Question one

Front cover

For my front cover I have gone for quite a basic layout, even though this layout is basic I feel that it is very easy to read and has an attractive colour scheme. The image is a close up shot of a lead singer of a band. I have added a black and white effect to give it an original look and it fits with the genre of the magazine with it having a rather rock theme. The masthead is correctly placed in front of the singer who is named ‘Miles Kean’ this shows a direct image of the person and that the magazine has information about him inside. I had a few issues with placing with the masthead as the colours would often clash with the dark background; also the colour of the zip became an issue when looking into colours because it would clash with most colours which are of a conventional music magazine. I avoided this by using the space which I could create by centring words and moving the words around so it would fit into place appropriately with no issues reading the writing. The sub image which I have in place is well suited for this magazine and stands out with its brighter background making it stand out from the stuff around it, I have made the pose quite relaxed and in casual wear. The clothing which I have used is suited to my genre of punk/indie is black clothing which is often seen being worn by band members, this is apparent within both the main image and secondly in the sub image. I have added a pug to my front cover for people who are interested in special deals on a magazine if they were to be regulars to the magazine. At the top of the page I have information about the website and the issue of the magazine, these are essential as magazines are often collected by collectors so having the issue is a must and the website is so that people can gain more information or even purchase more things from the website if they are interested. The cell lines which I have chosen have a very convectional feel to them with a standard down the side of the page layout, the colour scheme follows most magazines with a black, red and yellow being of use. I have followed what I thought was the most obvious convections you would see on a front cover of a magazine such as the colour scheme was appropriate, the layout was simple and easy to see and is attractive to the eye with its basic look, the image is showing a certain band member and the masthead which is used shows what is being shows well and there Is no confusion of what you are reading or seeing within the picture area, I have used the pug which can be seen on most front covers or contents pages, I feel I should have maybe gone away and tried to challenge more of the regular things you find on front covers and been a bit more creative with my work but I do feel that these were defiantly effective and were pleasing to the eye like most professional magazines.

Contents page

With the contents page I have created I tried to give off a different feel to the front cover with a more attractive and cleaner feel to it other than the darker black and white effect, it is bright and very easy to read. I have followed a very conventional style with having the main information on the left hand side of the page showing what is going to be within the magazine, the picture which I have used has got over it a small bit of information of who it is and what page they are on etc. I have done this to show a sense of professionalism as I saw this in a magazine of ‘Q’ which was the main inspiration for my type of contents page, once again I have followed a very set colour scheme which is mainly black, red and white. I feel that these colours work very well for this page as it makes it stand out and attractive to the eye. The text which I have used is not a standard block text I have tried to be as creative as I can with font sizing within reasoning, I think the font I have used is attractive and pleasing to the eye as a reader. The people within my pictures are very serious and I feel that this had to be important as with the genre which I am showing they do not often show a sense of immaturity they are normally very serious and do not show any other side towards the public. The dress sense for this picture matches my genre with mainly black clothing and the use of lighting which is here gives a nice effect to make them stand out as if they are shinning on and doing well, as if they are in the lime light. I have followed what I see as a very convectional contents page, I was looking for inspiration and found this main layout from Q… This image

Was the main inspiration for my contents page and I just thought to follow the main layout of this and used its convectional balance of attractiveness and serious feel about it to create my contents page.

Article

For the article which I have created I tried to be a little more creative with the back grounding of my magazine, when I took my picture I used an urban type of background to give a urban feel to it but I also noticed if I dragged it across onto two pages it will suit and still leave the writing clear to read and made the page look attractive and different. The image which I have used is a serious one with the band members together showing a nice clear image, the person at the front is the lead singer and the others are musicians. The costume used here would possibly challenge the back ground using and what people would expect of the area with the posh look in a urban environment, I thought this worked really well as it showed both sides of what fame could do, having them facing away from the urban wall shows them turning a new side and turning their back on their old ways which they may have lead.  I feel the image is well set out and is attractive to the eye with its good use of lighting. The text on the other page which I have used is very convectional, I have used columns to create an attractive look to the page with the use of three columns to fit all the text in well. I have used drop capitals at the start of my text which can be seen in nearly all magazines and I have also used pull quotes which could catch the eye of a reader flicking through pages to try and see interesting stories. The masthead is showing well and stands off the page with its boldness and colour. The only thing which I feel could have been better is the amount I written I feel I could have included more to the page to give a cleaner look to it as I feel it has a few blank spaces here and there. I feel that it has a very attractive layout and I got this type of magazine idea from a mixture of Q and Kerrang, I feel that the mix of these two gives an attractive and clean feel to.