Evaluation

Finished Product, Double Page Spread

Finished Product, Contents Page

Finished Product, Front Cover

Initial Progress (Taken from 30/03/17)

Cover

• At this stage, my front cover was almost complete. I had started with my planned, boxed layout and stuck to it.
• Throughout the process I didn't stray far from the original layout plan.
• After this stage, I chose to change various piece of texts' font colour. For example the colours in the plug advert as I felt blue and white fit more with the colour scheme of the page and complimented the cover lines.
• I tried to leave room for the main image at this stage but obviously had to adjust the text to fit around it once I had decided which image to use and edited it.

Contents

• For my contents page, I did not end up sticking to my initial layout plan. This is because I struggled to fit in everything that I wanted in that particular layout.
• At this stage of production, I wrote out the text that was to be included and added the title. The title's unique font made it a centre focus so I thought it would be best to build the page up around it.

Double Page Spread

• Throughout the whole process of creating my DP spread, I stuck to my first plan.
• The further adjustments I made from this stage onwards was adding a background, additional images, the text body.
• I decided to add a second pull quote onto this page.

Timetable

Script of Interview with Double Page Spread Artist

Intro:

When newcomer artist Gina Belle touched down in Heathrow Airport after completing her sell-out tour across the UK, we were first in line for an interview. The Ugandan-raised, British 21 year old has been one of the youngest artists ever  to win a breakthrough artist award with such a difference in votes last week at the Brits. Number 1 in the UK and ROI – an album that has been described as “monumental in the 2017 music scene.”

1 Lucky, Lucky Girl

Us:

The lyric “I’ve never felt so damn lucky” in your No.1 hit single ‘Proud’, does this represent how you feel about your new found success?

Gina:

Absolutely! I never knew that the song would be such a hit in the first place. When I was writing it, it was an expression of  how lucky I felt to be able to have a talent in music and be able to produce my own content, it a bonus that people enjoy the music as much as I do! The name ‘Proud’ is also how I feel. I think its important to be proud of yourself for the things you accomplish too.

2 Breakthrough artist award winner

Us:

We definitely think you should be proud! What do you think about being one of the youngest artists to ever win a breakthrough artist award with such an outstanding amount of votes?

Gina:

It’s my proudest achievement to date! My grandma and mum rang me straight after screaming down my phone! It was one of the most amazing nights of my life! Straight up there along with finding out the album had hit No.1 after a day of release. I just hope no one saw my fashion mishap on the re carpets!

Us:

If you’re talking about the back of your dress, I’m sorry but we did see! All the real fahionistas have their moment from time to time though.. On the other hand, girl, who designed that dress?!

Gina:

Omg! Wasn’t it beautiful! It was designed by one of my good friends Jennifer Rowely! The sparkles were my absolute favourite, the glitterier the better!

3 Album Inspirations

Us:

After you shot into the charts out of nowhere, we are all left wondering, what inspired you to create this album? What’s your song inspo?

Gina:

I have been writing music ever since I had a sense of rhythm, it just sort of feels like what I was meant to do. I take inspiration from everyday things. Every day is a new experience and those experiences are what I put into my music.

Us:

What about your music videos, how do you feel creating those and where do the ideas come from?

Gina:

I’m actually very lucky in that the team behind my success is an incredibly amazing group of people, who are so so talented. The directors of the visual album had a specific look and message they were going for, which was to document how happy and proud I am to have all these opportunities. Yeah, I’m beyond grateful for them and probably wouldn’t be doing as well as I am without them!

Us: Thank you so much for coming and chatting to us today! We all can’t wait to see what the future holds for you!

Gina: Thank you! I’ll be sure to come back!

Photoshoot Plans

Photoshoot Plan 1 from amyshields99

(Note: Uploaded using friend's account).

Imagery Ideas

(Made using https://bubbl.us/). 28/03/17

House Style

Below is a series of house colours I gathered from some of my style models. Throughout all my different pages, I will be continuing to use the same colour schemes (even if page has different style) as these compliment each other. I also plan on using some greyscale/mono tone photos as this is common in pop magazines.

These colours are conventional to magazines in this genre. They all are bright, colourful and stand out to those browsing over magazines in a shop window.

Article Suggestions

Conventional articles found in a pop magazine:

I came up with a rough starting point of the articles I may want to include in my final product. One of these will be my main headline on the front cover, and others will be additional cover lines.

(Made using https://bubbl.us/)

Font Planning

Masthead

I decide on the style of font I wanted for the masthead before I had decided on the name itself.

• I used the website www.dafonts.com to download fonts of which I found suitable. 
• I decided to go for a font which was bold, would stand out on the page and was clear and easy to read. 
• I wanted a modern font to fit with the up-to-date music scene I aim to feature in the content of the magazine.

The font's I short listed are as follows;

• gunplay rg
• gunplay 3d
• Sgt_gorilla
• Palm Beach
• DiscoNight

I then brainstormed various names I considered calling my magazine. Below is a list of the names I came up with and my final decision with an explanation;

• Verse
• Element - I decided on this name as when trying the names out in dafonts' website, this fit the best in the style I was aiming for. I also liked the meaning behind it, the elements of a piece of music is something everyone, no matter their music knowledge capability, can understand and be aware of.
• Style
• Stylish

Once deciding the name of my pop magazine was going to be 'element', I decided on a font that the word fit with aesthetically. I ended up choosing 'Sgt_gorilla.' This is because it is bold, easy to read, clear and can be enhanced with colour as it is relatively plain. This works well as it will not take too much attention away from the content on the rest of the page but works well with the genre.

Additional Fonts

Contents

The font I have chosen to use for the Title of my contents page will be 'Leixo' by Phitadesign, found on www.dafonts.com (Show below). I liked this font as it is minimalistic, which fits with the current modern culture trend, but also is a simple font that can be enhanced using different colours, which I plan on doing.

Double Page Spread

I have not yet chosen between the following two fonts, both from www.dafonts.com and downloaded for free. Both of these fonts have a quirky style and will attract attention on the page, especially if vamped up with my house colours.

I ended up choosing PENCIL STENCIL in the end as this was a free font and could be easier downloaded. I also preferred to have a simpler font for the name of the artist so it wouldn't draw attention away from the large image of her.

Additional Heading DP Spread

I thought a handwriting style, black font would fit above the artist's name perfectly as it will make it look more modern/artistic and make for a change rather than keeping the font simple.

Panning Specifics

Layout Planning (DOUBLE PAGE)

Layout Options:

1.

2.

3.

From researching pop magazine double spread pages and creating these templates, I needed to bare in mind the following conventions in order to create a successful media product:

• Double page spreads will usually highlight a particular quote/s from a section in the text and repeat it in bold to attract attention and invite viewers to read the full article.
• The text is featured in columns of the same width across the whole page.
• The double page spread focuses on one story/one artist and will not include any smaller articles on this page.
• The featured artist will appear in a large image that covers a lot of the background here.
• There will always be a short strap-line introducing the text before the beginning of the main body.

I decided to go with layout number 1 as I feel this is the most conventional and I liked the overlapping of the background image with the text. I hope to fit the text around the models body. I may later adapt this layout to include a secondary image.

Layout Planning (CONTENTS)

 Layout Options:

1.

2.

3.

From researching conventional contents pages from real pop music magazine contents pages I have accumulated a list of features that usually appear:

• Three additional images, alongside a main image that covers most of the page. These are related to inside stories from the magazine and conventionally will appear next to a page number for that story.
• The main image can and often does overlap things on the page.
• There is conventionally only one column of text, in a list fashion, that will number all the pages and what is on them. This column is also usually split up using subheadings - that I plan to also use.

In the end, I decided to use template 2 as I thought this layout was fairly basic but had the room to be enhanced by the content and also wouldn't be too fancy to draw attention away from what the page is about. I also thought that using a basic layout would follow a minimalistic theme, which modern pop magazines often do too.

Layout Planning (COVER)

Layout Options

1.

2.

3.

As I have decided to complete my magazine in the pop music genre and have researched into conventions and reoccuring features of these music magazine types, I made a list of things to bear in mind when blocking layouts for my front cover. All three designs are loosely based around real media products such as Billboard magazine, Q and Top of the Pops.

• Pop music magazines typically only include one main image on the front cover - this is usually the featured artist or the person the cover story is about.
• There are usually 3 or so other cover story lines also included on the front cover.
• It is common to find a pull quote from the cover story also featured on the front, or a pull quote from an interview included on an inside page.
• There is typically 1-2 plug or puff adverts on the front page; this is to give the newspaper a good name and also to make a certain advert stand out from the rest.
• The main image of a pop music magazine will conventionally scale the whole page.

After designing all 3 layouts, I decided to go with option 1. This is because I feel that the look of the magazine cover will look more conventional for a pop magazine as the boxed layouts are in some of the same places real media products feature theirs. The more conventional the magazine is, the greater chance of a successful product.

Genre Planning

Pop Genre Mood Board

After receiving my survey results, I concluded the best genre to portray my magazine in the style of would be 'pop culture'. This is a mood board of my chosen genre, pop music. I have included some well known pop artists along with various album cover art that have been featured on records for pop artists. My theme is a bright and colourful house style with images that pop out on the page. I want to incorporate some of the art styles shown here- e.g. pop art, first created by Andy Warhol. I think the electric and acidic colours best represent the pop genre and the wacky artists that fit the genre.


in the images above, you can also see the bright choice of clothing and makeup to accentuate the style of music they are promoting. This is something I plan to keep in my own media product. The connotations of these themes, is a happy and positive atmosphere.


Some pop artists that stereotypically have a colourful, bright and positive style behind their music I have decided to use as inspiration for my own piece. Such as; Katy Perry, Mika, Miley Cyrus, etc...