Planning of Magazine

Gabrielle Varlow 5181

Layout : Front Page

These are my two draft layouts for my front page. The one on the left is my first draft. I decided that this layout was a bit too simple and not interesting enough, so decided to use the one on the right to base my final front page on as the format was more effective and more aesthetically pleasing.

Layout : Double Page Spread

These are my two drafts for my double page spread. My first draft was the one on the left, however I decided against this as I think the fact file was a bit too immature for my magazine and although I liked the vertical headline, I don’t think the rest of the layout was effective. I chose the layout on the right for my final design as it fitted a lot more into the same amount of space and I think that it was more eye catching.

Layout : ContentsI created these two drafts for my contents page. For the majority of the time I preferred the draft on the left, however it wasn’t until quite last minute that I decided in this layout the contents looked childish and there was nothing special or interesting about it as it was like many other contents pages on other magazines. Therefore I eventually decided to use the draft on the right as this was slightly different to anything I had seen before, and made the contents page look more sophisticated.

Magazine :Front Page

FINAL FRONT COVER

Draft 2.

Draft 1.

These are my two drafts and final front covers of my magazine. My original front cover (draft 1) was chosen because I think the picture has many semiotic codes such as the peace sign, the headphones, the lipstick. However I then decided to use this picture in my double page spread so created a second draft (draft 2).

However I liked the

border from draft 1

so decided I would still use that in my final. I also decided to add a footnote at the bottom to add some variation to the cover. I also decided to change the first headline as I figured I needed to have some reference to Marquee Cosmic, and changed my colour as I thought there was too much pink on the page.

Magazine :Double Page Spread

Final

Draft 1.

Draft 2.

These are my two drafts and final double page spreads. Draft 1 was done in the format of layout one, however I felt it looked a bit messy and had little semiotic codes. So I created a second draft (draft 2) using my second layout. I think this looked a lot better and the pictures were more relevant to the conventions. For my final I simply added captions to my pictures and another quote on my top picture to make it look more professional.

Magazine :Contents

Draft 2. Draft 1.

Final

My first and second drafts both followed my first draft layout, as this was the way I had seen contents pages done in many magazines and I liked this design. However when I completed my first draft, I thought it looked childish and didn’t like it so decided to create a new one. Once created (draft 2) I decided that this too looked childish and decided that the problem was most likely the layout and the background. So I used the SPEED blocks that I used in my logo as a background and used the second draft layout I created and decided this looked a lot better as it was a more mature format and did not look so simple.

TITLE CHOICES

•Robot Force•Robot Rock•Speed of Sound•Up Sky Blue•Digital Dog•Cadet Force•G-Force•SOS•SO$2

I decided to go with the name SO$2 because it had different connotations; for example, speed has connotations of drugs, excitement, and strength, and when people hear SOS they think ‘save our souls’. Speed of Sound has connotations of an adrenalin rush, and 2 has connotations of technology. IO used the dollar sign as it has connotations of money and expense and glamour and SO$ could look like 50$.

Denotations Connotations

Techno Modern, difficult, keyboards, sky, up, light, spaced, digital, elevator.

Rave Glow sticks, drugs, underground,

Scene Kids Expressive, bright colours, raves.

Edgy Catchy, different, rebellious, interesting

Speed Adrenalin rush, excitement, running, out of control.

Sound Music, listening, noisy, quiet.

Rebellious Noisy, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, vandalism, music, fashion

Green Rave, trees, grass, nature.

Orange Sunshine, rave.

Pink Girls, Barbie, bright

LOGO

Draft 1. Draft 3.

Draft 1. (Background) Draft 2. (Background)

Final

I got my idea for my logo from a poster I had seen on the underground advertising a techno-pop music event. I created the SPEED bocks, as speed has connotations of drugs but also ties in with the title ‘Speed of Sound’. I wrote a paragraph about techno-music and had it translated into French and put it on a background of TECHNO blocks. I did this because lots of modern techno music originates in France. I then decided to add the ‘help’ button as a play on the title SOS, which commonly stands for save our souls. I then played around with the colours on Paintshop Pro. My first draft was dark and did not have the help button in the background, and my third draft (draft 3) had a different angle and a patterned font. My second draft ended up being my final idea as it stood out the most and was the most eye catching out of all three.

Pictures

I planned my pictures based on pictures of techno-pop artists I had researched on. Before taking the photos, I researched photos of techno-pop artists and looked at how they portrayed their selves and their music through their photos. From this I took idea’s and encoded certain signs in my photos, which I had decoded from other photos.

Pictures

I had to make lots of decisions about the photos I used and why. Most of the time I used a photo because of the semiotic codes it had within the photo, and their relevance to the magazine. However I had to consider making the magazine look good as well. For example these two photos are very similar, and I had to choose one of them to put into my double page spread. I decided to use picture 1 as I had used headphones in many of my photos and I did not want all my photos to look the same. I also chose photo 1 because the lightening bolt make-up is more obvious and this is a different semiotic code to ones in my other photos.

Photo 1. Photo 2.

Research

In order to understand the forms and conventions of music magazines and techno-pop artists I had to research into techno-pop and music magazines. I looked at different front covers of magazines and decoded them, and completed analysis’ for two of the magazines I did this to. I also looked at articles and pictures if techno-artists and decoded them so that I had some idea of the message techno-pop artists are trying to get across. I did this so I could be successful in encoding my pictures and my magazine, and so that I could follow the conventions and forms of music magazines that are currently on sale.