start of my magazine cover design

This is one of my first magazine ideas. one of the first things i did was edit the main image on the magazine. this was an easy image to edit as it was against a plain black background so i could cut out the image without having other items in the background. however because the background was black and the model is wearing dark clothes and has dark hair it was quite difficult to make sure that the picture was cut out accurately. i also looked at other magazines which were aimed at young girls and teenagers which is the same target audience as me. i did this as i was able to get some ideas about what sort of things my magazine needed to include. i wanted to add some colour to my magazine so i thought i could make it into a 'summer 'edition' as this is the time when bright colours are the most popular. i put  sun behind one of the features pictures as not only does it tie in with my theme but it also makes the front cover a bit brighter and draws attention to the picture. the featured image needs to be retake as it was taken in a room with pink walls. even thought the picture can be cut out the reflection from the walls gives the girls skin a hint of pink that i struggled to get rid of. the picture also needs to be taken with a clear background as there were objects on the floor such as hair straighteners and shoes that i had  to try and remove to make it look more professional.

main image for the double page spread

i couldn't decide which picture i wanted to use for my double page spread. to help me decide this i posted the images on my blog to see what the audience would prefer. below are the images that have taken

progress and first attempt

these two images show progress that i have made from my prelim task to the starting of my contents page

DPS analysis

DPS analysis-

• basic layout (grid)
• column width and positioning
• font and type size
• use of space
• colours
• use of image
• page numbers
• brandings
• captions
• how image and text are intergrated
• text to image ratios
• image to image ratios

Modular layout: very square, uses straight edges and has an accurate use of margins
Drop cap: the starting letter of the sentence is bigger than the rest of the text

Possible Fonts

It is very important that i pick the appropriate font for my masthead, text and headlines. fonts convey meaning and i want my font to be fun, vibrant, colourful and girly. It is also important that i choose a font that is appropriate for my target audience which is you girls around the age of thirteen. i want to pick a font that will attract the target audience to pick up the magazine and buy it.

front cover analysis

when making my magazine front cover one of the first problems i had was with the picture. i ha not taken the picture on a plain background therefore it was really difficult to get rid of. i will need to take a picture in the same pose but standing in front of a white background which will hopefully make my image a bit clearer as well. another one of my problems when with the masthead. i had to change the size of the letter 't' as it was the only letter that would not fit onto the page without being covered by the main image.  

InDesign

I chose to use Adobe InDesign. I think this is quite difficult to use but i like the end result. I learnt how to edit round an image and manipulate text. it was quite difficult and confusing to use at first but after a while using it i found it got a little bit easier. I tired to do the same thing using pages, but although it was a bit more simple to use and you can end up with the same result i preferred to use the Adobe InDesign.

market research

for my magazine i thought it was important to find out what my target audience would like to see in the magazine. this is important as it is aimed at them so their input is important. i created a small survey to give myself some ideas and suggestions on what they would like to see in my magazine. i used there answers to help me decide what sort of features they would like to see included, what colour themes they liked and the type of music that they listen to and would like to read about.

below are some of the question that i asked my target audience.

1.    What age are you?

……………………………………

2.    Gender
       
      Male                  Female 

3.    What sort of music do you usually listen to? (circle any relevant answers)

Pop              R n B               Hip Hop            Rock               Indie            Other

4.    How often would you usually buy a magazine?

             Once a week                 Once every 2 weeks             Once a month           Other

5.    Are there any added features that you would expect?

Quizzes         Give-aways            posters              activities 

6.    What colour scheme would be the most appropriate?

             Pink/Purple      Red/pink        blue/purple       pink/yellow    orange/yellow

7.    What sort of things do you like to read in a magazine?

Reviews          celeb gossip         interviews       



from this questionnaire i was able to create my magazine based on the feedback i got. i handed this out to a wide range of different people to see who would be the most interested in buying and reading my magazine. from the questions i was able to tell that my biggest target would be girls ranging from 11-15. this helped me straight away as i was able to focus all my ideas around that specific target market. i also decided that the magazine was going to be released once a month as the questionnaire showed that most of the consumer would only buy the magazine once. this could be because it is aimed at a younger audience therefore they may have to save up to purchase the magazine each month. i also decided that some of the things that would be included in my magazine were celebrity gossip columns aswell as interview as this is what the target market wanted to see the most. when deciding on a colour scheme i decided to pick pink and yellow. this was because when i asked my target audience which colours they liked there was not one year choice, this is the reason that i decided to use the two colours together which actually ended up working really well. 

font ideas

Magazine Names

Fancy- this would be associated with young girls and this is who my magazine is targetted at and it is also a catchy name so people would be more likely to remember it.

Loud- i chose this name as it it refers to the genre of the magazine. it can also relate to the age of the target audience as this is the age when people start to express themselves and their opinions

Hot Pinx- this idea came from a mix of two words. i chose it as it looks like the work 'hot pink' which is a colour associated with young girls. it also looks like 'hot pics' which could make them think that there are exclusive pictures of their favourite celebrities inside which would make them want to buy it.

improvements

When looking at my front cover for my magazine I discussed what I could do to make improvements. Some of the things that I will make a change to in my next magazine would be to make sure my images of people are not floating.  This will make it look more professional. I also need to make sure that I give my models more direction so they know exactly what they are doing and don’t look awkward. The speech bubble that I have included on my magazine doesn’t look right as the text is set to the left rather than the center so it looks unorganized.  I also included a picture of a survival guide to go with the title of the magazine. However the picture was a little bit too far to the left of the page so one of the corners had been cut off slightly.. I also realized that it was difficult to tell which of the stories the main one was. This is because a lot of my pictures and text were similar size so it was difficult to pick out the biggest one that was intended to be the main story.  My masthead ‘Guide to CBA’ also needs to be made bigger as it wasn’t very clear. It is also important that I put more space between the text and the other image as when you just look at it you can’t tell which image the text is related to.

 

When making my contents page I need to expand the picture to fill the whole page as well as cropping it to get rid of any unwanted image that may draw attention away from the main image. I also need to make sure that all my fonts are the same and the same size to make it look more organized.

The power of the media.