Brief

To design a front cover, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original; a minimum of four images must be used.

SEPERATOR

LIIAR Analysis of Final front page

Language:

The photograph that I used in this cover is a medium close up. The only connotations I aimed for it to give was the happiness of the model, this gives the impression that the college is a very good and fun place and it will convince more people to attend the college while still being appealing. I also took inspiration in ways from the Florence Welch cover I studied earlier as I thought those techniques were effective. I decided to choose a model that had fiery red hair like Florence. I took this inspiration as I thought the fiery red hair gives the image more impact and stands out a lot more. I also used the same technique by putting blue eye shadow around the model’s eyes to make them the focus of the image like in the Florence cover. I feel like the eyes are an important feature to highlight as they make a connection to the reader with the use of direct mode of address. I also made the masthead stand out by using a unique font and using the colour of blue for it. I chose this colour as it matched the colour of the model’s eyes and I felt that connection was important.

Institution:

- Unable to analyse due to the fact that I created the front page.

Ideology:

The only values I feel that my front page communicates is the need for escapism. As the image and the background is ascetically beautiful. This may make the reader want to come or “escape” to this college due to the visuals of this image. The happy-looking model also supports this value. My magazine isn’t very mainstream as it doesn’t appeal to everyone due to the fact that it is a college magazine and only for college students.

Audience:

My target audience is primarily college students. I feel that front page appeals to them, especially the people who aspire to go to college will be persuaded to attend this certain college. This gives it a very professional yet fun feel which will appeal to the college students of my target audience.

Representation:

My magazine front page aims to represent the college in a positive way as it will convince more people to come to this college, and I feel that my front page successfully does this due to the fact that the model seems happy and is in an aesthetically nice and beautiful area, these techniques are effective in the representation in teenagers also.

Front cover draft

Front page mock-up

FINAL Front page

Evaluation (not including LIIAR analysis)

Evaluation:

 

In this essay I will be evaluating and explaining the process of creating the college magazine front page. This will be everything from planning, initial ideas to the final creation of the front page on Photoshop. I will also refer to the target audience and explain how the advertisement appeals to them and caters for their interests and needs. As well as using the technique ‘Liiar’ when I can.

 

The research marked the beginning of the process for the creation of the college magazine front page. I chose a magazine cover (Vogue) and analysed it in full detail while referring to the key conventions of magazine front pages (masthead, main image, headline etc). This helped me as a starter as it gave me a good piece of insight and information about how a front cover is laid out and the key conventions that it includes.

 

Next, I went on the create a powerpoint presentation. This presentation included a full detailed analysis of a front page and a contents page of a music magazine. I successfully did this by following the technique ‘Liiar’, each slide followed each part of the analysis. Liiar stands for: Language, Institution, Ideology, Audience and representation. The magazine that I chose to analyse was Q as it the most popular music magazine in the country and I felt that I would get the most out of it. This stage of the process helped me furthermore understand the conventions and needs of a magazine which will help me in future tasks.

 

The next thing I created in the process was a moodboard. My theme was “college life” so I created a moodboard on Microsoft Publisher full of pictures that represented my theme and reflected the mood I was aiming for, these included pictures of stereotypical college things like teachers, books and students working as well as other various pictures that I linked to my theme; like enrichment activities like sport and music. All of these images together made my moodboard very colourful, which reflected my theme even more as college is supposed to be represented as fun.

After creating my moodboard, I went on to take the images I would be using for my college magazine front cover. To make sure I demonstrated camera framing techniques, I made sure I got a variety of different framing shots like; Extreme close up, close up, medium close up, mid shot, long shot, low angle, high angle etc. The college was a perfect place to take all of these pictures as they had the right mood and feel that I was aiming to put across in my pictures. This was a very quick process that didn’t take me longer than 45 minutes.

 

The next part of the process included another magazine cover analysis, but this time is was for existing college magazines specifically. I analyses three of them with my knowledge and reference to the key conventions and techniques of a magazine cover like masthead, headline etc. I also highlighted some of the stengths and weaknesses of each over. This way I could take inspiration from some of them successfully for my own college magazine front cover.

 

Next, I summed up all of my new and current ideas for my magazine front cover, I expressed this by creating a simple mind map. This included all of my ideas from colour scheme to the overall layout of my college magazine cover while making sure I referred to all key conventions like; masthead, headline, main image etc.

 

Then I moved on to create some mock-ups and drafts. The first draft I created was simply hand-drawn of my front cover; this gave me a basic idea  of what I was aiming for while converting my ideas to reality so I could see what worked and what didn’t very clearly. I then created another draft, but this time as mock-up, I made this on Microsoft Publisher with the use of text boxes and shapes. This helped me expand my ideas while still showing me what worked and what didn’t. The final mock-up I created for my front cover was one with google images. This allowed me to work-out which fonts and colours to use as well as which main image I should choose for the college magazine front page.

 

I also created a mock-up contents page, but I only created one on Microsoft Publisher with the use of text boxes and shapes. As I am not creating a final contents page on photoshop, this is considered a final mock-up for what the contents page of my college magazine would look like if it was ever created.

 

This part of the process really helped me evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of my current ideas as I could see which ideas worked and which didn’t. Because of this, my final front page ended up looking very different to my mock-up in terms of layout and structure, while the design stayed the same.

 

Next, I moved on to editing and creating my final front page. I used Adobe Photoshop to do this. The picture I ended up using for my main image in the advert was one of my cover model stood next to one of the buildings in the college, I chose this because it looked very effective on camera with the model and the college together and it fitted the simplistic theme of my front page. Firstly, I used lasso tool to crop around the model and separate it from the image. I cut and pasted it into a separate document while I added the masthead. I made the masthead big and bold and in a blue colour to separate it from the rest of the cover and make it stand out. I also added a lighting effect to make the masthead appear 3D which makes it stand out even more. I then pasted back on the image of the model in the correct position so now the model is In front of the masthead while she still blends in with the rest of the image. I then used text boxes to add in the features and the headline. I used fonts that stood out amongst the main image. I also used black and blue for them as they stood out amongst the main image while both still complimented each other. I added in the date, price, the barcode and finally a blue plug located in the bottom right corner area. After making some more tweaks in text size and font, I had finished my final front page.

 

The final part of the project was the evaluation of the process from beginning to end and analysis of my final front page.

 

While I was using Photoshop, I didn’t encounter any difficulties due to the fact that I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do in my mind before I even went on Photoshop. Plus, I am a very experienced with programs like Photoshop as I have used it extensively in the past.

 

My target audience is primarily college students. I feel that front page appeals to them, especially the people who aspire to go to college will be persuaded to attend this certain college. This gives it a very professional yet fun feel which will appeal to the college students of my target audience.

 

In conclusion, I have to say that the process of creating this final front page was one of much success, as I didn’t encounter any problems as I was very familiar to the situation and the programs that I used throughout it. I am also very pleased with my advert as it is very similar to my vision and it fits my theme of “college life” as well as satisfying and fulfilling the needs of my target audience.

Unused original images

Existing college magazines - analysis

Liiar analysis - Cover/Contents page

Liiar Analysis - Music magazine - Cover and contents page from Louise Hudson

Initial Ideas

Inspiration/mood board

College magazine contents mock-up

College magzine cover mock-up

Types of camera framing

Screen dump version

Vogue magazine cover: conventions analysis

Vogue magazine cover; conventions analysis:

Masthead:

The masthead of the title of the magazine is the bold accent to the cover. It fills up the majority of the top centre of the cover. The use of large font and the bright colours allow this masthead to stand out even more. It is also one of the main accents (with the main image) that inspire the colour scheme and style for the rest of the cover. It should be the feature that first attracts the reader to the magazine. As this use of font is the standard font for the magazine Vogue, it is instantly recognizable to not just people who read the magazine, but the public in general.

Headline:

The headline is usually the 2nd boldest piece of text on a front cover behind the masthead/title. This is because they want the main headline to stand out amongst the other sell-lines and features, showing it is the most important and it’s the one they want people to buy the magazine for. In this cover, it is bigger than the other sell lines and in a bright colour, a similar colour to the masthead. I have noticed that in other examples of magazines, especially music magazines, the headline is located at the bottom centre of the cover and is bolder, in this cover it located on the right hand side, mainly because this is a very sophisticated magazine and this positioning keeps the elegance of it.

Main image:

Along with the masthead, the main or cover image is the thing that stands out the most on the cover of a magazine. The featured cover star is normally a celebrity or/and a model, with or without enhancements in editing, the cover star has to be attractive as it helps the magazine appeal to certain target audiences. For example: In this cover, the fact that it features Natalie Portman is an instant reason for people to buy the magazine as she is a famous actress, an icon and a sex symbol. The use of direct mode of address with her looking directly at the camera makes the magazine appeal even more. This image stands out with its use of simplicity and colour, the dress that Natalie is wearing is simple yet feminine. This is due to the fact that bright colours in the main image may make the magazine cover too loud, due to the fact that the text (masthead) colours used in this cover are very big and bold. The use of simplicity and boldness are effective, a different combination would not go well. The main image is simple yet effective while it still stands out and lets the text stand out, while the colour combination still compliment each other.

Features:

Featured articles are the next big convention that makes the magazine appeal to more people. While the image, masthead and headline gain most of the readers, the featured articles are something that encourages people that little bit more to buy the magazine. In this cover, the feature headlines share the same colour scheme as the masthead and headline while still letting them stand out. Although in this cover the number 10 featured in one of the feature headlines does stand out.

Date:

The date is a very important convention for a magazine and is always essential due to the obvious fact that it keeps people track of which monthly issue the magazine is.

Barcode:

Like the date, this is also an essential convention for a magazine for technical reasons