Ideas for the double page spread and image ideas for all pages

An article about an upcoming jazz musician. This could be of a trumpeter, pianist, saxophonist, double bass player, drummer, who plays in a classical jazz style such as Miles Davis or Duke Ellington. This could include information about a debut album, with a short review on one or more of the tracks. The article could also include information about the musician's technique such as approach to improvisation, music that they have composed such as jazz/classical fusion pieces. A good example of a musician in this category is Gwylim Simcock, who is a pianist and composer, who was taught by the same french horn tutor as myself. Gwilym is featured on BBC radio 3's new generation artists program. 

hhtp://gwilymsimcock.com

This article could also include information of a jazz group that the particular musician plays in such as a miles davis style classical jazz big band. This genre of music, classical jazz, is mostly instrumental with occasional songs for vocalists such as Cole Porter's "Anything Goes", and Gershwin's "I got rhythm". 

Information could also be included on how the music of their album was recorded, with details of production and mixing/production techniques. This would attract a further audience of music technology students and those with an interest in production of particularly classical and jazz music. Sound on Sound magazine is a muic production magazine, which covers all genres. However, there is little about recording classical music and mixing this, there is more information on popular music and equipment and new technology. I am going to try and incorporate a little bit of recording information in my magazine, for classical and jazz musicians  who are interested in producing their own music, or working with classical musicians in a recording studio environment.

Details of what the musician plans to achieve in the future could also be included, so that readers can see their goals, this will help music students to set their own goals.

I am going to use a writing style that is quite informal, as my target audience is roughly about 16-26. However, I want to include information that will be useful to students work as well as providing something that is fun to read. Also by doing this the magazine will appeal to non musicians who like classical music and classical jazz.

For this article the photographs should be relaxed looking, similar to the miles davis photograph posted earlier, with musicians posing with their instruments as well as portrait style shots. Also action shots of the musicians playing their instruments could be used. Also musicians with small instruments such as trumpets, could be photographed holding their instruments, which could be cut out and placed amongst the text. This is a common feature found in all magazines, not just music magazines. I would like to use very colourful photographs, with a main focal point and a blurred background as I think this is one of the most effective layouts for an image. I would like my photographs to look relaxed, but I will stage my photographs to make sure that they look perfect.

For my contents page, I am going to use a variety of images of many different musicians and instruments. For these I shall stage many photographs and take photographs from different angles to achieve the perfect look. Photographers have taken interesting images of instruments, and I would also like to do this. I have access to a lot of instruments as I play the french horn, trumpet, cornet, and the piano. Also many of my friends are musicians so I will be able to take photographs of a wide range of instruments, then I can choose the best one.

For my front cover, I would like to use a shot of a musician in a medium close up, similar to the one used in my preliminary task, as I like this look and it is used on the cover of Classic Fm magazine, and always works well, and creates a glamorous look. I will then place many secondary images around this. From my preliminary task, I have learnt that the lighting for the photographs makes a huge difference, as my main photograph was a little orange looking. However, I felt that this was a good photograph to use. For my music magazine front cover, I would like to use a similar photograph to this, which relates to the main article, but a photograph which has much more of a glamorous, modern and individual look. This will involve the musician's appearance and also some interesting image editing. 

I like the look of photographs that use a colour wash, an example of this is on one of the contents pages that I have reviewed. I think that this is an original look and creates interest in the image, rather than being all natural colours. However, I do not think that this would work for my front cover image, but may look very good in the contents page and/or the double page spread.

Preliminary task contents page

Here is a scanned image of my hand drawn plan of a contents page. This contents page has space for lots of images and information. I chose to have the main "Contents" title in a rounded box, as this was more interesting than a plain rectangle. The overlapping images in the top right hand corner is to allow lots of different images related to different articles instead of having lots of text. The numbers in the top corner of each image are to reduce the amount of text on the page and to create a more visual and artistic look. I have placed lists of features and regulars in boxes to make the layout look neat and tidy. I have also placed a secondary image over the main image to continue the overlapping style. I have used an idea throughout this page of placing three dots after each title, this is a way of keeping the style throughout the page. I think that there may be too many images on this contents page, and it would depend on the images themselves if this contents page would look too crowded. Overall I think that my contents page would be successful, however the images and colours used could make a huge difference to the overall look of the page.

Preliminary task- front cover of a new college magazine

This is my preliminary task front cover. I decided to produce a front cover for a new college magazine for my own college. I chose a colour scheme of black, purple, red and white and I think that these colours go well together. Also, in the main image, the subject was wearing a purple jumper, so I chose the colour scheme around this. I edited by image using photoshop. I cut out the background, as it had no particular purpose as it was just plain white. I then made adjustments to the image to enhance the colours, and to remove a lot of the orange from the original image. I then applied an effect to make the image look more like a painting. This effect made the image much more striking, and made the eyes stand out much more than in the original image. I used a secondary image of a microphone to go with the boxed text, as it is a feature on recording music. I took this photograph of the microphone during the time of music technology recording days. I took lots more images than I used on my cover, but I selected the best two and used these for the main feature. The main image is of Jamie Turner, this links with the main feature(see red and white box). I also added thick black borders to the main page and the magazine title. I felt this gave a more striking and unique look than a thinner border. I decided to use three separate letters for the main title of my magazine so that I could overlap them and create a more unique title. I chose to colour the M in red as this stands for Mary's in St Mary's College. This is the main letter in the title and so this is different. Also I added the "Magazine" text vertically to add more interest. Also by doing this, I was able to group the full title together. I added text referring to articles of a wide range of topics such as music technology, media coursework, fashion, exams etc. I also included information  of free gifts inside, as this will attract readers. The production of this front cover took a lot more time than I expected, however I am pleased with the results and I think that this would be a successful front cover of a college magazine.

Preliminary task photos

Today I have taken my preliminary task photographs. I have photographed students at college, musical instruments, and the recording studio at college. I have taken a variety of images, and I think they will make a successful front cover of a new college magazine. 

Music Magazine contents page analysis 5

This contents page is  from an unknown magazine. However, this is a very unique layout, and that is the reason that I have chosen to comment on it. The black background looks very classy, especially with the white writing on it. The font used looks a little distressed, and adds a modern, vintage look to the layout. I like the way that the top image has been made to look torn at the bottom, this gives a handmade and more unique look that is more interesting than a straight finish. Both lots of text on this page are placed at angles, rather than straight. This makes the layout more interesting and unique amongst other magazines. The images used are blended to the background so that there are no sharp edges on them, this looks effective and seamless. I like the use of colour on this layout as more than one colour is used. The main colour scheme is black, white with a touch of yellow. This makes the images stand out from the text. I do not like the image at the bottom of the page, as because this doesn't have a black background which is blended into the background of the page it looks out of place. Despite this, it is still placed interestingly on an angle, and has more interest that it would if it was aligned straight. I like the heading "features" which is placed vertically. This adds another angle to the layout, and looks very effective.

Music Magazine contents page analysis 4

Opposite is the contents page from an overseas piano festival magazine. This contents page uses a simple layout consisting of a plain white background, rectangular image, and black text. However, this contents page looks sophisticated, but also a little uninteresting. Similar to the "Drummer" magazine, the page number of the article which the image relates to is shown in the corner of the image. As before, this is useful to the reader and also requires less text to be used. I feel that the black text on the white background is very uninteresting, and is not a feature I would like to include in my own magazine. The images used in this contents page use similar colours to the rest of the page, fitting with the colour scheme. This is a good use of photography and colour schemes, as the page looks very well co-ordinated. I feel that the straight alignment of everything on this page is very unattractive, and new angles could have been used to add      more dimension to the page.

Music Magazine contents page analysis 3

This is a contents page taken from the music magazine: "Drummer", which, as the title suggests, is a magazine for drummers. The layout of this page uses black, orange and white as its main colours. This works well, and everything looks well coordinated. The main image is in black and white, with an aged look, this matches with all of the other images which use this look too. I like the use of a large, bold font for the main title:DRUMMER. I also like the use of the Date "01/07" and Contents in the top left hand corner. This stands out, but not as much as the main title. This causes the reader's eye to be drawn to the main title and the main image. The "Regulars" box, is filled in orange. This is placed in the bottom left hand corner and is out of the way as there is nothing new or eye catching in this section. The main articles are listed under the heading "Features". I also like the use of putting the page number in the top corner of the images, this instantly tells the reader which page that image relates to. This is more interesting than just listing the articles, and more useful than images that may not relate to the rest of the magazine. The word "Exclusive" overlaps the image, this causes the text to stand out amongst the other text, and highlights one particular article.

The image in the bottom right hand corner is coloured black and orange, which matches the colour scheme. This is also a new and interesting effect which the photographer has chosen. This is a technique that I would like to try myself when I produce my own images. I would also like to use large headings that stand out amongst the other text.