Blog 7- Photo Editing

Here is a before and after of the photo i included on my double page spread. I chose to edit this photo and improve it using photo shop to make it more appealing for the magazine.

Firstly i cropped the image to make it smaller and cut out the plug socket in the background and the wall. I then brightened the whole photo up in Picasa, i did this using the tuning tools. This makes the photo seem less dull and freshens up the whole image. I also used the shadow tool which then emphasises the colours in the image to make the red and the back both really stand out. the picture looks more modernised and vibrant for the genre of the magazine.

Here is a before and after photo of the image included on my double page spread featuring the interview with the band, 'The Lilas'.

For this photo i vaguely did the same as i did to the other one. I cropped out unnecessary bits in the photo, like the wall. I then brightened up the whole photo, giving their skin a vibrant and using the shadow tool to emphasise all the colours present in their outfits.

For this photograph, i brightened up the colours and enhanced the colour of the pink background and the blue top. I made him wear a typical blue t-shirt so it fits in with the stereotype of a 'boy's colour'. I also cropped the photo by cutting out the unnecessary parts in the shot. It is a posed photo instead of a natural photo as this suits the pop genre.

Blog 6- Photos

This photo is included on my front cover because it shows the ban which is going to be interviewed inside. I made the girls pose in this way as it is a fun but still quite innocent pose. It isn't too staged and they look fairly natural to the camera. The facial expressions aren't harsh and two of the girls are smiling. This is good for the genre of my magazine as it has a real pop feel to the image. I kept their make up subtle but with the red lipstick to stand out and it ties in with the colours of their outfits. I chose the outfits they wore based on what messgae i was sending out to the audience of the magazine. I wanted them to look fun and fresh and be something that girls would look up to and what to be like. The Union Jack jacket shows how the magazine is British and so is the band and that they are proud of that. I kept the setting for the photo simple as i wanted it to focus ont he band and their look rather than their surroundings. Also as the front cover of the magazine is rther busy and colourful i didn't want everything to be distracting each individual feature. I think this photo appeals to my target audience because they are posing happily, so it looks inviting and they are all girls so girls reading it can relate to them and be inspired by what they have achieved and maybe want to look like them.

This photo is included on my double page spread to accompany the interview with the girl band 'The Lilas'. he pose she is doing looks cute and she is smiling again which reflects the genre of the magazine. When researching other pop magazine, most of the photos included in their magazine had the people smiling and looking at the camera, so i decided to confrom with those conventions to try and make my magazine successful. I chose for her to be sitting on this amplifyer as it ties in with the theme of music and looks quite retro. Her red cardigan stands out and looks bold against the background. The make up is simple again yet the hair is curly and volumised to give a cute look. The way she is sitting is relaxed and she looks like she is having fun doing it.

This photo is included on the front page to link to the feature: 'Backstage with the High School Muscial 2 Concert Cast'. This photo is quite different compared to the others

because it is much more posed. The way he is standing doesn't look as natural and his facial expressions are more serious. I have done this because it is a change in gender, he is supposed to look appealing to the eye and for the girls reading to find him attractive. I edited the photo to make him have more of a tan to stand out against the white backgorund and white t-shirt. The way he did his hair is to make him look similar to character he is portraaying- Troy Bolten. I think this photo appeals to my target audience because he is an attractive young man, not much older than the readers, so they will like to look at this photo then want to read on to find the article featuring him. Nearly all pop magazines feature an attractive man on the front to appeal to the young girls reading the magazine The front cover is the most important part of the selling of the magazine as children can be easily swayed by who and what is on the front cover, therefore may buy the magazine just because of who is going to be feautred on the front.

I included this photo on the Contents page as part of a quiz for the readers to guess which celebrity this is when they were younger. I decided to take this photo and use it as a professional dance show photo. This reflects the genre of the magazine by using a young girl and making it a cheesy photo. The way this is posed shows that it is a professional photograph, with the white/blue background and the choice of costume. I chose this costume as it is young nad fun and adds some humour to the magazine. Yound readers will want to turn to the page straight away to find out who the celebrity is pictured. The audience can refect on this photo by believeing that this celebrity was a normal young girl interested in dancing and made it out to be a big celebrity featuring in Planet Pop magazine.

Flat Plans

The front cover of my magazine conforms the conventions of most pop magazines' designs. I designed this based on the images of Top of the Pops magazine. The layout is similar and i have done this because it has a very clear but fun layout. I have used different shapes of text box and fonts to attract the readers. The colours on the front cover are going to be bright and vibrant to appeal to the target audience. The main focused colours will be pink and yellow, this is because the magazine is mainly appealing to young girls.

The contents page also conforms the conventions of pop magazines. The design is similar, it includes photos of what is going to be in the magazine and an editor's letter. Light and dramatic colours are going to be used again as this will express the genre of the magazine throughout. The same font is going to be used for the title so it remains consistent and people don't get confused with lots of different fonts. I have used stars as bullet points because this keeps in the theme of 'stars' and 'celebrities'.

The layout of my double page spread doesn't conform as much to the conventions of other pop magazines. I have chosen to do an interview as the main focus on the pages but then have a third of the page taken up with a shocking gossip story. I have done this so that people will want to read on about the story after they have read the interview. The pages have an equal amount of images and text so that the readers aren't distracted by more of one than the other. Each picture is related to the interview and includes the band and individual photos of each of them. The gutter on the double page spread is fairly wide as i wanted to be able to differentiate the two pages clearly and space each of the sections of the design grid out. I think these pages really appeal to my target audience because there isn't too much text that the young audience will be put off by and the images will grab their attention and young girls can be inspired by what the band look like and what they talk about.

Fonts

For my magazine i will have to decide what font styles i am going to use on each page and how each font will appeal to my target audience. The target audience for my magazine is mainly girls aged from 8-16, who are interested in pop music, fashion, celebrities, and celebrity gossip.

Front cover
For the main title on the front cover of my magazine, i will use the font 'Budmo'. I have chosen to use this font because it is a fun and interesting font. It is quite easy to read and it appeals to my target audience. Using this font will grab people's attention and make them want to read it as it looks fun and gives the magazine an edgy look to it. The font is also very relevant to the genre of my magazine. As the genre is pop, this font shows the lights on the letters like celebrities have over their mirror in their dressing room.

I have decided to use a different font for the rest of the features on the front cover because, if there is more text in blocks or subheadings in the Budmo font, then it could become quite unclear for the reader. Instead, i am going to use the 'Arial' font as this is a sans serif typeface, therefore it could appear clearer to read and understand with longer pieces of text. I can compare this with the front cover of Smash Hits that i analysed as this also includes both sans serif and serif typeface fonts.

Contents Page
For the contents page i will use the same fonts so that it is consistent throughout and people don't get too distracted by reading too many different font styles. I will also make the title on the contents page big and in the Budmo font so that reader's can see clearly what the page is and what it will consist of. I will use a font called 'new facebook' for the subheading 'contents' because its a very fun font and looks like the individual letters have been cut out and stuck down. I used the font 'Cheri' for some of the phrases on this page, as its a very feminine font, which appeals to my magazine audience. For the editor's note on this page i have used the font Arial', because this fits in with all the other fonts on the magazine pages. This makes it less confusing for the younger readers, as it there are lots of different fonts it can all look too much.

Double-page spread
For my double-page spread i will use the arial font again for the band's interview as it will be clear to read. This helps when there is a lot of text, because the words flow so it isn't confusing to read. Where i have the interview with the band 'The Lilas' i will use the font 'Cheri' for their name because it is a girly, fun font which represents the band interviewed and appeals to the target audience. Where i will have pull-quotes from the interview, they will be written in the font : 'Lucida Handwriting', as this looks like the band's thoughts have gone straight to paper and they have written it themselves in this style. Under the main heading i have written a little introduction to the interview and i used the font 'Snap ITC'. I used this as it is very appealing to the eye and will appeal to the target audience because it's quite a feminine font and is an edgy font, this also links to the relaxed tone of the interview and the personality of the band being interviewed.

Another font i looked at to use was 'Georgia'. It is a similar font to the 'Arial', however i preferred the 'Arial' type of font. I asked a few people in my target audience category about my choices of fonts and 4 out of 5 people preferred the Arial font, this is why i chose it as i want everything in this magazine to appeal to my target audience.
From analysing some magazines in the pop genre, all of their main titles on the front were fairly simple, so for my magazine to stand out and be unique i decided to use a bit of a more edgy and striking font.

Analysis of existing magazines 2

For the second magazine, i'm going to be analysing the design of Smash Hits magazine. Even though this magazine isn't around anymore, it was very popular at the time.

Front cover I think they have given smash hits as the title of the magazine because its catchy and easy to remember. Also it's very relevant to the genre of the magazine as 'hits' relates to top songs.
Colour
The main colour on the front page thats used is pink. This may indicate to readers that the magazine will be aimed more at females then males. Another thing to suggest this would be the features on the front, i.e '19 red carpet looks you'll love' and 'starts exposed'. These titles would mainly just ctah the eye of the girls. The title is pink yet outlined with white, this makes it stand out from the rest of the text on the page, so you can clearly see what they magazine is called. The colour yellow has been used around the text boxes, i think this has been used as its a very bright, eye-catching colour. It outlines the 4 images used and almost acts like a grid to seperate each picture from eachother and the rest of the text. As the style of music this magazine is promoting is very happy and modern, this colour presents this nicely.
Font
The font used on the front cover is a mixture of sans serif font and serif font. I think they have done this because, the bits that are in the sans serif font are the parts that need to be clearer for the readers. Quite a lot of the text has a white outlining to it, to make it appear bolder and clearer to read. A total of 5 different styles of fonts have been used, this makes the front cover more interesting and a chance for the designer to show off and play around with thses fonts. Sometimes, if too many fonts have been used it can look too messy and too hard to understand. However on the cover of Smash Hits they have used them very effectively and all for different reasons on different parts of text.
Images
All the pictures on the front cover are of celebrities, this shows that this is what the magazine is going to be based around. Also i have noticed that the pictures of celebrities they've chosen aren't hugely known around the globe. Most of them are teen stars. For example, Chantelle Houghton appears on the front cover, she won celebrity big brother and now is described as a celebrity thorugh being on a reality TV show. This show appeals to the target audience of the magazine therefore they are probably more familiar with her rather than someone in the older generation. An image of the singer Preston from the Ordinary Boys is on the cover too, as he is known for his singing in a band, this ties in with the genre of the magazine being pop. This image is also the biggest on the cover, showing that this is going to be one of the main features in the magazine.
Language
There isn't much to comment on about the language used on the front cover as there isnt much text on the cover. One thing however would be that the word 'exposed' is used, by using this word it grabs children's attention and makes them want to read on. If they read that something is exposed about celebrities, it may make the magazine seem more personal to them and like they are finding out something that no one else does. Also the language used is very simple, it needs to be simple because the text needs to get to the ponit, most of the text are like subtitles. A pull-quote is said to grab the reader's attention and make them want to turn to that page to read on about the interview with Preston.

Analysis of existing magazines

My chosen genre of music magazine is Pop. The first magazine i analysed was 'Top of the Pops'. The magazine's target audience is mainly girls aged 9-15. Also maybe children from middle class families because the price is quite expensive, however it is only a monthly issue.
I think they have named the magazine 'Top of the Pops' because the word 'Pop' tells the audience immediately what the genre is of the magazine. And the 'Top of' part means that it is pop at it's best, and that it's going to be about the best pop music. In addition to this, the magazine is a follow up of the TV show Top of the Pops, so it is well-known to its target audience already and becomes catchy.
Front cover- Colour

All the colours are very bright and vibrant. These reflect and appeal to the target audiences tastes by making it fun and giving the magazine a young feel to it, which is what they were aiming to do. The colours used are mainly pinks, blues and yellows, stereotypically these colours represent both genders, for example, pink for girls and blue for boys. Therefore the magazine could possibly be aiming at both boys and girls. The colours are bold, making it easy and clear for readers to understand what is being written. Also some of the main pieces of text have a border of a different colour around them, this makes that piece of text grab people's attention and makes it stand out more than the other pieces of text on the page. Lastly, the colours in the photos on the front tie in with the colour theme of the magazine, i.e Zac Efron is wearing a pink t-shirt and Vannessa Hudgens is wearing a white dress.

Information presented

• Date
• Issue Number
• Bar code
• Price-£2.20
• 88 pages in total

Font
The fonts used on the front cover of the magazine are all fairly similar. Most of them are sans serif, but the others are in a serif typeface. The ones which are in the serif font draw the eye to the next letter in each word and increase the readability to those certain parts of text. Serif font is used for the key bits of writing on the front. A range of both upper case and lower case letters have been used in the text. Upper case lettering has been used in subheadings to draw your attention to it and are mainly used when the text is about a certain person.
Images
The images used are all mainly photographs. The photographs used are of a celebrity which is going to appear in a feature in the magazine. The celebrities used on the front cover all appeal very much to the target audience because most of them are teen stars and therefore gives the audience something to relate to in their teens. Another celebrity's picture used is Leona Lewis' i think she has been chosen as she is so well known for winning the X Factor, the audience that the magazine is aimed at is teenage children and they are more than likely to know her from watching the talent show on television. Text boxes have been used to give the layout some edge and to make the cover look more interesting rather than many blocks of text. Using boxes also helps you navigate information easily and determine which headline goes with what bit.
Language
The language used is rather simple to draw the eye of the reader to want to read on more, therefore buy the magazine to do so. Some examples of words used to do this would be 'star, amazing, exclusive, OMG and sexy' All these words link to a feature in the magazine. By using these words it makes teenagers interested and want to find that story and read on. Quotes are also used on the front page. They do this for the same reason mentioned so that people will want to hear what this celebrity has to say and therefore search for this part in the magazine. The word 'OMG' is very significant to the audience this magazine is aimed at because, it is a phrase which many teenagers will use on a day to day basis via instant messenger, text etc.

Contents page

I have chosen to analyse a contents page from Mizz magazine as Top Of The Pops magazine doesn't have a contents page and Mizz is very similar to TOTP magazine.
Font
The title of the page has been put in a sans serif font and in bold. It has also been put in red against a white background and the boldness and the red makes it stand out. However the title of the page hasn't been made very big and has been put off centre so it isn't very clear where the title is. The rest of the font on the page has also been written using a sans serif font. The writing is small and hard to read but there isn't a mass of text so this makes it easier to read.
Colour
There are many different bright colours on the page. The subtitles of the different sections in the magazine are each highlighted in a different colour. This is very effective as it helps readers determine between each feature in the magazine. The main background colour of the page is white. This makes the other colours seem to stand out more and are bolder. Quite a lot of the colour pink is used on this page, stereotypically aiming it at more of a female audience.
Language
The use of language on this page is more informal than formal. It uses informal language such as 'Caught Out!' and ' Bag a Bargain' to try to communicate with the younger generation. The language used has also got catchy titles that will help stick in people's minds and remember the magazine. The younger audience generally use abbreviations and catchy sayings which is why they have used them for this type of magazine.
Images
The target audience for this magazine is young females based on the pictures, language and colour. Older females wouldn't generally buy a magazine based on the use of bright colour and with pictures of Disney stars on the page. The images on this page are mainly Disney stars from the Disney film 'High School Musical'. The picture is of Zac Efron who is a member of the cast. He will help sell issues as he could be seen as a love interest to young females. The star is internationally known, which helps to sell this issue as more people may know who he is. Another image on the page is of a model, modelling clothes. This will help sell issues to young females as young females are just coming into that stage where they are interested in clothes.

Double page spread
Colour
In this double page spread, they have used a variety of colours to catch the reader’s attention so that when a teenager flips through the magazine, the colours will catch their eye and hopefully they will read the whole article and magazine then. Pink, orange and yellow are some of the few colours they have used. They are all very happy, vibrant colours and these will appeal to the target audience as its aimed at a younger generation of people.
Font
The font for the title is different to the other fonts used in the text. They have done this so that the title is the main attraction on the page, It attracts the reader's attention. The 'come to' in the title is written in almost a handwriting style. By doing this it gives the article a young feel and gives it a edgy side. The letters in the word 'rock' are crooked and the letter 'R' is bigger than the other letters. I think they have done this because we associate the word with a wild, obviously rocky style, therefore the font of the word highlights this with the different style of font and the edgy shapes used for the lettering.
Images
The images used on this double page spread are all linked to the article. They are all of the Camp Rock stars. The article is an interview with the actors in the film. This appeals to the target audience of young teenagers because they look up to the stars and therefore would love to read about what they get up to and their views on different aspects in life etc. By reading what they have to say, it could inspire the readers to be like them and see them as role models in their life. The image of the band 'Jonas Brothers' is a modelled photo, where the band members have a moody expression on their face. I think this links to the article and design on the page as they are portraying 'rock stars' with their serious stance and facial expressions. The images also dominate this page, there are more images than there is writing. I think this is because younger children will be attracted to the pages which have more pictures, people can be put off by big blocks of writing.
Language
The language used is rather simple and there are no complex words or phrases being used. This is because the magazine wants to appeal to their audience and readers may get lost and not understand what is being written if it is too complex. Also if there is masses and masses of blocks of text then this can put younger readers off as it may be far too detailed for them to read, if they just wanted to pick the magazine up now and again to flick through it. A pull quote has been used to make the audience read this part first as the font is much bigger than the main article and then they'll be interested so want to read the rest of the interview to find out more.

Target Audience

From looking at the statistics on http://www.nrs.co.uk/ it shows that Top of The Pops magazine appeals to more people in the socio-economic group of ABC1 than in lower clsses of people, for example in C2DE. Also it showed me that more women read this magazine than men do, which is what i predicted. 0.1% of men read Top of the Pops and just 0.2% of women read the magazine.

A profile of a typical reader of the pop genre would be young girls aged from 8-16, depending on what the content is inside. Their lifestyles would be of a typical young girl, so the girl who's parents may buy the magazine for her and read it after school. Also their interests would include things such as, music, teen celebrities, fashions and beauty. The target audience would be classified in the socio economic group, B and C.

Introduction to main coursework task

For the main coursework task i have to design a front page, contents page and a double-page spread for a music magazine i have made up. It is a task for developing the skills i used from the preliminary task. I have chosen the genre of pop music for my magazine because this is the type of music i enjoy and am interested in. Also, i feel that this genre appeals to a wide audience of people including a varied age range.

Evaluation of flat plans- contents page

On the contents page i chose to use the same font for most of the writing, apart from the title which was 'Speak!' for this i used the same font as it was in on the front cover, this was so it is easily recognised for readers, it gives the magazine its own distinctive look.

The contents page is simple so it is easily navigated around, i have used text boxes and page numbers clearly written to ensure this for readers.

The colours again are very bright and the same primary colours are used as on the front cover. I chose to use these same colours to make it consistent throughout.

Also i chose to include some photos on the contents page to show people what they can read about in the magazine.

Evaluation of flat plans- front cover

Firstly, i chose to call my magazine 'Speak', the reason i did this was because i think it sums up what the magazine is going to be doing. It it an easy name to remember and it will potentially 'speak out' to the students and the students can have their views and speak to the magazine about them.

I chose to have the photo of a student in the middle, on the front page because the magazine is aimed at all students so thought this would be appropriate. i also included a quote from the student so this could put out their personal view on college.

For the font, i chose a simple font called Georgia. This was because it is easy to read for everyone and looks good in all colours. The language used on the front cover, is short and snappy, to grab people's attention. To decide on what stories i should include on the front cover, i thought about what the students really want to read about. For example, 'Freshers' is in a bold, red font, this encourages students to read that part straight away and hopefully then it'll promote the selling of the tickets for the event.

I made sure i included the vital components including, the issue number and date of the magazine.

The colours used are bright and vibrant, to attract the target audience, it is appealing to the eye and are primary block colours so it doesn't distract too much away from the real content of the magazine.

Magazine contents page

The things i think went well with my contents page is how each colour compliments eachother well. Also the way the boxes are layed out, it looks like a scrapbook style frame, which makes it clearer and easy to read and understand.

The things i could improve would be using a more interesting font for the contents box. Also i could make certain words bolder, for example the word 'contents' to make it stand out more for the reader.

Magazine front cover

The things i think went well with my magazine cover were that it appeals to my target audience, which is 16-19 year olds because of the suitable bright, vibrant colours. Also the subjects which i've chosen to include and base my magazine on are relevant to what college students would want to read about.

The things i think weren't so successful was the birghtness of the main image, it is slightly dull compared to the other colours on the front. This is due to the colour of the student's clothes and the grey backdrop i took her photo against.

To improve this front cover i would take a brighter picture and maybe make the picture as the whole background for the cover. Also i could include some different shaped text boxes to make it more appealing to the eye.

I chose the bottom photo because it is slightly closer up and the student looks happier and it appeals more friendly towards the audience and fits the type of magazine. Although i think both would seem appropriate for the cover, the second one seems to stand out better and looks the best out of the two.

Introductory

For the preliminary task i have been asked to re-design part of a college magazine. The work will be produced using Adobe InDesign and using my own original photographs. The magazine will be aimed at both males and females and i will produce a front cover and a contents page.