Evaluation

Final Products - Front Cover

Final Product- Contents Page

Final Product- Double Page Spread

Front Cover Construction Stages

When I started the construction of front cover, I had a good idea of what I wanted to design. However, as Photoshop was new to me I did not have enough knowledge which allowed me to portray my ideas straight away. Firstly, I found an image that I like and that would be suitable for my front cover. This happened to be one of the first pictures I took in my photo-shoot in the studio. In previous planning I had made the decision to test the typical female main artist, featured on most front covers, I had organised for a male model to be my main artist. Nonetheless, I thought further into this idea and came to the conclusion that my female model would fit the criteria more successfully. I positioned my female model, with the according clothing and props ensuring the music element of the magazine would be easily identified to my audience. Therefore not mistaking it for the likes of a fashion or lifestyle magazine. I knew that the composition of the shot wasn't what is typically found on a pop magazine cover, taking this into account I cropped the image to fit a tighter shot type.  

After choosing my masthead title, I went on to pick an appropriate font. I then placed my masthead design behind my protagonist, to do this I used the lasso and magic select tool to outline the head of my model, so that I could cut that bit of her body out then reorder the layers. I changed the shot composition to a closer, more compacted medium shot. Despite it still not fitting the common conventions of the pop genre, as they usually feature close ups, I thought that I would go on to challenge the audiences expectations. In my research it was evident that Pop magazines tend to mainly use serif font for aspects such as artist names, quotes or important facts. So tried to re-create what is commonly seen in other magazines from this genre. By putting my text into a vibrant shade of blue, this meant that I could now introduce more colours in order to create a clear colour palette and house style to my product. Originally, in my flat plans I had come up with the name Jodie Baxter to use on my front cover, subsequently I changed my mind and decided to value a different name, Lily England. My reason behind doing this was that I felt my second chose was more girly and fitted with the pop genre more than the first. 

Shortly after, I changed my mind about the blue text. I felt the font and colour didn't really work together. Despite stating what I found in my research, I went against this and used a sans serif font for the artists name, as I thought this looked better with the other features of my magazine. I chose to put the artists name in white, I did this as I later planned to add other colours to my colour pallet. I moved my protagonist down slightly so that my masthead could be read and seen more clearly. It is important that my masthead is recognisable for later purchases.

I used the gradient tool to break up the solid blue of the background. I felt this really emphasised the happy, excited vibe that comes from the pop genre. I chose to change the font of the artists name, as I felt it needed to be bolder and have a more intense effect on the reader. I went with a font called Impact, then changed the qualities of the letters themselves. I did this to make the text seem taller and thinner, showing a clear different between the masthead. Throughout my research I had seen the 'plus' feature added to a lot of front covers. I really liked the idea so decided to apply it to my own design. I colour matched a part of the guitar, in hope that this would enable to host another colour for my colour pallet.  

At this stage I added all my cover lines, changed one of the main colours as well as adding the finishing touches such as the bare code and price. I decided to have my colour lines all in the same shade, which was colour matched to a different part of the guitar than before. The reason I changed the initial colour was because I found that original the burgundy was too dark, and did not fit with this type of magazine. So, I altered it to a lighter, pastel, peach, which evidently complimented the page considerably more; increasing the production values. Most of the cover lines replicate the shape that my models body creates. On the bottom right hand side of the page I added a barecode, showing that my product is professional. In this area I also added the issue date, emphasising this point. I also created two web links, that co-inside with my magazine, this creates a multimedia platform for my product and encourages internet users to buy my magazine.   

I added another cover line which linked to my double page spread article. Showing intertextuality within my product. Increasing the quality of my production values, making the audience more susceptible to purchasing my magazine. 

After reviewing my front cover further, I made the decision that my cover lines looked messy and jumbled. Despite this being a common convention of most pop magazines, I wanted to portray this aspect in a more subtle way, however I felt I did this by the use and positioning of the colours I used. So I edited ,y page, by moving all my cover lines to the right hand side of the page, then aligned then using the grid tool. This gives my magazine a unique image as the righting it situated 'back to front'. I also added more text to some of the cover lines, making it more clear as to who the story was about. Since looking at magazines aimed at my target audience, I noticed that a number of them had festival adverts. I thought this was a very useful marketing technique, as my target audience find this type of event entertaining; therefore want to know more about it. I chose this particular festival as it is popular and well known to a lot of people. I also felt the that the colour of the logo, clashed with my colour scheme however in a good way, creating a wider more 'popish' feel to my design. By adding the two little captions underneath the image this allowed my page to look fuller as well as inciting the audience with a snippet of information, without giving the whole story away. A tactic that makes the consumer want to read on and gather more details. 

Finally, I made my masthead slightly larger to make it stand out more so that it becomes more recognisable to the audience. I continued, then used the eraser tool to get ride of the background surrounding the V Festival logo. The reason I did this was simply because the white became too distracting from the rest of the page, which took away the importance of the other elements of the magazine. Afterwards, I then rearranged the positioning of the  barcode and informations around them. For example I changed the qualities of the date so that it was the same length as the barcode itself, so that it looks more appealing. 

Contents Page Construction Stages

Firstly, when I started constructing my contents page, I followed a simple layout. Using coloured boxes as a visual guide to indicate where I was going to place the different aspects of my connects page. I wrote my contents text in a word document,  imported it to the Photoshop and located it accordingly. The font I chose to title my page was very different to the other fonts I used throughout the other aspects of the page, I did this so that it was clear to the audience what the purpose of the page is. 

Here, I added more blue lines to break up the page, sectioning the information so that it doesn't seem so over whelming. I think by using the grey box this had the same effect. It also allowed a location for my top 20 listing, I thought this was a contemporary way of making the page look more inviting as well as making that part of the page stand out. I moved the blue box to the left and used this to host my Masthead and title name of my magazine, subtly reminding the audience what they are reading. I picked my fourth image from my photo shoot to feature on my contents page. The images I used showed a range of shot compositions and evidenced my skills behind the camera.

After reviewing my contents page, I felt I had taken more suitable images that would look better and bring more colour. I realised that the initial images I had chosen had a similar appearance in colour and therefore didn't suggest my magazine was from the pop genre. So, I found some different pictures that demonstrated a larger range of colours. The main image that can be seen is the same protagonist who is displayed on my front cover, making a link throughout my product. I intended my editors comment to go in the black box at the bottom of my page. 

To add even more colour, I edited one of my images so that the background colour was a slight green. I thought this really helped emphasise that my magazine was from the pop genre as it combined more colour with the other elements such as lines and boxes. 

After writing my editors comment, I situated it in the black box. I did this because I thought it would make the text stand out a bit more, as this convention is usually highlighted as being important to the audience. I also added another line, in a light grey to show separation between the two bits of text, I chose grey as it kept to the colour theme.

I rearranged the bottom right hand corner of my page. After changing my mind about the previous design, I took inspiration form past Billboard magazines. I really liked this feature as it gave my contents a more organised feel by adding the columns. I used some more pastel colours and the addition of red to emphasise excitement. I numbered the pictures according to the number the artist features in my listed content; a common convention of any magazine. I chose the colour of the numbers based on the brightness of the image and which colour would be seen more clearly. As you can see I have used there are a range of black and white text, in the same front style that is followed throughout.



To finish, I moved the number '10' as it was slightly out of position, by my mistake I had not noticed it. I double check my design to make sure I was happy with my final product. 



Double Page Spread Construction

To start the construction of my double page spread, I chose from a variety of images I took. I knew I wanted to use this model for this page when I was planning my shoot. Typically pop magazine feature a long shot of the protagonist on the double page spread, despite this I went for a medium shot to challenge the conventions. Similar to some of my other images I used a guitar as a prop, to really emphasise the music element of the magazine. Although the stance of my protagonist is rather moody and downcast I wanted to contradict that by using bright lighting behind to model to almost make the effect of illumination. Connoting an angelic, innocent personality.

I had already come up with an name for my artist, evident in my flat plans, so now I had to use an appropriate font for my masthead. I knew I wanted to have the text in blue as this would carry over an element from my front cover, showing a clear house style. I ended up using the same font as what I had already benefited from on my front cover, however it looks slightly different as I changed the qualities of the text. I widened and shortened the letters, I also created more space between each character. This made the text have a more bold and solid feel, connoting the tough appearance of the protagonist. I wrote my article, put it into columns, then mirrored the shape of my model.  

At this stage I used the technique known as a pull quote, by doing this it allowed me to break up the large chunk of text, as well as being able to add some addition colour to the page. I used the blue text as this linked with the blue of the masthead as well as the other surrounding colour pallet found in the rest of my magazine. To finish my double page spread, I added the last few features that are typically seen as a convention. I placed a date and page number on the bottom right hand side of the spread, that links to my contents page. Another thing I found when researching was a credit to the writer of the article and the photographer of the image, reflecting on this I wanted to use this feature in my double page spread. Making it look more professional, therefore increasing the production values.

The final changes I made were small, however showed that I took note of pop conventions in more detail. Firstly, I added an ellipsis to the end of my article, that indicates there is more to come. I felt it made my page look more professional as i rounded the finish rather than but stopping it. Also i removed the date which featured in the bottom right hand corner, since reflecting on my research I realised that this was a very limited element. After playing around with the text I came to the conclusion that my double page spread looked better with out it. 

Double Page Spread Article

If music was just down to hard work Jason Smith would have been at the top years ago. Since moving to London in 2012, the 18 year old singer- songwriter, born in Devon but raised in Essex, this artist has been gear with a perfectionist’s personality. Throughout 2014 he played 376 shows, globally. He survived by selling CD’s on street corners near, from his backpack and hoodies from his website. Over the course of the three years, his self- motivated efforts are the reason his five EP’s were release. The final EP, Heaven Is For Real, got to number 3 on the ITunes charts and stayed there for 4 weeks. Along the way people started talking about this new artist, the public were amazed by his lyrics and innovative style. He was different, and that’s what everyone liked. For a while all we knew about Jason was his music, as that’s what he was all about. But sure enough his fans started demanding more. Shortly after he social networked his was to several million views on YouTube. This was a young man that definitely beets the NEET stereotype.
However, hard work doesn’t count for much in today’s society. Jason was accompanied by a spark of talent and these symbol-title debut shows so he found it hard to get recognised by the right people. Smith has the flair to match his traditional work ethics. It’s a smart ruling of the singer song- writer, it’s all down the acoustics, a hint of hop-hop with pops swagger, exploring the empty spaces between Newton Faulkner, Hozier and Plan B. Edgier than the first two, yet considerably more alive than the later one.
It’s a well-worked crossed hybrid, but what really sets Smith apart is his skill at painting picture, no, powerful images with his choice of words. That One Thing, a Top 5 in the charts throughout the summer months, is about a homeless teenager that holds onto the thought of love through the toughest times. Who Would You Have Been? Is about the excitement of approaching fatherhood, but the story ends with a gut wrenching twist The song is so direct, the first time you hear it you catch your breath. His songs bring so much emotion to the listeners, as if they had experienced this situation themselves; the feeling as fresh and raw each time the song is played. Daylight, meanwhile, is a feisty dig at his former manager, who told him he’d have to completely change who he was if he wanted to be a success. Over a punchy breakfast and a chugging acoustic guitar loop he put together, he stretches “I’m true, my songs are where my heart is, I’m not you, that would be disastrous… I’m real, I do it all, it’ all me”. Somebody see Smith operating in a more traditional singer song-writer style, stripped back and so natural. The guitar speaks as many words as the lyrics, despite being less rhythmic and more melodic, the song is filled out with violins and the song builds to a final climax of sharp instrumental peaks. The use of cleaver multi- layered backing really gives this song the pop feel his audience really adores. Whilst the artist him-self howls blissfully like a man possessed. It’s a richer more dynamic track than anything seen in the pop industry, a risk release that proved a massive hit in loads countries. So many artists limit themselves to that same audience, whereas Smith caters for every possibly desire.
If there’s a flaw, it’s an unintentional masterpiece. No matter how he goes about music, it could never be wrong; or sure he is a miracle worker. “Maybe you were made for me/ maybe you were made for someone else” he sings on Loving You the most complimenting of chord sequences, as sickly as a giant teddy-bear Valentine’s Day card; but still being able to pull it off as if nothing even crossed his mind. Put it down to youthful nativity, this album really is so accomplished it’s easy to forget that Jason Smith is only just cut from the streets.
In any case, such slushy moments are infrequent and don’t detract significantly from what is an impressive debut, 1997 is remarkably full formed and, for the most part, executed with such maturity and immense skill. For him all the hard graft and misfortune, it seems, has paid off in full.