My Original Ideas

At the start of this course I was discovering a music lost to me for sometime and I was thrilled that I was the only person to have pursued this genre and that is New Romanticism, but to a slightly more broad idea, New Wave, a powerful genre that was not as political as Punk it was simple with an even simpler message, do what you have to do, and look damn fine doing it, they were very materialistic and more caring about there appearance than any other part of them. I decided to pursue this even more and decided that to keep the articles linking to the music and the media in general, lots of information about fashion and technology, both of which are very popular in this world

While I was making this I had many different ideas for the front cover of the magazine, there was many different phases in its creation, in the beginning it was a simple white cover and silver writing with a gloss effect, as an idea to keep everything in a nice simple and polished feel, with a calming font, but I decided for this powerful and upbeat market I decided for a more upbeat stark red background with white and red font, this gave me a great contrast in colours and made it look very appealing on the eyes and the colour palate is a very easy one to read and does not discriminate against colour-blindness on the font.

The contents page remained pretty much the same for the entire planning process, simply use a few pictures along the side of the contents displaying the feature article and list everything that you will possibly see in the magazine as most readers now don't want to be bombarded by an overcomplicated magazine, they want things to be nice and simple and straight to the point.

The feature article was originally not going to be with a band member but actually with their agent, giving us the inside scoop on one of his old bands while promoting his current band, but in the end I decided against it as it seemed like it could be far too much hassle when I could just as easily write about the band and it would likely look better at the end of it.

The images I wanted them to look more real. Not shot in a studio, I wanted to get out there with my models and shoot pictures with real people not with other models, that would spoil the idea that New Wave was for everyone and it would provide a domino effect of someone noticing themselves in my magazine, telling their friends and so and and so forth until a large amount of people have bought the magazine simply through word of mouth, boosting the sales of the magazine and the popularity of the genre.

Location, Props and Costume

Location

As I wanted to go for a more real feeling photo shoot of a release for a popular video game to tie in with my double page spread I decided on using the GAME store in Great Yarmouth as it was perfect for what I was going for and as I am close friends with the Management Team they allowed me to be the photographer for the event, snapping pictures of staff members who were posing as the other band members and of course Mr Luan Vetoreti, front man of my fictional band “The Vets”. I wanted this to feel as real as possible so we chose the “Aliens: Colonial Marines” launch to use as a backdrop, by allowing customers to shop while this was going on I felt we got a great feeling of interaction and realism in the pictures that could not have been achieved by using a simple studio.

Props

Props were something we really splashed out on, we wanted this to be as inventive and powerful as possible so we took the time to build props for it, we created movie accurate “Pulse Rifles” which are the main gun in both the game and the movie which the game is based from. We did feel that maybe the props would have taken away from the whole feel of the photo shoot turning it into a display simply of kick ass Alien cosplay but I think we did very well and made it look both interesting and professional

Costume

The costume was the most enjoyable and powerful part of the whole shoot, we constructed movie accurate armour to go along side the weapons, we did this multiple times allowing staff members to feel right at home, giving it a sense camaraderie in the “band” and we felt that when we combined all three elements it created something amazing that we feel works well as a front cover.  

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Please ring or write your appropriate answer.

1. Are you male or female?
   Male Female
2. Have you ever read the college magazine?
   Yes No
3. Name 3 things you would like to see in a college magazine:
4. Do you feel that a college magazine would be beneficial?
5. How often do you feel a college magazine should be published?
   Weekly Bi-Weekly Monthly Each Half Term Each Term
6. Would you pay for the college magazine, if so state your price
7. Would you contribute to making the magazine, if so, in what way?
8. Which features would you like to see in the magazine?
9. What would your ideal front cover be?
10. Where in the college do you think the magazine should be sold?

Main Task - TNW Double Page Spread

Main Task - TNW Contents Page

Main Task - TNW Front Cover

Preliminary Task - College Magazine Contents Page

Preliminary Task- College Magazine Cover

Mood Board

College Magazine Analysis

The masthead is bold and colourful and gives a warm welcoming feeling due to the yellow text as yellow is often known as a warm and gentle colour. The uses of colour is very important with the magazine itself like with any magazine but this could be more important as college magazines could be difficult to sell and be read by the students. Dotted around the page there are smaller titles detailing what stories you will be finding in the issue itself allowing people to get the better idea on what they are buying and whether or not they would want to buy it or not. The barcode has cleverly been tucked away in the bottom corner of the magazine so it does not grab your attention and is just there to serve a purpose, under the barcode we have the pricing information which is important to note as students often don’t have that much money and magazines are not of their highest priority on items to buy so it needs to be cheap, when comparing it to other magazines sold its price is actually quite cheap. The picture in the centre is relevant as it connects with the main article of the magazine which we know as it has a larger font size than the other articles. 

I am evaluating this front cover to give myself more ideas for my own front cover and get a better look at what magazines can look like in general as they don’t have to be glitzy or glamorous, they sometimes have to be straight and to the point which I find is needed for this kind of magazine. Much of the magazine is to help you around on campus it looks like which seems like a very good thing to put on the front cover as many of the freshmen would love things like this as it gives them a good starting point.

Total Guitar Front Cover Analysis

 

The masthead is large and centred in the top middle of the page, while obscured by members of Metallica you can still assume what it reads.

The Main Feature gives the reader a first glance look at what is in the magazine and will often persuade people on buying the magazine or not. The use of ONLY gives the reader a feeling that this is the only way they will see the interview in a guitar magazine

Under the masthead is a picture of a competition to win a guitar and an amp worth a grand, using slang terms such as a grand and amp gives you an idea they are trying to appeal to the teenagers who want a new guitar.

Dotted around the page are multiple small headings on the other magazine features giving you more of an insight on what we will be seeing in the magazine.

In the bottom right hand corner there is the barcode and a publisher’s stamp which gives us information on where we can contact them etc.

There is 4 colours on the front cover which is the absolute limit you should have but I think the use of these four colours is particularly effective and engaging.

 

PC Gamer Front Cover Analysis

The Masthead is large and varying in colour so to attract the reader’s attention, and features a background and is right at the top of the page to make it easy to read and not obscure anything.

Above the masthead is the slogan “The World’s Number One PC Games Magazine” by calling itself the “World’s number one” makes the assumption that it is the best possible magazine you can buy and by making the text number one you get the assumption that it is the top of the line magazine.

The absence of a barcode could give the impression that the barcode is on the back or maybe on the inside cover depending on where the layout artist determines is the best place to put it.

In the centre is a picture of the games main character and covering part of him is the title of the game he is from giving a sense that he goes along with the text allowing for easy connection between the two

Dotted around the page is multiple smaller titles detailing what will also be in the issue allowing people to buy the magazine for more reasons than just the main feature.

In total there is only three colours for the entire front page, this is a good decision as any more could confuse or put off the reader.

NME Front Cover Analysis

The Masthead is interesting as unlike normal NME it is in white and not in red; this gives the customer more of a reason to purchase it as it is different to the others.

There is multiple pictures but the main one who is the frontman of My Chemical Romance takes priority as he is much larger and in the centre, he also goes alongside the main headline as he is related to My Chemical Romance, another reason the title could be white is that it would clash with Gerard’s hair.

On the right there is a selection of extra articles featured in the magazine to help you make a decision on whether or not you will buy it as you may not be a fan of MCR.

The barcode is obscured in the bottom right hand corner away from anything so the reader will not notice it though it is compulsory to have.

Above the barcode is a selection of freebies to entice the reader into buying the magazine even if they are not great they will still often sway you into picking up a copy.