Unit 51 Page Layout and Design

Production Commentary

Design Programmes

The design program I used to create my music was Adobe Photoshop. It is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Systems. When researching about this program on the Wikipedia page I found some information about magazines. Before any type of print media is published, whether it is a magazine, newspaper, or even novel, it is likely the case that Photoshop has been used to enhance and clean up the imagery on many if not all of the pages. Magazines use Photoshop and many of its tools in order to enhance the imagery and text in their publications. Many Health and Beauty Magazines employ in-house designers to retouch photos of models to enhance their beauty. They add finishing touches to the imagery by using tools that balance colour and add drop shadows, among other edits. This is what I exactly used this programme for it allowed me to have a professional look for my magazine so I could edit and manipulate the photos, I also could add the magazine aspects for example cover lines, masthead, lead article, badge/flash and barcode etc.

Now onto the word processing work, this came about when I was writing my article that was going to appear on the double page spread. The program I used to write it was Microsoft Word, Word files are commonly used as the format for sending text documents via e-mail because almost every user with a computer can read a Word document by using the Word application, a Word viewer or a word processor that imports the Word format. I used this because most computers use this programme and it allows anyone who want to access my article to read it without any problems.

FormatsWhen it comes to the media formats I have used a range of ways to help me write my article and had many influences for the designing of my music magazine. When looking at media formats and how they helped me I mostly looked at different magazine to get influences and ideas for my magazine. First of all I mostly got all my influences from online magazines such as ones on google images because this was the bets way to find the ones which were similar to the magazine I wanted. I wanted to go for a simplistic look and very modern because I wanted it to be classy and easy to look at and read. Below are some examples of how I look like to look visually, for example the one on the bottom right I liked how the masthead was block colour and was very noticeable from when looking at the magazine straight away. Also in that example the layout of the magazine has a very simplistic look with the use of only black and white it works really well and I think the layout is quite similar to mine. Now onto existing media texts that I used to analysed in my product research, the first magazine was the men’s fashion magazine GQ, I analysed this magazine because I thought it was a perfect example of how it was to look when it comes to text and the quality of the writing inside. This is because the style of this magazine double page spread had an interview and this is how I wanted it to be so I got most of the inspiration of this from the double page spread. The next magazine I used was the billboard magazine which was more similar to the genre of the magazine which I was doing and this had some layout and design aspects in which I wanted to use.

For this magazine I really liked the style of how it looks, for example the big masthead you can clearly tell this is billboard magazine because of the iconic logo title. I also liked how it was very simple and this made it very effect and work really well. The use of the monochrome colours I think worked and I really like how this was done and then just the masthead with the brightest of colours. I also like how they didn’t have too much text on the front cover because if they did I don’t think it would be work as well as it did.

Conventions & Visual LanguageWhen looking at the genre conventions of my magazine, I can identify some of them which I have used on my front cover and double page spread. First starting with the masthead it is the title block for the magazine and I tried to make this very eye catching so it stands outs and attracts the reader. When into relation to music I called the music magazine MINOR because minor is a musical term and I thought this could be relevant to the people reading because of their interest in the subject. When it comes to designing terms I also had it right at the top because this is where it primarily goes and this where readers would look first to recognise the magazine. Next we have the lead article, I used the similar idea with the lead article because I wanted it to be just as noticed as the masthead. I did this again in block capitals because I wanted to match the theme and keep in consist when it came to designing the magazine. I placed this just about under half way in the middle of the magazine and I think it works really well because it still is able to show off other aspects of the magazine. Next we have the badge flash which is a minimal thing when it comes to this magazine, this is jut similar to a sub headline but gets straight to the point for example on my magazine it features ‘Exclusive Interview’ and this is just a snippet of what would feature within the magazine. Now we have cover lines, these are similar to the lead article but slightly less important when it comes to be featured on the front page, they just are like a sneak peak of what is come in the magazine. When looking at mine my cover lines were just artist and musicians which were going to be featured in the magazine. Another tiny convention when looking my magazine and others in general is the barcode this is to be featured on most front covers so it can be scanned and bought wherever you are purchasing them. Now onto my double page spread which I will only explain briefly, first we have the headline and lead article I featured this in the same space similar to the masthead on the front cover because it would have had the same effect. Next we have the kicker this is designated under the masthead because it was the thing I wanted the reader to read next, this is a short introduction for the lead article. Body text is featured in every type of magazine and I did this in a column style like others on the right had side of my double page spread, I mostly did this style because the content of my text was an interview and wouldn’t really be effective any other way. White space in my magazine I think there isn't too much and not any less and I think this works really well because of the constituency of the space between text and images.

Masthead

Barcode

Lead Article

Cover lines

Badge/Flash

Now I will explain the use of the Guttenberg Design Principle in my finished magazine designs, first of all the magazine name ‘MINOR’ has been put at the top before the lead article so readers will be familiarised with the masthead and therefore be attracted to read it because of their knowledge of their magazine. Small details for example ‘magazine’ are under the masthead and the issue number etc. Next we have the strong fallow area , the cover lines which are directly underneath the masthead title and these gain have importance because the cover line say what is being featured with the magazine and because of this this is what will grab the readers attention into buy the magazine. In the weak fallow area on the left hand side we have little tag lines and a sneak preview almost to what is the magazine, this isn’t as big as the lead article which is why it is much smaller and less effective and important as the main article. Terminal area is next, the lead article is represented in this area, very similar and symmetrical to the primary optical area. As Animus are the main article their name is also presented in this area, these bits of information are the most vital because this is the key way to draw in the readers for the magazine. Axis of orientation, this is what pulls the read in all together and this is why the photography is in the middle. This is where the reader will first look because it takes up the whole page and your eyes are just drawn to this automatically. Now onto the connotations of colours and fonts used in my magazine, first lets start off with the font. I used a very basic font, something that would stand out and attract the reader to my magazine. I did it a good size so it fit across the page and also allowed room for other text and I think this worked really well. Most of the text of the top of the magazine is the same font and I just made the text smaller so it doesn’t take so much attention off the masthead. I used the theme of the blue to match one of the models hair because the use of any other colour wouldn’t of worked as well as blue did. I think the blue tone gave the magazine a very relaxed and chill vibe, I think it worked really well with the other font colour which was white. I used white because it’s a very simplistic colour and think goes with almost anything, I used it for the masthead and lead article cover line because I thought these were the most important things which needed to be mention when it comes to the readers reading the article.

Conventions & Visual Language Primary Optical Area

Weak Fallow Area Terminal Area

Strong Fallow Area

Axis of orientation

AudienceHere I will talk about the audience for my magazine in terms of age, gender and social status and also I will describe how it meets the needs for my target audience. First staring with age, when it comes to the age and thinking who would read my magazine I would definitely think it would be around the ages of 16-25, so late teens early twenties. I think this because the music in which the lead article models produce is more for the younger generation because house and EDM was very popular until the early 00’s. Now onto gender, when it comes to gender I think it can be quite diverse because of different aspects. For example ANIMUS are the lead article and these are two young girls who are aspiring DJ’s and with the hopes and dreams of becoming big, this could be insuring to young girls who read the magazine and therefore following their own dreams because of the motivation of ANIMIUS. On the other hand they are both beautiful and physically appearing to look at and therefore young boys might have an interest in there look and this is why I think it can be quite diverse when it comes to gender. Now social status, when it comes to thinking who this would be targeted for logically it would be the working glass. This is because I think the type of magazine is well suited for this class, for example the use of text within the magazine the way words are said and pronounced and I think this is why I suited it for this social class. When it comes to meeting the need for my target audience I think it works really well, for example my magazine features the duo DJ’s ANIMUS who are pretty and appealing to the eye but also inspiring because of their journey to stardom. When it relation to gender the male side would find them attractive the females would be motivation because of their journey and this is how I think I have met the needs for my target audience.