Testing Fonts

Testing Fonts

Testing Colour Palettes

Inspirational Photographs

I have recently come across the work of a contemporary photographer; Rankin. He has a very unique style of work which i have become fond of. He takes pieces when he then edits. The edits which he creates are not what you would normally expect to find. Many of them seem as if they have been edited by hand rather than computerised which i think is an excellent effect to add to the photos. I have browsed through much of his work and he has inspired me greatly. I would like to think that i could be creative enough to form a photo which does look creative, but classy for my very own magazine cover. As i want to create a magazine which has an edgy effect i think that these photos are highly inspirational.

Influences from other texts

The work on the NME magazine highly influences me due to the bold, bright colours that always stand out from a neutral background. I think in the above magazine the colours have been put together extremely well. Due to the use of the blue, white and red we are able to see how culture is represented through the magazine and i think this is an excellent idea.

The colour palette is something that would be eye catching amongst other magazines on a shelf. The way that M.I.A herself is wearing red lipstick creates an even greater connection between the colours and the artist. Maybe representing class.This is something i will definitely consider when featuring my artist on the front of my magazine. 

I think the photo on the front of this magazine is especially clever. It is sleek but the use of props within the photo to set the colour scene and also complete the image. This is not a normal convention that would be found on the front of a music magazine and that is partly my reason for becoming keen on this piece. The coverline also is something that fits in brilliantly with the style of the magazine cover. I will take into considersation the use of connection and props when choosing the final photo for my magazine.

The background is something i find interesting within this magazine. I usually prefer a light background to allow other colours on the page to stand out. In this case i think it adds class to the magazine, whereas the white adds cleanliness. The name of the magazine fits in perfectly with the colour scheme itself. This would be something to think about when choosing my colours in relation to the connotations of my magazine name. I also love the picture. I think it's very seductive, which therefore draws in buyers. Not just males, but many females thanks to the character being very aspirational.  

I like the font used for the masthead of this magazine. I think it looks arty which reflects the own unique style of the magazine. It also adds a modern asset to the cover, and also the picture due to it looking very 1960's. I think that the limited number of words of on the front on the piece is special, as all is said through the photo itself.

Moodboard

This is a moodboard i have created in attempt to try and some up some of the ideas i have for my magazine. I have included several artists which all fall under the indie, rock or alternative genre. The photos that you can see in the moodboard are ones which  have been highly inspired by. Following on from the alternative, indie or rock genre of music i would like an artist similiar to feature on the front of my magazine. As you can see i did not feature many bands within my moodboard due to the fact my ideas have moved away from featuring a band on the front cover of my magazine. I think i would much prefer a solo artist for the reason that i am able to focus on one particular look that will be affective when viewed by my audience.

I have included several magazine logos that are created at present. They all appear to pick to a black, red or white colour scheme which is something i have found common in indie/alternative magazines. Therefore i think to continue this scheme would be something that is thoroughly effective. I would like my logo to be bold, and of a slightly ornamental font, rather than something plain, and this would be to give the magazine a much more edgy effect.

Lastly i have also included a couple of magazine covers. I have decided to include this on my thoughts of a magazine as i very much enjoy the colours and the simple, but effective layout and use of layers. These are something that i may choose to take inspriration from when creating my own magazine.

Spin Double Page Spread

Spin Double Page Spread

Q Double Page Spread

Q Double Page Spread

NME Double Page Spread

NME Double Page Spread

Spin Contents Page

Spin Contents Page.

Q Contents Page

Q Contents Page.

NME Contents Page

NME Contents Page.

Spin Magazine Cover

Spin Magazine Cover

Q Magazine Cover

Q Magazine Cover

NME Magazine Cover

NME Magazine Cover

Magazine Inspirations

 

 

                                                                                                              



Preliminary Magazine Task

Pre ProductionFor this task we were asked to create a front cover and a contents page suitable for a school magazine. Included on our magazine had to be a mid shot photo which had to be taken by ourselves. This could be a photo of our self, our someone one else depending on who we wanted to be on the front of our magazine.


The first stage in pre production was to design our front cover on paper. This had to include the photo, each headline and also any extra details. I drew a picture of what i wanted my photo to look like and what expressions i wanted this to include. I also labelled who i wanted my magazine to be aimed at and which type of people would be actually interested in reading my magazine. I thought of many different ideas for my Masthead and finally decided on the name 'Rumour'. The reason i decided to use this name is because i thought that it fitted in well with the concept of a magazine and also the concept of a school.
Skills that i picked up throughout the pre-production process was that my design has to be detailed so i knew exactly what i wanted to do when i got onto creating the cover on Photoshop. I also realised that i had to know what audience i wanted my magazine to be suitable for, so i could then develop coverlines and photos which were appropriate.

ProductionI began the production part of my task by getting into a pair and going off to take photos for each others magazine covers. We had to take a mininum of 12 mid shot photos as this then made us able to choose from a wide selection and not wasting any time having to take new photos. I chose to take photos of one of my friends agaisnt a white background, as when it came to putting the footage onto Photoshop this would allow me to see easily what i had to cut out. This part of the task was fairly straight forward.

After gathering my photos and uploading them to the computer for the next part of my production i started to edit and create my front cover on Photoshop. I began by cutting out my photo using the Magnetic Lasso tool, which i found a simple task. I then began to create layers and started to add detail to my cover. I added the Masthead and chose to colour it in a lightblue, similar to the school colour. The background i filled my cover in with was just plain black, and the reason for chosing this was that it complimented the two other colour i chose to write in. These colours were, light blue and white so overall i stuck to a three colour palet which was black, blue and white. I had to decide on a font that i was going to put my masthead in. I knew i had to choose something thick so it was eye catching and easy to read but also something that looked quite smart and presentable. After i had picked a  font for the Masthead, i then went on to choose to others for the other coverlines that matched well.

So after deciding colours and fonts i then started to use the layers to put my magazine cover together. I added a date, price and bar code to make it look complete. Something i struggled with throughout using Photoshop was forgetting to add a layer with every new thing that i did. Apart from that i feel that i used the program as well as could have as i hadn't had much experience of using it before. The skills that i picked up throughout the production stage were using quite a few of the tools on Photoshop and also how to make my magazine look more proffessional by editing the smallest things. For example making sure that the text is aligned correctly etc. I feel that by doing this task i will have much more knowledge that i can put towards my final product to make as well as i can.

This is what my final product looked like.