand out is important especially because he is in direct contact with the audience.

The screenshot above is used as evidence to show that I have added the logo and the same page number that can also be seen on the contents page.

Before editing

After editing

Construction of Contents Page

The screenshot above shows the beginning layout of my contents page (after placing all the images I decided to use).

It's common within magazines such as NME and Q to place elements like the logo and the title of the page to be at the very top left of the banner. I decided to carry on with inspirations from Q magazine where they have the title simply named as 'Contents'.The logo allows for the viewer to continuously know that the page has been created by M. magazine and the title clearly states what the page is about. Furthermore, I've placed the week's issue date on the right-hand side of the banner which is followed by Facebook and Twitter's logo alongside with the keyword in which they can search or '#' search M. magazine via social these social media. By doing this, I have allowed for M. to extend their brand to a different platform which takes place online. Due to the vast evolution of technology, I am guaranteed to get a wider audience because it is contemporarily known as a trend and will show to the audience that we also follow the updated ways of connecting with them. This way, the audience can consume M. magazine in different platforms whilst I ensure that they will not fall out as a brand within an area where it is only ever advancing.

To make sure I establish professional outcomes, it's vitally important to be consistent with the house style and the way every element is laid out. In this case, I'm making sure that I follow the colour scheme throughout from the front cover consisting of black, white, and grey. In terms of the way it is laid out: I went for clean cuts, sectioning each part and making it easier for the viewer to follow through the page. And finally, I kept checking all the fonts I have used in my front cover to match it up with the contents page although I have introduced a couple of new fonts on this page where necessary such as the titles of the sections (i.e. features, reviews, and every issue).

Completed Contents Page

Construction of Front Cover

For the past few days, I have been working on creating the front cover.
I've inserted images below of the post-production process:

At the very beginning, I originally planned to use the masthead which can be seen in the screenshot above. However, I realized it does not fit the conventional format of magazines that publish contents on multi-genre.  

With that in mind, I decided to change the masthead's look. I went for a very simple logotype: with a single letter, I used the letter 'M' which stands for Music, letting the audience know all types of music genres are supported by this publisher. As you can see, the masthead is still placed at the top but is now moved to the left-hand side corner of the front cover because, from my research, I found that this is the conventional place as seen in magazines such as Q, NMe, and XXL. Inspiration has come from those magazines also with the use of red in the background of the masthead and white for the text itself. 

By receiving feedback, I noticed that the masthead's font does not actually completely fit with the main image although it is bold and big, I decided to go for a bolder, edgier font rather than leaving it with a clean touch because this isn't common in the magazines I am taking inspiration from. By adding a dot next to the letter 'M' also emphasizes the powerful masthead and I definitely think that the final design of my masthead will be very effective in grabbing the audience's attention as it's now appropriately used to represent them: has a strong personality, and the ability to grab the spotlight in any setting. 

The colour scheme is very trendy and current  as it consists of 'modern' red, white, black, and grey. I've made the right decision of following and implementing a line in red underneath every artist that is mentioned on the front cover because this will be a way to follow the masthead's background colour and also to use this line as a unique element (from other music magazines) by using it throughout other pages in my magazine as a sense of 'brand identity'.
The screenshot above showcases that I've explored around with the possible layouts for the front cover. I chose to go with the second one because I don't want the surroundings to be very busy as I was originally planning to keep it simple because this magazine will be of many genres but it's just that this particular project I am focusing on will be based on alternative R&B.

This is the final design of my front cover.

Construcion of Main Image

Original

This is the image I chose for my front cover. I decided to choose this from my contact sheets because there is the only image which fits into the category of a potential front cover; there's no blur, it's not out-of-focus, and there is direct contact between the viewers and the model. With some adjustments and touch-ups (i.e. crop, rotate), it can definitely be turned into a good piece of work. 

NOTE: Every screenshot placed within the Google Slide below (as evidence of work) is numbered (in red, at the bottom right corner of each slide) in coordination with the paragraphs which explain the post-production process of my front cover. 



I edited this image online at the very beginning of the post-production process because I find it easier to use basic tools such as rotating, cropping and blemish fixes via online websites rather than a software (i.e. Photoshop) as it is really quick and simple for me to do so this way.

1) I went on to raw.pics.io in order to convert the file from Raw to Jpeg otherwise, it wouldn't open up in Photoshop and found a tool which allowed me to adjust the gray-scale. As you can see, the original is more on the pink side of tone and I felt that by increasing the gray-scale by 20% has made the natural tone of the model's face come out more. The main reasoning behind why I did this is because it will appeal to the audience more since the colours do not look exaggerated anymore.

2) After that, I went on to pixlr.com to use the tool which has allowed me to straighten and crop the image to my liking. I found this useful because I wanted to get rid of the wonky appearance it originally creates because it does not look professional and I feel that it will work better with the type of images I aim to follow in terms of conventions only after achieving an image in which the model's body does not appear to be tilted otherwise it will seem strange. This is because, from the analyses of multi-genre magazines (which promote hip-hop/alternative R&B) such as NME, Billboard, and XX, I noticed a very common convention: most of the front covers are either close-up shots or a mid shot if it features an artist. Otherwise, it will more than likely be a full body or mid shot of two people. 

3) The actual appearance of the main image (or in fact, in most cases any image inserted in a magazine) is just as important as supplementing codes and conventions of the type of magazines I am designing in this unit (in order to fit in and be at a high standard level of the industry). This is quite obvious because, in order to appeal to the audience, we must ensure that the image looks attractive and as though it has really been taken professionally from the photo shoots (good quality; no blur; should focus the subject of matter), to the development of image via using the internet (i.e. online editing sites) or software (i.e. Photoshop). With this in mind. I went ahead and added a smokey effect because it adds a nice touch to the background. Though I was fully aware none of the music magazine's (that I have seen during research) have ever used a smokey effect background, I still went ahead and tried out something new because this is an alternative change from something I originally anticipated my image would look like. It seemed that unfortunately I lacked the sort of lighting equipment I would have liked access to. Therefore, I was not able to do a similar theme to XXL's magazine featuring Kendrick Lamar.  By adding this effect, I made an interesting twist to the front cover still which is something I was aiming for in reference to the bright coloured lightings used in XXL's magazine cover. 

The following three images below will be screenshots showing the three final steps I took whilst paying attention to details in terms of the appearance. By doing this, I guarantee myself some positive feedback and/or impression from the audience because I aim to make it look as attractive as possible for visual satisfaction because the main image is definitely an element which is usually viewed by an audience first if not second after the masthead (followed by the colour scheme). Therefore, this element should be considered very well. 

4) The tool 'Brighten' under the adjustments section in Pixlr.com is a useful one because this has allowed for making a small change which will lead to a huge result because it makes the model's eyes stand out, again emphasizing the connection it will create with the audience.

5) After brightening up the eyes, I went on to Ribbet.com which is another photo-editing website. In there, I used the 'Blemish Fix' tool under the Touch Up section. It is self-explanatory as to what this does: I got rid of obvious marks whilst the natural look of his face still remains because my aim here was to make the main image look aesthetically pleasing without looking airbrushed because this is not something I have seen in front covers in regards to a male artist.

6) I finally went on to Photoshop to use the 'dodge' and 'burn' tool because after some careful observations on many different front covers, I noticed that all of the images have been taken with quality cameras and the images were professionally edited by experts. One thing I have realized is that there is surely the technique of 'burning and dodging' used throughout all images of front covers in order to highlight and create shadows where necessary. The screenshot shows my attempt to further develop the image by slightly highlighting parts of the model's face (i.e. bridge of his nose) using the 'dodge' brush and by using the 'burn' brush, I've given his hair a darker shade because the original was too much on the grayer scale and in order to make the image stand out even more, I feel this was a good idea.

After development

Decisions on contents

Front Cover:

Main cover story: JADEN talks Money, Fame, and Girls.
Taglines: Big sean (living the good life); Kelela (back in the club);
Haim (cool cats or annoying sisters?).
'BEST Alternative R&B artists of today': Miguel; Zayn Malik; The Weeknd + more!

Contents Page:

FEATURES:
The M List
R&B found it's soul
Big sean (living the good life)
Kelela (back in the club)
Haim (cool cats or annoying sisters?
New Duo!
10 Powerful Women In Music
Exclusive Q&A with JADEN
BEST Alternative R&B artists of today

REVIEWS:
New albums
Tracks
Concerts+Gigs

Photoshoots

Below shows contact sheets of all the images I took. As you can see, there are a variety of different genres which can be pinpointed by looking at a particular set of image. The reason behind this is that I went in having an open-mind, getting at least three model's to see who fits which genre and what would interest my audience the most after experimenting with props such as a guitar. Unfortunately, I did not have access to any other guitar than one that fits the genre Country which is not something my respondents are interested in though 13/38 said their favourite genre is 'Pop', 11/38 said their favourite genre is 'R&B'. The photo-shoot with Devante is the one that really stands out to me as I know this will appeal more to my audience especially due to his costumes as bomber jackets are in trend nowadays where young people can be seen wearing them all across London. A similar costume can be seen in NME's magazine issue that Kendrick Lamar was featured in which is an issue my audience was particularly fond of when I asked them which out of the four front covers appeal to them the most. By this, I have made sure to represent my audience and so they feel a better connection with the magazine as it is something they have in common and can relate to.

Planning images

I have inserted a few screenshots of my plans (which can be seen below) for the images I intend to capture for my front cover, contents page and double page spread. Note: this is only planning so I have something to refer to. I am sure during the photo-shoots, I will want to experiment with other combinations of shots (i.e. mid shots; different angles) to obtain a complete array of images to choose from in the end.

Draft layouts

To increase my knowledge even more of the codes and conventions used in the music industry, I have organized a presentation whereby I have explored different layouts of front covers, contents page and double page spreads. This task is useful because I will be able to identify the use of different features and its positioning, having looked at existing magazines and their perspective of composition of pages. So that at the post-production process, I will understand which feature is best and most suitable to place where.

Front Cover

Contents Page

1st DPS

2nd DPS

3rd DPS

Planning logo and house style

During the main task, at one point I knew I wanted my music magazine's name to be called 'Amplify' because it is short, not too bold as "KERRANG!" reinforcing the fact that it is will be an edgy magazine (to stand out from the other music magazines) but only to a point where it's still subtle and easy on the ears.

The image below showcases my final logo style of font and name. 

Font name: Velocity
Taken from: http://www.dafont.com/velocity.font?text=amplify&psize=l

Font style and size:I shall be experimenting with the font styles and sizes during the process of creating the documents but I know that I definitely won't be using fonts like 'Rage Italic'. Instead, I will opt for an appropriate, simple with straight cuts font style.

Colour scheme:I plan to use White On Red for my masthead as seen in magazines like NME, Q, and XXL. Black will be used for texts and grey for the background of the central image. These all make for a trendy-looking music magazine specifically because red is used contemporarily. 

Type of language which I will use:The type of language I will be using particularly within the double page spread: a colloquial (informal) language with a mixture of formal to further represent the audience of my publication to have a similar characteristic with the artist that will be featured throughout all the documents.

Criteria Grid

The objective is to now complete the criteria grid consisting of the features or more specifically, the terminologies (used in Media) which I will be looking to implement in my own magazine. Having looked at existing music magazines already, this grid will help me at the stage of planning the layouts and also the post-production process.

Below are the features which I intend to or possibly might include in my own magazine: