Daisy Cushen

Create the front cover and contents page for

a college magazine.

Create a front cover, contents page and

double page spread for a college magazine.

Genres

Fashion

Music

Film

Celebrity Gossip

College

Mens

Children's

Real Life

I studied magazine

conventions early on

in the course and

made a very quick

mock up of a

magazine using

pictures off the

internet to show my

understanding of

common magazine

conventions.

Glamour – Fashion

Cosmopolitan - Fashion

Heat – Fashion/Celebrity Gossip/Real Life

Rock Sound - Music

Kerrang! – Music

NME – Music

Marie Claire – Fashion

Look – Fashion/Celebrity Gossip/Real Life

I not only looked at many different genres of

magazines.

I looked at their content.

I researched the history of the magazine

industry.

I looked at different ways to take pictures.

I looked at different shot types and create

graphics using paint to illustrate the shots I

learnt.

Target Audience – College Student Aged 16 –

21

Influences –

- The major influences for this magazine

were the cheap, celebrity gossip, real

life, and fashion magazines as they

produce ‘Quality’ articles on a low

budget to keep prices down. I used these

as an inspiration as college students

don't have much money to spend on

magazines.

I used basic ordinary fonts on my college

magazine as the college magazines I looked

at were very generic and I made an attempt

to mimic that.

For colours I made different colour swatches

to see which colours went together, I also

tried the colours over my cover image to see

which ones were easiest to read on the

cover.

For my college magazine I used photo’s I had

taken in the summer.

Good Points -

- the red masthead stands out well from

the cover

- the red and green text both stand out

from the cover

- the issue number, issue date and barcode

are easy to find

Points of improvement –

- the red and green text looks odd

together, use different colours on music

magazine and colours that go together

better.

- the cover image could be better, the

model could be looking at the camera and

better angles used. (practice photography

before taking picture for college magazine)

-could use another image on top of the

cover image to make the cover more

interesting to look at.

- issue number could be bigger

Good Points -

- the images look good

- the separated sections work

well together and look effective

Points of improvement -

- The images could be better laid

out

- The separated section could be

better set out

- the text could be in different

colours to make the page more

interesting

- The page looks plain and

uninteresting

- a background would improve

the looks of the page

The contents page is very plain.

Needs more colour.

Cover image needs improving, Subject should

be looking at the camera.

I had a mixed reaction from my peers. Many of

them liked my college magazine while others

didn’t.

Microsoft Publisher

Internet sites used:

Google images – barcode image

Wordpress.com – Blog

Target Audience – 14 years olds to 25 year

olds. Rock and metal music fans.

Influences –

- Rock Sound

- Kerrang!

- Metal Hammer

I am using these magazines as influences as i

read them and they are also the most

popular music magazines for my chosen

music genre.

I tried lots of different colour selections for

my colour scheme, I decided on Black, Cyan

and white. This was modified from my

original idea of Black, Cyan and Magenta. I

replaced the magenta as I didn’t think it

fitted with the image the rock and metal

music genres have created.

I downloaded the font Blade ii from a

free font site I found using Google. I chose

this font as I believe it portrays the image I

wanted for my magazine.

I had a few problems with my photography. One of them being the weather on the day of the shoot. It was very cold and windy, we had put the shoot back as long as we could in hope the weather would improve but it didn’t so in the end we went ahead and just got very cold.

The other problem was what shots to take, angles and getting everyone in the frame proved a major issue. Also my models seemed to not listen to direction and just did their own thing.

My final chosen images were the best from a

large amount taken on the day of the shoot.

I like these images and they fit well with the

magazines chosen music genre.

The photography could be improved

considerably , but I am only an amateur

photographer.

I read through many articles and decided I

would mimic Rock Sounds writing style.

Rock Sounds articles are often very sarcastic

and are fun to read.

The articles are less serious and I personally

find them more interesting to read.

I also decided to do an interview, and have

half of it as fan questions as fan questions

are often the more entertaining to read.

I filmed the interview the same day as the

photo shoot.

The major issue was the weather as there is

a lot of background noise from the wind on

the film.

We also all were very cold because of the

weather.

One of the other issues was the band kept

getting very carried away.

My inspirations for the

front cover came from

a mix of Rock Sound

and Kerrang!

I liked the idea of

using white text on a

front cover, a

technique both

magazines.

Good Points:

• The mast head is very effective at

attracting attention and effectively

portrays the music magazines genre.

•The colour scheme works well together

and is attractive to both genders

•The cover image is attractive

•The other images on the cover makes it

attractive and more interesting

•cover lines refer to articles in the

magazine and in particular to the double

page spread. With the use of a teaser.

•The plug referring to the competition is

also attractive and draws the readers

attention.

Points For Improvement:

•The cover image doesn't completely cover

the front cover. It would look better if it

did.

•The mast head could be improved by

placing the words closer together

My inspiration for

the contents page

came from Kerrang!

Honestly Kerrang!’s

conents page is the

only thing I like

about the magazine.

Good Points:

•The layout of the contents page is

effective.

•The colours work well together.

•Follows many of the conventions

magazines use for their contents pages.

•It further portrays the magazines genre.

•Labelling the different types of article

works effectively and adds

attractiveness.

•The main image looks attractive

•The use of editor space looks attractive

and follows what many popular

magazines do by placing an editor note

on the contents page.

Points For Improvement:

•The use of more images would make

the contents page more attractive.

• More pages listed on the contents

page.

•The page number could be made more

attractive.

The inspirations for my double page spread

came mainly from interviews with bands.

I like the articles based around band

interviews the best and many other people

do to.

My major inspiration came from Rock Sound.

They to a section every month asking a band

questions fans have sent in. I not only like

the idea I like the basic layout they use.

Good Points:

• The title stands out.

•The images are well placed and

look attractive.

•The layout is effective and follow

the common three column grid used

in the magazine industry (also found

on the contents page).

•The Questions are clearly headed

•It is clearly shown who is answering

what.

•The use of different colours on

different backgrounds is effective

and looks attractive.

• The article is well set out and the

spacing is effective, and makes the

article easier to follow.

•The use of a heading makes the

article easy to follow also.

Points For Improvement:

• The use of quotes from the

article in a larger font to draw

in attention could of improved

the appearance of the over all

article and make it look more

interesting.

• The page numbers could look

more attractive.

• Another image could improve

the appearance of the spread

further.

Overall I think my music magazine

successfully portrays the genre.

The images are effective.

The layouts follow conventions.

The text is well set out.

The inspirations for the magazine show

clearly throughout.

The magazine could be improved further in

some places.

Programs/software:

- Quark

- Photoshop

- VideoCam suite

- Windows Movie Maker

Internet Sites:

- Wordpress.com – blog

- Google images – Barcode

Time was the biggest issue with my project, i

need to learn to manage it better.

Another issue was my laptop broke at

Christmas and it took three months to repair

so I had to find time at college to do my

work instead.

Other than that I think I handled things

pretty well.

They liked the layouts.

They liked the colours.

They liked the images.

They said that some improvements could be

made like the cover image could cover the

whole of the front page.

I asked my peers if they would buy the music

magazine and most of them answered yes.

My time management could have been

improved greatly.

In the end I used my time as best I could.

Looking back on my project I would have

started earlier than I did so I would of been

completed sooner and would of been under

less pressure.