After finishing our music magazines, we compared it to professional music magazines again and within our group, we have decided that our music magazine looked to plain and quite immature even in it's finished form compared to acctual professional music magazines. Becuase of this we have decided to re-vamp the whole magazine and have asked our teachers and classmates for advice on how we can make it look alot more professtional.

 

This is the new design for the front cover of my Volume magazine.



 

We have kept our magazines looking similar becuase they are the same magazine just different issues.

 

For my new design I have taken more up to date pictures for the magazine and changed it to a three man band.

I have changed the whole theme of the magazine and we are no longer doing different holidays as our issues, instead we have decided to keep it more simple and just have different issues of the magazine.

The colour scheme I have only altered a small amount, I have kept it as a White and Red color scheme. With the background being white, it makes the main image stand out more because of the clothing that the band members are wearing, and the masthead and plugs stand out well because with them being red they contrast well with the white background.

For the skyline and strapline, I have made them black and white but switched the colour around for each side of the page e.g. the skyline is a black background with white text and the other side is white with black text, the strapline is the opposite to the skyline.

 

To make it look more like an official music magazine I have done more analysis on a Kerrang music magazine, I have changed my layout of the front cover alot by doing things such as making the image larger and stand out more. This shows the importance of the band.

 

Because the main story is about the band I have created for my magazine, the headline is the bands name (The Makers) and is just infront of the image of the band. For the headline I have used quite a sharp type of font and have used a purple colour with a white outline around it.

 

 

This is my final draft of my music magazine's double page spread.

I have added the picture of the band into the blank side of the double page spread and i have also added more mistletoe to the same page becuase it would have looked poor having one side with it and the other without.
I have tried to make the text on the magazine seem like a very professional interview just like a real music magazine such as Kerrang. The interview talks about The Makers and what they have said they plan to do with there career and how long they want to last in the music industry.

Here is the first draft of m double page spread.
I have used the same christmas mistletoe again for the top of the magazine, again this is to show that its a chrisrmas theme and the same magazine. Becuase the colour scheme of my magaizne is based around two colours (Red and White) I have decided to make the double page spread look half and half e.g. one side of it is red and the other white.
With the name of the band I have used the same font as my magazine's name like I did with the Contents to show the importance of the band.
For the text I have used a title that tells the viewer it is an interview with the band and then underneath I have used a paragraph for all of the text for this page and just under it a picture of the band. As for the red side of the double page spread I will use the whole page for a band picture that will be horizontal and can be used as a poster for the buyer of the magazine.

Analysis of double page spread

Now I have finished my contents page I am going to analise a double page spread to help me with my music magazine's double page spread.
A double page spread is two pages that have something on them that makes them seem like one large page e.g an article about a person would be on a double page spread.

This magazine has used quite a dark colourscheme, the black background contrasts with the white, pink and red writing and makes the writing stand out alot stand out more, also the main healine is pink and red, these colours stand out quite alot which makes them eye-catching to the viewer of the magazine.
The main image of the double page spread is of the band and the image is the most noticeable becuase of how important they are.

The text of the magazine is very slang looking and fits well with the theme of the magazine which is a rock type magazine, this will be a good technique that I can use for my music magazine

This is my completed contents page for the music magazine and I have now added alot more information and pages to the right hand side of the magazine and I have also added a picture of sixth former Josh Davies who poses as a member of my band The Makers who are the main story for my music magazine.

My next task will be to create a double page spread for my music magazine.

This is the first draft for my music magazine's contents page, I have placed the title in the same position as the front cover and just underneath it I have added the word Contents but I have changed its font style to the same as the Volume name so it matches, this shows the importance of the contents page.
I have kept the colour scheme the same and have also added the image of christmas mistltoe at the top of the page. Also I have added a few page numbers and information that goes with the page just underneath it in a red box to match the from cover.

I plan on adding more pages and contents to my contents page and also a picture of Josh Davies from my band picutre.

I have now finished my design for the front cover of my music magazine.
I have added information on the skyline and more on the strapline, used plugs about other bands to make it look more like a real music magazine and I have also place the barcode in.

I have done the price of my magazine adn it will be sold for £2.50, this is abit more than some magazines but music magazines are some of the biggest selling magazines around and so they have larger prices than other magazine. I have also changed the price red to match the theme and placed a snowflake behind it to once again show that the magazine is a chirstmas issue, however the image of the snowflake stood out to much compare to the picture and the masthead so I have used the Opacity tool on Serif to make it more transparant and dull, this will make it contrast more with the magazine and not stand out.

I have taken another picture for my magazine and i have also started editing them.



I have used cutout studio on this image to remove the backgorund and i will have it on the front of my magazine, this will make it look alot more professional.

During my last media lesson I have taken some pictures of sixth form students, Josh Davies (right), Alex Jones ( left), Jack Williams ( middle-right) and Dean Dippnall (middle-left) all from my media group posing as the band I am going to have in my magazine.

I will use this picture on the front cover of my magazine and have the main story of my magazine about the band. I will take more pictures of the four posing as the band which I have decided to name The Makers, and use them throughout my music magazine. Also I will edit the pictures to remove the background etc using the tool on Serif Drawplus X3 known as Cutout Studio, this is a very useful tool for media work as it lets you remove any part of a picture you want to and with my work requiring alot of pictures I will be using this commonly.

Here I also have an individual picture of Josh Davies.

I have now added more text boxes for more plugs and information and also I have added a strapline which is like a skyline but is located at the bottom of the page. Straplines are very useful becuase rather then having to read information about what is in the magazine they can simply know what is in the magazine just by looking at the words located on the straplines such as a band name etc...

I have created my own band for my music magazine and will do the double page spread about them e.g. an interview with them. The band will be made up of sixth formers from my media group and i will have a picture of them on the front on my magazine. 

I have started creating my music magazine on a software called Serif Drawplus X3, this is a very useful software that is great for designing and editing. To begin with we have decided we will do different editions for our music magazines so I have decided I will do a Christmas issue.

I have copied the magazine name from Flamingtext.com from the file I saved it into.
I have added a skyline to the very top of my magazine, these are used to hold information or small plugs about the magazine. I have added a box at the bottom for plugs and will have more going up the left hand side of the magazine.
Becuase I am doing a christmas issue I have put a picture of some mistletoe going along the top of the magazine just underneath the skyline and at the bottom right of the magazine, a picture of a snowman with his hand out to make it look like he is showing the reader the magazine.

I am using a colour scheme of white and red to go with the Christmas theme becuase they are very popular Christmas colours.

In the creation of our music magazines we have been told that we are allowed to work in small groups, this involves sharing the same name for the magazine and making them look reletivly similar with the people in my group who will be Alex Jones and Scott Wharton.

To start we did some spider diagrams and mind mapping to get ideas for what we should call our and how to set them etc...
We thought of many ideas for our magazine and we have decided that it will be a rock magazine influenced by the Kerrang music magazine. Becuase Kerrang is a rock magazine it will be easy for us to relate to it becuase we like that genre of music.

The name we have decided to use for our project is Volume.
We have chose Volume becuase it links in with music and anyone that sees the name would instantly realise that it is a music magazine just by the name of it.
To design our magazine name we have used Flamingtext.com, this is a website that allows people to create their own text and do a huge amount of things to it. It lets us use a variety of different colours, text styles etc... For our title we have used a font style called Zipper back which is what gives our title a very sharp untidy text that it has, this is good because rock music is loud and sometimes quite unruly. We spent a while looking for a good effect to have on the name and we found that with it being called Volume it should be relevate to that so we ended up using sound waves that are pulsing off the word, this is cleverly used to becuase it is like the volume is loud. For our colour we have decided to go for a red scheme becuase red and black are associated with rock quite often. We have made the word Volume a dark tone of red and then had the sound waves a slightly lighter tone that fade and get more light as they get away from the word and we have kept a plain white background to make the title stand out more. Also i have saved my magazine name into a file on my computer ready to copy it onto my magazine.

Analysation of Kerrang music magazine

Now that I have finished the preliminary task of creating a school magazine I am now stating my main coursework which is to make a music magazine, however with this task I must create a front cover, contents page and now a double page spread.

This is a professtional music magazine known as Kerrang. Kerrang is based around heavier music such as rock and metal and becuase I am into this type of music I would like to create a rock music magazine.
I will be looking at this magazine and annotating it for ideas towards my music magazine.

The colour scheme that has been used here is mainly notcieable on the main headline and the skyline at the top, they have used two main colours that are black and yellow and have cleverly used them on the skyline as the text and have the background of the text the other colour. They likely used these to colours because they are very different so the contrast really well with each other whereas if they used a darker colour such as brown or grey instead of yellow then it wouldn't be as eye catching.
The main image is of Matt Tuck from the band Bullet for my valentine and Olly Sykes from Bring me the Horizon. The two of them are posing in a medium close up picture, they are known to be very important because they are both infront of the masthead which is one of the most important things on the front cover becuase it is the title of the magazine.

Like my front cover I have had a big change to my magazine's contents page to make it look alot more mature and sutible as a school magazine.

I have used the same colour scheme as my front cover again such as dulling the blue shaded boxes used for background images and using the frey, black and white colour as the overall background.

I have changed the pictures of my contents page to more suitable and relevant images, for the first four pages about the head teacher Mr southern talking about the new school building known as K block, I have now got an image of Mr southern off the school website.
The next image is of sixth former Scott Wharton reading his school books, this picture is to go with pages five to eight that has a topic of sixth formers talking about what is new and has changed in the new school year. And finally I have changed the last image to a picture of the front of the school that is about the school canteen having a remolding done to it. Then to finish i have had the last page, page 14, to be about the contest to win an iPad 4 and also have put in a small plug at the bottom that says to turn to the next page for more.

Final school magazine front cover.

I have talked to my teachers and classmates for advise about how I can mkae my magazine looke more professinal so I have decided to change most of my magazine. This is becuase my previous magazine design looked quite immature compared to a professional magazine therefore I have changed it to look more professional.

I have changed the background to a black, grey and white colour pattern to make it have more of a mature theme rather than having bright colours which are quite childish, however I have kept the blue colour pattern for background images for the strapline, the masthead and the price but I have used a tool on Serif that dulls transparancy of an object to keep good contrast with the background.

I have also changed the picture becuase the last image was irrelevant on the school magazine but my new picture is of Scott holding his school books so it is obvious that it has relevance.

This is the finished draft of my school magazine's contents page

I have added in all of the pictures I needed, these include a picture of my school Emrys ap iwan, Jack Williams who is a classmate posing as a sixth former and also a picture of an iPad for the contest that gives someone a chance to win an iPad. I have finished the page numbers and information of what contents will be on them.