My school magazine-Little Issue

Preliminary task.

I was set a task to design and create my own front cover and contents page of a school magazine.

This involved researching and analysing examples of other school magazines like 'primary times', taking photographs of my own to include in my magazine and create head lines and titles to go onto the front cover and contents page that relate to school life.

'Primary times': The title is bold and colourful and draws in the attention of the reader. The three main colours are from the pastel cololur pallete (yellow blue and pink) which links in with the young child like feel to the magazine. The front cover has images of young children which links in to the idea that the magazine is aimed at primary school children and their parents. The cover reviews some of the material inside.

I approached this tasks by firstly creating some ideas and sketchs of what my magazine could look like. I created four ideas, looking closely at the layout and composition of the magazines front cover. I took ideas from each design and combined them to create the front cover.

The final outcome of my magazine is a result of my draft sketches. However i did make alot of changes. I decided to keep the colour scheme of the drafts (red and black) but i felt my designs were to empty and needed more detail. I felt that my ideas didnt relate enough to the school and its theme so i wanted to add more to my final design. I added a picture of the sixth form block to tie in the themes of the school and the school magazine idea. I moved the title "Little Issue" down to the centre of the page, and had the picture of the sixth form block at the bottom of the page. I had the headlines coming out of the roof on a slant to give the effect of an 'explosion of information'. The magazine front cover didnt actually turn out the way i expected it to and i felt i wasn't actually very successful.

Using photoshop enabled me to extend my creativeness and ideas as it allowed me to do things that certain other programmes may not have been able to. Such as edit the actual photgraphs and create different effects and styles with them and layer text onto photos or layer text so it over laps with images or other text . I had experience of using photoshop before i started this task which made it slightly easier for me. However, having to remind and refresh my memory of how to work with photoshop, took a little longer which slowed the proccess of actually making the magazine, down. I did at first feel very limited to what i could and couldn't do with my work and felt that very minor things like, not being able to find a suitable font obstructed my creative control.

My magazine specifically represents school life as it links with school through the pictures and headlines and inside material. It is specifically aimed at sixth formers and events that involves them 'sixth form events', 'exam stress', 'interveiws with new sixth formers and how they are finding school'.

Looking back at my magazine and at the proccess of making and designing it i would change quite abit. Firstly i would research other magazines more to give myslef a better idea of what really makes a school magazine, secondly i would add alot more deatil to the front page and really fill out the page with more pictures and bolder writting. I would have made the page alot brighter and lightened the picture and text to make the magazine more eye catching.

Working with existing conventions and forms of real media products.

Existing media products
My school magzine relates to exisiting products and other school magazine because it's target audience are the pupils at the school. Like most school magazines, i have stuck the the school colours and used pictures that relate to the school like school buildings and pupils. As well as using the same sort of language tecgniques that the pupils would understand and having the same type of stories and headline that happen in pupils day to day lives and that might be included in other school magazines.
My music magazine relates as i did alot of research into what an R'n'B music magazine looks like and what it features. I wanted to make mine original, but still have similarites so that the magazine would still appeal to conventional R'n'B music magazine readers yet would have a clear definable aspect that would draw my target audience in.

Researching magazine styles
Before i started to create my magazines i did research into the same genre as the magazines i wanted to create, to see what other ones look like and what they feature . I began to learn the styles of magazines are very important and all the small details make the difference. I looked in detail at the colours, layout, central image, other smaller images and inside materials (cover stories).

The magazine i chose to base my music magazine around was downlow magazine. It had pictures and the same style that i wanted to use for my magazine. I looked closely at the colours and the central photo. The colour were usually quite bright with a few mono tones. The masthead was always in the background with the central image or images overlapping it. It also boasted several titles surrounding the central image.

Music Magazine-Researching magazine companies

I researched 6 different magazine companies:

• Conde'


• EMAP


• National magazine company


• BBC worldwide


• IPC


• Future

• I researched information about these 6 companies. Launch dates, what they've produced and other fact. I researched these to give me a better insite into magazine companies and what they consits of and how they influence magazine production and marketing.
  

Conde'

• conde' produce magazines like : Vouge, Glamour, Vanity Fair, GQ and Tatler.
• The company was launched in 1907.
• They produce hand bag size magazines that appeal to many women including busy buisness woman and the traditional housewife.
• The comapny was one of the first internet publishers in 1995.
• They have a US pariet company which controls UK subsidiary of the conde' comapny.

EMAP

• The company was formed in 1947
• They have both UK and US officeses
• They own their own media companies such as CAP and planet retail.
• They produce omega, computer and video games and magazines.

National Magazine company

• They are nicknamed-"Natmag"
• They are based in London
• They were esablished in 1901
• They produce magazines like: Bazzar, country living, cosmo, mens health, goodhouse keeping, reveal, real people nd many others.

BBC worldwide

• Partially government funded
• They have offices throughout the world.
• They have published: Good food, Radio times and the top gear magazine.
• The top gear magazine has been published in 30 different countries
• BBC worldwide is the UKs third largest consumer magazine company.

IPC

• This company is the leading UK magazine publisher.
• They are an international publishing comapany.
• They were founded in 1963 and are based in London
• They own over 80 magazines including : NME, now, woman, nuts, world soccor, instyle and many more.
• They sell over 350 million copies each year.
• They are owned by Time Inc. who are part of the Timewarner company.
  

Future

• They were founded in 1985
• They are based in bath.
• They produce: games, films and music magazines.
• Their top 5 music magazines are: Xbox 360 official, Total films, T3, classic rock and official playstation.
• They have over 100 magazines and over 70 websites.
• They have official titles for microsoft, sony and nintendo.

Music Magazine-Making "BIGGA SOUNDZ"

My task was to creat a fornt cover, contents page and double page spread feature for my very own music magazine. I made a mind map of my ideas to help me see a little clear about what i actually wanted to produce. I decided:

• My target audience.


• Possible magazine names


• A description of my made up band


• The tree main colours on the front cover


• The over all theme of the magazine.


• A possible design layout

I stuck mostly, to the initail design that i produced of the magazine, making a few minor changes here and there.
The most difficult part of creating my magazine was deciding what to include on the front cover and how to fit it all in, lay it out and make it look realistic. I had to make various decisions and develop on ideas to make the magazine look how i wanted it to. Organising the photo shoot was difficult as i had to decide who i wanted to pose in my photos and where to shoot the photos.

I believe i managed my time very well and included everything in my magazine that i wanted to include. It was a difficult task, but fun at the same time. I belive that my final design is realistic and looks like a real R'n'B music magazine.

Music Magazine- My target audience

Whilest making my magazine i had to base most of my ideas on the target audience. I had to choose who and what age i wanted my magazine to be aimed at. I decided that my typical target aundience is someone in their early 20s, who loves going out clubbing, partying and socialising. My target reader love music (mainly R'n'B) and people who love the same music and things as them. They like knowing all celebrity gossip ad new songs and albums that are being released and they always have to be at the centre of every party and event. BIGGA SOUNDZ is aimed at both males and females.

Music Magazine-The photo shoot

When doing my photo shoot for my magazine i had to think about a few crutial things:

Mise-en-scene:

Location, Lighting, Make-up, Costume and Props. Here are some of my picture that i took:

Music Magazine-Questionaire and its feedback

I created a questionaire for my magazine so i could get some feedback of what a variety of different peole thought about my magazine. I printed out a picture of the front cover of my music magazine and attached it to the questionaire and then handed it out to a variety of people of different ages and different sexes.