11 january '10

Analysis of NME and Kerrang magazine.io

Before we began to analyse our magazine we began by thinking about genre of music. We were given a list of music genres which we had to discuss words and associations which wed apply to each. The 5 genres which we worked with were; Rock, Dance, R'n'b, Indie and Pop. This was simply a started task and took about 10 minutes to complete. Below is my sheet;























NME!;

The first magazine which we analysed was NME, we looked at the cover, the audience profile and the contents of the magazine.
I noted that the main image took up the whole page although the focal point of the image was more right biased. The image for the front cover is a medium close up, and the man in the image, is a shabby looking, pale figure. We can see alot of editing has gone into the image, in particular of his eyes. We can see these have been heavily enhanced. Due to the texture of his skin it appears he is either wearing foundation or the image has been airbrushed. The text used on the front cover is focused more to the left of the page with the colour scheme generally being black, red and white. This is also reflected in the style choice of the male in the image. We noted that there are 2 font styles used within the front cover. However both of these styles are bold and readable. The assumptions which we gain from the front cover is that the man in the image is from the courteeners, which is assumed to be an indie/rock band. This is implied by this being the main and only image and this text has been made to stand out from the rest of the text which is included withing the page. The front cover includes page references to within the magazine. There are also several cover lines on the front page which suggest towards the contents of the magazine. The magazine held the quote of "Don't have to explain myself to you/I don't give two f***s about your review". This suggests that the magazine are saying, that their opinions are their opinions, its their choice to the opinions and choices which they voice, therefore they should not have to bias or base their opinions due to the opinions of others. The colour scheme of the magazine is very typical to that of the colours which we associate to rock. The idea of white and black. With the use of red as a powerful contrast. The audience profle which i believe this magazine try to target is adolescents and young adults. Stereotypically the genre in question rock is associated with Males therefore this is more their target market, however with the inclusion of Hardcore Females, as they would be likely to have an interest in this style of magazine. We'd expect the Males to be most likely student aged 17-22, in some cases to be attending either music school or pursuing a career within the music industry, they'd most definitely hold a passion for music. And the so called stereotypical rock star lifestyle. he contents of the magazine reflects this target market, with the use of unsigned and in some cases less known bands, the language also entails a focus on an older audience due to the context and formation of the text. In some cases it appears as if the writer which wrote the article is speaking in riddles. The layout also suggest the audience with large eye catching images against a large quantity of small font text, which covers in some cases more than one page. The magazine includes information about forthcoming gigs and auditions for those which hold an interest in music. Readers are also encouraged to add their own opinions to the next issue, with the use of the write in page, where readers can voice their own personal opinions. And as the quote previous was mentioned no judgement will be made against them. The Layout seems to show a general layout of a two page spread with an image taking full page and then small text covering the opposite page.

KERRANG!;

This is the second music magazine which we analysed; Kerrang!As with the previous music magazine we assessed the cover, the audience profile and the contents of the magazine. Unlike the first this magazine had more than one front page image. The main image of the front page, showed two males one fair headed and one with darker hair. The fairer headed male had one eye closed and seems to be pointing at the camera, whereas the other male simply seems to be pulling a face. This is as mentioned not the only image on the page in left bottom corner there's an image of a male holding a dog with an overlayed image of a woman wearing glasses theses image are supported by the text which surrounds them. The text explains the cover line story. The other image is in the top right corner, the image is a two shot medium close up. The text on the front page is generally bold and edgy. This style of font seems consistent throughout the magazine. The colour sheme is focused upon the colours of striking pale blue, black and white. However due to the issue involving and being the valentines day issue there is also aspects of bright pink included within the front cover as an association with the colours which are associated with romance, love and valentines day. Continuing to focus on the front cover we can note that the images and text give the assumption of the magazine being; edgy, hardcore and those which read the magazine would hold common interest with those included within its pages. The magazine seems to be the type which would include meet and greets and involve advertisements for such events. The general language of the overall magazine is casual and informal. The audience seems to be focused on young adolescents aged 14-19 of most likely working class. The magazine is busy and colourful in order to try to attract the intended audience. Those which read the magazine would most likely have a similar passion for music as those who would be expected to read NME, however in some ways Kerrang would be expected to have more female readers than that of NME. Though the readers would most likely be too young to already have a career path and would still be in full time education. The audience is suggested as with NME due to its colours and its images of the entire magazine. Overall the image to text ratio of Kerrang is more balanced in comparison to that of NME.

10 january '10

Preliminary task- School Magazine Evaluation!
To ensure we did not lose 15 marks form my overall grade we had to complete a preliminary task which as mentioned previously was to create both the frontcover and contents page for a school magazine. Before we began to create our work we had to plan what we aimed for our final piece to look like. We were also sent out with cameras and told to take a large quantity of pictures which we could then asses and choose the neccessary of the selection to put into our work. I went out in my own time and took 105 images, of various areas and scenarios of my school. In lesson i then loaded these images onto the school system and attempted to assess which i would choose to configure into my final piece. Our Magazine had to have a Medium shot included somewhere within our work. Once we had selcted which images we would use within our frontcover and contents page we sued photoshop to create our final piece. Finally we blogged and evaluated our work.

The magazine which i would create would be called, "Marks Mews" the magzine would be distributed to all pupils for no cost monthly.

IMAGES!
All of my images were taken within school grounds; in classrooms, halls, corridors and outside pathways. All those which appear in the images were asked whether they minded being photographed before the images were captured. The images which i chose to incorperate into my final magazine cover and contents were as follows:

Image 1;
Image 1 shows a capture of an Alevel students Art Piece, this perticulr piece of artwork focuses on the truth behind the image. The Work shows a photo montage fo both images, magazine cutting and the artists own personal work. This image was used on my front cover at the top of the page to exspress a coverline story for my magazine. The coverline story in question was "Students, Future Picasso's!" This title exspress the idea that the section show some of the best artists of the schools piece, once completed. A with most of ym photos i manipulated this photo ever so slightly, by cropping this image, so to fit its placement within the magazine. Many of the image contained within the piece are o marilyn monroe and audrey hepburn.

Image 2;
Image 2 shows again another capture of an Alevel students coursework. the perticular piece is a painting, which try to portay a simular message to the previous image, the both discuss the topic of beauty and image and our perceptions of the matter. As with the first imge this image was used on my front cover and for the same reason as the first, to stand as a bystander image with the previous to the coverline story of "Students, Future Picasso's!"














Image 3;
Image 3 shows both a male a female and a bunsen burner lame and a boiling tube which is being held to the flame by the female using specialised tongs. The Male and Female within this image are; male- James Roberts and female- Nicola Beere. The taking of this image was arranged with the teacher whos lesson was taking place at the time, Ms Quinn. The image is to represent the happenings of a pratical science lesson. The image represents safety around bunsen burners also as both have their hair tyed back, safety goggles on and ar standing away from the flame. The Image was taken from a low angle just below theflame so to emphasise the flme more rather than those who stood behind the flame doing the exsperiement. This image was taken or the purpose of the main story of "Science Success" which discusses the opening of new science labs which were funded for, and the equipment which has therefore become available with them.

Image 4;
Image 4 shows again a male and female pupil conducting a science experiment. As above the pupils are wearing protective goggles and holding a boiling tupe over a bunsen burner using tongs. the models in the image are the same two as above. The male being James Roberts and the female Nicola Beere. This image was also taken with a wide angles lens. From a low angle shot again just below the flame of the busen burner to sow emphasis of the size and color of the flame. This image was cropped before being added to the fornt cover of the magazine. The crop line was made just after Nicolas right arm, so to show only the bunsen burner and james' exspression. This took the image rom a two person shot to an extreme close up. This image was also taken for the purpose of the main story of "Science Success" which discusses the opening of new science labs which were funded for, and the equipment which has therefore become available with them.
Image 5;
Image 5 shows, a lit bunsen burner on science bench with several boiling tubes to the right of the bunsen burner each holding a small quantity of coloured liquid. This image was taken from a high angle shot, in a portrait setup t show height and emphasis of the flame. Before using this piece within my work, i used the lasoo tool on photoshop to ct the picture down to include only the details which were needed. By using this tool i eliminiated the unnessacary scenery such as the plug sockets in the back ground. This image was taken for the same purposes as image 3 and 4 for the coverage of the story of the new equipment and new science labs.











Image 6;
Image 6 shows a young male from the lower school standing against a red background. The boy is in full st marks school uniform and stares out of the left of the picture. Before transfering the image into the final document, i edited, the image to make his teeth a shade whiter. The image was used within the contents page as the Jack Petchy Winners section. The model of the imge is Jordon Joules a year 9 pupil of the school. Apart from the whitening of his teeth this image was not manipulated of tampered with in any way.













TEXT!
The majorty of the text contained within the document was in the font of 'Impact'. In the colours of black, blue, white, red, grey and orange. Main text, such as title names have a heavy black drop shadow. The only other font used within the contents page and front cover of the documents was tahoma for the "NEW science labs and equipment a big hit" text. Much of the text is written in Full Block Capitals however some text is in both Upper and Lower Case.

COLOURS!
The colours used within my final piece were all colours which were known as being associated with the schools colours.; Black, Grey, Red and White. The only colours which were not colours which were assciated with the schools colour schemes were the Orange, which emphasised and blended with the orange of the flame. The other colour was the Blue used in the text of jack petchy however this was suitable for being colours which were associated with Jack Petchy's logo and overall colour scheme.

LOGO!
From research i noticed and in the majority of cases i read that most sources recomended incorperating the schools logo into the document, however i could not find an appropriated place to include this item therefore i chose not to include it. Instead as stated previously i used the associated colours for St.Marks and incorperated the name of the school into the title of my magazine. "MARKS" Mews!

STRENGTHS!
Overall my final Front Cover and Contents Page were both eye catching and colourful. Although the text was bold and stood out form the page in some aspects as though to be 3 dimensional, the image still shone out form behind the text. Both of the final documents look professional and full, there are not aspects of the page which seem unfinshed of too much white or block of one colour as is often common when creating such a document. All text was readable and kept in relation and in the style of the overall magazine. I belive the overall products suits its target audience well. As the ideas, styl and format of the piece is based and simular to that of magazine which this perticular age group are known for reading. With the use of bold block shapes behind text in order to ensure the text stoof out against the back ground and was not lost. The use of the lasoo tool around the flame from the big science lab image as refered to above as image 3 which was then transered onto the ront page of the final document caused the emphasis of this being the main story to be all the more apparent. he break up of the different areas of interest is also a strength when concearning and reviewing the overal affect of the contents page. The breaking down of the different areas with differnt coloured boxes makes it easier to navigate around the page.

WEAKNESS'&CHANGES!
Although my final document was overall, very professional looking. With all aspects included which i was told to include, apart from the use of the schools logo. Which although i have stated my reason for not using this in my piece if i was to reproduce the magazine i should possible try to include this somewhere within either of the documents. Preferably on the front page of my school magazine. In some ways the font 'Impact' is overused within the document. This perticular font is used for the majority of the text which covers both the front and contents page. Some may say that in areas there are two many images squashed into one area of the page, causing the overall document to look busy.

DENOTATION!
Denotation is what we actually see in this case with the majority of the images we see male and female adolescents in school uniform working in their school setting. On the frontpage this is of dolescents in what appears to be a science lab as the mise-en-scene of the images show bunsen burners, testubes, gas taps and the adolescents themeselves where safety goggles.

CONOTATION!
Conotation is what the denotation of the image is trying to suggest to the audience. In the case of the main story again we can guess that the images are trying to suggest that the adlescents are pupils from the school, the school being StMarks West Essex Catholic School. The images are trying to give off the message that the children are enjoying them selves. They enjoy their work and the setting of the school. This all calculates in persuading the audience and the reader, that the children like their school the atmosphere is friendly and the lessons and education and oppertunities which are given to them by the school are all positive. The use of including the jack petchy image as a main section makes the audeicne understand that the school respects and aknowledges the acheivements, talents and hard work of its puils and likes to ensure others do also.

LEARNT!
Throughout the undetaking of this preliminary task i have learnt several skills and tactics which will aid me in the creation of my final coursework piece. From vital aspects which should be included within my front cover to using certain tools within photoshop to manipulate and edit an image. These tools include the lasoo tool which is another way of cutting an image down but also how to eather layers and hide them when they are no longer wished to be viewed. Although being a previous photoshop user there were still many aspects i had yet to explore. I learnt the key words which are used wiothin the magazine world or certain aspects of both the ront cover and contents page. Terms i didnt even know existed previous. Many aspects of my work was built upon trial and error however now i understadn how to go about these operations first hand. Such as moving a layer onto another document.


FINAL FRONT COVER!























FINAL CONTENTS PAGE!

8 february '10

planning my front cover and contents page of magazine!

In previous lessons over the past few weeks we have assesed several existing school magazines of which there is evidence of this on my blog. The magazine which we assesed were our own schools magazine St.Marks though there is no evidence of this on my blog. The evidence which is present is for Newman higher education birmingham and Queen Mary univesity of london.
From my research i knew my magazine would have to include the schools logo, i would have to ensure i took into account my target audience and colours which were associated with the school which i should choose to use in my magazine. The content and images must be relavant to suit their purpose. And the images must ensure they attract the attention of the audience. The language must be informative, and fit its purpose also. Main must haves of the magazine are; a main image, a date line our front cover should also include coverlines.

The first task i would need to decide upon is my using the logo of my school and its associated colours i would need to decide upon a suitable title for the magazine. This turned out to be a more difficult task than i orignally determined. I decided to look at names which people suggested for their magazine online, however none of these suggestions seemed right for my magazine. So my next idea was to exsperiment with the schools name and see what ideas i could get from this. I still sat clueless so using the same apporach i looked at the schools moto and their overall aspect which makes the school the school it is. I noted the facts of the schools name "St Marks" and their nature of being a "Catholic faith school". The next step was thinking of words which i could piece together which would suggest the nature of the school and the fact of the document being a school magazine. The words which i played around with were, the idea of "saint/mark/gospel/quote/word/news" I spent sometime exsperiementing with these words and decided upin the idea of using the two words "mark" and "news". Though i didnt use the exact word news insteast i chose to play on this words and use alliteration and make the names of my magazine "Marks Mews" this is also a play on the fact the school is a catholic school and at church the attendees would sit in a mew.

Paper Sketches:
For the beginning of my planning i decided to draw up several sketch ideas which i could possibly use for my school magazine, i decided id test different styles, layouts and formats and from this i would decide which was the best for my school magazine. Once i had an idea of which title i would use, i began by reviewing magazines which lay about my home and then began sketching idea which i could use for my own magazine.

Here is Example 1;

Example 1 shows a fairly basic design, which consists of alot of block formats. every thing sits in the same alignment, but the title. Though the cover is missing small vital elements such as a date and issue number, for the magazine. the colour scheme would be red/maroon, gold/yellow, white and black.

27 january '10

I missed today's lesson however i have used a class mates blog and written notes to catch up on all notes and work which i missed out on.

Preliminary Task - Introduction.
In today's lesson we were set our preliminary task. For our preliminary we were instructed to "Design a front cover & contents page for a school prospectus". In lesson we discussed many qualities which were expected too be present within a prospectus when applying for a school. The qualities which we expected to be included were:

Target Audience: The Target Audience for a school prospectus is generally aimed at Year 6 or 11 students and their parents, whom are wishing for either themselves or their child to attend The School or The Sixth Form of which the prospectus applies to.

Images used: Within a school prospectus we would expect to see images of Classrooms, buildings, uniforms, students and teachers.

Language: The Language which is used within a school prospectus is usually Informative containing statistics, facts, opinions and quotes of students, teachers and authority figures in the school. The Prospectus may also include quotes from OFSTED and other such body's which have assessed the school.

Content: Within the prospectus you would exspext to find Course guidelines, extra curricular activities on offer, general information about school and tutoring options available in school and other such information which would be of use to the student when deciding whether the school is the one for either themselves of their child.

How you would attract your target audience: All though you have outlined your target audience you must think of what would appeal to them, therefore it would be in the best interest of the school to include smiling students, rewards, upcoming events, celebration of achievements and progress in grades. So to attract the student to choosing your school rather than any other.

Logos/Colours: We must think about house styles, most school would begin by thinking about their School logos from which they would then build upon which colours they would choose to use within their prospectus, of which are associated with the school. An example of which would be with St.Marks the use of Reds, Maroons and Gold. Another logo which we discussed was a good idea to include within a school prospectus is logos of awards held by the school.



In the lesson we also discussed "Secrets of Magazine Cover Designs". We spoke about the things you would address when designing the cover of your prospectus. The vital area which we noted must be taken into consideration were areas such as colour, masthead(logo), dateline, main images, cover lines and the 3 other main areas such as: using the image, power of words, words and pictures. In these areas we discussed the following:

Colour: When deciding upon which colours were correct for our prospectus we decided that it was best to AVOID black, white and green. We took into account that Red is easy to use, although it can become overused. A point which we made sure to consider was how contrasting colours can make the text stand out.

Masthead(logo): A main point of a prospectus is the positioning and presence of the school logo. The school logo should be in the top of the cover, too sell the products. The logo and typeface should be recognisable and unique.

Dateline: This refers to the date or year or which the prospectus applys to it ensure the audience knows that the information contained within is relevant and up to date, by telling them when the prospectus was published.

Main Image: Main image one should cover most of the magazine/prospectus, its the attention grabber it draws readers attention to the articles. The image usually depends on the magazine, some may choose to make the person reliable and some choose to make the person a celebrity making you aspire to be like them, however the person in question with a school prospectus would usually be a selection of pupils/students.

Cover lines: These are usually tasters of what is inside the magazine/ prospectus, such as stories, horoscopes, photos or quotes.

We agreed that when taking images to use within our prospectus its best to take many images so we are sure to choose the "right" image for the piece which we are trying to produce. We also was told it was best and vital to plan which images we wished to use within the magazine/prospectus before actually going out and taking them. We must take into consideration the mise-en-scene and the people in the image. Therefore we must draw up sketches of what the images shall include(stick men are fine here). When planning we must think about framing and camera angles, as choosing the correct framing and camera angle will save you alot of time whilst editing.

When choosing words to include within the document we must think about the language which would be used to advertise and persuade. We must have a balance between professionalism and statistics. Proof Reading our piece is ESSENTIAL, as poor grammar and incorrect spelling will cause us to lose marks on our projects.

We must ensure that the words and images used on a cover agree with each other, there must be no contradiction or any mixed signals given out between the correlation of the two. We must try to avoid leaving images without text to accompany them as this often confuses the reader when trying to understand the connotation of the image.