Our coursework task was to create a magazine cover, a double page spread and a contents page to suit a specific genre of music. I have decided to focus on indie/rock music i chose this because it is the kind of music i have the most knowledge on and am most interested in. Before we were set this task we were given the opportunity to practice and get a feel of using the software by doing a preliminary task. This was to pretend to make a magazine for the college. This benefited us because it showed me basic skills i would need to acquire in order to complete the main task. Simple things such as using fonts from the Internet and spacing between leaders in headlines; to make them stand out. This link takes you to my blog post for this task: sdcmediaaskatiemeier.blogspot.com
Using NRS.co.uk i was able to look at media packs and magazine ideas that are within my chosen genre; to get an idea of my target audience. This was useful as it showed me what kind of themes these genres are associated with, making my magazine appear more realistic.
the audience that are associated with listening to this music are stereotypical subgroups such as 'indie kids' these are known to wear skinny jeans, converse shoes, and brand labels such as converse on their tshirts. They are known to have a smart appearance, whilst being unique e.g with their hair. They are known to listen to less commercial main stream music. The readers can be both male and female as all bands and artists attract both sexes. You can see via social networking sites such as facebook or myspace that fans of this genre show interest in musical instruments and attend gigs in their free time etc.
From looking at this we are able to see and understand characteristics and the lifestyle behind the readers in our target audience. on the website it gives you the details that alot more people age ranged from 15-44 buy NME/new musical express apposed to people over 45. this can be due to the lack of interest in this type of music for this age group as the magazine will be introducing new bands that are new to the teenage scene. The magazine appeals more according to NRS, to people in ABC1 social classes; this may be due to the genre and price etc.
When designing my magazine i had to allocate fonts for different parts, they must all be something that fits with the genre. I chose 'Trojan Pro' and 'Verdana' as my two main fonts. I chose these as they have a strong block look about them, this works as i didn't want something that looked soft but nothing too harsh. Below is a print screen of the process i went through to select the right font.
As well as having this option i was able to use fonts on the website. i was able to use these as you could download them and save them to the college's file. Although they did only stay saved for that day, it was easy to download and access them again. this website is dafont.com. Below is a print screen of the website page and the kind of fonts it has to offer. It is a useful web link for font as it has so many, some being recognised and used for brand labels, and some just being completely made up. So this allows there to be a font suitable for anything. On the programme Indesign you are able to use tools such as leading and kerning, this allowed you to make the spacing between the letters wider, and allowed you to change the angle of which your word appeared on the page. This was good as it allowed you to make your font unique and stand out. If you look back at the titles and fonts used on magazine such as KERRANG. They are bold and harsh looking, taking control and almost over powers anything else on the page. But this is good for a magazine such as this, because they are for a genre of rock music meaning they need to portray loud sounds and violent attitudes. By having the name KERRANG, it already represents a loud noise associated with rock or heavy metal; the font again follows this theme. As my title is Ion Square, it does not portray loudness or violence. So i went with a softer appearance, using thinner styled font and making the spacing further apart. This gave the idea of clueless, as Ion Square does not inititally mean anything or recall a place in anyones mind so leaaving alot of space between letters create the idea of nothingness and being lost and far away.
I chose these perticular fonts because they were simlilar to other music magazines of my genre, for example kerrang. They use a strong and bold block font because it works well as representing 'KERRANG'; this happens as it sounds like a noise made by instruments.
here below is the style of font used on the magazine. also kerrang, is a magazine for rock and heavy metal music so the way they make the font look like its breaking, helps follow a strong theme. Also another example i could show is NME. i think NME use their font because they appear quite a sophisicated, older audience magazine. They do this by their style, appearance and layout throughout the magazine. Also NME itself, sounds like quite a upper market name. So their font needs to appear mature.
The photos i chose for my magazine are ones of which i took a while back of a band called 'the puritans'. I used these photos as they are a band and do music tech at college so it was easy to create the right mise en scene in the photo as it was taken in a real life situation; at their gig. I was going to take more updated photos at their band practise but i wanted the right lighting and facial expressiveness which were easier to create in other circumstances; as they would feel more at ease. The costumes and clothes worn are those that they would wear in normal day to day life, this was good as they are quite stereotypically indie themselves so this suited the genre of my magazine. They would be images that appear to my target audience because it shows people who are interested in musical instruments, relating back to the Facebook topic. Saying that fans and people who follow certain bands play an instrument so they can individually express their emotions to certain songs and genres. With the band on the cover playing instruments it shows that the public can relate to them when reading the magazine.
when using these photos i made slight edits, such as the lighting. so this meant changing settings such as brightness and contrast. by doing this i was able to create a different look and it gave my magazine a different colour theme for the front cover.
below is examples of how i changed it on the computer
CONTRAST
I have shown above examples of how contrast can change the photo.
too much can increase the volume and sharpness of colour, but too little will dull out colour levels and create a low temperature making the photo appear grey and shadow like. so when creating my look i increased contrast and decreased brightness, so it gave a overall even yet sharp look which is good for front cover as it looks warm and appealing.
BRIGHTNESS
Above shows what happens if you add too much brightness and light into your photo, it makes it appear grainy and shadwoing effects appear in places where there was originally strong colour. i didnt want this much light as it made the image unclear and unattractive. There needs to be the right amount of lightness though, to help keep the image clear and lively.
