Preliminary task expermenting with photoshop

This is one of the experiments I carried out in order to test out my photoshop skills. I was asked to create a Magazine front cover and double page spread with included a well known actor. I chose Helena Bonham Carter, this allowed me to incorpriate her husband, my favourite director Tim burton. I chose the gothic font to link to her style, she has a gothic feel to her so I tried to add this to the style of the magazine. I also chose the black on the double page spread because of this same reason, as black is a very gothic colour. Although I was only focusing on creating a basic layout I could of then introduced barcodes and prices that I will then use on my main task. This is a very poor use of photoshop but  feel that this gives me time to improve my work on my preliminary task by increasing the level of my skills.   

NME magazine

This is one of the ideas I would like to include in my magazine. I really like the whole idea of the image being black and white (like VIBE) and then the red and black writing in the background. I feel that I could do this by using my Wacom Tablet at home (basically a pad and pen linked to the computer) in order to create this really interesting effect.

Photo shoot

For my photos I would ideally like to have them taken and edited before Christmas; this allows me to have the prep work done for when I start to create the magazine after Christmas. I have now decided that the photo shoot will take place on the 16/11/11 and I will be taking the photographs of a friend who is willing to be my model / interviewee. I am also going to try and take some of the photos using a timer or get someone to take the photos so I can get some of myself.

My photo shoot has to be planned very carefully I’m doing this by setting a date of when I will do it by. I then have to think about what images I am going to try to recreate and how I will create them. I looked at both the cinematography and the mise-en-scene (especially the lighting) when deciding to find a location for my photos to be taken. I decided on my bedroom for some of the photos as I really like the colour purple and the design on my walls. The style really reflects the type/genre of magazine I want to try and create. I also wanted to try and get some of the photos taken in either Camden or South bank (skate park in image above) because these locations have a lot of graffiti and or art on their streets which would create a punky feel to my mag.

Target audience

In marketing and advertising, a target audience, is a specific group of people within the target market at which the marketing message is aimed. A target audience can be formed of people of a certain age group, gender and status, and more; for example teenagers, females, single people, etc. A target audience can also be a combination of factors, e.g. men aged 20-30 is a common target audience. Although, this doesn’t always mean that this is their only customers, a different audience may also be interested. Discovering the appropriate target market and determining the target audience is one of the most important activities in marketing management.

The biggest mistake it's possible to make in targeting is trying to reach everybody and ending up appealing to no-one. With this being part of my aims to appeal to most genres of music I will have to try to compromise due to this fact. I will also have to decide whether to appeal to one audience or try to expand it. As well as this from my questionnaires I will have to work out what people want the most to include in the magazine and see which people will like what.

Questionaire

This is the Questionaire that I produced in order to find out what my target audience wanted in a magazine. I handed it out to 30 people which will allow me to get a significant number of answers in order to find out what people like and how I can include this in my magazine. I will then take these results and create graphs to present my work.

Questionaire

NME magazine

NME magazine front page

The front page of NME is very simple yet effective. The way the simple colours of red, pink, white and black are very striking colours and therefore do not need the acomplishment any other colours. I also like the way that the image of Hayley Williams is infront of the tittle/logo and the rest of (Paramore) the band is behind it. It gives the effect that she is the more important one and therefore has to infront of everything else. I think that the way her lipstick is the same colour of the tittle "PARAMORE" shows a link between the two, allowing the reader to know what the tittle is linked to.
I dislike the fact that the writing "professor Jack White" is above the NME, this makes it appear that this story or article is more important that the name of the magazine. I feel that the magazine name should be the most important thing and therefore be at the top of the magazine.

  NME magazine contents page

The contents of NME is very newspaper like and is put into colums. The way it is split up into news, radar, reviews, live and features gives it a very formal style and is easy to find out what you want to find. I also feel that the way the colour scheme of the name of the magazine is repeated onto the rest of the contents keeps it very simple but very effective. However the red writing on the left I feel is very hard to read and could get lost in the image all together. I like the way the NME THIS WEEK is very bold and the font used is very formal. The fact that there is only one picture doesnt appeal to me and I feel there could of been more to grab the readers attention. on the other hand it doesnt acompliment the formal style of the magazine.

Media 2.0

Media 2.0, My daily consumption.
This shows how much and what media I consume in one day.