Constructing my Magazine Front Cover - Part 6

Evidently with my magazine front cover now complete the only major adjustments that could be made were improvements to the existing conventions already presented, this ensured they were the best quality and can be perceived as accurately as they could possibly through the use of text style, colour scheme and positioning stated to enhance their overall performance on the document.

With me having altered the placement of the additional byline to the centre feature, my next phase was to align them so each was situated in near vicinity to one another and that they each began in a similar length from above and below. This was another straight forward method of enlisting the ruler tool for the second time to act as a marker device, under this editing style I could move the wording closer to it so they all were situated in an optimal distance to one anothers proximity.

During the final review of my magazine cover before its ultimate submission to the exam board, my lecturer completed her final feedback scenario in which she would detail to me privately any last minute changes that could be potentially implemented to my publication before it was drafted. As I was overall in the penultimate stages of construction, this was going to be vital to me in order to determine whether what I had produced satisfied expected standards whilst also identifying potential setbacks which could undermine the entire perception. The only error I could be targeted for was the 'Festival' circle situated now in the right hand corner of the document. Since I first inserted it my lecturer was never content with its presence, she always described it as 'floating' and drawing away necessary gaze from the centre attractions (the main image and masthead respectively) due to its underlying unusualness. Personally I felt it had nothing to do in relation to how it was located, but with the colour scheme instead. When I was delving into my instiutional research I uncovered an issue of Q magazine that had incorporated a solid blue circle that indefinitely contained vital information detailing recent album reviews, however I was most intrigued by it because the same shade of blue was repeated on the main headline, I believed this provided that essential continuity displaying how all the conventions correlated well together. Taking what I had discovered, I retained it so I could reproduce this technique on my own cover , which cane witnessed in the above screenshot to enhance my continuity more thoroughly. Personally I felt the elements corresponded in relation to one another, however my lecturer disagreed because she perceived that the blue in the circle was drawing attention away from the centre fold of my product which was ultimately the male artists headline itself, under this impression it would be more difficult to identify the most important selling point. In this respects my concept I had reproduced has ultimately failed as it did not connotate effectively with my theme or layout of the front cover. With this in mind she suggested altering it to a more neutral shade so as to divert the attention away back to the main feature. I opted to switch it to grey with it being a submissive tone, therefore eyesight was turned back to the bold, prominent blue of 'Cypher'. This tone still allowed the 'Festival' circle to be recognised so it was not dismissed entirely, despite that it was now inferior to the headline which is how it should have been portrayed in the first place.

Completed Double Page Spread

Media Evaluation Via Video Link

Media Evaluation - Presentation

Media Evaluation

Completed Magazine Front Cover

With my front cover now officially completed, I repeated the same process I had conducted with the contents by identifying aspects of my productions I executed exceptionally well, consider the areas that hadn't conformed to plan and adjustments I could make in the future to prevent these inconsistencies from occurring again.

Essentially this was the task of the three productions I had to create that I struggled to perfect the most. The underlying issue in this concerned the mastheads design and appearance, although I had initially planned ahead and was vehement I had a concept cognitively I would like to replicate for my coursework, when it came to implementing my idea it found this employment extremely difficult. This was related to that fact not only could I not get the masthead to efficiently emphasise itself behind the male models hair (as it was not large enough to be noticed above the remaining conventions such as the additional headlines with which it should have outcompeted in terms of flawlessness) but the text style I desired to use did not accurately portray the title nor did the colour scheme I had previously decided upon (I really was keen on having one unique shade as the fill for my 'V' - to begin with it was blue - and have the accompanying 'oid' in white so it could portray itself emphatically against the red rectangle backdrop, however in the development stages my lecturer had disagreed on my notion towards the single blue letter terming it 'too unusual and against the standards the audience are familiar with) That thought in itself could have deterred them from purchasing it if they deemed it defied what they would normally anticipate to see in a product. One characteristic I noted during my audience research is that readers like a common convention, they desire to see the same style or theme constantly referred throughout the publication as it provided some form of comfort, without this and if the magazine kept changing its scheme throughout th pages or if they enlisted a element that was too unusual (such as my single blue letter rather then the full white shade) then they could find this distressing. Due to this massive issue surrounding the creation of my magazine front cover I feel I could have conducted my insitutional research more thoroughly and in-depth to have a greater insight into what I would be expected to produce to satisfy the underlying requirements of the audience in terms of presentation of the masthead against the other conventions. Moreover my planning should have been more concise in the notion it would become more convienient if I had a properly accurately executed flat plan towards the locations of all the major elements so I knew how to structure their positioning when it came to developing my final task.

Despite all the negatives I have brought to light, I was pleased with how I executed positioning the image to a location I found appropriate, his face is identified directly in the centre of the document and with him facing the camera lens during the shoot, he is making eye contact with the technology operator which creates the impression he is engaging with the readers point of view and visual direction. It could be understood then that he is attempting to create a relationship with them under the illusion of this 'false gaze' therefore the reader may think they are important to him, that he is being friendly and desires to connect with them. This personal bond that is then conducted makes them feel more relaxed due to this addressing of their nature and presence, making them seem more significant as opposed to the daily, mundane lives they all lead. Here I have applied the Blumer and Khatz's 'Gratification Theory' as theoretically I have developed that 'Personal Relationship' required for all audience members accurately as such. Another section of approval I can give revolves around the use of text style across the cover. When I conducted my background institutional research I discovered that a particular design called 'Bebas Nevau' was commonly seen in the article names of the likes of 'Q' and 'NME', not only had this style appealed to me but I believed it would portray itself most efficiently in my own product 'Void' due to me keeping with conventional texts seen within mainstream products which would make mine not too di-similar from them so can be regarded as authentic in a sense. Furthermore it enhanced the words making them more bold, eye catching and noticeable to the audience, increasing the appeal of my product further. My selection of colour palette was in direct relation to the traditional house style of red,black and white which can be witnessed throughout my three main tasks. The use of it on my cover has been beneficial in highlighting the more significant concepts, with the red drawing focus towards the masthead, the white of the solid backdrop effectively personifying my image and black on the text ensuring the words will still be noticed despite the competition from the more dominating conventions (i.e the masthead and central photograph). With all these in mind, despite my highly negative statement above, I feel I did moderately well in the performance of my resubmission of this piece especially since I had such a narrow time window and deadline to adhere to.

Constructing my Music Magazine Cover - Part 5

In this stage specifically you can realise that with my second template for my cover officially completed, the main sections I now had to focus upon revolved around correctly aligned the text on the document so they were in direct relation and proportion to one another to create the impression of a continous, flowing nature within the publication as it looks neater if the words correspond directly as a unit rather then several separate bodies.

From what you can remember from my last construction task post, I had created a mock 'template' of how I intended my front cover to display - this included all of my major conventions (such as masthead, headline and essential information e.g the bar code) so I understandbly was content with their location which would furthermore make it a more simple process to simply drag in my edited photograph of my male model directly onto the document where he could be positioned delicately around these elements. In the screenshot above you can decipher just that, as now my image has been situated back to its original position from the past post, regardless this is the layout I will be using for my cover, the only main improvements that may need to be conducted is the alignment of my text and manipulating my masthead further as I was enthusiastic on having a unique and startling perception upon it, one that the readers would ultimately recognise and associate with my magazine 'Void'.

As explained in my rationale, I desired my masthead to be essentially unique from any competing products of my corresponding genre in the retail environment, ultimately this allows your publication to be identified above all the ones surrounding its vicinity on the shelf because of its significant difference and credibility from the accompanying magazines. This makes its name more recognisable to the audience as they learn to associate that masthead as a sigma or sign that references to the publication itself. This in itself is the nature of the 'Semiotics' theory which describes how audiences are susceptible to producing a required response when they can directly relate a symbol to a particular feeling/mood/emotion or image. I successfully hope to incorporate this idea into my magazine 'Void' under the assumption my reading public will effectively respond in similarly in respects of what I have stated. In order to achieve my ideal, I manipulated the 'V' of 'Void' in such a manner that it appeared to be crashing into the remainder of the text, this was extremely unusual as when I conducted my preliminary background research into institutional logos I discovered that many music products (such as Q, NME, Kerrang!) all have straight, bold, forward facing mastheads so they can instantly immerse and gain the attention of their desired audiences. Whilst my masthead in itself is following those standards with it being displayed in a dramatic yet alluring white palette, the uncoventionalism orientates from the notion that the 'V' is rebelling against that 'straight' design I just spoke of. I'm hoping this element with effectively capture the visual perspective of my readers, with the way it is positioned on the page its difficult to overlook as it is a editing technique that wouldn't normally be witnessed. This there forth is the 'enigma' I have detailed continously to - if there is a mysterious and alluring vibe surrounding an object that isn't fully explained (in this instance the slanted 'V') then this can provoke an immediate reaction from the audience in the sense they will be more attracted as they intend to uncover the meaning behind why it is presented in such a manner and in conclusion uncover the 'mystery' itself.

With me being a perfectionist in every manner, I could not help but notice that the vast majority of my additional sell lines on the right hand location of the cover were slightly misplaced from one another. In a conventional product the text will be lined so that they are perfectly symmetrical to one another in terms of positioning, if you drew a ruler down the page you would see that they all begin in exactly the same area so therefore corresponded with each other for continuity reasons. This was a variable I needed to correct as if left unedited, it can cause disjointness and therefore interrupt the rhythm the publication is attempting to display. In an effort to amend the inconvenience I began by drawing rulers across the document from the view finder tool bar so that I had a faint green line orientated around the beginning of the 'Fleet Foxes' headline, from there it would be easy to relate the remaining texts in correspondance to where this one ultimately started. As I was happy with where the 'Fleet Foxes' feature was situated, I grouped together my accompanying articles by selecting the 'cmd' button to highlight them all on their layers located at the tool bar panel. Finally I used the directional arrow keys to individually move and align them with the ruler placed on the page. I started this manouver with the 'Albums Review' title, from here on I would ensure that the remaining bodies of text where also in the location I desired them to be.

This screenshot is more of a continuation from before where I was documenting the process I had to diverge in to effectively align all of the sell lines for my cover. With the 'Fleet Foxes' and 'Albums Review' now correctly positioned, I began to work on alternating the location of the 'Plus' section, which was similar to what you have witnessed above. As the ruler tool was still present on the page, I could still accurately identify where my text needed to be situated. By highlighting all of that specific layer using the 'cmd' button, I nudged the wording over with the arrow keys so the green line and letter were in perfect harmony with one another. Yet after I had completed this, I notced the wording inside the 'Festival' circle so disjointed so much so that it was incoherant and made no sense. This had been caused by me changing the position of the 'Fleet Foxes' headline as I had to move the circle up slightly to squeeze it into its new space. With all of the text now aligned symmetrically, it would be most beneficial for me to focus on re-locating the words of my 'Festival' circle.

I quickly set to work adjusting the text correctly back into the circles allowing the lettering to be even with one another and essentially so it could be correctly deciphered as the sentence had made no sense previously. As my lecturer was conducting class rounds, she came over to me to check my progress to which I showed her how my cover was developing. Whilst she was content with all the changes that had been implemented she was still concerned the name of the main feature artist 'Cypher' was lacking in size again and for that it to be recognised as the centre fold of my entire piece I would have to dramatically enhance the size again to allow this to be effectively noted by my target audience. With this in mind I increased the proportion of 'Cypher' yet again from 160pt to 180pt, it wasn't altered significantly in that the change was highly noticeable as apparent, yet when me and my lecturer both viewed the cover after this alteration had been implemented we could distinguish a difference between how it had presented before and after. Unfortunately it had also caused an error, the byline that was directly related to the artists name on the right hand placement of it had been pushed so it overlapped the barcode as a consequence of the text enhancment. This could potentially be a setback my publication appeared quite clustered if conventions were conflicting with one another, this is a notion I'm worried that the audience will pick up upon as it is fairly obvious to identify which may make them consider that I haven't designed my layout correctly or that the product appears rushed which disregards its professional nature. For this reason I now had another dilemma on my hands to prevent becoming catastrophic so I instantly set away in removing it from my piece.

Before I began making the essential alterations to my cover to ensure the mistake the text had created was effectively removed, my student lecturer suggested it may benefit me more if I staggered the positioning of the words, so instead of having three lined with the last sentence a long one, I should cut it at 'keeps', therefore adjusting it by making a for the line to place 'on going'. Through this method alone I would be able to draw profound emphasis upon those last two words as they importantly were illustrating how much hard work the artist has put into getting to where he is in the music charts today whilst also reflecting the amazing dominance he has over other singers of the indie genre currently in the industry. I was won over by the idea he had shared with me, so much so that I revamped my layout so the text of the headline could be situated in such a mannerism. I pressed the 'enter' key on the computer pad so I could individually select where I wanted the words to be cut for a new sentence, this procedure continued until I had effectively edited them so I now had four lines as opposed to three. As compared to before, the cover had a more rigid, structured appeal since the byline had been amended, I believed the rhythm was more consistent then previous which my student lecturer totally agreed with, commenting that the sentences read in continuation to one another as opposed to when they were varied in lengths which caused some visual disturbance and dissaproval in the underlying appearance.

Time Management - Update 6