Tuesday, 16 December 2008

Main task

Foundation Portfolio
For the foundation portfolio I have to create my own Music Magazine. The Magazine has to have a Frontpage , a Contents Page and a Double Page Spread. All of the magazine will be designed by me. On the task I have to use my own pictures which means I will have to go out and take my own pictures. This is the first main task so I will be looking at the key concepts and using LIIAR to do this. I am basing my magazine upon the idea of the rock music magazine Kerrang!

Language-The language I am going to use on the magazine is going to be fun, light, simple and relating to the genre of music and people who have an interest in the music industry which is around today. The text color and the image depends completely on the genre of music and the audience the music magazine is going to be aimed at. An example is the music magazine Kerrang! Kerrang! is released every Wednesday and the colors used are Blacks, Whites and Grey's to create the music genre of Rock and heavy metal. On the other hand, it can be said that a mix type of music magazine which covers Indie, Heavy metal and Pop would use a range of colors ranging from bright colors to dark colors.

Ideology- The idea behind my music magazine is to entertain and inform the audience I am aiming at about the music world I choose, such as what is going on, events which are being held and the latest interviews with the latest bands. By doing this it will promote the music genre I decide to base my magazine on.

Institution-The institution is the music magazine publisher. Around today there is many different music publishers. I am going to research into the different music companies around and the audience which they cater for.

H Bauer is a British Magazine Publishing Company. The Company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but is now owned by Apex and Guardian Music Group. H Bauer publishes the popular weekly rock magazine Kerrang! The six music magazines in the H Bauer performance stable is Kerrang! Smash Hits, Q, Mojo, Sneak and Mixmag. All these magazines cover for different ages and different music tastes which the readers have but all have one thing in common which is to entertain to the audience.

IPC Media is the leading Consumer Magazine Publisher. Almost two in every three UK women and over 45% of UK men read an IPC magazine. That's almost 27 million UK adults. IPC offers all magazines for everyone. Some of the best know magazines published by IPC include What’s on TV, Pick me up, Woman, Now Marie Claire, In Style, Nuts and Country Life. They also publish the famous music website NME.

Representation-The magazine is going to be representing people who are into rock and who are people with attitude and who love to know the latest from the rock world.

Friday, 12 December 2008

My Final Design and Evaluation


My Final Design
My Analysis of My College Magazine Clash
This is my college magazine Clash It is a music magazine on the music department and the music world at Wyke College. Clash is a magazine for the students at Wyke Sixth Form College aged 16-20 years old who want to know what is going on at Wyke at this point in time.

Denotation
The Masthead

The Masthead is Clash and is in Red capital Letters outlined by Black. Clash is in bright Red Capital Letters because it needs to stand out from the background picture of Amy, one of the students at Wyke. Unlike magazines I have looked at the Masthead is not covered because it is not a well known magazine as it is only the first issue.

Other Text
The less important text is very small. But the text is readable. There is a strapline under the masthead Clash saying “Wyke's official Magazine”. The caption is in capital White letters and is on a Black background to allow it to be seen and read. Under the strapline is the words “Issue 1 February 2009” this is telling the readers this is the first issue. It is in a plain black font so it stands out from the picture of Amy. In the bottom left hand corner is a Black box which has writing in “Plus! Find out who is introducing the Battle of the Bands!” this is in White Font. The Plus is in capital letters, but the rest of the words are not in capital letters. The Black background allows the words to stand out. On the picture of Amy is the headline “BATTLE OF THE BANDS” This is the same size as the masthead as I want the headline to be noticed. Under the headline in Black smaller font is the words “Let the Battle of the Bands begin” this is in capital letters and stands out of the photograph of Amy. Most of the text is in Black and White as I found these colour stood out the best.

The Main Picture
The photograph is of Amy is not at the music department at Wyke but she still does music events. So I asked her to pose for the picture. She takes up the full page, and is the only picture on the front of the magazine.

Connotation
The Masthead
My college magazine is not well known, so I decided that the masthead would not be covered like other popular magazines today as I wanted my magazine to show the Masthead Clash and for people to remember it. The masthead Clash stands out the most from the magazine, the masthead stands out the most because the audience needs to know the name of the magazine. The photograph of Amy takes over the page but still the Masthead Clash stands out, Amy represents the magazine because she is a student at Wyke and is involved with music events. The masthead is in the basic font of Arial, but it still stands out to the eye. It is emphasized by the color it is in which is red and is outlined by Black.

White Text
There is a lot more white text compared to the Red Masthead. The White font emphasizes the important points of the magazine. For example the headline is in White as this is an article which I want to be read by the audience. I want it to grab the eye of the audience and make them wonder what the article is about. Other White pieces of information are in Black boxes so again they catch the audience’s eye and not blend into the picture.

Black Text
There is only one piece of Black text and that is “Let the Battle of the Bands begin” this is a sub-headline which is giving more information into the article. The only other components Black is used for is the Black boxes, with the white writing in to allow the white writing to be noticed and read into.

The Picture
The photograph is of Amy a student at Wyke College who does a lot of music events out of college. She also fitted into the genre which I am writing about which is rock bands and different bands battling it out in a competition. The camera shot is a Medium-close up because you can see her face and the top half of her body.

The Face
Amy’s eyes are deep Blue, but unfortunately the red eye could not be removed. Her blue eyes stand out because she is wearing dark eye-makeup, it can be said her red hair makes her eyes stand out. They draw the audience in to look at the photograph. The facial features are pronounced due to the color of her skin, she is very pale, which makes her facial expressions stand out.

The Pose
She looks very laid back. She has her shoulders relaxed and is looking straight at the camera and is pulling a smile to show she is comfortable with the camera.

Language
The language is communicated through the photograph and the writing. The photograph shows Amy who does music events, so this photograph represents what the magazine is about which is music. The font is simple and easy to use and there is no complicated words, the only words used are the words to do with the semantic field of music such as Clash because this is a sound from music.

Institution
The College will produce the magazine. And pupils can edit the articles as it will be a team of students who produce the magazine.

Ideology
The idea behind the magazine is to give an insight into the talent which is at Wyke. It is meant to represent the students and their qualities of respect, individual speech and opinion and intelligence as Wyke is full of intelligent people who are talented .

Audience
Clash is aimed at the students at Wyke College. The magazine is meant to inform the students about what is going on at Wyke.

Representation
The magazine is representing all the talented people at Wyke.