The next step...

My front cover is finally finished! Now it's time to complete my contents page. One problem I encountered was  I forgot what font I used for my title on my front cover. So, as a result, what I planned originally to do didn't go quite to plan! Panic struck and I didn't know what to do. However, a convention that is used in many magazines is that they put the title of their front cover on their contents, but smaller than how it is portrayed on the front so it doesn't stand out as much. 

This is my unfinished version:

My completed version would be finished by Monday. 

Steps towards my final piece - front cover

Originally I had planned to go with a different picture that is currently on my front cover. The reason behind this is while I was showing my pictures to my teacher, she pointed out a picture that was a good potential shot. So as a result, I decided to go with her idea. The other image of Bilal M wearing a white jacket took me ages to cut out! After eventually cutting it out, I encountered a problem. Due to the jacket being white, it blended into the background so I had to put a shadow around it to make it stand out.

Here is what I was going to go with:                                 This is the picture that worked better:  

Getting a right colour scheme took me ages to do! Because my original colour scheme was yellow, white and black, I realised while adding the colours that yellow doesn’t work on well on a white background as the text was not readable. So, while experimenting with colours, I came across gold. I got this idea from the stripes on his white jacket. My title originally didn’t have the bold lines around it. This was due to the fact that I didn’t pay much attention to the title. My teacher gave my some advice and told me that the title doesn’t stand out and I should do something to make it big and bold. One thing which I found interesting was the positioning of the title. I had it in the middle and my teacher told me that normally on magazines, the title is not normally placed like this. I made it bigger to go across the top and realised that the title made my whole front cover stand out!

Normally the price is either on top or besides the barcode but nor black or gold stood out! Gold represents wealth and money which goes with the image of him wearing a suit. Black didn’t stand out due to the black suit Bilal M is wearing. Looking back at the magazine that inspired me, I realised that the issue date and the price was at the top underneath the title. This gave me an idea to add in my issue date and where to place my price. While doing my survey, one of my questions was ‘how much would you pay for a magazine?’ and one of my options was 50p-£1.00 and the majority of people chose that option. However, I believe that it is too cheap so I changed the price to £2.50.

These were steps towards my final piece:

I first started off by looking for a masthead on dafont.com. As my magazine is based on rnb genre, I was planning to use a graffiti font. However, I came across this font which stood out much more so I decided to go with this. I then cropped out both images on Photoshop. I added a shadow on the second image because as he's wearing white, he blended into the background which was a problem. 

I then added the lines to where I should place my text. I used the colour gold as it represents, money and wealth. Also, as his jacket has gold lines which automatically blends in.

I started to experiment with the backgrounds. I couldn't go with too bright colours as it would look colourful and that's not a convention of a rnb magazine. As he's wearing a black suit, I thought a black background might work. However, I didn't like it and decided to change it back to white.

This is my final piece. I added a bar code, the price, the issue date and current, fresh artists at the bottom.

Most rnb magazine that I've looked at, had this at the bottom which makes it a convention. I am happy with my final piece, but I believe if I had a little more time, I would've maybe changed a few things and moved a few things around.

Experimenting with the camera!

So during the past few days, I've been taking pictures for my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I can now say that I much more familiar with the camera than I was at the beginning. By familiarizing myself with the camera, it has enabled me to produce potential shots that I want to use in my magazine. I have used two types of shots which are long shots, mid shots.  I have used these two particular shots because they are both very common in R&B (my chosen genre) magazines. While taking pictures, I experimented with the lighting. I took a few with a light shining at his figure, then I took others outside. By doing this, it made me realise how lighting affects your image, which place was better and which one was not. I decided to take lots of images as it gives me a wide range of what to choose from. Here are all of the images I took:

While taking my pictures, I thought about the location of where my artist would be placed. Also, different locations had different lighting so this enabled me to pick out key images that I thought would work well for my front cover and the main image is the important. While, taking my pictures, I ensured I took it with a clear background as this would make it easier for me to cut out. To ensure my pictures were good, I asked my teacher for his opinion on what he thought of them. He told me I should add an item on the artist like an era cap, a watch etc. I took this information into account and made my artist wear a watch which is shown in my double page spread. I realised that it made my image stand out and I wish I had done this for my front cover as my double page spread images are much stronger than the ones on my front cover. In many music videos I have realised that most of the artists have an item whether it be or a chain or ring, it makes them stand out much more than them wearing nothing at all.

Front cover pose

After a lot of thought, I have finally decided my layout for my front cover! I have stuck to the same colour scheme (yellow, black and white) and I think my idea is effective and hopefully it will attract potential customers. I have taken parts of the magazine I got my inspiration and use some ideas of my own to create my overall front cover. As I have only use Photoshop once (for my prelim last year), I do realise that I have to use my own time out of school to make this the best it can be. I will get help from my teacher and I will be taking pictures of Monday as my model is not ready yet. By using some of my own ideas as well as theirs, it give my magazine that unique touch. Here is the front cover that inspired me:

Shot list

Front cover
On my front cover, I have decided my colour scheme to be black, white and red. However, as this is a common theme amongst many students in my class, I want to change it to white, black and yellow. I want my magazine to be unique and different from everyone else's. I got my inspiration from the music magazine 'Flavour'. As it being one of my favourite magazines of all time, I aim to create a magazine similar to Flavour by using Photoshop. However, I am aware that I need to be careful not to recreate the magazine. My artist will have two sides to him, good and bad.

Double Page Spread
My original idea on my double page spread was to include my artist sitting down, looking down against the wall which would be placed on the left hand side. However, I also found out many people had this exact idea so I decided to change it. After thinking, I want to either have one whole page dedicated to the image itself. Or have the artist posing after the wall white different shots underneath it. I got my inspiration of using one page for the image itself from the magazines Flavour and Vibe.

Contents Page
As Vibe is my favourite magazine, I didn't like the layout of the contents page. This is due to the fact of the way the title is written. In my opinion, I don't think it is very effective. I have decided to keep my magazine very simple as making it too busy might not attract potential customers.

Name of my magazine

For my magazine, I've decided on the name 'SWAG'. This is due to the fact of today's society and how artists get recognised. They don't only get recognised by their voice, but the way they dress. For example, Lady Gaga is known to be extravagant in what she wears. By doing this, it makes her become known for what she wears which symbolises her uniqueness. Another well known artist is Nicki Minaj. She is known for wearing unusual but yet again unique clothes which makes her what she is today. With today's technology, your voice can be changed into something it's not. That's why when many artists peform live,  they don't sound as good as in their songs.
'Swag' in slang means the way you dress. In other words; how you present yourself and normally if someone is dressed nicely, people will say you've got 'swag'.

Reader Profile

Zara is a 17 year old who is currently studying A levels in Media, Music and Business Studies at sixth form. She is interested in RnB/Hip Hop music and spends her free time reading magazines such as Vibe and Flavour as they cater for the similar genre. She prefers magazines with interviews, gossip about different artists and upcoming albums.  These factors would draw her attention into buying a magazine. Her favourite artists are Beyonce, Rihanna, Tinnie Tempah, Chris Brown and Alicia Keys and aspires to be as big as them in the near future. Zara is currently taking private singing lessons at home. This will prepare her well enough for her next step into the music industry as she hopes one day to become a singer. As she is very passionate about music, she promotes her music through Facebook, Youtube and SoundCloud in hoping she gets recognised. My music magazine will appeal to Zara as I will be catering for RnB/Hip Hop music and it will also include top tips from well know aritists on how they got as big as how they are today and what others who are willing to enter the music industry need to do to get there.