Masthead Title Vote Official

In today's lesson, after doing my presentation I asked the class which design they preferred and overall they voted for this design:

 

Taking this into consideration along with the other votes, I will most likely be using this design as my magazine masthead and therefore this as my accompanying colour scheme.

Music Magazine Proposal

Masthead Title Vote

Initially I had 7 ideas for a Masthead design , with the three different names 'HXLLA','HU$TLE' and 'DXPE. 

However, I wanted to narrow it down to around 4 of the best/most -liked ones to make my decision easier. Due to this I asked my friends, family and made a Twitter poll to narrow down the 4 best matheads.
These were the results:

I took a tally of the amount of votes and from this I narrowed it down to these four designs:

When I go back to school I will complete a vote of these four designs which will help me decide which one to choose.

Music Magazine Flat Plan

Lesson Work : Illustrator

In today's lesson, we played around with Illustrator so that we were well prepared to create our music magazines when it came to the time. Through this lesson, I learnt many new skills and tips that will come in very helpful when making my masthead, and it gave me new ideas on how to do my masthead.

Firstly, we were shown how to block out the holes in letters (shown below) as this is commonly used in graphic designer nowadays. Here is my first try:

Through doing this, I decided that I may use this for my actual masthead as I liked the look and effect it gave. It was fairly easy to complete this part as we simply clicked 'create outlines' and dragged that pathways.

We then experimented with creating different shapes that we might add to our masthead, however I only created a rectangle and played around with it as I know that I will not be including any shapes on my masthead. Next, we tried adding a textured background to our masthead text. Firstly, we had to get an image, copy the masthead and then place the image behind the copied masthead:

After we made the masthead 'clear' in order to place the image into the masthead to make it fill the wording:

Here is my completed design of my practice masthead :


Overall, I think for my first try using this software I managed to create an okay masthead and picked up skills I will need for my actual masthead.

Magazine Newsstand Task

This is the newsstand music magazine section from WHSmith. From this picture we see that this particular WHSmith mostly stocks rock,dance and classical magazines such as 'mixmag','Q' and 'Kerrang'. However, from going to other WHSmiths, I know they stock magazines such as 'XXL' and 'Fader' as well which are of the hip hop genre.
As stated before, they were organised in the music section of the magazine aisles near the front of the shop, and have been displayed in a structured manner. The titles that are well known either have their own entire section so that they can easily be seen e.g. 'Q' in the first picture, or they are place in front of or near the front of the other magazines as they are the brands that bring in the most buyers/ are most popular therefore it makes it easier for the consumer to find as well as for a potential buyer to spot.
On this particular newsstand, the magazines at the top are organised in a way where you see the top half of the magazine therefore the masthead and the faces of the cover stars are visible which of course is purposely done so that potential buyers can become intrigued by the cover stars as lots of the magazines organised like that are ones that aren't very well-known therefore may not have a high readership and want to bring in more readers. One thing I noticed with mixmag is that they had organised most of the important features of a front cover on the left third. For example their standout, trademark feature of their masthead (the lowercase i) is clearly shown on the left third (as only the mix is shown) as that is something they are recognized by. Furthermore, their cover lines and main cover line are all symmetrically lined up on the left third, this is because they know that most likely that is the part that will be shown as other magazine's will cover the full thing therefore it is organised like that so that it can still catch a reader's eye and interest them.However as it is mixmag, it does not necessarily need to rely on their cover stars and stories as much as other magazines so it is fine if only the first half of the masthead is shown. This is similar for Kerrang magazine.

Examples for Distribution

 

Distribution of Magazines

Nowadays, there are various other different distribution methods for magazines. The main most commonly used one is Publishers/Distribution Networks. Publishers are the institutions that produce the magazine's, and they control the content and design of the overall magazine. They also create and look over advertising deals as advertisers bring 40-100% of the revenue. Distribution networks are the groups of different distributors who organise the magazines travel from the printer to the newsstand (in supermarkets or newsagents), where it is to be sold. They are then taken to regional distributors who take these to allocated newsagents or shops.

Sale or Return is the method used by magazines and newspaper distributors with newsstands. This method basically means that any copies of a magazine that end up not being sold are given back to the distributor, with not extra cost to the retailer therefore it is beneficial. However this is bad for the distributor/ publisher as there is lots of wastage involved and it is environmentally damaging.

Another way is Freemium's or Direct Distribution which has become a lot more popular within modern times. This is when magazine issues are given out for free usually at train stations and other busy areas. The way they make their money is through their advertising deals.

Subscription is a well - known and used way of distributing magazines. People who regularly read a particular magazine (especially if the magazine is niche) would have an incentive to subscribe for a number of issues to be delivered to them over a regular basis for a discounted price, which is usually a lot of what would originally be paid. This is beneficial as it brings in guaranteed money and readership for the publishers as well as being easier for the consumer. This form of distribution can also be done electronically except it will be added to a kindle, IPad/Tablet or inbox.

As we have become more modernised and electronic based so have magazine distribution methods. Now there are various ways of distributing magazines online. A common way is an E-Zine. An e-zine is a electronic version of a magazine which includes mostly all or similar features of a magazine such as adverts, page numbers and the ability to turn the pages. Most of the time they are free and can include links and clips that the reader can refer to.
Additionally, lots of magazines now have apps that can be accessed on smartphones or iPads and these usually contain either some or all of the content available in the physical magazine.

     

Lastly, there is the electronic brand extension way of distributing. This is how most magazines distribute as a lot of them have now extended their brands onto the internet, for example, they use popular social media websites such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook. Some brands can also extend themselves to concerts, and other alike events.

College Magazine Evaluation

Preliminary Task Second Version

Doing this task I came up with two different versions of a front cover and contents, however I preferred the first one I posted as it fit the conventions of a college magazine better and was well-shot so I chose that as my main. Despite this I still wanted to include both on my blog to showcase the different versions that I had come up with
This is the second version front cover :
 

And this is the second version contents (only one difference):

Preliminary Task : Contents Page

College Magazine Contents Page Completed

Preliminary Task : Front Cover

College Magazine Front Cover Completed

College Magazine Cover Plan

I looked at 2 examples of college magazine front covers that I liked the look of and took and analysed sections of the two that I would like to include in my magazine which I said above.

I've decided which cover lines will make up my front cover (a maximum of 5 with small stand-firsts about the contents of the magazine) :

- Leyton Looks (main cover story) 
  Year 12 student Jasmine on the best student looks

- UCAS/Uni Tips
  Get help planning the next step in your future

- Enrichment Opportunities 
  To boost your personal statement

- Up and Coming Events
  that you need to know

- Life at College
 and how to deal with the transition

 The skyline will be : the best magazine to keep you updated with life at leyton

Magazine Practice

This is my first time creating a magazine cover as well as using photoshop.

As this was my first time using photoshop I did find certain things tricky as I did not know my way around the software however i managed to adapt quickly and make a simple magazine design. For my first try I think this okay but I would like to improve a lot when doing my actual music magazine cover as I do not think that this one was up to standard.

Contents Template

This is my first basic template of how I envisioned my contents page to look. However after making this, I saw that s the way that the image boxes were positioned looked unprofessional, as they did not fit the structure properly therefore I went back and changed it into the version below as I believe that looks better.

This is my final template for what my magazine's contents page will structurally look like.

Contents Plan

Firstly, I looked at 2 examples of college magazine contents pages that I liked the look of and took sections of the two that I would like to include in my magazine which I said above.

I also decided which articles I would include in my contents page and which one i would attach with the pictures as well as their page numbers(due to the flat plan):

• 10 - Course Explanations 
• 14 - Enrichment Opportunities 
•  22 - Revision Tips
• 28 - List of Clubs At LSC
• 32 - The Cover Feature (undecided)
• 40 - Up and Coming Events at LSC
• 50 - UCAS/Uni Tips
• 52 - Student Discounts
• 60 - Life at College
• 70 - Interviews with Important Staff

I later decided to only use 10 headlines on the contents page so that I was able to make it look more professional and make it manageable for me. The font i'll most likely be using is Arial or Calibri to make it look professional and neat. 

Textual Analysis