Reference Magazines

Two reasons why I used this image as a reference is due to the fact that on one page there is two artists, which is conventional, works and helps to fill up the page. Most likely I am going to stick with having one cover star on the double page spread because I believe it looks better. Secondly the large bold quote with swear words in it covered with a couple aspheric

The reason why I chose this image was not because of the cover star of the layout of the title but because of where the column "Features" are situated, due to the fact that it is in one simple column and on a plain coloured background the text is clear to read, and fits on the page rather well.

These next few images are references of what I would like the outcome of my Front Cover, Contents Page and DPS.I chose this image off XXL because of the fact that the layout of the font is similar to mine, and when I am finished I feel that the layout of my front cover would look very similar to this, especially the featured artists in the background and the cover star in the foreground.

 

 

Photography Images

Some images are rather dark due to the level of the lights brightness on the dial, but a few did seem very appealing. I created a collage to conserve space which worked well apart from the fact that the image below was slightly cut off, which wasn't too much of a problem because it's the same image as the one below it just with a different lighting.

These following images are the ones which were taken in the studio and from the location site, However there is a shortage due to the fact that some are missing simply because they might have been deleted and the fact that there was a relatively small amount of time to take all of the images as there were multiple people assigned to the same room for the photo shoot at a similar time. Also the two location pictures weren't as clear as the Photo shoot images most likely due to the fact that the camera used wasn't as great as the DSLR.

Final DPS

I added some quotations from the artist, a drop cap which is always required in all magazines, the large "A" which represents the artist and stands for "AyyEthan".I also added a Q&A and highlighted the questions, again I added some social media content with the artists account name and finally AyyEthan's next concert and where he will be performing which links to the front cover because I added a puff stating the one issue would have free tickets. Lastly I also added small boxes on all of the numbers, not only on the DPS but also the Contents Page, this just helped them to slightly standout more.

Final Contents Page

The CP worked well because I added more than one cover star with multiple images of people related to that artist and captions.To help show the constant link in the magazine I kept the layout similar to the DPS and added mantras. Finally to help the Contents Page standout I made sure that the title went down the page along the Y-axis. On both the Contents Page and the Double Page Spread I added a small bar in which the gradient changes, I done this to help the pages standout more, on them I also added the magazine title (I.C.Y), The prize of the magazine and finally the date.one thing that I might change is the fact that the image went slightly over the margin which can be seen on the large image above, and also the layout of the quote on the same page.

Final Front Cover

I added the conventional parts of a Hip Hop magazine such as a; Puff, Logo, Date, Issue, Pull quotes, barcode etc. this suggests that the front cover is functional. Lastly the colour scheme is consistent throughout the FC, CP, and DPS which is; blue, white and grey.

FC,CP,DPS Updated

This is the finished DPS (double page spread for my magazine), I believe it worked well in some cases such as the drop cap which is required in all magazines and helps the double page spread look more professional. The last piece of editing I done which wasn't part of the original plan was added in the giant "A" which stands for "AyyEthan", I thought about adding the "E" but it would have looked over the top and the layout of it would be slightly weird, in which I sent to the back of the layers and brought everything else forward. I was inspired to do this because whilst doing research I realized that most Hip Hop magazines had done this especially XXL.

FC,CP,DPS

This is my contents page which is not the final outcome which is the same for all of the other pages. I believe that it works and looks aesthetically pleasing but doesn't look professional, I also think the same for the front cover. Some ways I think I can improve this is by enlarging the font size of the subheadings/page numbers to make them standout, I could change the colour of the font to blue, as that is part of the colour scheme. One problem with this image and the image below includes the fact that they are rather dark and it is slightly hard to see the cover star, because of this I will have to increase the brightness and contrast.

To get the effect of the cover star covering the background font, I could have done two different ways, this included either using the snipping tool and cut the cover star out and place him in the foreground and the writing in the background or what I did do was selected the text layer, and rubbed the letters out which was Manuel and a longer process, but I done it because I also use the other method when completing a task like this. I also changed the font colour to white, this made it much more visible and easier to read. overall I believe its a good design but still needs improving, I will collect peoples opinions and base my changes on them.

This is my original design/ layout for my double page spread and I think it's good but still has room for improvement. Some aspects that worked well include the fact that I added the artists next concert and time which will link to the front cover because I will eventually add a puff which suggests that in one copy of the issue will be free tickets to this concert.Some things that I can change or add include the fact the no social media accounts have been placed on the DPS which is very conventional in a lot of magazines. Secondly I would like to add some text about the artist and make the both texts tighter into columns making it look more professional. Lastly I would like to add another quote from the artist to help fill up the page.

Q&A

QUESTIONS:

1. What is your history in the music industry? History, not much but I have always been interested in Hip Hop.
2. Where are you now, and what is your next move? in a stable position however id like to be known as people like drake etc. you idealise Kendrick Lamar because I believe he's lyrically gifted.
3. What is the typical type of beat  you look for from the DJ's? generally my DJ gives me the beat and I work with it, I'm not picky, I think to be the best you need to work with everything, even if the beat doesn't sound the best the lyrics could mean the world to you.
4. How important is it to have multiple opinions on the lyrics and beat? I generally don't care what other people think, not saying that I don't care but their opinions don't matter to me as much
5. What is the main inspiration for your songs? my life, how I live it, everything I do, my lyrics are the truth, nothing is fake.
6. Why did you want to become an music artist in the first place? I've been inspired by biggie and 2pac, they got me started, seeing their success over their many years of fame made me want to almost become them.
7. How does the video link to the lyrics?
8. How would you describe your job? it the best thing that ever happened to me, when I was younger my dad told me not to have a job but a career, something that I enjoyed.
9. Are you going to feature any other artists in your upcoming songs? I would like to get on a track with Kendrick Lamar, rick ross, drake and possibly future.
10. Seen as your favourite artists of all time are Biggie and 2pac especially, what do you think of 2pacs death?

Draft Contents page

Some advice that I received from people once I finished my contents page was that fact that I may have possibly written too much which is good because it suggests that its descriptive and is relatively detailed, but on the other hand may be slightly too much with the image, so because of this I may either delete some content or I will make the font smaller. The second piece of advice that I received was to instead of adding the quotes of each artist, put the main artist that the magazine focuses, quote separate and have it large in front of the image. 

MM Front cover

This is the layout of the text that I am going to use, the featured artist names will be in the background where as the cover star will be in the foreground which suggests that not all of the artists names will be fully visible, but that's part of the design. Also I decided that each row of names will follow a pattern  of size, for example the first line is size 50, where as the second line is 60, which will follow the same pattern, I done this to help them standout. I also added full stops in between each name to separate them.

Final Masthead #3

I added the box outline to create a border and make the masthead standout which was going to be my final design but I decided to try something else.

After creating the box I thought that it looked slightly plain so I decided to go the extra mile,use the rubber tool and using it on the edges, leaving a small triangle on each corner, this made it seem as if there where a frame around the Masthead, making it standout.

On second thought I have come up with my final design, I have moved the black text closer to the blue, this makes it look more like a shadow, this was due to the fact that I asked multiple people on their opinions and a lot of them said that the previous one was too confusing and distracted them from the actual magazine.

Final Masthead #2

Here I created the same text but I added a box around the font. Personally this is my favourite design due to the fact that there is a darkish background (Grey), which helps the font to standout and also for the shadowing effect I placed the black font at the back because of the fact that shadows are usually black, making it a conventional design. One last thing I could do is to add a black border around the box to again help it standout and make it eye-catching.

This is my second design using the box and honestly I didn't really like it because I thought that the box was too dark, wasn't appealing to the eye and in fact was rather dull. On the other hand one point that was alright was the fact that the text at the front was above the text at the back, which is the opposite way around compared to the other designs.

This design was okay but due to the fact that the box was covered a way circumference which Is the same as the others but what was wrong with that was the fact that the shade of blue was too bright and started to hurt my eyes, so in this case I didn't really like it. I think that for my final design I will use the first one with a box but add a black border to it, with a large weight scale.

Final Masthead #1

Due to the fact I decided on my colour scheme which is Black, White, Grey and Blue I created some Mastheads. Also because I believe that the best selling magazines have primary colours and basic fonts I created some new designs on Adobe Illustrator rather than keeping my old designs which had crazy designs, some were too hard to read and others just look too complicated.

To create these designs I had to use the Type tool and write the word "I.C.Y", then I duplicated the word using the function Ctrl C, next I used the mouse to drag one word above/ below the other one, this gave a shadow effect, I was inspired to do this as many common magazines do such as "The Source", "Rolling Stones" "Hip Hop" and many more.

I also decided to use my colour scheme to change the colour of the Masthead linking it to the aesthetics of the magazine. I believe that my masthead is unique because unlike many other magazines, when they use the shadow effect, they make sure one text is almost directly on top of the other one, where as mine has a rather large distance, which makes it standout. Next I would like to add a box around the Masthead as it would help to isolate it from the rest of the front cover.

Final Plan

Firstly, all of the grey areas on all of the following pages represent the background. Secondly I was inspired by XXL's front cover layout and interpreted it in my own way. Thirdly the aesthetics of the title look similar but I believe that many successful brands and magazine have simple logos with basic primary colours and simple fonts which are key to attracting a good audience.

In the contents page a list of most of the artists featured in the magazine will be stated, along side their quotes, similar to the DPS, there will be a small brief at the top explaining the artists and the issue of the magazine etc. Lastly an image or a couple of the artists will be located somewhere on the page.

This will basically be the layout of my double page spread, on the left will be a large image of an artist in a certain posture with their stage name and time above their head. The time will be for a upcoming concert at a particular location at which they will be performing, so any fans would know when he/she is performing. Secondly on the second page will be one of their best known quotes, whether its relevant to music doesn't matter and finally, below that will be information about the artist, what they have recently been doing, what they are planning to do, or even a autobiography. 

Photo Locations

Some locations that I would most likely visit include; the graffiti situated in Brick Lane as there is a variety of street art which links with my music genre which is Hip Hop. I also believe that these works of art will be a great background for some of the pages in my magazine and the final image would look very conventional. The second location would be Columbia Road Flower Market, which is a good option due to the fact that there is not only graffiti but also BMX parks and bicycles which can also be conventional with Hip Hop artists, especially American ones. One very common and slightly old school American rapper is DMX who is most of his videos is riding a BMX or has a dog with him as both of these are his favourite items and almost represent him. On the other hand in the DPS I am planning for the artist to have been recently mentioned at different award ceremonies such as the MOBO Awards etc. Due to this I am planning for the models to wear suits for it to seem as if the models are actually at one of these events, due to this I might change the location and get an empty open hall with mainly chairs where the models can act out one of these events.

Call Sheets

This call sheet was created for the photo-shoot inside of college in which the main focus was on one model who is Ethan Dawkins.



This was the call sheet that I designed for the location pictures, which is very similar to the original one with slight changes, clearly in this call sheet there are more models because it's supposed to seem like an event.

This is the layout of the call sheet and includes basic and relevant information such as the; Date, Time, Models, Location and assignment.

AS Media Pitch

Photoshoot Planning

Models/Cover star:
Some models that would be included in my photos would most likely be a couple of people or from my media class for different pages such as the front cover and double page spread. This would help to prevent any confusions, if I pick anyone else the probably will be busy in a different class where as I know the anyone in my class will be available if I book the location at the same time as my media class.


Other images: I will take multiple photographs at many different locations which will mean that for my final images I will have a large variety of choice to choose from, again, this means that my final images will be of higher quality rather than the fact that they may possibly look rushed.


Location: The main location, where the photographs will be taken will be situated in the studio due to the fact that it would look professional mainly because of the expensive equipment such as the lighting and the cameras, this will be mainly for the front cover. on the other hand for pages such as the DBS or other ones apart from the front cover don't need the images as high quality, because of this I would like to visit other locations apart from the studio which are related to the genre such as graffiti represents hip hop, so I will visit many places that have a lot of graffiti, this will help with the background, but if the graffiti is too colourful, it may suggest that the model wont standout as much. Also due to the fact that the cameras cannot leave the college building I would have to use my own phone to take pictures which would still be okay but still not as good as using the DSLR's.


Costumes/Equipment And Props: Because my genre is hip hop some clothing that I would like my models to wear may include tracksuit bottoms or jeans but more preferably jeans as they are more conventional with hip hop artists where as tracksuits are commonly worn by grime artists. Secondly I would prefer them to wear a large top which is too big in length as again it is very conventional, especially with American hip hop artists. Lastly for the clothing, the model needs to wear any trainers, and also all of their clothing should be the same colour as the front cover/ magazine three colour scheme, which is; Grey, White and Blue. Finally some props that the model needs to wear includes jewellery such as; ear rings, chains, watches etc. all these are glorified by hip hop artists and they all relate to the money/ hip hop theme.


lighting:
I'm not too sure about the lighting and which lights too use, but once I get to the stage of taking the images I will get there early and play around with the lighting and see what positions of the lights are the best. also when in other locations apart from the studio I will make sure it late morning/ early noon which means that the sun will be out and at its brightest, especially due to the fact that it is winter it will get dark relatively quickly and the weather may not be too great, so the earlier the better.


Positions of the model(s) for different pages:
 for the front cover I would like too get a medium long, this will make it easily clear to see the models clothing and props where as if the image is taken close up then you wont be able to see the clothing, but on the other hand this doesn't really matter when it comes to other pages.

Photography equipment

• Model- They should stand roughly 2-3 steps from the front of the screen, and should wear appropriate clothing related to the specific theme/ genre of the music magazine

• Make sure the transmitter is on the camera

• beep from all of the equipment suggests that they are ready to be used and have been setup properly, to also test this press the yellow hazardous button on the transmitter

• Flash lights- turn them on from the large button on the back, use the dial to change the duration of the flash, this includes numbers 1-6, 1 being a small duration and 6 being the biggest, always start on 3

• 3 point lighting/ soft boxes- main light, key light and fill light. the main light is dim and creates a shadow, where as the fill light is bright and has no shadow

•  Hairline light/ separation light- this separates the model from the screen, hence the name separation light, this gives a 3d look

•  The camera that I will be using for the photo-shoot is called a DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex)-Nikon D7100, 24 MMP

• Keys features on the camera include on the left-dial are priority buttons called A+S which stands for Aperture and Shutter. The aperture has a shallow depth of field which means that the background in blurred and the model is not, where as the shutter has a high depth of field which means the whole image is focused. Also the shutter priority also captures movement, and can take multiple pictures

• WB ( White Balance )- this includes using natural colours

• Film speed- (100)-(150)/ 200, The higher the number, the more light is let into the lenses

• AF (Auto Focus)

• M(Manuel)

• To change the colour of the image from black and white to colour, select the menu button, click on the green camera, go right, set picture control, OK, colour or monochrome ( Black and White) 
• To keep the images of high quality turn the room lights off otherwise they might distort the final piece
• Health and Safety:
• make sure all chairs are cleared and placed out of the way, this would prevent any tripping
• be careful when walking around the flash lights as you might walk into them or hit your head
• make sure that food or drink aren't being digested near the equipment due to the fact that a drink especially would damage the equipment

Images of the studio/Location + Equipment:

This is a DSLR camera, I will eventually use one to take the images of the model on the photo-shoot but not on the location images due to the fact that these cameras are rather expensive and are college property. Some key features of the camera include the zoom, this can be adjusted by rotating the lens left(zoom out) and right(zoom in). Secondly the camera button which is used to take the images which is situated on the right just above the small digital screen.

 

This is the photo-shoot, some things that it includes is the screen which is attached to a roller located at the back of the room and on the floor. On the left is the Hairline light, the front light is the main light and the other one is just extra. A small box can be seen on the back of every single light and these are used to adjust the settings on the lights such as the brightness.

 

This is where I am going the be taking the images, inside is a small open hall which is free to members of the public, but to use it you need to have a reason and need to speak to the manager.

Music Proposal Feedback

• Some feedback that I received from people about my music magazine proposal mainly included my masthead which was IcyKnightz and the fact that it sounded more like a name than a masthead, someone's opinion was to call it Icy instead because of a few reasons. The first being the fact that Knightz isn't really conventional and relevant, also the word Icy is another term for money and jewellery which many rappers glorify when they are the cover stars, this would also help to attract the younger generation as they are influenced by some rappers. Due to this feedback I will change my masthead to Icy.
•  The second piece of feedback that I received included the fact that I hadn't come up with a price for the magazine, some suggestions for the price included £2.40-£3.00, This was because its a lot more affordable to the younger generation, because of this my magazine will cost £2.50, which will still mean that I gain profit.
•  The last piece of feedback I collected was that I should add grey to the colour scheme and get rid of black to make it unique, because of this I will collect more opinions and will have to come to a conclusion.

Video of the music proposal and feedback:

MastHead Practice on Illustrator

To create the text I used the large letter "T" situated on the left hand side of the page. secondly I used the pen tool to create  a small pattern underneath the text.

Then I increased the weight of the outlines to make them bold and standout. After that I selected the text, then clicked on the grey mouse tool and deleted the spacing in the "G" and moved the paths in different directions.

Next I collected an image of ice on Google images related to the Masthead name IcyKnightz, then I selected the Alt button and dragged down the text which allowed me to create another copy, but before that I added the image layer onto the background so the text was able to be seen on top of the image.

Then I made sure that only the outline of the text could be seen, this would allow the image to be visible through the text instead of just as a background when I grouped them together.

Once that process was complete I decided that I wanted to slightly change the shape of the text to give it that icy aesthetic, this was done again by using the grey mouse tool and editing the path of the text at both top and bottom ends. The bottom text was my final piece. Overall I think that the technique of using the layers in this way worked well but the font and layout that I used here would be ideal for a logo dude to the fact that it is rather hard to read and doesn't look aesthetically pleasing.

Music Magazine Proposal

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Prezi Case Study Questions

Prezi Evaluation

Evaluation of FC and CP

Overall I believe that both my front cover and contents page went well, some of these include the colour scheme which is mainly blue and white also the composition of the page and the layout, for example nothing was squashed, the pictures weren't in anyway distorted, this is because the used the shift key to enlarge the image instead of dragging and stretching it. But like always there is always room for improvement. Three things I need to improve on the front cover includes the following. Starting with the fact that the puff is possibly to large and should be slightly decreased due to the fact that it is almost as big as the cover star. Secondly,  to do with size is the font (too large) this might put the viewer off because the front cover mainly appears as writing. The last improvement that could be made on the front cover is the fact that the cover star has no props related to college such as; books, bag or other equipment, because of this it may make the image slightly irrelevant or invalid. Improvements that need to be made on the contents page include the fact that there is only one image instead of multiple which I originally planned the contents page to be, Secondly the cover star is not looking directly at the viewer which can sometimes be unconventional, and again no props linked to the college theme are being used. Lastly the top of the contents page looks quite plain and simple so  I may add another image or more writing to fill in the gaps.

Magazine Contents page

Magazine Frontcover

Planning

Add caption

Audience and Institution #2

The graphs shows that XXL is the No.1 selling music magazine next to the runners up "the rolling stones" on the market at $5.99, each have sold roughly 103,617 copies in the last year.Some sections which are included are "Eye Candy" which depicts models in underwear, there is also artists who are featured in the magazine, promoted upcoming events and lastly a part called "the good life" which promotes companies furniture but especially clothing. The next interesting section in the magazine is called "Making History" also known as "Old School" where all old famous Hip Hop songs from the 90`s are listed along side the artist that wrote them, website for the song and price if you were to by the song on any apps or Cd`s. The reader of the XXL magazine are obviously fans themselves of Hip Hop and mainly males, Many would say that they are a part of the movement which is promoting the XXL magazine in the music industry and making it "The No.1 most influential brand in the rap media".

Powerpoint presentation