Front cover

Content Page

Construction - Front Cover

I created a white background in order to create that smooth contrast between the desaturated image and the white background. Next following my flat plans I made a strapline, creating a black box to separate the strapline from the rest of the magazine. I Then used two different fonts (Boris Black Boxx and American Purpose) which I downloaded from dafont.com to create the strapline, Boris Black Boxx being the smaller font and American Purpose the larger font. Additionally I used the three colours RED|WHITE|BLUE not only because of my house style but because I did not want the strapline to go unnoticed.

Using the font American Purpose I created my masthead which originally was just baby blue, however I felt like my masthead needed to 'speak more volume'. I wanted the masthead to mimic the motion of what it actually meant; 'Buzzin' - colloquial word that portrays the motion of a vibrant emotion. Moreover to 'spice it up' I added a gradient to it which I believe and hope it catches people attention.

Further on I decided to start with the left-hand side of my magazine, in which I needed to create the artist name. I used the font American Purpose in order to show the equality in importance of the name of magazine and the artist being featured on the front cover. Following my house style I made the colour of the artist name red, plus bold is a bright enough colour and it links in with the colour of his snapback (hat).

Next I created a box which appears to be white with a burgundy outline - I created two new layers each layer had the same size box, one white, one burgundy. I then used the transform tool (CMD+T) and decreased the size of white box to fit inside the burgundy box. Nonetheless to prevent the stress of if wanting to reposition the boxes (meaning moving individual layers separating) I merged the layers making it one whole object. After that added the word 'exclusive', capital words to make it seem of important and joined it to the already merged layers. Overall all three layers were merged together. I also used the American Purpose again to just flow with my house style. Furthermore underneath that I created what I would call the second most important aspect of the magazine, the quote of the artist. The quote of the artist is what would encourage a buyer to buy the magazine, therefore I am fully aware that the quote will have to be effective. From my researched I found that my favourite music magazine Vibe magazine make their coverlines as controversy as possible creating attention. Likewise I quoted 'I DON'T CARE WHAT PEOPLE SAY I'M BETTER THAN JAYZ' . Jay-z being an well known international rapper will definitely catch people attention.

In addition I created the boxes with the words 'NEW SOUND' and 'FRESH TEENS'. New sound fitted with with the background and the foreground. While I had a problem with Fresh Teens from opinion of two people I found out that my 'FRESH TEENS' was difficult to read. Using the font Abadi MT Condensed Light (which I made a bold) it went from red|baby blue|blue|sky blue.

I then a made box which I would call interaction box, a technique that many magazine use as a selling point, giving the buyer the impression they are buying more for the price of less. By creating this box I am involving my buyer and giving them the opportunity of winning one of our magazine luxuries. I created this box using the same methods I used in making the previous box. Two layers with the same size boxes which are then altered for the white box to fit in the burgundy box. Then merge together to reduce the stress of having to moving everything individual when reposition. Then I added in text using the colour red 'SCAN TO SEE IF YOU'VE WON THIS WEEK' which is in font Abadi MT Condensed Light. Using Google images i found the blackberry pin image and the bar code image in which I included it into the box. Next I decided to make my own website address 'BUZZIN.COM'  because from my research I gathered that majority of music magazine have website for buyers to go and view for further information on the magazine, nonetheless I made my own website. I used the font (28 DAYS LATER) because I wanted my front cover to have a variety in font but not to the extent of making the whole page look compact but have an edge. Additionally my full stop in the email address was made using two circles (same technique as the technique used to make the boxes). However once I had finished putting everything together in the box I realised that the box looked typical so I decided to enhance the name of the magazine, by putting a black box behind it, I also changed the colour of 'COM' to grey to show a variety is colour at the same time sticking to house style.                          

Moving on to the right-hand side I created another coverline which I made sure identified the genre HIPHOP|RAP. Sticking to my house style I used the colours BLACK and RED. I made the colour of the word MC a faded red because I wanted the word 'HARDEST' to stand out the most but then the 'penny dropped' and I realised that 'HARDEST' is seven letters long compared to 'MC' which is just two letters long. Moreover 'HARDEST' will stand out regardless, so I changed the colour to the same colour as the word hardest. 

Following on I made another cover line, which basically showed a glimpse of some of the artist that would be featuring in my magazine. I made sure all the artists I used were well known artist, to imply that my magazine is professional and well interconnected with well respected artists. So far I hadn't used the colour baby blue a lot do I decided to take the baby blue from the gradient and black to create and blue and black better with the artists names. I used two fonts American Purpose and Abadi MT Condensed Light - American Purpose being the bolder font and condensed font being Abadi MT.

Peer Assement

In class we were made to peer mark the work of our peers, which helped me in a variety of ways. I was able to in some way see my magazine through the eyes of my target audience, I was also able to nip a few ideas from the magazines I saw. 

My feedback was quite varied both good and bad which made me learn a couple of things, like make the impression that I want to create with my front image much clearer. For some said 'the inner image did not match the front image' and 'the frame could have been edited a bit better along with adding more to the front cover'. However I also got good views from my peers like 'I really like the picture of the blackberry bar code, it is a good idea' plus 'good combination of colours and font and good title' Another person said 'I really like the front cover and it resembles genres very well'.

Construction - Main Image

I finally choose this image as my main front cover, as you can see the lighting was terrible, the IPad created a shadow on his chest preventing you from seeing his shirt, there is also an outer shadow around his body. You can see the top of his head quite clearly which ruined the whole aspect of the image. Plus the background clearly shows his bedroom door which would remove any ounce of professionalism if placed on the front of my magazine. Likewise having the full length image would leave no space for my header and reduce the space of my cover lines. However photoshop did the ultimate trick and took that shame of photo for a magazine to make it look like this ---->

I changed many factors to the image as you can see; desaturated the whole image apart from the inner image to remove the problem of having shadows and ridiculous lighting. This is was done in section as I found it impossible desaturating the whole image excluding the centre image, therefore I used the selection tool. However that created many problems because there were sections of the image which already had shadows, and once desaturated came out darker than the rest of the image, moreover it took a bit of time till I was able to balance out the shades.

Additionally to make my image more professional i cut out the bedroom background of my model's door using the magic wand tool. In order to make the image not look purposely cut out, I made sure the wand was soft but not to the extend that a grey edge was created. I also cut off his head from the top to give the impression that the image inside the frame represented his ego as a rapper. Still my ideal image for a front page was not created, for the image I took on the IPad still showed his shoulder therefore the image did not link or create the impression I wanted to create. Moreover I reshaped his shoulder using the rubber tool and made it in lined with the shoulder of the outer image until I created the ideal front cover image I wanted - professional, sharp and eye-catching.

Music Magazine Prepartion

                          

I used a Canon 600D camera which was extremely useful and its properties really revealed themselves in my images.    

     - Properties 

         = Megapixel - 18.0MP

         = ISO - Auto,100,200,400,800,1600,3200,6400,(with boost)

         = Exposure compensation - -5 to +5 EV in1/3 or 1/2 EV steps

         = Metering - Multi (63 area), center, partial, spot

         = Shutter (Min-Max) - 30sec-1/4000sec

         = Continuous Drive - Yes 3.7fps

         = Focusing - TTL-CLT SIR with 9-point

         = Lens Mount - EF/EF-S

         = Uncompressed Format - RAW 

Using the Canon 600D I took twenty-seven photos, in order to have a wide range to choose from when making the front cover. Many of the images may seem duplicated even though they are not - each image have a slight difference in lighting.

                                  

Magazine Analysis - Vibe

PRODUCERS|FOUNDERS OF VIBE...
Vibe magazine is a music and entertainment magazine founded by QUINCY JONES, it was bought by the WICKS GROUP OF COMPANIES in 2006 and it is now currently owned by INTERMEDIA PARTNERS. 

TARGET AUDIENCE... 

The main target audience for Vibe is 18-34 YEAR-OLDS, this is because of the graphics portrayed in the magazine along with the formality of the article. The target audience would also have to be interested in R'N'B|HIPHOP|RAP because the magazine mainly focuses on these genres, therefore the celebrities featured in the magazine are celebs that usually associate with these kind of music.
ACCORDING TO VIBE WEBSITE- www.vibelifestylenetwork.com
The Vibe audience is comprised of trendsetting individuals passionate about music, entertainment, fashion and pop-culture. Our readers look to the Vibe brand to keep them ahead of the curve, visiting Vibe.com and Vibe lifestyle network sites multiple times a day - and referencing Vibe magazine for all things hot, new and cool.
MEDIA KIT (ADVERTISING)- www.vibelifestylenetwork.comMEDIAKIT

TOTAL AUDIENCE - 2,400,000
ADULTS 
Men         - 55%
Women    - 45%

AGE
18-24          - 35%
18-34          - 67%
21+             - 82%
35+             - 29%
Median Age - 30

EDUCATION
Any college               - 55%
Currently in college   - 20%

EMPLOYMENT
Employed    - 62%
HHI Income - $52.5k (£338,505.38)

SELLING POINT...
One of the main selling points of Vibe magazine is their good taste in knowing what celebrate to put on the front of their covers. The choice of what celeb is featured on the front is very important because it impacts on whether or not the reader would want to purchase magazine (plus it would be the first thing they see when looking at magazines). Moreover Vibe intentionally place artists who are usually respected and recognised, making the magazine more professional and interconnected with well respected artist. Also because the artists are intentionally recognised it makes the magazine diverse, therefore it can be sold worldwide - boosting the magazine sales and proving most successful. Furthermore people would want to buy it because the artists featured on the front would have an articles inside the magazine.

AMOUNT OF TIMES PUBLISHED|COST...

Vibe magazine is published monthly and cost $2.51 which converted to pounds is approximately £1.58.

CIRCULATION...

Vibe went from 12 issues a year to 10 issues a year, due to the financial issues -currently Vibe does not sell any magazines in stores in the UK, however for people in Europe they can subscribe to get their monthly issues delivered to their home.

http://www.vibelifestylenetwork.com/VLN-Media-Kit-2011.pdf - we eliminated inefficient circulation, added better newsstand distributors, increased sell through , improved page quality and increased book size. We also implemented targeted newsstand and direct-to-publisher subscriber strategies to provide advertisers a true audited rate-base.

RATE BASE                                       - 300,00
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION PRICE          - $14.95 (£9.65)
SINGLE COPY                                   - $4.99 (£3.22)
SUBSCRIBERS|NEWSSTAND              - 75/25