Production of front cover

In today's lesson, I began to create my front cover. I used Adobe Photoshop to create my front cover because this is the best programme to use for the task that I am set. I have included screen shots of my front cover as it is being produced below, so it is shown how I created it step by step.

Photographs for front cover

Above are the pictures that I took for my front cover. I made sure that there was direct contact throughout and I eventually came to the decision that I was going to use the very top image because it portrays a very Indie theme and is a very good photograph that suits my theme very well.

Article research

After deciding on my front cover and contents page, I then began to research double page spreads. I conducted this research to help me to prepare for how I wanted mine to look and the type of questions that I needed to ask the band. I used the Internet and music magazines such as Q and NME to help me decide the layout and style I wanted my double page spread to appear like.
I am interviewing a local band called The Gladstones. They are a relatively new band around however after seeing them perform at a charity concert, I thought they were incredible. They don't have much publicity however do have a facebook page (www.facebook.com/TheGadstonesUK) and individual twitter pages .
I would like my double page spread to appear like the picture below, with one main image taking up the page, and the text in columns with a drop quote. I also like how this article has a big drop cap.

I like how the magazine has stuck to the similar colour scheme in this article, and the way that it is laid out is very interesting and would suit the genre of my magazine and the personality of the band very well. The drop quote that they have used in this article is one that will entice the audience, I also want to have this effect and use a controversial quote in order for the article to appear very interesting.

Planning production

For my magazine, I will have my front cover image as a Girl looking very Indie with Indie clothing e.g. leather jacket or wearing red. Her hair will be very messy and there will be direct adress. The background of the image will be a plain white wall to add extra texture to the girls hair.
The images on my contents page will be; one of The Gladstones messing around, Take That live in Manchester, Leah Kent (girl from front cover) looking less serious and a few images of music and images that portray music e.g. an Ipod playing Rihannas album.
For my double page spread, I will again have another image of the boys messing around as in the interview it will be apparant that they are jokers therefore I want their personalities to reflect through the images.

Above are sketches that I have drawn which I would like my magazine to look like. This is almost a plan of what i'd like the outcome to be like.
I decided to change the idea that I had and put a male on the front cover, this is because the indie genre was portrayed better with the male and magazines such as NME and Q use male artists on their front cover an awful lot.

Publication plan

In today’s lesson I did my publication plan, whereby I made final decisions surrounding my magazine. I used my questionnaire results to help me make these decisions.
Title:

BASS

Positioning statement: Feel the beat
Price: £2.00

Distribution: Newsagents, Supermarkets, Music shops, Concerts.
Rationale: This magazine is honest and fair about music. We know that every person has their own opinion and respect that. We want the reader to enjoy the music like people should and we will give them as much information, insight and interviews with and about artists as we possibly can.
Style: Informal, uses humour and strong opinion however is not rude. Uses colloquialism in some articles and expletives in a minor form
Images will dominate the layout features.

Regular content:
3) Review
Coldplays new album
6) Fact file
Professor Green
10) Competition
Win concert tickets, free goodie bags and signed merch
20) Behind the scenes
With Louisa
24) Upcoming events
New gigs, charity events, award ceremonies and more
30) Opinions
The readers vote
32) Hot seat
Lady Gaga
36) News
Gossip, gigs and rumours
37) Live and Lost
Plan B is in Cheshire in this weeks live and lost
40) Day in the life of....
Ellie Goulding as she embarks on her sold-out tour!


Features:
2) Festival gossip
Vfestival, Leeds, Reading.
4) 2011's favourite album
Rihannas album 'talk that talk'
8) Questionnaire
On artists live this week
14) Review of an Icon
Gary Barlow
15) Look back at Glastonbury
The mud, the music and the madness
22) Summer stories
The readers stories of a very musical summer
26) In the studio with Jay-Z
Jay-z lets us in
DJ IQ takes control
34) Break ups, make ups, shape ups
41) Festive tunes
Music that really gets the festival season going
43) Tinie Tempah. Disturbing Liverpool
Tinie Tempah talks Liverpool
45) At home with the Followills
Musics favourite family open up
47) Example brings it home
Example returns home to London
48) Behind the guitar with Ed Sheeran
The secrets he tried to hide this summer
50) Day trip with Coldplay
The band take us to Wales
52) Take That make progress
The incredible sold-out tour begins
54) Bruno Mars’ favourite lazy day
The man himself in his pjs
55) Road trip with Arctic Monkeys
Alex Turner is driving...
56) Florence Welch on love and losing
We get to look into her past, present and future
57) Chase and Status talk girls, gigs and g-strings
The guys reveal the things they didn't want us to know, until now.
59) The Gladstones go public
Intimate interview with this new up and coming band
62) Connor
 Tells us how it is

House style
Cover lines: Arial
Headlines: Arial
Standfirst: Arial
Captions: Arial black
Features in the first paragraph include; drop capital (Arial) 5 lines deep.

Body text: Arial (11 pt)

Colour scheme: Red and white

Questionnaire audio and video

In this video, there are two people answering my questionnaire. I used adobe audition to edit the audio and adobe premiere pro to add the title. I also prepared the file for web use.

Above is two people completing/ with my questionnaire.

Above is someone answering my questionnaire through a video.

Results and conclusions

Results

View more presentations from Laurengibney
I used Microsoft Excel to produce some pie charts with the data I collected. This was then made as a slideshare to present the information. My data taught me a variety of worthy facts about what my magazine should include and how it should be presented.