Task 6 - Progress #3

In this session I focused on the completion of my contents page, to make my contents look better I made the following changes:

• Made the masthead transparent 
• Added a 'winter 2016 MOBO edition' underneath masthead
• minor relocation of CONTENTS header 
• individualised each box for the numbers, allowing them to align more effectively with the corresponding content
• added a brief description of each component within the magazine.
• Removed the 'skepta comes back into the scene...' bar at the bottom, I felt this would belong in a front cover rather than a contents page. 
• Changed the main feature from 'Dave' to 'AJ Tracey', this is because I was able to find content which is much more applicable to my magazine using AJ Tracey as an inspiration for my double page spread and not Dave.

InDesign dps progress

For my double-page spread task, I was able to find a suitable picture from a current known UK rap artist, AJ Tracey. This makes it easier for me to be able to make my models look more stereotypical (in terms of UK rap culture)

I have chosen this image as it is very easy to replicate with my actual model, football pitches are very accessible areas and can produce a very nice image for a double page spread.
the components of the image are simple and clear, there is also alot of space provided for any text or any additional images.
At this point, I have only planned which parts I will include as text. I think an image of his new album being placed in the top right corner of the spread will be ideal because it will be one of the main topics of discussion found within the interview, raising awareness of a new album is a known characteristic of most rap magazines.

using photoshop to make my masthead transparent

 I will be explaining how I was able to make my masthead transparent using photoshop so that i can use it throughout the magazine and not just the cover page.

 To begin, I had created a new document which I will base my masthead on

• made the background transparent so that once I crop out the part I need I wont have a coloured background to deal with

 

 I then placed my masthead at an appropriate size, this makes it much easier to work with and all the parts which need to become transparent can be highlighted.

  

 I then made a new document which included a background, this is because I recieved an error which said 'Could not complete your request because the smart object is not directly editable' and the following steps will allow me to complete my transparency.

Error message from Photoshop

 I decided to use a blue background, any colour was fine as long as it was not white. This would allow me to see the difference when I finally crop the parts I do not need.

This is how it looks after I have created and dragged my masthead from one document to the other. The white background is still visible thankfully I would not recieve an error message when performing the action.

on the new file I am now able to use the magic wand tool to highlight the area which i do not require (white background and areas in the letters 'a' and 'e') after this step i was able to drag the masthead back into the orginal document and the transparent background allowed me to save the image for whatever I may need it for.

the masthead is finally transparent and can be used in other parts of my mag

Location Photography - No model

for the location photography task I decided to visit 2 places which I thought could relate to my genre:

• Brick Lane
• Trillick Tower - North Kensington

These locations had pieces of art which I felt reflected my genre much better than other accessible locations. The main theme I was looking for when searching for a possible location was how the streets can relate to my genre. The streets are a part of the genre which hold a lot of importance as it is the setting where most rap artists are involved in.

These were taken at Trillick Tower

These artists have more of a typical old school graffiti type of vibe, the graffiti is all lettered and have colours such as blue and purple, this is common when looking at street art. There seems to be less of a deeper meaning to the art but the colours make it look very attractive and they carry the meanings within themselves.

These pieces were found in Brick Lane 

The art found in Brick Lane was focusing more on actual imagery and symbolism, some of these images represent the struggles that an artist might go through, such as feeling the need to cover themselves when they travel or feeling like a lone wolf, all of the burdens they carry on their shoulders can definitely be related to the music they make.

Overall, I feel as though Brick Lane had a wider variety of pieces that I could use when taking the photos for my magazine, the two locations are approximately 30 minutes away from each other so I should be able to take the models to both locations.

Task 6 - Work in progress #2

This lesson I was able to complete the front cover mock up. I worked on the changes I wanted to make beforehand and I also started on my contents.

I have finalised and completed the design of my front cover, these are the changes i made from last time:

• I have moved the anchor so that it is more central than it was beforehand.
• added more artists to the list at the bottom
• Added more to the anchor, introduces a topic of discussion which will ideally be found within the magazine.

Possible additions:

• A grey or white puff might be added to further pull the audience and make it seem like the magazine has more content

contents page progress:

To help me create my contents page I decided to create a flatplan using the website 'blinkplan'. This turned out to be very effective because I was able to map out exactly what I wanted my magazine to look like in a clear format.  This also means that I will be able to list exactly what I want on my contents page through thorough planning, not think of something from thin air and place it on a random page.

I have added the 'contents' heading and the masthead to the contents page but it still needs a lot more work to be perfected...

By the next lesson:

• I will make the masthead smaller and transparent so that it does not look unprofessional or out of place
• I will change the contents header so that it will be relocated so it does not look like it interferes with the star of the page
• I may add a symbol of some sort near the bottom of the page  

Task 6 - Work in progress

Using the colour schemes from the presentation as well as suitable models, I have completed a brief version of what I would like my ideal cover page would look like. It is still a work in progress as I still need to plan a contents and dps, but so far I have completed a large amount of what I would consider to be the mock up of my music magazine.

The main component of the magazine i decided to start working on is the front cover, it is an outlet to let my ideas flow and it has also allowed me to finalise a solid white/gold/black colour scheme to my cover.

I believe I can work on the placement of various items, I also need to include more content which can pull an audience towards my magazine.

An example of this would be possibly another subheading, or more names at the featured artists section to make my magazine look more 'full'.

I will reposition the anchor so that it is closer to the centre of the page, giving it more significance and making it look less like a subheading.


OTHER PARTS BEING WORKED ON:

• Q&A for interview 
• prezi video and presentation upload
• location photography (weekend)

Starting task 6 - magazine proposal

My magazine will be called ‘wave’ magazine, I have decided to call it this because of the nature of trends in my genre as well as the fact that the genre is fairly new, ‘a new wave’ of music.

My chosen music genre is UK rap- it is a genre which has not been published to many magazines so it is unique and new to the average magazine reader.The content I will include: 

• Artists- the artists I will be talking about the most are all those who are already dominant and noticed within the genre, but I will include those who the target audience may be unaware of, this will give them something to read about. A regular item I would include in my magazine would be a ‘remember the name’ segment, focusing on talents that are not quite known by the audience, yet.

• My magazine would be different from other magazines in terms of raw content, the people featured in my magazine will be different, language and terminology will also be ‘out of the ordinary’ but kept formal to a certain extent.

• The masthead will be visible with the cover star rather than behind or in the way, this is because my magazine is a new publication and is not recognised by the audience.

• The lettering in my magazine will always have a consistent font be complimentary of the background in terms of colour, so that it is aesthetically appealing and easily visible. 

• the colour scheme will also be darker but balanced through images and font much like the double page spread I had made earlier in the course.

It would be ideal if BBC can publish my magazine, this is because they have no rap style magazines but are still involved in the distribution of its music, BBC are owners of the show “fire in the booth” which is very influential for the exposure of an artist within the genre I am interested in. They own the whole “1 Xtra” channel which adopts the UK rap culture in a unique way. The target audience will be a predominantly male audience between the ages 22-28, I have decided to use such a wide margin in reference to my case study on XXL magazine, they are people who reflect UK rap in a way that can be seen as an enslavement, they reflect rap culture through many aspects such as clothing, dialect and general activity, they are the young people who dominate the streets, the clubs and they influence what is or is not ‘trendy’. The target audience just about have the freedom to do as they please, they are usually lower class who have struggled a lot through experiences whilst growing into the adults they are and can always relate to the artists they listen to. The target audience are people who enjoy acting as teenagers even though they are much older, they live and breathe UK rap to give them a clear separation from others in terms of physical impression and perception of London.

Prezi- presentation and YouTube pitch

For my magazine to be ideal for my chosen audience, I had to pitch my idea to people who fit the criteria of target audience and use their feedback to reflect on the ideas I had originally come up with.

I discussed publishing, audience and choice of colour to see what the audience preferred or what they would change, I was able to gain enough feedback to change small things which make a big difference when it comes to presentation of a magazine. 

   

Here is a video of my pitch which gave the audience an insight into my genre and how I want my magazine to come across in general

features explored in pitch: 

• Genre - I introduced the UK rap genre to the audience, letting them know who the artists are and why I will use this genre for my magazine
• Title - I discussed the name of the magazine and how it relates to my genre, this also linked into the masthead design.
• Target Audience - I gave the audience an idea of how old I would like my consumers to be. I went into more depth and discussed factors such as ethnicity, gender and income when mentioning my audience. 
• Colour Scheme - I mentioned how the album art of the songs within UK had influenced my colour scheme to a certain extent, using similar colours give off the impression of my chosen genre to those who are familiar with it.
• Case studies - I looked at similar magazines from the rap genre, this allowed me to make important decisions on masthead placement, cover star placement and overall layout features for the final design of my very own music mag.
• Masthead Ideas - I displayed drafts of how i would like the masthead to look and how it reflects the title of the magazine.
• Publishing - I gave the audience an idea of who i would like my publisher to be, along with justification. I explored the history of my publisher 'BBC' as well as their current projects to explain why I think they should be the organisation to publish my magazine.