Double Page Spread Deconstruction: The Vaccines

This is a double page spread from a music magazine featuring The Vaccines. In this post I am going to be deconstructing this double page spread and looking at the conventions of a double page spread. When I am doing this I will be looking to see if there are any particular conventions that this magazine has used that I would or would not like to use when it comes to making my own double page spread for my music magazine.

For this particular double page spread there is only one image, and that is of the main feature artist, The Vaccines. Most magazines tend to have one main image and other smaller images within the feature, I like how they have done this as in the image all of the band are looking into the camera, so it is like they are addressing you. So if there were more images on this page it would take away from this effect that the main image has given the reader. I might do something similar for my double page spread, but i don't think I will as I want to have more than one images on the page. I want to have multiple images (but not too many) of the artist that are appropriate to my article/interview but I don't want to just have one image on the page as I think it makes it look a bit bare, and it doesn't really stand out from the rest of the magazine.

There are three main colours used within this double page spread, these colours are blue, black and brown. These colours make the page look quite washed out, however the blue stands out against the rest. I think it looks better with a limited colour pallet as the page doesn't look too busy and the colours also reflect the genre of the band. However I think that this double page spread could have more colours on it as it does look washed out and plain. When making my double page spread I want the colours that I choose to reflect the artists genre, however I want them to be more prominent on the page as I do think the colours on this page look quite boring.

In this double page spread they have included drop caps within the paragraphs and pull quotes. These things are in the brightest colour on the page, blue. The drop caps stand out in this colour so the reader knows where to start reading and the pull quotes are used for the reader so it will make them more interested in the article and want to read it all. I might use drop caps on my double page spread as I want my magazine to be as easy to navigate as possible and I think it looks good on the page.

This double page spread has also used a pull quote from the article, they have put the pull quote in the same colour, blue, that they made the drop caps. Pull quotes stand out from the rest of the article and the readers eyes to directly towards it, therefor it is important to make the text in the pull quote interesting so it will make the reader want to read the rest of the article. I think when making my double page spread article I will use at least one pull quite as I think it is a good way to give the reader an insight into the article and I think it overall makes the page, mainly the text area, look more interesting.

On this double page spread they have put the text into columns, most articles in magazines have the minimum of three columns, however this magazine article only has two. When writing my article and designing the layout of my double page spread I will organise my text into columns, however I am not sure how many just yet.


This article has been written about The Vaccines through the point of view of someone else who knows them, the journalist hasn't interviewed the band. The style in which this has been written makes the article feel more formal. When I am writing my article I don't want it to feel as formal as this article as I do find this style quite boring, but I don't want it to be too informal either. I also want to include some form of article within my article as I think it makes it more interactive and fun to read.

Double Page Spread Deconstruction: Olly Murs

This is a double page spread from a music magazine featuring Olly Murs. In this post I am going to be deconstructing this double page spread and looking at the conventions of a double page spread. When I am doing this I will be looking to see if there are any particular conventions that this magazine has used that I would or would not like to use when it comes to making my own double page spread for my music magazine.
This magazine isn't of the genre of magazine I am going to be creating, however I am going to be using it to look at the different layouts and styes of different genres of music magazine and see if there are any particular conventions that I would like to try and incorporate within my magazine. 

This particular double page spread is from a christmas issue of this magazine so they have decided to go with the theme of christmas and winter. Therefor the magazine has used imagery of snowflakes within the background of the page. They have also titled the article "Merry Christmurs!" which is obviously a play on words with christmas and Murs, which is the last name of the feature artist. The images that they have used on this page are appropriate to the theme as they are of the feature artist, Olly Murs, and they show him in winter clothing and with christmas related items. 
I don't think that using a theme would fit with the genre of my magazine. I think that if I were to use a theme similar to the one used on this double page spread it wouldn't appeal to my target audience; I think using a theme is more appropriate for younger people who like the pop genre. So therefor I wont be using a theme within my magazine.

Within the text they have used both pull quotes and drop caps. The pull quote that they have used reads "Rylan walked around naked most of the time", this pull quote is designed to intrigue the readers into reading the rest of the article as they may find it funny and they also might find some gossip. They have used a drop cap at the start of the article, this lets the reader know where to start the article. For this drop cap they have used a slightly different font to the rest of the text in the article and they have made it look as though it has been highlighted by using the yellow behind it, this makes it stand out even more.
I think that I might use both of these conventions within my magazine as I think it both looks good on the page and it makes the article easier for the reader to understand. 

The strap line uses a lot of slang, you can tell the sort of accent that they would have. The accent is similar to the one which Olly Murs actually has, so it does tie in with the rest of the article. You can see this where it reads "its a jolly 'holiday". I think this is quite clever and I might consider doing something similar in my magazine.

This double page spread has used quite a lot of fonts, which I personally don't like as I think that it makes the page look too busy, however it does suit this particular magazine genre. They have used a big, bold font for the title of the article, this font hasn't been used anywhere else on the page, so this helps the title stand out even more. I will be doing this for my double page dread as I want my title to stand out from the rest of the article/interview. They have again used a different font for the strap line, the pull quote, the picture captions, the drop cap and the article/interview. 
When I am making my double page spread I want to stick to a minimalistic font for my article and have a bigger, bolder font for my title. I want my page to look good but I don't want it to look busy with too many fonts like this double page spread.

I like how this article has used multiple images, yet you can still see which is the main image they want you to focus on, as it fills a full page. I think I might do something similar with my magazine as I want to use more than one image (but not too many) and I want to have one main image out of the ones I choose to use and I want it to be pregnant on the page. However I will have my images a bit more organized than this page as I don't want to make my double page spread look cluttered with different conventions.

This double page spread has used four main colours, yellow, red, blue and black. I think that this makes the page look too busy and I won't be using similar colours together in my magazine as I don't think they go together very well. However I think that having these sort of colours together suits the pop, childish genre of this particular magazine. When making my double page spread I want to have a maximum of three main colours as I don't think that it matches the genre of my magazine if I have too many colours. 

Double Page Spread Deconstruction: Rita Ora

This is a double page spread from a music magazine featuring Rita Ora. In this post I am going to be deconstructing this double page spread and looking at the conventions of a double page spread. When I am doing this I will be looking to see if there are any particular conventions that this magazine has used that I would or would not like to use when it comes to making my own double page spread for my music magazine.

For this double page spread they have only used one image of the main feature (Rita Ora) on the page, this is unusual for a double page spread on the feature artist as they tend to use other images of the artist on the page. I like how they have done this however as the image fills both of the pages as a background and I think it makes the magazine its self look like a well put together, professional magazine. I might do something similar when it comes to my magazine as I like how they have used the main image as the background. However I think I might use more than one image on my double page spread as I think that makes the page look more put together and interesting, and it is more appropriate for my target age group as they are teenagers so they don't like to have too much to read and they will probably get bored if the page is mainly writing. 

This double page spread does have a particular color scheme of mainly three colors, red, black and grey. I like how they have done this as I think that it looks simplistic yet it is effective and it does look good. I am going to try to stick to three main colors when doing my double page spread as I don't want my page to look to busy as it will be, not only hard for the reader to look at, but also hard for them to read and understand. 

I think that it looks good how they have used the most bold color of the three, red, as the color for the headline, the kicker and the questions from the interviewer. This helps the reader know where to start reading and it overall makes the pages easier to navigate. When it comes to making my double page spread I will use the boldest color for the questions (if I decide to do an interview), the kicker and the title. I will do this because I want my page to be as easy for my reader to navigate as possible and I also want it too look good. I am using this double page spread as inspiration for my magazine as I do like the color scheme and I want to use a similar color scheme for my music magazine.

On this double page spread the headline is just the name of the artist it is featuring, this isn't a typical thing for a magazine to do on an article as they usually include a short, snappy headline that they think will draw people into reading it. This double page spread also doesn't have a strap line under the title, but it does have a kicker which gives a brief description of the article that will persuade the reader to read on as they think that they might hear some good gossip as it reads 'plus what is really going on with her and Rihanna...'. I think when it comes to making my magazine double page spread I will have design my headline to try and intrigue my readers, although this idea of just using the artists name as the headline is simple and effective I personally don't think I will be using it. however I will be using something similar when it comes to the kicker.

The text that is seen on this double page spread is in columns, I think this is a good way of organizing the page and making it easier for the reader to understand. Usually in magazines when they use columns for organizing the text they align them so they all have the start and finish line of the columns in the same place, but in this magazine they haven't put the starting line in the same place. When making my double page spread I will be using columns for my text but I will align them properly as I think that it looks better.

The font that it see for the article is very simple in comparison to the font used for the headline. The headline is in a bold font in a much bigger size than the rest of the text on the page. I think this is a good idea as it makes it stand out from the rest of the page and it is recognizable as the headline. I will be making my headline a different font and color to the rest of the text as I want it to stand out as much as possible. The font is more simplistic in the article because it needs to be easy for the readers to read, I will do this for my article as I actually want my readers to be able to read my article. 
However the questions from the interviewer are in a different font to the rest of the text and it is in italics, this is a good way of getting the questions to stand out, apart from the color. I think it would have looked better if the kicker would have been in the same font as the questions as it would haver tied the article together more.

Font research

This is  the mood-board that I have created whilst researching fonts.

I looked on line on http://www.dafont.com/ at a lot of different fonts. I was looking at fonts for both my masthead on the front cover of my magazine, cover lines, my main sell-line and the text inside the magazine.

I looked at a wide variety of fonts from fonts with and without serifs and decorative fonts. For my masthead I want a bold font so it stands out on the cover, however I do want a font that will fit the genre of my magazine and the image I want to create. I want to have a font for my masthead that will be unique and not too similar to any other music magazines masthead. I want my masthead to be recognisable as it is the first thing that readers see on the shelf.

I want to have a font that is different to the one used for the masthead  for the font that I will use for my main sell-line. I want to have a font that isn't as bold as the masthead but I want a font that will still stand out on the page and not blend in with the main image.

For my cover lines I want the font to be similar if not the same to the one that I have used for my main sell line as I don't want the cover to have too many fonts on it as I don't want it too look too cluttered/tacky. If I use the same font as my main sell-line I will make the text size smaller and have the main sell line bold as I want the main sell-line to be bigger than the cover lines as the main sell-line is the main feature in the magazine.

When creating my double page spread I will have a big bold font that will stand out from the page as the main headline for that article, however for the article/interview its self I will have a simplistic font in a smaller size. I will do this not only so the headline stands out but so the article is easy for the reader to understand and see. 

Colour Scheme Mood Board

I have created a mood board displaying the research that I have done regarding the colour scheme I will be using on my music magazine front cover and inside the magazine its self.

When doing my research on colour schemes I looked at different magazine front covers and I looked to see if there were any particular colour scheme on the front covers. I took some of the front covers that I thought had either interesting or similar colour schemes to what I want to have for my music magazine. I took these images and added them to my mood board.

I also looked at some colour charts to see what colored went well together and then I decided whether or not they would go with the genre of magazine I am going to create. 

I have decided that when designing my magazine that I want to stick to three or four main colours. I will have three or four main colors on the front cover, contents page and double page spread. For example I might have red, black and grey on the front cover of my magazine butt on the double page spread I might make it be black, grey, white and lilac. I am only going to use three or four main colors because I don't my magazine to look too busy and tacky, I also want it to look good and be easy for my readers to look at and understand.

I will have a certain colour scheme for my double page spread which will be different to the rest of the magazine as I want my colour choices to reflect the artists style and genre and I want it to be obvious that this is the main article within the magazine.

Top Of The Pops Contents Page Deconstruction

 This is the contents page deconstruction that i did for one of the issues of Top Of The Pops music magazine.

In this deconstruction I have looked at the conventions that this magazine has used when making this particular contents page. I have looked at different things that the magazine has done, and whilst I have been doing this I have been deciding which conventions I like, and may use in my magazine, and I have decided which conventions I don't like as much and won't be using in my magazine contents page.

In this particular contents page I liked how they had taken the image of the front cover of this issue of the magazine and it shows you where the articles featured on the front cover are within the magazine. I might do something similar in my magazine. However I don't like how brightly coloured this contents page is and I won't be using similar colors within my magazine. I won't be doing this because it doesn't fit in with the target audience for my magazine (16-20 years old) as it looks like it is targeted at young teenagers (11-14 years old) and genre of my music magazine.

NME Magazine Contents Page Deconstruction

 This is the contents page deconstruction that i did for one of the issues of NME magazine.

In this deconstruction I have looked at the conventions that this magazine has used when making this particular contents page. I have looked at different things that the magazine has done, and whilst I have been doing this I have been deciding which conventions I like, and may use in my magazine, and I have decided which conventions I don't like as much and won't be using in my magazine contents page. 

In this particular contents page I liked the layout of the page, I also liked how they had used a variety of different images. However I didn't like how the page looked slightly cramped. I will keep these things in mind when making my magazines contents page.

Billboard Magazine Contents Page Deconstruction

 This is the contents page deconstruction that i did for one of the issues of Billboard music magazine.

In this deconstruction I have looked at the conventions that this magazine has used when making this particular contents page. I have looked at different things that the magazine has done, and whilst I have been doing this I have been deciding which conventions I like, and may use in my magazine, and I have decided which conventions I don't like as much and won't be using in my magazine contents page. 

In this particular contents page I didn't like how sparse the layout was and I didn't like the images used. I personally thought that I wouldn't be able to tell that it was a music magazine if it didn't have the music charts at the side of the page.

NME front cover deconstruction

 

This is the third magazine front cover deconstruction that I did, this particular deconstruction is on an issue of NME featuring The Arctic Monkeys.

 

I did this to show the different conventions used on the front cover of a music magazine and get some ideas and tips for when I am designing the front cover of  my magazine.

 

There are some conventions on this front cover that I would like to use on my magazine, however there are some ideas that I wont use on my magazine.

Billboard front cover deconstruction

 

 

This is the second magazine front cover deconstruction that I did, this particular cover is on one of the issues of Bilboard magazine featuring Lady GaGa.

 

I did this to show the different conventions used on the front cover of a music magazine and get some ideas and tips for when I am designing the front cover of  my magazine.

 

There are some conventions on this front cover that I would like to use on my magazine, however there are some ideas that I wont use on my magazine.
When I was looking at this particular magazine front cover I liked how the designers had stuck to three main colours on this front cover, and I may do something similar on my front cover.



Q front cover deconstruction

 

This is the front cover deconstruction that I have done for of one of the issues of Q music magazine.

 

I have looked at the conventions of the front cover of a magazine, and I looked and what conventions that this particular magazine had used on this front cover.

 While looking at what this front cover had done I was looking at what I thought looked good on the front cover and I was looking to see if there was anything that I would like to do/use on the front cover of my magazine.

Initial Make-up Research

This is the mood-board that I have created to show the research that I have been doing when looking into what make-up I will use on the models in my music magazine.

When researching at make-up I have looked at both brands, products, styles and tutorials (as shown in the pictures above). Firstly i stared off my looking at tutorials, both picture tutorials and video tutorials on YouTube. i found the tutorials on youtube most helpful as your are physically being shown by someone what to do. I found the tutorials from the channels Tanya Burr and Pixiewoo to be the most helpful (I will link the channels below).

I then looked into products and brands, I looked at the different types of makeup available and I have featured some of them above. 

I also looked at different styles of eye make-up ad I want the eyes on my model to stand out the most, so I thought by looking at tutorials and styles would be helpful for me to achieve the look that I want.

I will look into this further when it comes closer to the time of taking photos of the model.

https://www.youtube.com/user/pixiwoo

https://www.youtube.com/user/pixi2woo

 

I have also created a Pintrest board where I have looked at and researched different make-up styles:

https://www.pinterest.com/BethGowland98/media-makeup-research/

Initial Hair Research

This is the mood-board I have created whilst researching what hairstyles i will be using on my model for the front cover of my music magazine.

I first stared off by looking at hair products and brand names so I know when it comes to my models hair what is available out there for me to use. 

I also looked on both Google and YouTube for hairstyle tutorials. when I was on YouTube I came across a channel called All Things Hair which have a wide variety of hair tutorials, so I thought that this would be very helpful for me when it comes to styling my models hair and deciding how I want their hair to look ( I will leave a link to the channel below). I think that YouTube is very helpful when it comes to tutorials so I will defiantly be using it when it comes to styling my model. i find YouTube more helpful than Google as the tutorials are more indents than just images.

When researching I also looked at different celebrities hairstyles from this year and seen what is most popular, I thought that this would be a good idea as my target age group likes to know what is current and fashionable, so if my model is fashionable it will help my magazine look appealing to them. I took some of these images that I found and I will be using them for inspiration when it comes to my models hair.

https://www.youtube.com/user/AllThingsHairUK

I also created a Pintrest board where I looked at and researched different hair styles:
https://www.pinterest.com/BethGowland98/media-hair-research/

Mood board

I have chosen a collection of images that I think link to what I want my magazine to look like and include. I then took these images and then put them into the form of a mood board.

This is the mood board that I have created for my music magazine. The images that I have included in this mood board relate to the style of my magazine and the show the sort of music that I would like to include in my magazine.

I created this mood board so I can refer back to it for inspiration when I'm creating my magazine. I am aware that my ideas might change throughout the process of making the magazine, but I still see this as a useful tool so I can see what my original ideas were and so I can see the development in my work.

I have used the youtube icon as I would like to have a feature article in my magaazine on unseen/undiscovered artists from youtube. 

I have included imagery of music artists performing live and festival crowds as I know that my target audience enjoy live music. I have also got some images of festival line ups; I am including a festival section to my magazine which will have images and reviews of this years festivals.

The artists that I have included on my moodboard are reflective of the artists that I will be using in my magazine, and the music genres I'll base my magazine on (indie, pop and rock).  

I have included the logo for The Official UK Top 40, not only because I will have a feature section of my magazine on both the UK singles and album charts, but also because my target age group (16-19 years old) like to be kept up to date, so this will appeal to them. 

In my mood board I have used images of vinyl records as I would like to feature both old and new music within my magazine and I felt that this connotes that idea. 

Proposal Form

This is my initial proposal form for my music magazine. I have recorded some of my initial ideas that I have had regarding the magazine, however I am aware that some of these ideas may change and I may not end up using them in my magazine all together.

Introduction

AS Media Studies Blog: Introduction

My name is Beth Gowland and this is the introduction to my AS Media Studies coursework blog.

For my AS Media Studies coursework I will be creating a front over, contents page and double page spread for my own music magazine.

In this blog I will be showing you the decisions that I make regarding my music magazine and the things that influence and inspire me towards making those decisions. All of my research, planning and development will be recorded within this blog.

I will be posting these things in a variety of ways such as videos, pictures, hyperlinks and more. I will show you tests and drafts that I make so you can physically see the progression and development of my work.

My magazine will be aimed at 16-19 year olds. The magazine will mainly be aimed at females but some of the things that I include will also be appropriate for males. The main genres that I will feature in my magazine will be pop/indie however I will feature some other music genres.