QUESTION 5

How did you attract/address your audience? 

QUESTION 4

Created with Padlet

QUESTION 3

QUESTION 2

QUESTION 1

FINAL DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

FINAL CONTENTS PAGE

FINAL FRONT COVER

FINISHING MY CONTENTS PAGE

Lastly, I added image captions to each of three my images,simply stating what the images were of, using grey and red to continue my colour scheme. I have also made sure I have made no spelling errors and that all the writing make perfect sense. 'THE NEXT BIG THING IN MUSIC...' introduces Millie as an up and coming artist that hopefully readers will be interested in reading about.

This is my finished contents page:

FINISHING MY FRONT COVER

After finishing writing my double page spread article, I now had a good idea on how I wanted Millie to be presented and why she is my cover model. I therefore I had to find a new pull quote to put on my front cover that was taken from my article. I was also unhappy with the style of my cover lines therefore I deleted 'THE UK'S NO.1 GIG GUIDE INSIDE'. I chose to do this because I thought it looked very out of place on the page and did not fit in with the style of the rest of the page. I also rotated the text inside of the puff towards the right than the left. This is after I realized that the majority of people are right handed therefore they would prefer to read the text if it were rotated to the right.

Here is my finished front cover, I lastly added another coverline advertising an article taken from my contents page menu. I also added a thin red box underneath 'EXCLUSIVE' to underline the word therefore highlighting and continuing my colour scheme.

BEGINNING AND FINISHING DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Before constructing my double page spread I needed to choose what was going to be my main image. This was crucial as this would be the complete background of my spread where everything else would be layered on top. When looking back at my 'FAVOURITE PHOTOGRAPHS' blogspot I encountered that these images may not be fully suitable for their purpose. I asked my peers what they thought of the photographs where we all agreed that all the images had background that were 'too busy/crowded' or 'too bright'. Because the majority of the backgrounds were very colourful and bright, it would make it very hard to stick to my colour scheme where I would need to layer blue and red over the top. Due to the intricate background the text layered over the top would be increasingly hard to read, going against the conventions of a double page spread. I looked back at my original photographs taken on my first photo shoot and found one that had a darker and simpler background. Me and my peers agreed that this image would still give my spread an 'artistic quality' but would also be 'easy to work with it and edit'. 

Firstly, I uploaded my chosen main image to Photoshop where I used the 'Auto Tone' to balance the colours and brightness within the photograph. I then cropped and transferred the image onto a new file sized 42 cm length and 21 cm height.

I then inserted a pull quote taken from my article that relates to Millie being an up and coming artist in the music industry. The pull quote needed to very attention grabbing in order for the reader to be interested in the rest of the article. I chose to enlarge 'BIGGEST' as thought it was a very important and powerful word, as well as accentuating what Millie is saying. I have also inserted coloured boxes according to my colour scheme where I decreased the opacity so that background was still visible. In addition I have also added the name of model and the logo to inform the reader and emphasize the importance of the company.

Before beginning to write my article I wanted to insert the standard convention of a drop cap. This is used so the reader can easily find the beginning of the article. Using dafont.com I found a bold sans-serif font I liked called 'Bebas Neue'. I copied and pasted the letter onto my Photoshop document, re-coloured it dark blue to match my VINYL logo. Like the V of VINYL I stretched the S to create a connection and make the letter more abstract and 'indie'.

I began write my article by firstly writing a summary or introduction to Millie and what the rest of the article is about. Below the thick black line that separates the sections of text I wrote my interview with Millie asking questions about her future career and new album. I pulled out pull quotes and enlarged them, coloured them red as well as changing 'BIGGEST' also.

This is what finished double page spread looks like. I have added more standard conventions such as credits and where the photograph was captured. I am happy with the finished product as I feel it looks stylish but professional at the same time.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD ARTICLE

Here is the  rough draft of the article I will be putting on my double spread. Because Millie is an up and coming artist, I wrote the article around this topic by asking her questions about herself and career. I want the reader to learn more about Millie as an artist but also about her personal music interests.

SUBHEADING / INTRO / KICKER:

After her first EP ‘About Time' climbed high on the iTunes chart ladder, Millie Monan is definitely one to listen out for. Her new album 'Interlude' is already in the making where expectations are high for it to be the next big thing in indie music. We find  out exclusivley her aspirations and plans for this year.

INTERVIEW:

So Millie, 2014 was obviously a very big year for you,what are your aims for 2015?

Yeah 2014 was my best year yet, but I want 2015 to be the year I properly make it. I want to play many more gigs across the country and officially release my new album.

Everyone is really excited about ‘Interlude’, what inspired you to make the album?

Growing up I’ve always listened to music therefore it made sense for me to release an album based on  my passion - it’s a dream come true!  

Which artists do you like to listen to and which artists do you inspire to be like? 

I love to listen to bands like Maximo Park and The Smiths. However I don’t really want to be like anyone else as I  guess there aren't many  female indie artists around today. I aim to be the biggest female artist there has ever been to prove myself to everyone.

Your fans are obviously a huge part of your career,are you shocked about the amount of support you've already received?

I honestly feel so overwhelmed, they give me a reason to keep making my music sound better and better. Realistically I wouldn't even be here or anywhere without them.

Do you have any fears about becoming ‘the next big thing’?

I’m obviously very nervous as I feel there’s a lot of pressure on me after being labelled as the ‘next big thing’. However I feel more honored and lucky than fearful to be in this position - I couldn’t be happier!

PULL QUOTE IDEAS:

'RELEASING MY OWN ALBUM IS A DREAM COME TRUE'
'I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER'
'MY FANS ARE THE REASON TO KEEP MAKING MY MUSIC BETTER'

PROGRESSION OF CONTENTS PAGE

I continued to add articles to my contents page under the appropriate heading 'NEWS', 'REVIEWS' and 'FEATURES'. I have also moved my O2 image closer to the article it is related to so once the reader has read the brief summary of the article they immediately see the image making them more intrigued and excited.

As I continued to add articles to my menu column I decided I disliked having a white background as I thought it looked very dull and too plain. I decided to add grey coloured shapes behind some of the text to separate the different sections of the page and to add some extra interest to the page. I used grey as this is a neutral colour that would not clash against any other colours within my colour scheme.

I have written a brief summary of this issue of VINYL instead of a note from the editor as I thought this was more suited for my chosen genre. From Google I found different social media logos to advertise how fans can get involved with the magazine. Using the magic wand tool I removed any white background space that surrounded the icons before finally positioning them.

I decided to change the colour of the masthead to red as this makes it stand out far more and is very well suited to my colour scheme fulfilling its purpose. I have also made the word italic as I thought it made it look more quirky and edgy as well as emphasizing it.

I began to add page numbers to the corresponding articles in numerical order making it very easy for the reader to find a certain article. I have also added numbers over the images on the page to show which article they belong to. I inserted burgundy coloured circles behind the numbers to make them more noticeable and to continue the colour burgundy from my front cover.

I have finished adding all the articles to my contents page. I have decided that this page is more of a 'highlights page' as I have not included every single page of the magazine, only the most exciting and special ones. At the bottom of the page I have included a subscription offer advertisement. I may or may not change the colour of the writing as I think the white is not very easy to read against the grey. I will found out from my peers their thoughts to help me decide. I changed 'SAVE 33%' to red to make it more dominant as it is the most important part of the feature. All I need to do now is to write image captions particularly for the main image about the article is belongs to.

ADDING/CHANGING CONVENTIONS ON FRONT COVER

Following the style of other indie music magazine such as NME, I needed to add far more coverlines. To do this I looked back at my 'ARTICLE IDEAS' brainstorm to gain some inspiration. I wanted too add coverlines that were personal and connected to theme of the magazine such as advertising music festivals and other features that were only exclusive to my magazine.

I still needed to add some of the basic conventions of any magazine including the price and issue date. Because I was unsure where to place these on the page I decided to incorporate them with my barcode. I found a barcode off the internet where I opened it as Photoshop file so I was able to add text onto the image. I have added price, issue date (my magazine is being released fortnightly) and website which are all important. I then saved this as a JPEG file and added it onto my front cover.

Today, I decided to change the font of the cover line that introduces my cover model as I disliked the previous one as it was not bold enough.

Today's finished draft:

FLAT PLAN

BEGINNING MY CONTENTS PAGE

Today I began to construct my contents page. I have only began to add the masthead, pictures and pictures. I firstly began to edit the pictures I wanted to use by adjusting the exposure and gamma correction levels and cropping each to the perfect size.

Following the colour scheme of my front cover I have continued this onto my contents page. I have made sure to include my VINYL logo and make sure my pictures are big enough so that the page will include 50% text and 50% images. I am to change the background of white to light grey to make the page less dull and plain. I now need to include more articles using help from article ideas brainstorm, headings, a note from the editor and maybe a subscription offer.

CHANGING FRONT COVER COVER LINES

I felt the 'V' apart of VINYL did not stand out enough and needed to be increasingly more projected. I added a black but not too harsh around the letter to emphasize its purpose, make it bolder and increase its attractiveness.

I received more feedback from my teacher who said that the list of bands of names (original right hand side) was 'too vague' and 'didn't indicate what they had to do with the magazine'. Taking this criticism on board I deleted this coverline and separated the bands into proper articles such as interviews.

ARTICLE IDEAS

As I began to construct my contents page today I struggled to think of articles to list that would be included in my magazine. I therefore decided to do some research into what other magazines particularly NME and Q have on theirs to gain some inspiration. To express my ideas I made a brainstorm where I wrote down any vague ideas I had. These included bands (Arctic Monkeys), types of articles (interviews) and  possible names of articles (VINYL's favorite tracks of the month). When I come to start adding to my contents page again I now have more ideas to write about. It has also given me possible coverline ideas to put on my front cover and what my double page spread article could be about.

CONTINUING AND MAKING ALTERATIONS TO MY FRONT COVER

Today I added many more conventions and changed some of the original features.Most noticeably I have changed the cover model's name which is the main headline from 'Millie Sharratt' to 'Millie Monan'. This is because my teacher and peers said it didn't sound like a 'cool' name and 'didn't look right' on the page. I strongly agreed with this , therefore I randomly made up a different surname 'Monan'. I thought the alliteration of her name would be easy to remember as well as the words having a good rhythm and flow to them. I have also added VINYL's slogan 'officially Britain's favorite indie magazine' immediately indicating the genre, coverlines advertising popular old and new indie bands and a pull quote taken from my double page spread article. I have also inserted digital rulers to make sure all my layers are straight and in line with one another.

I decided to change the font of my cover lines to 'MS Reference Sans Serif' as this made my text easier to read. I initially said in my pull quote 'Jake Bugg' as I wanted to include a popular individual indie music artist, and this is all I could think of. However many people said I should use 'Stevie Nick's who is an indie female music artist that I think would be Millie's inspiration - especially as females are uncommon within my genre.

This is my finished outcome of today's work. I now can conclude my colour scheme will consist of electric blue, red, dark burgundy, black and white. This is a very large colour scheme however I think all the colours go well together which I have found out by testing numerous different colours. I now need to add more coverlines in block red, date and price.

BEGINNING TO MAKE MY FRONT COVER

Today I started to create my front cover. Using Photoshop I began to edit my main image where I particularly wanted to remove the large shadow behind the model. I used a range of tools including the patch tool, paint brush and spot healing to do this. However I disliked the effect it created as it looked very fake, as well as the processing being incredibly time consuming. After asking some people around me whether I should or shouldn't remove the shadow, they all said I should keep it looked 'quirky' and 'added some extra depth and interest'. So instead I decided just to edit the brightness of the image by adjusting the Exposure and Gamma Correction levels which improved the quality of the image.

I next decided to insert my masthead using the font 'Fiesta' from dafont.com. I inserted this feature but decided it looked too simple and not quirky enough to suit the genre of my magazine. I played around with re-sizing the letters and liked the look of dramatically enlarging the V. By doing this it will draw far more attention to the masthead as well as accentuating the word. I have now decided this will be the official logo of VINYL. To add depth to the word and make it project off the page, I edited it by adding dark shadows.

I next inserted a barcode found from Google images and the main headline 'MILLIE SHARRATT' who is my cover model.I found the perfect font that looks stylish and 'indie' where I played around with different colours to see which would contrast with the main image.

I decided dark green looked best especially compared to the pink option, as green is more closley connected with blue. I lastly inserted a puff advertising a competition as this is a very good way of attracting and intriguing and potential customer.
This is the finished result of my initial first creation of my front cover. I now need to include coverlines and a strap line to advertise some of the articles found inside the magazine. I also need to finalize my colour scheme and all the other conventions such as date and issue number.

EQUIPMENT USED FOR PHOTO SHOOTS

To capture all four of photo shoots I used a Nikon D2300 camera. I had used this camera in the past therefore I already knew how to use the basic features of the camera. I really like the quality of the photographs it produces as they are clear and not pixelated. After my previous photography work I felt confident in using the zoom and adjusting the brightness if needed on the camera. After each shoot I uploaded all the images onto my memory stick via a memory card reader. I printed all the images out on contact sheets which prints 35 images per page. I then scanned each sheet of paper back onto the computer and uploaded this onto my blog as evidence of my photo shoots.

Only for my second photo shoot I used a 3mx1.6m white backdrop for the background of my front cover image. This gave me a fresh clean background that will make it easy for me to construct my front cover with later. I also decided to do this as using a white background is a common convention of any type of magazine so that the readers attention is entirely on the model. In the photography studio I also had access to artificial studio lighting which I positioned directly shinning onto my model to brighten my images. I also used the computer to immediately upload my images and began to edit them using Photoshop, particularly adjusting the gamma correction and exposure levels.

CHOOSING FRONT COVER MAIN IMAGE

I have narrowed down my eight initial favorite photographs into my six final favorites. I have chosen to do this I will be posting on Facebook these six photographs to gain feedback. I did not want to give the public too much choice which could cause multiple clashes in the same number of votes for each image. However I could not narrow down my choices any further as I like all the images equally. Via Facebook I hope to be informed of the public's opinion on which photograph would best appropriate for my front cover.

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