Introduction Post

My name is Ben Carter and this is my introduction post for AS level Media.  I will be designing a front cover, contents page and double page spread of a music magazine.  Before I begin the creative project, I will be carrying out research and planning.  After I have completed the creative project, I will evaluate what I have done.  This evaluation will need to be as detailed as possible and cover everything that I have done in the previous two stages of my coursework.

The type of magazine that I plan to produce is on the music genre, 'Pop'.  I originally planned to produce a magazine on Indie music.  The Arctic Monkeys was the band  that I looked at first.  Since then, I thought I would produce a better magazine if I focused on a genre I was more familiar with.  In keeping with the idea of bands, I thought about 'Pop Rock' and bands such as One Republic.  I have, however decided to focus on singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran and look at the props and clothing he wears in magazines and photoshoots.

The magazine 'Q' contributed to the idea for my magazine.  From researching different covers of Q magazine, there were a lot that featured only one image.  The singers' face filled a large portion of the cover, too.  I will use this idea in the process of creating my magazine.  The Q logo is a white letter q in a red square.  Ed Sheeran has released two albums, one of which was dominated by orange and the other which was dominated by green.  I will consider this when choosing the colours for my front cover.  Many magazines change the colour of their logo or masthead based on what is on the front cover.  For example, if a magazine featured Nirvana on the cover, the designers may creatively change the masthead to yellow- a colour associated with Nirvana. 

Upon looking at work completed previously, I can see that the finished project will have to look very much like a professional magazine- one similar to an issue you can buy.  I am aiming in my creative project to produce something that appeals to people who read a physical version of a magazine and people who read a digital version.  I looked at work done by another student, who not only included images of themselves in the issue, but created an original illustration of Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys.

 

Below is a mood board which I created to illustrate what listeners of pop and pop rock music might enjoy.  It also contains logos of brands such as 'Monster' and 'MTV' as they are popular amongst the younger generation, who are going to be the target audience of my magazine.  Mood boards are a collection of images that appeal to a particular target audience.  It will help me when I come to design my magazine as I can use these artists and bands on my sell lines and contents page.