Magazine practical task research and planning

Research

1) Use Google to research potential magazines that you could use as your brand/design for this project. Create a shortlist of three potential magazines and embed an example front cover from each one. We recommend looking at lifestyle magazines or a similar genre as these are more achievable to re-create.

Elle

Dazed

Vogue 

2) Choose one of the three magazine brands to use for your project e.g GQ, Vogue or The Gentlewoman. Then find three different front covers for your chosen magazine and embed them in your blog post. Analyse the fonts, colours and typical design. What is the language or writing style? How are the cover lines written? What camera shot is generally used for the cover image? You need to become an expert in the design and construction of this magazine and its branding.

This cover uses san serif bold font for the title to make the brand of Dazed stand out. Most of the sub titles and even the covelline are in a bigger bolder font written in capital letters to seem loud and noticeable. There is this colour scheme with black and orange where they are able to complement and contrast each other with the pop of colour. Most of the cover is dark whilst there is a single ray of light casted on the models face revealing her eye staring directly at the camera. The language used on the magazine is seen for a younger generation where the main cover line ' New decade New style' reinforces this idea of change. I would say this is a medium or even a medium close up as we can mostly see the model waist up but focus more on her face as that's where the single light is placed for such an effect.

For this cover it is similar to the last one with the exact same font and even the placement at the top middles where many people can see the magazine brand. This time the colours used are more pastel of blue and pink that are seen opposite on the colour wheel. This blend of colours gives a feeling of cotton candy once again a younger generation feel to it. The setting is of a pink bathroom showing a split of gender and their stereotypical colours. The models name is written at the bottom left to inform views of which celebrity the magazine is featuring whilst the actual model, ice spice is shown as a medium shot looking directly at the camera. The cover line of 'The peoples princess' is written to showcase and even reference the celebrities popularity and how even a large range of audience cherish her work like royalty.

This last magazine just like the other two has bold font making it stand out, however the 'Dazed' is placed in front of the model maybe to make the brand more clear for their work. There are softer colours here too of mostly pink and white for more of a feminine feel. The background is seen to be a blurry round of cars whilst also vaguely having a pink sunset/sunrise. The camera shot is seen to be a close up to a medium shot where we can visibly see her face that might be looking past the camera towards something behind. Once again her name is written on the magazine for recognition and credit but this time on the right more bigger. The cover line seems to be 'pure spirit' which could reflect her personality and her personal traits as a person to bee good and caring therefore seen as a pure soul.

Planning

1) In your blogpost, write your main cover line (also called the 'main flash') - this is the main cover story that links to your central image. It must be 100% original - all your own words.

Cover lines=

Flutter into Freedom

or

wings of wonder

2) Briefly plan the image you will need for the cover - model, costume, make-up, lighting etc. At this point, simply describe the image you need to capture.

I will be using myself as the model, I wanted to choose the theme of butterfly's as all the dazed magazines follows a certain theme for each shoot. I was thinking of combining the colours of orange yellow and pink for a good contrast. I want the make up to be similar to butterfly wings maybe yellow ones whilst adding in some pink eyeshadow for a gradient. This will be my main focus where i will shine and orange light on that one eye to empathise the theme. I might wear a white flowy hijab whilst making the background white using different materials so they don't blend in. I will capture a medium close up so that the main focus is one side of my face.

3) Write the cover lines and any additional text you need for your magazine cover.

Beauty takes flight

secrets of timeless beauty

unfold the fragrance of change

Embrace Transformation like a Butterfly
Embrace generations

4) Sketch out your cover on plain A4 paper using your written planning. Take a photo of your sketch and upload it to your blogpost.

Photoshoot

We will do a photoshoot in class next week with lighting and backdrop. However, if you prefer you can arrange your own photoshoot for the cover image in your own time - you can use your phone or your own camera to take an image. If you don't have a phone or camera that is suitable, you can sign out a camera from Mr Harrison.

1) On your planning document, write the date, time and location of your photoshoot and the name of the model or photographer you will use (you can choose anyone to be your cover model or you can be the cover model yourself).

Sunday 28th April at around 11:30 in my bedroom. For the model I will be using myself and the photographer will be my sister.

Photoshop design

You will have one Media lesson to create your magazine cover on Photoshop but you will probably need more time than this. In order to complete this work, you will need to work in DF06 when you don't have other lessons or use Photoshop at home. You already have access to Photoshop at home via our fantastic Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (worth around £25/month!) 

Publication to blog and evaluation

1) Once you have completed your design in Photoshop, go to 'File > Save a copy' and save your finished Photoshop magazine cover as a JPEG image. Then, upload it to your blogpost. 

2) Upload two genuine covers of the magazine you have chosen and put them next to your front cover. This is a brilliant way to check how professional your work looks alongside the real thing.

3) Write a short evaluation of your work: have you succeeded in your brief to create a new, original edition of an existing magazine? Does your cover stand up alongside the genuine covers of your chosen magazine? How professional is your work alongside those genuine examples?

I think my magazine replicates Dazed covers quite well as I have taken a medium close-up of myself with a plain background. I have also included a cover line as well as my name at the bottom. I tried keeping it a bit empty and plain just like Dazed does. I believe I did a good job with the photo as i used different colour lighting of pink and orange to contrast the font colour of baby blue.

4) Finally, what would you do differently if you completed this assignment again?

I think I would have taken the picture so that I was directly looking into the camera as all of Dazed magazine models do this. As well as this, I wrote my name really big so I think I would maybe make the front smaller so that it doesn't stand out that much.