Breakdown of Institutional Features

Music Magazine - Researching Magazine Covers

As a Primary project, we are to create a Magazine cover, contents page, and double page spread of a music magazine. Leading up to this i did some research on Music Magazine Covers, so i got a general idea of what the general public, and media, are both looking for when looking into buying a magazine.

From This small piece of research it is clear to see some of the factors a buyer is looking for in a music magazine, a head and shoulders shot; or band shot. To immediately catch the attention of the viewer, then a heading; usually associated to the main shot - This lets the viewer know what the main article in the magazine will be focused on, this allows them to then make a decision as to whether this is what they are looking for.

Creating my Contents Page

When creating my contents page i used a variety of different techniques to express the different colours, whilst keeping the same scheme, i have also used just one main picture on my contents page, somewhat like my front cover .
I have used 3D cubes to show what will be on each page, i feel this is an effective method as it will catch the viewers eye immediately, as the 3D cubes overlap the main picture. I kept the same colour scheme as the front cover, however introducing outlines of white to draw attention to certain areas of the page.

This is a final design for the contents page for my preliminary peice.

Creating my Front Cover

When creating my cover, i used the same outline i stated in my previous post "i am going to use the standard colours, along with the school logo, this will include a variety of green shades along with various amounts of white and orange. I am going to use a fairly basic layout, filling the page with a head and shoulders shot with some side stories and pictures in the bottom left. I am going to have the main heading along the right edge of the page, and the title of the magazine along the top - Along with the logo of the school." I feel this worked very effectively, as the head and shoulders shot is overlayed by other side stories along with the headline down the right side, and the school logo along the header of the page.

This is my final design for the front cover of my preliminary peice.

Introduction - School Magazine

As i stated in my previous post, we are doing a preliminary piece as an introduction to AS Media Studies; I began creating my Preliminary piece today. I began by researching through a variety of other magazines; including school magazines, music magazines, sports magazines etc.. This was to get an overview of the type of  magazines that are similar to mine, and what i would be aiming to achieve in these early stages of the course.                                                                                                                                      

(Click on the two images of magazine covers below to see enlarged images).

I took a variety of photos throughout the school as research leading up to my preliminary piece. I browsed through various contents pages of magazines, to get an idea of the ideal layout for my piece; I then began creating my piece, using such programs as Microsoft Publisher; Adobe Photoshop etc.

                 
  For my school magazine cover, i am going to use the standard colours, along with the school logo, this will include a variety of green shades along with various amounts of white and orange. I am going to use a fairly basic layout, filling the page with a head and shoulders shot with some side stories and pictures in the bottom left. I am going to have the main heading along the right edge of the page, and the title of the magazine along the top - Along with the logo of the school.
To do this i used such programs as 'Adobe Photoshop' and 'Microsoft Publisher'.

School Magazine

As an introduction to AS media studies, we are required to produce a preliminary piece; this is a front cover and contents page of a school magazine. The new brief states that we should include a head and shoulders shot of someone plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. As research for looking into this project, i have been looking at a different range of other pieces produced by a variety of students in the past; this is research to help me broaden my understanding of what needs to be done to access the higher grades.

Here is a prime example of one of the higher standard preliminary pieces that i have been studying;
http://alevelmediastudies09-11.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=5