Evaluation

The project in hand was to create an upcoming music magazine. I explored two different looks, settling for the ‘poster look’. I did this because it is the launch for the magazine and the focus is mainly one subject. However there are other key artist/bands that feature in the magazine. The whole idea of having this artist on the front cover is because he is one of the busiest artists around. He was hard to get and so became very important for the magazine because it was the magazines goal reached.

The masthead is purposely bad in grammar because- in creative terms- I wanted the word ‘amped’ (Which you use for metal/rock and is very loud) to sound bigger than life. I wanted to make sure the consumer would know it is a music magazine so by placing ‘amped’ larger than the ‘r’ it will tell the audience this. (Without losing the whole word ‘ramped’). The main sell is placed in boxes which are not all the same in size. This is because I wanted it to look pasted on top like a college. This makes it stand out and easier to read. Also I believe it makes the whole ‘Skar’ icon look more exciting. (This is because normally thing that are in boxes are important). The iconic image is meant to be dark, glaring and slightly freaky to portray the attitude and intentions of this character. I used white card for the background and the lamp head one to create high contrast and shadow. I have made sure the masthead and main sell are the same colour as the background (maybe a shade lighter) so it is easy on the eye and so the colours sing well together. I choose this colour palette because it is simple yet gives attitude. I believe the poster look back this up well.

The contents page was the hardest out of the three for me to design. I wanted to be slightly arty with my design yet keep the key conventions of a contents page you see in many magazines. I tried placing the regulars to the left of the page at one point which made the whole look very messy and hard to read. This highlighted to me that I can’t just place on a few more magazine articles and numbers, I had to really think about my target audience and what kind of people they are. (Visual or mainly textual). So I made sure the numbers are on the left and the writing next to it. Also having a little story about what the article is about underneath gives an easy read for the target audience. The black lines add structure and connect the features, regulars and photographs. I made sure that the main article is the biggest photograph because I want the eye to move to that first then to the second biggest picture. I have to place the number beside the picture so the target audience can move to the page first if that is what they are looking for.

This is the left side of my double page spread. I had it which a white background to start off with, however this did not work as the photograph on the right side causes this page to look a part from it. (By this I mean, it looks like a separate page to the double page spread). I used a certain Photoshop tool to get the right colour from the right

side and then use the gradient tool to make it look like the light carries on this side of the page. I did not stretch the photo over because I did not want to ruin the quality of the picture. I changed the font for the strand first to a bolder font so the reader will see that first and urge to read on. This is very important because I don’t want it to all merge and look plain. The big ‘w’ also draws the eye which then leads to an automatic read. The second side follows on from this.

There is not any guttering this side because I wanted to keep this page looking simple to enhance the impact of the picture. However the copy is flush left. (Like all articles are in a conventional magazine). I wanted to keep some conventions within my magazine. I had guttering on the other side of the page. I wanted that to look neat and simple as I did not want to crowd the page a make it look busy. I kept the photo the same as the front cover because I believe this picture gives the most impact out the group of photos in my art book. The picture is high in contrast and very dark to give a bit of attitude and yet some mystery.

The next question I would like to ask is what is representation? Representation is something that is visual or tangible rendering of someone or something. For example, the different types of cultures and way of life. The overall magazine photographs are original all being the main focus on the lead article, which is Skar. Skar is meant to be a mature, yet not a total adult, metal head artist. He is the lead singer in the band called Brotherhood. His name shows that he likes to think he has two sides to him, and the side we see is the cheekier side out of the two. This explains why I said to keep normal day to day clothing- which you can hardly see- to contrast to the full darkened face. I wanted him to look have a blank expression to tell the reader he has sense of mystery about him.Within the interview, I wanted to keep in the key reason why he is there talking to me- which is that he is talking about his interesting new album called Mission Humanity. (The strand first explains it all) I also wanted to place in some cheeky comments and funny swagger to show the reader how cheek- overall his personality.I have not placed any pull quotes in my double page spread because I believe that the strand first give some much detail and draws the eye in quite a bit that if I placed a pull quote, it would look too much.