Flat Plans with Rational

Before taking the photos I wanted I decided to make flat plans for the front cover, contents page and double page spread for my magazine. By doing this I hoped it would help me create a strong idea of what photos I would need to get whilst taking the photos I needed. I already knew what I was making my model wear in the photoshoot, and this helped me create the flat plans.

Front Cover: 

This is my flat plan for the front cover of my magazine.
 I decided to have the image overlap the mast head to give it a more professional feel as this would be seen on a more well known magazine. I added 1 major and 3 minor sell lines to the front cover so the reader would know what would be featured in the magazine and also be attracted to the magazine by what it has to offer. 
The issue number and date is featured in the top right hand corner so the readers can identify if they have the latest issue.
The main image of the artist would be giving the audience a direct mode of address and also have a happy, inviting expression so that the reader can quickly depict what type of genre the magazine and also the artist is. 









Contents page:

This is my flat plan for the contents page of my magazine. 
The main image of the artist appears on the right hand size of the page and is partly cropped out. Again the artist gives a direct mode of address to the audience and has a positive facial expression as well as positive body language. 
The text featured on the page consists of page numbers and short synopsis's of what is featured on that particular page. Nearer the bottom of the page there is a section titled 'Letter from the Editor', this gives the reader information on what the issue is about as a whole and what they can expect to find featured within the magazine. 








Double Page Spread:   

This is my flat plan for the double page spread of my magazine.
The left page is made up entirely of an image of the artist, this is so the page can be cut or torn out and used as a poster. The artist again will have a direct mode of address but the image will be more desirable as this image can be cut out and stuck to the wall. 
So the double page spread isn't image lead to right page will feature a lengthy article, with an interviewer asking questions and the artist answering them. 

Photoshoot Planning

Final Piece proposal

For my own magazine I had a range of ideas, I collected these in the form of a questionnaire to give to my target audience to see what would be most appealing and what would sell the most.

This is the questionnaire I made to collect the data.

I handed out the questionnaire to 20 people and then collected the data in a tally to make the most popular choices more clear.

After collecting this data I decided that I would make a pop music magazine. I also decided to aim my magazine predominantly at women as they mostly liked the genre of music that my magazine will contain.

I have decided to name my magazine BeatsLegion combining the two most popular names picked by both boys and girls. By doing this I feel like the name will appeal to both males and females meaning that even though the magazine is aimed mostly at women, men could still buy it and not feel like it sounds like a 'girly magazine'.

I also decided to make my magazine just under £2 even though the majority of people said they would be willing to pay £2-£2.99. This means people would be more likely to buy the magazine if it was cheaper. 

Institutional research

After researching on the internet I have found a few companies who could possibly publish my magazine

Blue Click Media: 

Heart Magazines uk (digital publishers):

PPA:

Preliminary Task - Making of the Front Cover

This is the original image I took for my preliminary magazine front cover. I decided to make Tom, who is the person featured in this photo, look away from the camera to make him appear mysterious and enigmatic to the consumers thinking about buying the magazine. He has his arms crossed to make him look like he is covering up or keeping to himself adding to the mysterious aura of the image.

In this print screen of Photoshop I have started to edit out the logos on Tom’s hoodie as they do not fit in with the theme of the magazine or image and make him appear younger than I would like as the logo on the left hand side of the jumper is a secondary school logo. I used a colour selector tool to select a colour nearest to the logo and then used the brush tool to go over the logos on the jumper.  

This is the image when the logos have been completely removed from the hoodie, this makes Tom look older and also as if he could anyone. I edited the image to make it smaller by cropping out the bottom of the image. This makes the Tom’s face appear bigger on the page as well as giving him a more direct feel towards the audience as they can see his face more clearly.

At this stage I decided to edit the image to make the contrast between the hoodie and the background greater. I did this by editing the levels of the image, making the hoodie darker, and the background whiter. This gives Tom a feel of dark undertones possibly relating to his personal life or to his new album when he features as the artist ‘Lance Colgan’. 

 I thought the Tom’s hoodie looked plain so at this stage I decided to edit in the image of a fish to look like it actually appears on the hoodie. This adds to the mystery of the image as it appears as an unrelated item on the hoodie. This entices a possible consumer as they might want to find out why he chose to wear that particular hoodie or possibly where they can but one. 

I added the head mast ‘Indie Prophet’ in front of Tom’s head as it establishes straight away what magazine it is. I decided to use the head mast of ‘Indie Prophet’ as it establishes what genre of music the magazine covers, ‘Prophet’ is used to infer that the magazine is a prophet in that it talks about the next big thing in music.

I added a barcode to the page to make the front cover look more professional and like a real magazine you would find in a shop. This adds to the look of the page and is placed in a convenient place as it doesn't cover the image.

I added the main sell line in white at the bottom of the page so it would contrast with the black of Tom’s jumper. I used an ambiguous sell line that would make people want to see how or why the new album will ‘change the world’.

I added the puff word ‘win’ along with another enigma code to the magazine to make people more attracted to the magazine and to fill up the blank space on the page. This entices the reader to buy the magazine as they have the chance to win tickets to see the artist featured on the front of the magazine and they would buy the magazine if they were interested in the articles featured within it.

In my final magazine for my as level I plan to put the image in front of the mast head to make it look more professional and like a magazine you could find in a shop or supermarket. I also plan to use a more interesting image and use sell lines more interesting to the reader and more focused on a specific target audience.