In my foundation portfolio I was asked to design and create a music magazine, which included; a front cover, contents page and a double page spread on an artist featured in my magazine.
At the beginning of the year, I designed a front cover and a contents page for a college magazine.
I did some research on the internet into background information about the college. This helped to collect some ideas, and personal feelings on how students felt about the college they attended. I took sufficient images of students, the college, and rooms of the college where specific studies take place.
From here I was introduced to a computer programme known as adobe Photoshop.
I had come across adobe Photoshop when I was doing my GCSE Art course. I’d based my final project on emotions of the body and thought that photography was the best way to interpret it. My art teacher had shown me a few basic skills like using the blemish tool to even out the skin on my models, the eraser tool, smudge and blur tool to try and make the images I had cropped onto another background making the image realistic. And to be able to change the colour to a specific part of an image, or the full image itself. (The programme was a major part of the creation in designing my music magazine.)
I designed 3 different magazine cover drafts. When all 3 drafts where finished I created a survey and asked students at the college to mark out of 10, which cover best presented the college and brought across the right meaning. This helped me to develop all three ideas into my final cover. I then based my contents page around similar designs and features to my front cover. Each bit of work and research I made, I posted onto my blog, giving regular updates, and detailed writing about the work that I was producing.
First, I looked into the many various genres within music. This would help choosing a target audience and a demographic group. It also helped with the characteristics of my magazine as I was able to base the appearance beside the genre of music. I did my research on existing music magazines which fitted within the music genre I had chosen. I wanted to make sure that I was going in the right direction with my ideas and originality. When I had the structure and the layout to my magazine, I started taking images of my models. I wanted them to be relaxed and show there true selves so when I started editing the photos, I could bring across a natural image. When I was happy with my photos I started editing them on adobe Photoshop.
I began with editing the background. Even though I’d taken my images with the set background of a brick wall, it had no purpose towards the genre within my magazine. By using the cut tool, I edited the brick wall out, outlining the models before using the eraser to erase the brick wall out. Following that, I used the smudge and blur tool, making sure that the edges were smooth, and blended in to the white background giving the image a natural approach. To make the image stand out, I changed the tone, colour, and contrast to warmer colours. By doing this you could see the finer details of the facial features of the models. Using the blemish tool, I was able to click on a certain skin tone to each models skin, making my models have an airbrushed appearance. When I’d reduced the size of the image, I placed appropriate texts around the image such as; the masthead, sell line, main cover line, coverlines, teasing contents, price, date, issue and barcode.
I then started designing my contents page. Setting the background black, using the same housestyle, adding several different images, having a feature section, news section, and a reviews section.
With the images, I changed the tone and colour to black and white. By adding in a brighter contrast, I felt it highlighted the image, making it standout being the main attraction. Finding the right tone of the colour on my models skin, I used the blemish tool editing out the blemishes on peoples skin creating an airbrushed affect.
I then went on to finishing my double page spread on my featured band (Two of A Kind). I went back with the original images I had taken of my two models and developed them within Photoshop. I edited out the brick wall, and replaced it with a simple white background. Next I used the smudge tool to create a smoother edge to the images. I was then able to use the blur tool. This helped to blur the image into the white background, assembling a realistic image. As a result of changing the tone and colour of the images, I was able to create a warm touch/texture. Plus by changing the brightness on the contrast, I was able to bring out there facial expressions. Thus adding in the finishing touches of an article.
With designing 3 different parts to a magazine, I feel I have developed many new skills, and developed on the skills I already had. Even though I had some knowledge with Adobe Photoshop due to my art course at GCSE, I feel that I’ve developed a number of techniques within the program. I didn’t have a great knowledge on the program, but even with some of the skills and techniques I had didn’t really give me an advantage over other people that had no experience with the program. There was so much more for me to learn about Photoshop and that has grown throughout my first year.
And with all the research on music, music magazines I feel I have gained more knowledge about the music business and was able to see just how much of a big influence media has on the music industry.
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