Colour Palette

This is my colour palette for my magazine. I decided to use limited bright colours as my magazine is aimed at audiences aged 14 and above - this means that they don't need bright colours to make them want the magazine. I chose basic colours linked with the rock industry - Red, Black, White, Grey, etc - however, I specifically chose Pink as my cover artist is the singer of an all girl rock band - I used the colour Pink to emphasize this.

Front Cover Update - 11/02/14

11/02/14

Overall Front Cover so far

I changed the gradient background as I thought this would give it too much depth. 

I added more text to the skyline along with stars between each artist/band name. I combined the layers to keep them together in line. 

I added the essential information to the left below my Masthead. 

I created my main Coverline and added a stroke around it. As Evarose are an all-girl rock band, I used the colour pink as the outline to the masthead. 

I created a bubble for my front cover. I created it by combining two circular shapes' layers and adding text to them. 

Front Cover Update: 06/02/14

06/02/14:

Today I created a gradient background for my Front Cover to give it more depth - I noticed that Kerrang! sometimes do this on their front covers. I also added in my masthead, giving it a stroke effect around the text to create an outline. I added in a red skyline and the first piece of text to it. 

Fonts - 04/02/2014

Using websites such as "dafont" and "Google fonts" , I downloaded 21 possible font types that I may use in my magazine.

Here are the fonts: 

From those fonts I selected 4 which I thought would look good as my Magazine Masthead. I then used those fonts in Photoshop on my Front cover to decide which one would look best for the magazine genre that I have decided to use. 

Airbrushing Photos - 31/01/2014

Original Photo

Airbrushed Photo.

I am using this photo for my contents page; like in most magazines, I decided to airbrush the photo on Photoshop. I used to Clone Stamp to get rid of any lines/marks on the face, brightness/contrast to whiten the whites of the eyes, hue and saturation to change the eye colour, surface blue to blur the skin and the eraser to get rid of the prominent features - on the layer I blurred - to keep them prominent and in focus.  I also brightened the background to separate the subject from the background more

Photoshoot 1

I used the photography studio as my location for the photos that may appear on my contents page; I used the backdrop, softbox light on flash and a reflector in order to get the photos that I took.

The models are two of my friends who I debriefed earlier in the week.

This is the risk assessment form that we signed as a group when using the Photography studio.

Here are the photos which I took:

This is the first photo I took - the camera flash wasn't connected to the softbox light so there was no flash when taking the photo.



Conventions, Producer and Target Audience

I plan to use the main conventions when regarding my images and my front cover. The colour palette that I have decided to use will be quite neutral – with a few bright colours – but effective nonetheless. The images would be in colour and I plan to use a main image and a few sub-images on my front cover, as most magazines use one main image with several smaller images. However, I will avoid cluttering my front cover to make it seem more professional looking – I will use coverlines and subheadings also. Certain textual elements will reinforce the genre of the magazine, along with colloquial lexis which will suit my wide audience.  For my Contents page, I will use the masthead of the magazine as the title of the page - seen in Kerrang! which my magazine is based on. I will also use images to represent the main articles - also seen in Kerrang! and also NME. As for my Double Page Spread, I will use pull quotes to indicate important quotes in the article - possibly using the pull quote as my article title. Like most magazines, I will use drop caps at the beginning of my article and anchors on any smaller images that I may use. As Evarose are a quite girly rock band, I will use a colour palette to reflect this.

If my magazine was distributed in the real world, I think the producer would be Bauer Media - Bauer Media produce both Kerrang! Magazine, along with Q – two popular music magazines. I would consider my magazine to a Kerrang! based, magazine, however with both old and new music. Kerrang! Magazine is one of the biggest selling rock magazines worldwide, with their target audience being teenagers and young adults. I have decided that, by combining newer and older music, my target audience will teenagers and above which I believe would create a good selling point -  being aimed at a large audience.  

In my survey, I found that both males and females read music magazines, so my magazine will be aimed at both genders. I will make it appeal to them by featuring both male and female artists in the magazine and on the front cover and making it a neutral-based colour scheme. As for characteristics that the target audience will have, the younger teenage and young adults will likely – as they are interested in music – will most likely socialise with friends over music, going to concerts together. I would make sure that there is coverage on new and unsigned bands, not only would it create awareness for upcoming bands, but younger audiences would be more likely to attend concerts of those bands as tickets would be affordable – usually less than £10. In addition, younger people tend to be more accepting of newer bands. Female audiences would most likely be interested in shopping, so if my magazine was to be distributed to the real world, I feel that it would be worthwhile to add in a page advertising online clothing companies – possibly with discount offers, exclusive to those who purchased the magazine. As males are stereotypically known to enjoy video games, it would be worthwhile – if my magazine was to be distributed to the real world – to add in a section of new video game reviews - again, if possible, having discount codes if the audiences were to buy the game online from a certain company.

Outlets that I believe would be interested in selling my magazine include music stores – such as HMV – and book stores – like WHSmiths who sell a variety of music magazines.  Supermarkets such as ASDA, Morrisons, and Tesco sell music magazines, therefore I believe my magazine would distribute well in those types of shops. As mentioned above, I believe Bauer Media would be interested in distributing my magazine as they distribute other music magazines, however a small percentage cover older music so I feel that my magazine would complement the company. For places such as certain areas of the USA, a digital copy of the magazine would be available to buy online.