Method of construction

By Roma Nair

MethodIn order to construct my magazine, I had to use Microsoft Publisher, so that I can include key conventions of a music magazine, and have the chance to change my ideas and make many different decisions on how to design my magazine. My research mostly helped me to make this different decisions. I have taken various print screens showing what I have changed and kept in the process of designing my magazine and leading up to the finished design.

Front Page

The first thing that I added was the banners and the barcode as this is the usual convention of a magazine, I firstly made this black as I did not know what title I wanted or the colour of my title.

I then added in my title, and placed the icon of a rewind button as this leads onto semiotics. I also changed my banner colours to pink in order for t to contrast well with my black title

Here I have inserted an image which is suitable for the female demographic and the genre of the music magazine that I decided, which is R&B. The right hand side is for the cover stories as I thought that this layout looks rather organised.

I then changed the image on my front page cover as I felt that this image was more suitable as her hair takes up most the page, therefore can place a lot of writing around her, also her clothes and headband match well with the colour scheme of my magazine and she this image is more in focus.

I then added feature stories, showing the development of my front cover, as this makes the magazine come across as more professional looking and at a higher quality as it is following the usual conventions of a magazine. The use of various typography for each feature story makes this front cover more eye catching due to the colours and layout

Contents

I started of by including the banners and the title with the colours that I thought was suitable. I also did a box of three in order to place images of artists in here, so that I know the basic layout I want for my magazine.

I then added in some feature stories and a U.K top 40 hits list, as this will refer to the uses and gratifications theory due to it informing my readers on the top songs in the U.K. I also made the layout more organised as it is easy to navigate.

I then slotted in some images which refer to the male gaze as it consists of woman who have been photo shopped to look attractive, also changed the layout so that the images can be placed neatly around the space used.

Here I have changed my design as this makes the magazine look more professional as I have also included page numbers to make sure that my readers can go to the pages and read all the feature stories they want to find out about.

I then changed the layout again as I wanted to enlarge the images to make them stand out. I also made the background colour grey as this blends in well with the images and the colour scheme, also makes the images and typography stand out. I included a little information about one of the feature stories, making my magazine contents page at a higher professional level.

Double Page Spread

I began with adding my banners and a title. I also placed a box where I would slot in my image.

I then inserted my article, making it 3 columns long as this will make the reader think that this is less boring and it also looks neat, in the middle of this article, I will place an image alongside the quote.

I then decided to change the colour of the banner as I made my font black and placed an image on the right top hand corner. I also changed the title of this article as this one is simple and suitable for my demographic.

I then slotted in an image, and enlarged it so that it can stand out on the page, also refers to the male gaze and by including an image of the artist, I am following the usual conventions of a magazine.

I then included a information box and another image of this artist, in order to fill in the dead space from before. This makes the magazine appealing for readers and informs them on the facts of this artist

Here I moved the title slightly to the right hand side so that I can make the image a little more bigger, also so that I can include another image of the artist to be sitting on top of the information box as this fills in the space and makes it more eye catching and appealing.