Enrolment Task

As an enrolment task to media I was asked to write an essay describing what I would make a music magazine look like if I were to make one. This is the essay that I wrote for that task. Since writing this essay my ideas of what I would include in my music magazine have changed and. When I wrote this I didn't have as on depth knowledge as what I have now, so my work has developed a lot.

My teacher gave me some feedback on what I had and hadn't done well on this piece of work. I will use this feedback to improve my work in the future.

I also looked at at magazine from covers (the covers that I have put on this blog are the ones that I analyzed)  When I looked at these front covers I had no knowledge of music magazine front cover conventions, so the answers I gave for this section of the induction work are very basic.

I was also given feedback for this section of the task from my teacher, I will use this feedback to help me and my work in future tasks.

Group Task: Analyzing Other Work

I have analyzed other peoples work on music magazines from previous years. I did this to get ideas for my own work so I can see what works well and what doesn't work as well. 

I did this as a group task so I could share ideas with other people. As I was looking at the work I had the mark scheme next to me so I could decide whether or not I thought the magazine met some of the requirements for certain grades.

When I was looking at the work I tried to see if I could tell what genre of music they were basing their magazine on, which I found very easily as it was very prominent within the magazine. 

I found that this piece of work had a very good and consistent colour scheme throughout, I think that this has been done well as you can tell that it is all supposed to be a part of the same magazine and it ties all of their work together, which a lot of people struggle to do.

When I was doing this task I was looking at the work to see if there were any elements that would help me to improve my magazine, this task also helped me see what conventions work best on different magazine genres.

It was very useful working with the mark scheme because I could look at it and see what people are looking for within my work. I know what to do in order to get my work to a certain grade.

Overall I found this task very useful.

Survey

I have created this survey so I can get an idea of what people want from a music magazine,  and so I can adapt my work to what people want.

Please answer all questions.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SX9BCTN

Preliminary Task: Front Cover and Contents Page

For my preliminary task I was asked to make a college magazines front cover and contents page. This is the front cover that I created for the college magazine, I hade this based on the flat plan that I created previously.

I have used a main sell line and sell lines that I thought would be appropriate for a college magazine. 

For the sell lines I used things that are appropriate and I thought students would like to read further into. Because I included sell lines that I think students would be interested in this makes it more likely that students will pick up a copy of the magazine.

Also on the front cover I included a competition to win an IPad, I did this because it again will intrigue students into reading the magazine. I knew that an IPad will be a suitable prize as students like to be up to date with technology, but they don't always like having to spend the money on buying the newest technology, so a chance to win a prize like this will be exciting for them.

When creating this front cover I applied the knowledge that I had learnt when looking at music magazine front covers. I looked at the conventions that had been used in music magazines and applied the ones that I thought would be appropriate for creating this college magazine.

When creating the contents page for the college magazine I applied the knowledge that I had previously learnt when looking at the conventions of a magazines contents page. I applied the conventions that I thought would be appropriate for the genre of the magazine that I was creating.

When creating my contents page I used some of the images that I had taken along the side as I thought if I didn't include any photos then the page would be boring and plain, I also inlcuded the corresponding page numbers for the pictures.

When creating the articles for the magazine I thought of things that a student might want to read and will be interested in. When doing this I also made sure that the pictures released to the article titles.

I included the date at the top of the page so the reader know which issue of the magazine this is. I also included a smaller version of the meathead, but this time I put it at the top right hand side of the page. I included the masthead so it ties the magazine together and so it doesn't look mismatched.

5 Seconds of Summer Double Page Spread Homework

This is the practice double page spread article that I made. I created this article before I had done any research into double page spread conventions. This will be useful for me to see how my work develops as my knowledge develops.

This is the feedback that I was given regarding the double page spread that I created. I will be using this feedback when it comes to making my music magazine double page spread as I think that it will be very useful and helpful for me.

Photoshop Practice And Evaluation

I have created a practice magazine front cover on photoshop. I have done this so I can test my skills on photoshop. I have used Photoshop quite a lot in the past so I did know how to use it when making this practice magazine front cover, however when I have been using Photoshop in the past I haven't made a magazine front cover, so this was good practice for me.

I found that the most useful tools that i used on photoshop was the magic wand tool, the text tool and the rectangle tool. As you can see you looking at my front cove that I have crated I used the rectangle tool to place rectangles behind the text so you can read what they say on top of the main image; so I found having the rectangle tool very helpful. I also found the magic wand tool very helpful when creating this as it helped me remove the majority of the white background of the main image and it helped me remove any shadows that there were on the original image. Obviously having the text tool was very helpful to me as text is one of the main component to the front cover of the magazine.

I think that the front cover that I have created looks a little like the front cover of an issue of NME magazine. I did use NME as an inspiration as I like the layout of their front covers and the simple colour scheme that they use. I like how this practice turned out, however if I were to do it again I would find away to make sure that all of the original background is removed without having to use the eraser, and I would possible add more colour, however I like the simple colour scheme that I have at the minute. Also if I were to re-make this front cover I would possibly include a tagline under the masthead, make the masthead bigger and make the main image a little smaller.

I like the positioning of the main image slightly over the masthead as I think that it makes the magazine look slightly more professionally made. The main image that I have used on this front cover was from the internet, so it had a white background, but when removing the white background, so you could see the masthead, I had some difficulty as not all of it would disappear. So next time when I make the front cover for my magazine I will have to try and find a way to get around this issue or fix it somehow.

Overall I quite like the style and layout of this practice front cover and I would like to make my music magazine front cover something similar to this. I also like the red, white and black colour scheme, so I may incorporate this into my front cover for my music magazine, however I am not 100% sure it fits with my genre.

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.