Other skills

Management, especially time, was a big issue for me in the preliminary task as I found myself in a constant rush to get the pages done and I think the pages reflect the rush I found myself in as I spent time on too many colours when I could of spent more time perfecting the text on the pages.
But on the final task I managed to reach each deadline with my work up to a high standard as I worked after school and tested different ideas until I got the best results. I learnt from my poor time management in the first task by appreciating the importance of a to-do list which helped me organise my blogs in order and it helped me to not forget to include anything.
In my first task of the school magazine I never went out of my way to get props or make up/costumes, but I recognised that this looked unprofessional compared to other magazines and it didn't have a uniqueness about the magazine. So in my final task of the music magazine I used my improved people management (which improved due to my need to get things completed) too be assertive and ask around for street wear (cap, t-shirt etc.)
I produced a brief description of my desired outcome from each photo-shoot I arranged and showed my models which inspired them full of motivation, my people management had to be on top too achieve the best results from my models.

Structure

The layout of my two productions are extremely different due to my vastly improved knowledge of the conventions and how to adapt them to my brand.

So as you can see I have come on a huge learning curve as the main thing I learnt about structure is 'more is less', and everything I put on the magazine front page has to be effective but simple and connote deeper meanings subtly. 

Contents pages

Originally I wanted to have one image that structured the contents down the page but doing this would of not varied the image type from the front page as two full sized images would of been used so I decided to use individual photographs that represent the story, positioned in the space that is left void by the features and club review boxes as it fills the page whilst enhancing the fact that these two images are the main story's in the magazine, the diagonal positioning of the two main stories also balance the page out.

The layering of the different boxes is neat and compact which my school magazine contents page lacked as the boxes are not positioned properly and interfere with the stretched background image.  

The colours of the masthead are carried through into the contents page as the green, white and pink are used as the font colours which gives the brand more recognition and identity.

Again the title spans across the width of the page which is another one of my magazines iconic features, whereas in my school magazine I had no brand identity to carry through so the magazine contents page could of belonged to any magazine as there was no iconic representation of the Hustle magazine on the page.

• Minimal layering
• Plain, bland text
• Boring colours

Anchorage text

As the music genre has an effect on all aspect of street life, I have included a fashion incentive on the front page too portray the variety of content in the magazine. There is a house font that wasn't present in my school magazine, this gives the magazine more iconic status and a recognisable style as well as obviously looking more professional. There is a different font for the codes of the magazine such as issue number, date, price etc as they need a different recognition from the audience. The font style of my anchorage text on the school magazine was made on word which didn't look original and fairly unprofessional, there also wasn't a house font which caused the magazine to lack iconography. However I didn't just focus on school life, I focused on a students image and their future aspects with the university strapline, which will appeal to my audience on different levels. In my school magazine there was no accompanying anchorage text description which I included in my music magazine, it adds a professionalism about the story and also will give the audience a quick deeper preview it, as well as being a platform for more persuasive writing to attract the audience. As the school magazine lacks the titles descriptions, the anchorage text looks brief and not given enough weight, however the straplines anchorage text 'Best uni for you' anchors down the background images without hindering the ability too view the buildings. The school magazine is missing the date and issue number which anchors down the validity of the magazine to the audience, this is a major weakness.

The colour of the fonts used in the school magazine vary too much in my opinion, I have now realised that the font associated with a story has to represent that particular story in everyway and not the magazines colour scheme which is what I did in my school magazine. The colour of my text in my music magazine shows my understanding of my previous statement by 'The Creep' story in the creeps iconic colour green which is different to the aluminous green of the Jungle font, my anchorage side story's are written in the iconic Jungle green and white which gracefully corresponds with the large masthead colours.

"The right pathway for you?" was the main story on the front page which is a rhetorical question that most of my audience will be unsure of the answer and so will want to read the story as there future is the most important thing in the world to them. Also the "right" pathway makes the audience feel like this magazine has all the answers which would consequently sell more issues.

"Look the part", this plays on another aspect of the student life which is of course IMAGE. Every young adult wants to look good but the average student doesn't have that much money available to them so I've used the connection with the audience from my masthead to let them know that the magazine understands and so therefore the clothes will be priced cheaply.

 

Masthead/Brand

My masthead in my school magazine was a good title for a sixth form magazine as The Hustle represents the stress and the hard work that the audiences goes through which shows the audience that the magazine understands what they are going through which is an automatic connection. However the masthead wasn't bold enough to be a truly recognised brand as although the light grey colour represented higher, classy education it didn't stand out and was quite weak amongst the layers on the front page. The hustle masthead didn't have its own background space that would of added extra layers and made it stand out which is an improvement I learnt to make in my final product, I realised how important the masthead is in creating a recognisable, iconic, representable brand that can build up a reputation within the industry.

 



 

I wanted to create a masthead that would be iconic, so the fact that most magazines just have a word as the masthead would of made it easy for me to just of jumped onto the band wagon of the generic conventions. But my masthead has a twist as I have added two iconic images of the jungle in vibrant colours that are associated with club lights to emphasis the music side of jungle. The idea behind this was also instead of having the magazine name 'Jungle' everywhere, I can vary my advertisement by using the two iconic images as they represent the magazine just as much as the word jungle, this will enable more advertisement as the two images take up less space when advertising making it cheaper.
Also on every page through the magazine will be a little flamingo at the bottom corner of the page to remind the audience of the magazine name to cement the iconic recognition.

Structure

The box around 'Jungle' represents a club sign which automatically signifies house and garage music I have also used a shadow effect on the box to present a real life representation of a club sign that pops off the page like its in 3D, the disc type font also adds too the fact that this magazine is based on DJ music (house and garage) which you would find in clubs. The seize of the corresponding images either side slightly overlap the box in order to show he professional finish of the masthead as it shows that it is put together cleverly and not in strict conditions that restrict the design.

Colours

The black background is used to represent the night where the music lives, also it is a good base too make any colour stand out but I chose a white masthead as the contrast from black to white is extremely eye catching. The theme of contrasting from dark and light manipulates the chosen artists front image to conform to fit in with the magazines style, which in turn gives the magazine power, so the audience will respect the magazine. 

The brand 

The word 'Jungle' in itself represents a type of garage music from the 80's so automatically the target audience will think of that type of music. Jungle is a word which creates the image of lots of different content and features which creates mystery in the audiences mind about the magazine. The masthead represents the different beats of the music genre perfectly as jungle is such an amazing word as it creates so much in the mind. 

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The photography

The main image on the front page of my school magazine had little planning and technique as I didn't know how to capture a professional looking photograph whilst manipulating light, angles and facial expressions/direct address. My lack of knowledge ended up with a finished product that had no audience connection (no eye contact or immediate intimacy), it lacked focus/clarity. However the original concept of mise en scene was unique and represented my audience well as it gave off an urban vibe which replaced the lack of eye contact with the mise en scene setting to the audience.
The photograph fitted my genre perfectly as the two sixth former's are in uniform whilst holding the props of work and a mobile phone which represent the two different mind-sets of students in today's age, 'cool' and 'geek', everyone has both inside them and so the whole of my target audience can relate to situation in this photograph. The female model (me) had tied up hair without making to much effort which shows in my appearance, which compliment the learning attitude shown in the image.



In my music magazine the main image in my opinion is an extremely improved piece of photography as every element that can be manipulated in a photograph I took advantage of and I used to my full ability to represent the artists persona whilst also keeping it in my target audience interest zone whilst corresponding a theme with the personality and new album of the artist. I did this by creating the artists own identity that can be recognized by the audience and used to connect with them (his own style, background, personality). By having an understanding of the type of artist 'The creep' is, I could design the type of image I wanted to capture to present him to the audience in a way that would be representative of what the Creep is all about. The article is about the other side of the artist that the audience have never seen before, usually the Creep is quite hard faced and mysterious but now the Creep reveals his background and what events have changed him over his life, so I wanted to capture the two different sides of the Creep in my photo with a hint of vulnerability. I did this by using the skills i learnt in my research about the use of light and shadow effect and what they can signify.
The use of lighting in my image was made by directing a crystal flash light at the left side of the face from a side angle to create a shadow effect on the right side and would illuminate the green eye which corresponds with the iconic green color that is associated with the Creep , on my school magazine i had no lighting manipulation at all, just from natural daylight, so the improvement is evident.
I also edited this photo using Microsoft publisher as i increased the contrast of the image by 10% as anymore would of looked to fake and any less would of looked amateur. The research i did on music magazines made me realize the importance of a direct address, the direct eye contact with the audience automatically increases the intimacy between the audience and artist, mixed with the slight high angle of the shot makes the Creep look slightly out of his comfort zone so it creates vulnerability.
I am putting my vast photographic improvement down to the fact i watched you tube clips such as  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEcgySslGPA
I also practiced different shots and angles of a subject via an iPad which also showed me that the frame of the photograph is split up into 3 sections and 9 squares to create perfect composition and positioning.

Contents/double page photographs

with direct address ^

Different ways i learnt to edit my photographs

For my school magazine none of my photos were edited as i didn't understand how much a photograph can represent the whole magazine, so the photos in the school magazine looked amateur at best. However, the images i took for the creep were edited on Microsoft publisher as i tuned the contrast by +10%

  

The photographs i took for DJ Katy were edited on my iPhone 5, i took the photograph then added a musky filter too add a vintage tone, the filters also act as an airbrush tool to make the photo more professional. The filter adds more focus on my model as the light gets focused on her, this portrays the model as innocent as everything around her is darker. It looks as if she is oozing out purity.

I have also learnt how to select parts of a photograph and crop it using formats on publisher, also i realized the font i was using in my preliminary task on word was to popular and not original so i found a website called 'font space' where i found my own brand font that fitted in perfectly with how i wanted my brand font portrayed.

Evaluation