Production Log- 5.02.2010

Today I began my mock Front Cover for my magazine. To begin with I had already chosen to have a black background because I found that my last magazine that had a colour and gradient was to busy and was perceived by the audience as slightly childish, so I felt that this one needed to be busy and I have already observed from my research and planning that most  music magazines have a plain background. I then through a process of writing down all my ideas and then choosing which one I liked the best came up with a name for my magazine which I would keep the same for my final front cover. I then designed a masthead of two texts which I then had to link the layers to create my final masthead.

After this I edited my main image that I took got from off of Google by taking away the white background that the original image had and the refined the edge and placed it on the front cover that I was creating. Then I had to transform the size to make it bigger for it to look like it fit in with the rest of the magazine as well as gave off the appearance of being the main image.

Today I also made the headlines for the front page, with the same font as the masthead so that I would have a House Style. Deciding to have a house style was a hard decision to make because I wanted a more formal mature font, however after much experimenting realized that it looked better to have it this way. After this I spent time looking at my magazine because I felt it had something missing, this led me to believe that having a graphic of the green square would help it resemble a magazine more. I came to this decision by looking at my magazine front covers that I had observed already in my research and planning in the ‘Complex’ magazine. As well as adding the barcode price and issue number which is universal for all magazines.

Production Log- 29.01.2010

Today I completed my research in the Research and Planning stage. I done this by going on google and researching front pages, contents pages and double page spreads and then critically analyzing them.

Production Log – 22.01.2010

Today I began my research and planning. I researched what the artists are in the urban music scene are being represented so I will know how to display the ones that will be in my magazine. This will help me for when I need to take my original images, and what type of theme they need to have. I also researched what the front pages of music magazines look like that are on the shelves and are selling. This will help me when making mine as it will be a template of how it needs to look to be seen as a music magazine.

Research And Planning

As my target audience is going to be people that listen to urban music and young people. I will have young people as this is the normally the people that listen to the type of music that I chose. It  will also be easier to make a magazine for them as I fall into my target audience so I can essentially use my personal experiences to help make my magazine relevant and suitable for my target audience.

The leading artists that in the urban music scene today are Nikki Minaj, Kayne West, Beyonce, Keri Hilson, and Rhianna dominating the RnB music scheme, Vybz katel, Movado,  Lady Saw, Spice who are dominating the Bashment music scene, lastly Gracious K, Tribal Man, Ghetts, Miss Bratt who are leading in the house and Grime music scene.

As can be seen in these images the artists in the urban music scene today they are commonly appear to be wearing urban clothing, consisting of hoodies and trainers for males, and dresses and jewelery for the females. the music artists that are dominating the music industry today also appear to be following the latest fashion and cloths that would been seen on the catwalks.  This would mean that for my magazine the images that I need to take will need to seem to follow this trend that seems to be apparent in todays urban music artists.

These are some of the front covers that are out on the stands for music magazines. I have realized from looking at them that they seems to follow the convention on general magazines having masthead, background images and features stories. I have also noticed that music magazines appear to have one main star as the background image and are quite plain and does not seems to have too much going on and busy, they seem to be simple and not cluttered with smaller images above feature stories unlike magazines such as “Pick Me Up” or “Heat”. Although this could be seen as a bad thing as it doesn’t show enough information to let the reader know what is inside the magazine, to make them curious enough to open it.

Contents pages need to have on them the stories and pages numbers that will be in the magazine, this seems to be the main consistency on all of the pages that I have observed. However, some also will have images on them that are related to the stories or interviews within the magazine. I have also noticed that contents pages also have mastheads, this is shown in the two Vibe magazine contents pages as well as the other one I got from Google. The magazines also seem to have captions next to the images that are used to link all the images in to the contents page, this helps them not seem random and lets the reader know why they are there. The only thing about these contents pages that I don’t like is that they all seem to be cluttered, and can be confusing for the reader to understand and be able to know what page to go too, which is the whole purpose of a contents page.

These are some examples of Double Page Spreads that I have observed. By observing them I have noticed that they all have a main images which is closely linked to the article. They also seem to have a formal layout and font for the text. I found that the part or the spread that expresses the creativity and draws the reader in is the image and layout, this is the part that the most planning and thought seems to be needed. The images is essentially the thing that catches the readers eye and what will cause them to read the article so this is what I will need to spend the most time designing and planning. On the other hand the text being plain and having a simple formal font doesn’t show much consistency with the vibrant images, and could be seen as boring. This could result in the reader looking at the page and the images but not actually reading the article or interview.

Production Log- 11.12.2009

Today I finished and tidied up my evaluation  as today was the ;ast day i had to complete it. I then put all of it on my blog so that it can be marked.

After doing this I had completed my preliminary task, and was ready to begin work on my main task. So this lead me to begin and complete writing up my smart targets for my main task. Then I began work on my presentation of creative ideas.

S.M.A.R.T Targets

S – specific, significant, stretching

M – measurable, meaningful, motivational

A – agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented

R – realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented

T – time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

1.

S. Presentation of creative ideas completed

M. This is attainable, and needs to be done, it will be started immediately by researching and thinking what I want my magazine to look like

A. It is agreed that this a valuable part needed to construct a magazine.

T. Needs to be completed by the 4th Jan as this is the due date.

2.

S. Research and Planning needs to be done whilst doing my presentation of creative ideas. Research into what music magazine look like and what elements are common through out them all so that I can ensure my magazine resembles a music magazine.  In addition a Plan needs to be made for what will contain, and what the topic of the double page spread will be.

M. This will be done along side the work for my presentation of creative ideas as they touch upon some of the same subjects, although completion will not be needed till slightly after.

A. By my subject tutor and myself of the standard that it needs to be and if my work is of the same standard.

R.  I will be able to achieve this goal as I have all the resources needed available to me.

T. Will be completed by 15th of Jan so it can be handed it before the due date which is on 18th Jan

3.

S. Construction my mock front, and contents page, as well as the two page spread.

M. This is attainable. and will be achieved when the pages are made.

A. Will be agreed upon by my subject tutor an myself, but asking for their opinion and what I could change to make them better as this will help my final draft to be of a better standard.

R.  I haves all the resources needed such as Photoshop, so this goal is realistic.

T. Will be completed by  15th feb, so I will have enough time to then complete my final draft before the due date.

4.

S. Take my original images for my magazine.

M. Will be measured as when completed I will have images to show and use for my main task.

A. By my subject tutor and myself to ensure that the images are of a good quality, so that they can be edited.

R. This is able to be done as I have the needed resources of a digital camera.

T. Will be done by the 20th feb, when I am on the stage of creating my final draft of main task. However, will be done through out as I will take a picture everytime I see things that would look good in my main task.

5.

S. Completion of the final draft of the construction of my main task.

M. Can be measured as when completed will have the work to show. I will have a completed and ready for submission front page, contents page, and two page spread.

A. Will be agreed upon my subject tutor and myself.

R.  Is realistic as I have all the resources needed for completion, such as Photoshop.

T. Will be completed by 10th march, so that it will be ready to hand in for the due date of 15th march.

6.

S. Evaluation for my main task, needs to be completed.

M. Will be done when, I have a completely finished written up evaluation ready for submission.

A. Will be agreed upon my subject tutor and myself.

R. Is achievable as I have all the resources needed to write up the evaluation.

T. Will be completed by the 25th march, so that it is ready for submission on 29th march.

Presentation of Creative Ideas

Presentation

Production log- 4.12.2009

Today I continued with my evaluation with the hope it being completed by next week so I can hand in all my completed preliminary task for the deadline

Preliminary Task Final Magazine- 4.12.2009

Production Log- 2.12.2009

Today I began my evaluation for my preliminary task, I wrote my intruduction and my second paragraph.

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