NOISE - Final Front Cover

The first thing I did to my front cover was cut out the main image from the bad background I had before. I did this using paint.NET and saving it as a PNG file. I then inserted it into my publisher file and decided the white background was boring, so I changed it to a really dark grey because black was too dense. I also re-did my masthead because it was slightly wonky, so I straightened it out and made a red one for my front cover. I gave it a white border too, and made it smaller than my draft, because I felt it was too big. I also made Jake and Adam cover the masthead, which follows the conventions of a Rock magazine like K! or Rock Sound. I also edited the 'posters' and cut out the backgrounds on 'Travey' and 'Catch Fire'. I think it looks much better now. I completely scrapped the puff because it looked un-realistic and too overcrowded with one.

NOISE - Final Contents

The main thing I needed to change on my contents was the font size. Before I did anything, I changed my font size and made sure everything fitted. I then realised I had plenty of space to add in another column, (which I couldn't fit in on my draft). I then added in the NOISE quiz page, and a competition, which I will put at the puff on the front cover. I also had space for images, so I manipulated the picture of 'Dave' on paint.NET and removed him from the background. I used him as the artist for the NOISE quiz. I still had space, which meant I could also do an advertisement, which I wanted to do first time round but had no space. Looking through magazines like Kerrang! and Rock Sound, they have advertisements for the monthly prescriptions, so I thought it would be fitting to do one of these too. I also changed the masthead, because it was slightly out of proportion on both my Front Cover and my Contents, so I have re-done that and inserted it back onto my contents. Kerrang! has mainly inspired this contents page, with the large image at the top and the columns at the bottom, so I know it is definately of the Rock genre, and therefore aimed at Rock listening people. I am very happy with my contents!

Image manipulation

I've been editing the other pictures that I will be using in the magazine. This image is of one of the 'posters' on the front, and I have removed the background on it because it looks un-realistic.
This is my image;

This will look much better on my front cover as one of the posters.

This is another image I have cut away from the background. I will be using this on my contents page.

Image Editing cont...

After cutting out and feathering my original front cover image, I decided to paste it into my front cover to see what it would look like.
This is what I first did;

I thought the white space at the back looked rubbish, so I made the picture bigger and had it covering the masthead more, just to see what it looked like.

This is what that looked like;

Image Editing

FRONT COVER IMAGE:
I wanted to cut out my models and remove them from their background completely. I have now done this using paint.NET.
This is the image before I had feathered the edges.

This is the feathered image:



Questionnaire after my draft

I have decided to ask 10 people to fill out a questionnaire about my drafted magazine.
This is my questionnaire;

My results:

1. Do you read magazines?50% do read magaizne, 50% don't.

2. Do you think this looks like a real magazine?

100% said yes.

Why?

Everyone said it was realistic, other comments were;

It resembles most magazines,

The style,

Pictures look authentic

Design

Layout

Fonts
It's like K! which is also a music magazine,

language/tone of the article

Front Cover

3. What do you like most about it?

the answers I got are;

Querky captions

photography (looks proffesional)

'Fantastic' designs

Layout

Font

Front cover and Contents are really realistic,

Still Nameless sound like they could be a real band

The article.

4. What do you dislike about it?

1 person said 'nothing', however, the constructive criticisms are;

models,

price

the star offering album reviews

font size (too big)

Front cover is too packed.

5. What do you think I need to change?

3 people said they wouldn't change anything, however, the several others said that they would choose;

font size

price

front cover - uncrowd it

More Jessie Mac!

The star.

Overall I think this has been a really useful questionnaire, and I know what I want to change now to make it look more realistic.  I will definately be shrinking my font size, removing/changing the star so it fits in more with my magazine. I won't be changing the price because I have put research into the price of monthly magazine and I know mine is roughly correct.

Software

To contruct my draft magazine, I have used publisher and image editing software. I chose publisher because it is easy to layer my work and also to get a variety of shapes and text boxes etc to easily contruct my magazine. 

Front Cover:
Before I started to contruct this, I made sure I had a rough sketched plan of how I vaguely wanted it to look. Then I edited the main image and altered the lighting and contrast to get it looking how i wanted it to using the image manipulation programme. After I hadf done this I pasted it into publisher and then used it as a starting post to create my front cover, so everything would either fit on it or around it. The good thing about publisher is, you don't have to just work on the document, there is space around it; which is where i contructed the 3 posters. I imported the pictures (having already edited and cropped them) and then gave them a thick border. I think fiddled around with the composition and finally came up with the idea of having the largest in the middle on a slight slant, in the forground, with the other two behind it. I then grouped these images together and then put them on top of the main image. Publisher was also useful in creating the coverlines. The main coverline was created by just using a text box and was really simple and quick to do. the use of 'print preview' is also really useful, because I could keep checking it to see how authentic my magazine was looking without the construction lines. I had already created the masthead in word, so I just had to import it from file into publisher.

Contents:
I made a sketched draft of a contents on A4 paper before I started to make an electronic draft. I then used publisher to make my draft contents. I used an image manipulater to edit the main image and the picture of the 'editor' before importing them into publisher. I then used shapes and text boxes to make the blocks of colour and writing. I used the columns from K! magazine as inspiration for my contents. To do this, I used 3 text boxes and made the lines black on the left hand side of each. I did the headers by changing the font and then highlighting them in an orange colour. To get the masthead onto the contents, i just imported the image I had saved from the word document I created it in.

Double Page Spread:
After I had drew up a sketched draft on A4 paper, I used publisher to create m double page spread. Firstly I worked on the picture page, with the full sized image of Jake and Adam. I changed the lighting on it at first with an image manipulater, and them imported it into publisher. I then used text boxes to do the text around the picture, and just changed fonts, colours and font sizes. On the second page, I cropped and changed the pictures to how i wanted them, and then imported them into publisher. Before I put them into the article, I typed up the article using 3 text boxes to create the column effect again. I then put the images around the text. I made the red border by formatting the picture and making the line thicker and changing it to red.  To make the red Q&A boxes, I just used a text box and changed the colour to red.

Influences - my draft magazine

Front Cover:

On my front cover I was influenced by both Kerrang and I.D magazine. Kerrang influenced the bottom line articles, the main cover line and the posters in the bottom right. I chose to use these because I think they look really good on the cover of a magazine, particularly a rock mag. Take the posters for example, a lot of rock magazine readers buy magazine for the posters, so to advertise them on the front cover seemed clever to me.  I.D magazine influenced my masthead and main image. I made the 'O' a hazard sign, which then influenced the main picture as Jake has his fingers in his ears. I.D magazine has a 'wink' as the masthead, and each person on the cover pulls their own version of it.

Contents:

My contents page is very much influenced by Kerrang Magazine. I really like how they have another feature as the main image, and then the rest of the contents listed below. I also used the idea of the editors note on the contents page too, with the picture and a colloquial paragraph accompanying it. Like most magazine, music or non-music, Kerrang divides its contents into sections that the readers can dip in and out of. I have also done this, and highlighted them in orange, and used the same font as the masthead. I also gave extra info on some headlines, which create humour and appeal to the reader.

Double-page spread:

My article is influenced by K! magazine too, because it follows a similar structure to a Paramore article I researched, which had a full page picture, additional comment boxes, and the article on the page next to it. I was also influenced by the language of the article, that set the scene in the opening paragraph, and told readers what the band was all about e.g. the music.The images are also like ones in K!, because they show images of the band offstage, which could show the casualness of the interview and how it is revealing personal stuff about the band.

Language and Scripting

In my double paged spread I had to make sure that my language and register was right. I needed it to be like a Kerrang or Rock Sound style article, like this one about Blink 182 from Kerrang.

The register is conversational and it uses words related to music and more importantly rock music. I wanted to copy this informal register and incorporate it into my double page spread. I made sure that my quotes made Still Nameless sounded like a decent band that are in the music business for the music, and that they sounded like a fun band. I used info like 'Top 5 Bands' to encorporate the bands humour, '..and that really handsome band, Still Nameless?' I also did picture captions which mock them, to show that they don't take themselves seriously, and also to match the rebellious rock genre.