Magazine mockups

I used the website picmonkey.com to create my pop music magazine mockups.

I decided to experiment with different colours and conventions as well as the layout whilst creating these mockups. I choose several different curently well known pop artists to be featured on this mockups.

 

 

Mockup 1

 

For my first mock up of my music magazine I used Taylot swift as the model, as she is currently doing well in the pop music industry. I used contrasting colours to her clothing,being gold, and black as a second solid colour.

Mockup 2

 

For this mock up I chose am image of Adele with a black background so i could use bolder and brighter colours. I think the neon pink helps the cover stand out and is quite a popular coplour for pop magazines. I also added a skyline to help promote whats included in the magazine.

 

Mockup 3

Katy perry is a popular pop artist at the moment so she is featured on this mockup. I used the colours red black and white on this cover, which i think work well together. I also added more conventions to this mockup such as a plug snd skyline.

Mockup 4

 

I decided to keep the colours of this cover to just black and white, JessieJ's clothing gave me this idea. I think the colour choice works well and helps the main story stand out to th rest of the cover.

Genre research

 

Existing magazines in this genre

 

Currently in the charts 

Reader profile research

Music magazine conventions

 

Cover

 

 

 

Contents

 

Two page spread

The Brief

To design a front cover, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, a minimum of four images must be used.

College magazine evaluation

When I began research for my magazine, I started by gaining an understanding of magazine conventions. I did this by looking at past magazine covers of many different genres but mainly existing college magazines. After understanding the conventions I did a LIIAR analysis of a magazine cover, contents page and two page spread of my choice, for this I chose Vogue. Writing this analysis helped me gain ideas and an understanding of magazine layouts, which became useful in creating my final product. During research I also made a spider diagram and mood board with general ideas and plans for my college magazine, which included font types, images and topics of interest to college students. After completing all my research and thinking about my audience, which is college students ages between 16 and 18, I had a general plan for my College magazine. This lead to me making my page Layout drafts, which simply show the positioning of conventions on the pages, I used my front cover plan to guide me whilst creating my final product although I made some changes.

I wanted my cover layout to look as professional as possible, and relate to the audience as well as different social groups. The cover had to appeal to both male and female teenagers, to do this I should think about the use of colour and my choice of stories that will be featured. From my research I saw that on all magazines the mast head is either in the top left corner or goes across the top of the page. The main story of the issue will be placed in the bottom right in a larger font to the other stories, this will make it stand out and hopefully draw attention to the audience. I will also place the other stories in a list form with is very conventional and easy to locate and read. All the writing on the page will be outlined too, which will make it clear and visible to read on any background or colour.

In order to make the magazine gender neutral I had to think about my use of colour, fonts and images. My final image was modelled by a girl, so I had to make sure the over conventions made it clear the magazine is not just aimed towards girls. I chose what I would class as a basic font that would apply to both genders, and used stories that would appeal to all students. I decided to use just two colours for on the cover, those colours being purple and black. Purple as it is the colour of the Wyke College logo, and black because its simple, bold and appeals to everyone. These colours in my opinion are not aimed towards one specific gender or social group, and this continuous colour scheme would be the same throughout the full issue. Deciding on the name of my magazine was quite easy in my opinion, I needed something that was simple and straight to the point to explain the purpose of the contents. I thought it should include the college name too, and that's how I came up with "Wyke Life". I believe this name would appeal to the audience as it would include information on the college they attend and their student lifestyle.

The main story of my college magazine was the new students attending, which I wrote as "Welcome, to the class of 2015" this would hopefully gain attention from all of the new students. I also think the other stories I chose to include would appeal to the students, especially "New student offers inside" as this would allow the readers to gain knowledge of offers they are eligible for as a college student. I also believe the story "Freshers party tickets now on sale" would gain interest as it is a chance for the new students to get to know one another and feel more comfortable at college and therefore improve their learning in lessons. These stories all related to the student lifestyle and therefore suggest that college will be a happy environment that everyone will enjoy attending.

During my research process I had taken many different images whilst learning about different camera shots. Although many I took for usable, I decided on choosing a mid-shot image. A mind-shot image is the most common shot type used for magazine covers so I thought this would work well. When taking the photos I used sensible areas within the college as backgrounds that would be good choices for a front covers main image. The picture I chose in the end was took in front of the college lockers, which immediately gives the correct impression for the magazine, this being education. I also had the model hold a folder, once again a way to give the correct impression that she is at college and ready to learn. I also made sure she was smiling happily, to show she is enjoying the student life at Wyke and is happy to be there. I chose this image over my other ones for many reasons, The main ones being that the background was not too busy and therefore drew most of the attention to the student, and that there was plenty of clear space around her to add text.

I used the program Photoshop to edit my image and create my final product, which is a sensible choice as Photoshop is a professional photo manipulation program and therefore keeps the professional approach of my magazine I was going for. I actually did little editing on the main image, only slightly changing the brightness and contrast to improve the clarity. For the text on the page I looked for a basic serif font that would be easy to read and not to different from the original Wyke logo, for the normal stories I used a different font to the mast head and main story font as a way to make those stand out. I used layers to add the text and conventions onto the image, and different tools available on the program to add effects. For example, after adding all my text I decided to outline it in black to make it more clear to read, I did this by using the "stroke" tool in Photoshop. Whilst editing as well as adding text I also added a bar code and a plug in the right corner stating it is the magazines "debut issue".

Overall I am pleased with my final college magazine front cover, I think it applies to the target audience well and I have kept the colour scheme consistent. One thing I would change if I were to for this task again, is that I would use the flash on the camera whilst taking my photos. By doing this I believe it would improve the quality of the image and make the models face stand out more, this would also mean I would not have to edit the brightness in Photoshop. I would also possibly add one or two more stories onto the page, or a more varied amount of conventions, as this would result in the page space being used to its fullest. I believe I have met the criteria of this task well and have worked at the height of my ability during this project.

College magazine final front cover

Existing magazines research

    

For all of these magazine covers, the mast head takes up the full width of the page, which immediately draws your attention to the fact they are college magazines. The colour schemes are all primary colours, which are bright and bold and stand out against the faded and black backgrounds. These all have a standard magazine layout, with a mid-shot as the main image, a mid-shot allows you to see any books the student is wearing which implies that its a college magazine. The feature stores are all in a list form, which makes it simple and easy to read, they are also in colours coordinating with the mast head. The stories included in these magazines are all to the interest of the readers, such as real life stories and social news, which college students would have an interest in. These magazines also feature conventions such as footers, plugs and bar codes. From researching these other college magazines, I gained knowledge on the subject and it helped me with ideas for my own college magazine I will be creating.

Unused images

 

Camera shot types

 

College magazine page drafts

Front Cover


Contents page 



Two page spread

College Magazine planning

 

Spider diagram

 

Mood board

LIIAR Analysis

Institution
Vogue was founded by Arthur Turnure and published its first issue of Vogue in the Britain in 1916. This was a huge success, which caused the magazine to become more global and versions in Spain, Italy and France were published within the next few years. Today there are 23 editions of Vogue that are released monthly worldwide. Today everyone knows how huge Vogue has become, which is one of the reasons its thought to be a more elegant magazine. The magazine featuring some of the worlds most famous celebrities just shows how popular Vogue is, as smaller magazines would be less likely to have agreements to feature the celebrities.

Cover


Language

The language of the front cover is used to attract the magazine to the correct audience. “Emma Watson comes of age” is the feature story of the issue, The fact she “comes of age” is a way to keep the target audience being sophisticated woman, as Emma was known as a teen star and therefore would of featured in teen magazines in the past.

Ideology
Vogue is seen as the largest fashion magazine in the world for woman, so the main form of ideology is to keep that high quality look. The layout is kept simple and sophisticated to maintain this. The target audience being woman is made very clear from the cover, as the model is always female. The story lines are also all women dominated, in this case “How to do dazzling evening make-up” is an example. Another way the magazine keeps it high quality image is the look of the models, This is done with their clothing and make-up. Considering the models are always dressed elegantly in what looks like expensive clothing and not in teenage fashion, means older women are drawn to Vogue. The models are also usually wearing toned down make-up, and real woman would prefer this natural look.

Audience

Vogue is a magazine aimed towards sophisticated woman with an interest in fashion. The continuous look of Vogue is simple, elegant and professional which is what attracts the readers.  The most popular range of readers for Vogue are females ages 25-34. The audience will most likely earn average income so stories such as “party dressing for under £150” relates to them wanting an amazing deal. “the new forever pieces” also does this as the idea of a clothing piece being in fashion forever, makes the purchase feel worthwhile.

The “how to do dazzling evening make-up” will attract the audience as they would like to learn how to do professional looking make-up looks themselves.

Representation

Emma Watson is the covergirl for this issue of Vogue, She is a suitable model for the magazine as she represents the image of Vogue. Emma Watson is a well known actress, so the fact she is on the cover would attract readers, considering she would have many offers to model and she has accepted this. Emma is dressed in a simple and elegant white dress which does not stand out from the background, most readers would not want to wear clothes that gain a lot of attention, so the fact it features clothing like this will draw readers in. Since the audience are women and not teenagers the fact she “comes of age” is appealing to the different age groups of readers.

Contents page

Language

The contents page of Vogue has the masthead from the cover, however “vogue” is written in lower case and not capitals here, which shows a difference between the two pages. The masthead is repeated here so readers are well aware of the magazine they are reading. Above the masthead is the actual title being “Contents December 2010”, this is in a smaller font leaving the mast head being the main focus.The stories in the magazine have been organised into different categories, which are “Vogue stars”, “beauty” and “regulars”. These categories are in a bold colour that is very different to the rest of the pages colour scheme which means your attention is immediately drawn to them. Vogue stars will immediately gain the most attention as the readers are interested in the celebrities featured, and want the latest news and fashion tips from them. “Vogue star signs” is one of the main stories, there is a picture for this as the months star sign is sagittarius, The picture makes the story more noticed and is easier to find because of the larger page number.

Ideology
The layout of the contents page continues the sophisticated look for Vogue, which is what attracts the readers. One part of the contents page that stands out is the "Vogue star signs" Sagittarius photo shoot. Many woman have an interest in star signs and reading their horoscope, so placing this as the pages main picture gains attention from those, especially those who are a Sagittarius. The main image from the front cover is also on this page in the bottom right, this includes information on the cover look, which gains interest considering most woman would like to achieve the cover girl look. The simplicity of the layout, and small range of colours also keeps this professional look, this shows the high quality of the magazine.

Audience
You can see the audience are in thought for this contents page, as the way it is represented follows the magazines theme. The simple column layout, that lists the issues stories is easy for the audience to follow. The subtitles organise the stories into groups, allowing the readers to easily locate what page they want. Each page in the magazine has a little summary, saying what is featured on that page. This relates to the audience as it saves them having to flick through all the pages to see what they feature. The outfits in both of the pages pictures are very high end fashion, this is what Vogue is known for, as having these outfits on the page keep the right image for the readers.

Representation
The contents page is represented in the classic Vogue style. The logo is at the top of the page in large font, and becomes one of the main focuses. Apart from that, the image is another main focus, this is of a model representing "Sagittarius", which is a star sign. Although the page is very full, with the other pages information and pictures, it still appears to be very spacious. The white background helps this illusion, and the bold coloured text, black and red is what immediately catches your eye, leaving the page to appear less cramped together.
Emma Watson's cover shoot is shown on this page once again, and as she is being presented as a woman representing Vogue, and is another reminder of the magazine you have purchased.

Two page spread

Language
One aspect of this two page spread that really stands out is that there is no mast head. Instead, what grabs your attention is the large letter "I" which jumps straight into the article. This opening sentence is actually a question "Is Emma Watson a bit of a madam?", this rhetorical question is an attempt to earn the readers attention, in hope of making them want to know the answer and read on. The only other piece of text that stands out from the rest is the drop quote in the bottom left. This is a quote of Emma's that could be seen as the articles title, "I'm not a woman yet. but I'm not a girl any more" as it summarises the written piece well. The article itself is not an interview, however its full of quotes from Emma, These quotes are used to support the writers findings as evidence to what is written.

Ideology
The two photos of Emma take up around half of the page, In these photos she is represented relevantly to the magazines main story of her, "Emma Watson comes of age". The article itself is about her growing up, and in these photos she is shown posing more elegantly in more sophisticated clothing. The text has been arranged to fit around her image on the right, which appears to be a more professional layout for a magazine such as Vogue. There is little colour on this two page spread, mainly just black and white, which works well considering the two images are large, so the page does not appear to be too busy.

Audience
These pages appeal to the audience, of woman ages around 24-34, due to the design, layout and the story itself. This celebrity featured is a famous actress who is known worldwide for her roles, so that alone appeals to the audience considering as hey would be interested in her career, They will have more of an interest now she has come of age. Some maybe attracted to the clothing she wears, as the readers of Vogue are interested in fashion. There is information on the styling and clothing featured at the right hand side for the audience.

Representation 
This two page spread is represented as most pages are in Vogue, simple, elegant and sophisticated. I believe the continuous simple font on a page shows the magazine is for serious readers, as any other font may make the page appear to be from a teenagers magazine, and Vogue want to avoid falling into that category to meet readers expectations. The white background and the solid black of the writing and clothing, work to make what is important stand out. Here Emma is represented as a professional model, the choice of clothes and poses give her that professional look, and anyone who did not know her would mistake her for a model. This is a way to keep the reputation and value of Vogue where is should be, as it has been presented as the worlds most popular fashion magazine for years.