Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.
Introduction
My chosen assignment brief for the preliminary task was print, which will be a college magazine: front cover and contents page. The alternative brief is a video; however the creative appeal of the magazine was my preference also I chose this task rather than the video because I prefer to work independently and like to take ownership of my own work. The magazine that I finally chose to create is called “Wardrobe” and is for a Fashion & Textiles course within a college I created called ‘The Great British Fashion Institue’.
Once I chose my brief I was very pleased with my decision and I was looking forward to designing and creating my magazine. The brief explained that the magazine the candidates create, has to be for a college; with this in mind I first chose to design some ideas for a particular course within Harlow College as I thought this would be easier as I have experience within the college. To make sure it was clear that my magazines are for a college, I have the college logo on each cover including puffs informing students on student union news. The magazine will be aimed at students, therefore my target audience is 16-20 year old students.
Research
The first stage was to research similar magazines to become accustomed and gain insight into what is needed for the front covers and contents page; as well as the typical codes and conventions within magazine design. It was also interesting to see the representation conveyed by the colours, layout and use of models. At first I annotated a couple of music magazines to look at the typical forms and conventions of magazine design, but then I started to look at fashion magazines after I decided on my final genre, to learn more about the type of magazine I was going to create. These can be seen on my blog titled “Research”.
Initial Ideas and Focus Group
My first initial idea was for a photography course within Harlow College, this magazine was called “Vision.” The cover included a medium close-up of a student laughing and holding a strip of negatives across her face. The background to this image is plain white and overall was very simple and laid-back. The student was wearing very natural make-up and a plain white t-shirt to represent her as young, fresh and happy.
Within the front page there are Puffs which are small amounts of information showing what is inside the magazine itself. The puffs that I decided to create for this particular magazine included a competition for photography students, 100 best student photos, and student union information, I was also going to include the lead topic which was “Back to Basics – the basic elements of photography.”
My second initial idea was also for a course within a college; however this was for Fashion & Textiles within Harlow college. This magazine is called “Wardrobe.” The image for this cover was of a student dressed and styled in their designs: the theme being fantasy. Also within the covers the puffs that I was going to use were: ‘Get Your Designs Seen,’ ’Fashion Show,’ and finally more student union information. The student would be again youthful and natural. I wanted to represent the magazine as simple, not glamorous like other typical fashion magazines. I also wanted the magazine to show youth to attract the target audience, but I also wanted the design to be sophisticated, so that it looks quite professional
As a class we had to present our initial ideas in a focus group to get feedback on our designs. From this I found that people preferred the font of the masthead on “Vision” but overall preferred the “Wardrobe” idea. This helped me as I was able to find out the opinions from students which is my target audience. After this stage I started looking at other fashion magazines that are aimed at teenagers. This was to help me gain ideas in order to create a front cover that is friendly to it’s target audience; by looking at very popular fashion magazines this helped a lot. I planned to base my designs on the large high-street magazines as I think it will attract the audience more because of their popularity; in comparison to an amateur and very simple design of a typical college magazine. Because of this I chose only to look at the well-known fashion magazines.
Production
After researching I could move onto the production stage. At first I found this very hard as I’d never used the software before. In lessons we were given small tutorials to help us use some of the tools on Photo shop, this was very helpful. My first attempt of the magazine cover can be seen titles “Magazine Cover Draft/Practise 1″ for this I used an image off of Google just to plan and play about with the layout. I used an image of a young girl similar to what I was planning on using for my final cover. I thought that by using a model of a similar age to the target audience, they would be able to relate and connect to the magazine also representing it’ youth and ability to acknowledge it’s audience’s needs.
For my second draft I planned a photo shoot with a teenage girl who was also interested in fashion, this was useful and very suitable for obvious reasons. The photo shoot went very well and from the contact sheet I chose a photo that I thought was best to use for the cover. Although the photo, in my opinion looks quite professional and not very student-like, I think that it will attract the audience because it is similar to large, popular fashion magazines like “Cosmo girl” which I looked at in my research. I think that by having a more mature photo, it represents the magazine well and it allows the target audience to take the magazine seriously.
I then decided to design a new layout so that I could develop my skills and be able to compare and contrast the two different layout designs. For this draft, I used various codes and conventions typical of the magazines I researched: I used a colour scheme of blue and white mainly because of the theme I chose to base the first issue of my magazine on (Winter Wonderland) I also used two different fonts for the masthead. Apart from changing the font, colours, positioning of puffs and the masthead I did not change any other elements of the cover.
For the final cover I changed a few points on the third draft. I decided to use this draft because I think it suited the target audience better, it related to it’s audience because of the use of typical features known to popular fashion magazines. I also decided to develop this draft because of the feedback I received. I was told that it looked more professional and well planned out, and that it reinforced the typical fashion magazine therefore it will be popular.
The contents page was not developed as well as the cover, for the reasons that I managed to create a draft that worked so well with all of my expectations. All of the feedback was positive and I found that I didn’t need to develop it anymore because of it’s quality, I was so happy with this which inspired me to work hard on the front cover to make sure it was as well made as the contents.
The Final Product
Looking at the Cover and Contents overall I am very pleased with both my efforts and results. I think that both texts are appealing to their target audience as well as conforming to the codes and conventions of typical fashion magazines. In terms of a typical student magazine, I think that it challenges the expected look of a college magazine. I like this idea because it will be able to stand out amongst the other college magazines; its layout and other various elements conform to a range pf magazines that are usually associated with a very large audience and critique. This would help attract the audience as they will be familiar with the look and would correlate the magazine to both entertainment and education, rather than just education, which some student magazines do.
The fonts that’s I used relate to the audience because they are youthful and look almost handwritten. Also the model that I used is of the same age as the target audience which will will help the audience to associate with the magazine. The logo I used helps to reinforce the genre of the magazine, but also; by adding effects to the mannequin I managed to create a more informal and creative feel to the magazine.
To show that it is a student magazine I included elements such as “Harlow College Fashion” and puffs that relate to the student union. I didn’t want to make it too obvious that it was a student magazine because I wanted it to challenge the forms and conventions. I focused mainly on the genre of the magazine.
Final Front Cover
The smaller images I used make the cover more bulky and interesting. The use of small images on the cover was also a form and convention typical in some of the other stylistic models that I researched. I am also pleased with the framing of the background image. As you can see both the face and the important fashion features on the model and visible; whereas the rest of the image is dominated by text. I noticed that on all of the fashion magazines used in my research all of them had the important features and the faces of their models clear and free from text; however all available space was used for informative purposes.
Final Contents Page
The contents page’s layout looks quite sophisticated and very neat. I like the abstract design I created for the background with the gradient lines projecting from the logo. I chose “Inside” to reinforce and exaggerate the ‘Wardrobe ‘metaphor, and the different fonts and colours relate back to the design on the front cover. In my reseach on contents pages I found that the magazines tended to use the same model inside as they did on the front cover to carry on the topic. With this in mind I chose to elaborate on this idea by using a few photos I took in the photo shoot, and making them look more creative by changing them to black and white and highlighting the important fashion features.
I chose to scatter the small images to make it look less structured and more fun. I used the small photos as a divider between the ‘Features’ and the ‘Every Week’ articles, instead of using a simple line because I thought that it’s a more creative idea.
In relation to understanding that it is a student magazine, the contents for example, “Student Designer of the week”, and “the Student Catwalk” reinforces the fact that it is for students and is in fact a college magazine; however again like the cover I didn’t want to make this obvious, because I wanted to challenge the codes and conventions of a typical college magazine and focus on a look of a popular high street fashion magazine to entice the audience.
In conclusion I think that I managed to represent the magazine and the college the way I intended. I used my research and media knowledge to portray the youth, style and sophistication that I wanted to. The overall layout of both the front cover and contents page look well planned out and I have used ideas influenced by my research and also my own preferences. I have developed my ideas through trial and error and in my blog I can see how well they have developed. I’m really happy with my results and I wouldn’t change them, I have developed my ideas to a point where I’m pleased with my efforts. Throughout completing this preliminary task during research, construction and the evaluation stages; i have learned a various things in relation to the media industry and magazine design: including the obvious representation of social groups with the models that the institutions use; as well as the typical trend of magazine layout for fashion magazines. Overall I have really enjoyed working on this project because I will be able to use what I have learned for future media projects and careers.
Filed under: Magazine, Photoshop, Preliminary Media Task
Blue-tac effectOn my contents page there is a small amount of blue-tac; I created this simply by using the paint tool and different shades of blue. Although this was a very simple task I think it is really effective.
