Improvements to be made

Need to improve!

Last week, I posted my media work on a social networking website: Facebook.
I have reviewed a lot of the feedback that I got and I plan to do some improvements on my work, as well as trying to finish it.

I have already made one minor change to my work as one of my Facebook friends pointed out a very silly spelling error on the cover of my magazine, which I have now fixed.
Previously, one of the main lines of text on my cover, misspelled the word "album"
I have now fixed this issue:

Font

One of the people I received feedback from said that some of my text was a little bit plain, and that maybe I should use more than one or two fonts to make it a little more interesting. I can understand where they are coming from and I may take changing some fonts into consideration, however I think that the use of the same font(s) makes my magazine look a lot more professional and serious, which suits the genre of my magazine.

Text Colouring

Another thing that was pointed out as feedback was the fact that one or two of the words on my front cover aren't the same colour as the rest. Most of the words on the cover are either blue or white, however there are one or two words that are in black. The reason I did this is because it still fits in with the house style, and makes it stand out quite effectively.

Their comment suggested that by using a different colour, I could have two different effects. These being:

• The different colour could just make it look wrong and out of place, as though it wasn't actually meant to be that way.
• The different colour could draw attention to these bits of text as I wanted and make them stand out.

Convention Placement

I had two totally different opinions on the placement of the text on my front cover. One person really liked how I had placed it around the main image, making it look like it is still the main feature, while looking neat and professional, however another person said I had "cluttered" the page up, and may have made it look like more of a "fanzine" than a professional music magazine.

House Style

I had a number of comments relating to my house style, involving my choice of colours.

Many people really liked my house style and said that the colours I used suited the genre of my magazine as they were dark and cool colours, with the nice white to highlight things but not make it look to light and over-friendly rather than a nice dark, smouldering, serious look like I had planned.

Magazine Name

One person in particular really liked the name of my magazine, as they recognised it as one of Metallica's well known songs, and this relation that they saw between my magazine and a band as big as Metallica (plus the fact they suit the genre of my magazine perfectly) added to the recognition of the magazine as a metal/rock magazine.

Costume

I was told by a number of people that the costume I used for my model really contributed to the genre recognition as the dark jeans and checkered shirt made it look really cool as they stood out, yet fitted in with the background I used. It matches the sort of grimy style I am aiming for.

Social Media Feedback

I posted my music magazine on a social media website (Facebook) and asked for opinions on my work, e.g. What they liked or did not like, and I also asked a few people in person about whether it suits the genre of music I'm going for and if it suits my audience. Here is the feedback I was given:

I got some overall feedback from a friend on Facebook. He liked my house style in particular, but wasn't too fond of the use of conventions for my magazine. He commented that it looked a bit more like a "Fanzine" which is a fan made magazine, which it is, but I need to go for a more professional look.

Another friend of mine on Facebook also liked my colour scheme, and she also liked my use and placement of the conventions of my magazine and said that the text/house style suited the genre of my magazine which is what I was going for. However, she thankfully pointed out a spelling error which I will edit when I can.

Verbal comments:

- One person said that the name of my magazine was quite creative as it is the name of one of Metallica's popular songs and that this added to the genre of the magazine I am aiming for.

- Another person said my use of fonts is rather plain and that I should mix it up a little with some different styles, to make certain things stand out more.

- I was told that my use of costume/outfit for my model fitted in well with the background colour and that it matched the sort of grimy style that my magazine is going for.

- Someone noticed that one or two lines of text on my cover don't match the colour scheme of the other text...they said it could be a good thing that they stand out, but also a bad thing because they could look out of place.

Photo shoot #2 plan

Photo shoot, take 2.

I have planned to do another photo shoot so that i can produce some more images that suit the style of my magazine. I feel that some of the images I took last time weren't very good quality, so I have planned to take some more of my friend Jason to put onto the contents page and the double page spread.

The outfit(s):

For the outfits, I have chosen for Jason to dress in dark jeans as most of the band members are dressed casually with a slightly rocker look, e.g. band t-shits/jackets etc.
He will be wearing 2 different band t-shirts, preferably black. As long as the band fits in with the style of my magazine.

I don't really mind about the shoes, as long they aren't too bright, or pink!
I may use some bracelets, e.g. wristbands, depending on the style/genre of the band and how it will relate to my magazine.






The location(s):

I may use a number of locations, including a blank wall in school to an alleyway wall...depending on the weather. I will need a clean background so that it is easily editable.

Lighting:

I don't mind about the lighting too much, but if it is too dark then the camera can't focus properly, and I will come out with a poor quality image. I would prefer to use the natural light, as I can easily edit it so that it is darker or add in shadows etc to give it a darker look, matching the style of my magazine.

Style Model - Front Cover

Below is my style model that I have used to create my front cover, including lots of the conventions such as pull quotes and banners:

In comparison, here is my front cover:

Magazine Double Page Spread

Here is my unfinished double page spread, I will be replacing both of the images and adding in some text:

Magazine Contents Page

Here is my contents page, it is not yet finished as I still need to add in some text and small images:

Magazine Front Cover

Here is the final design of my magazine front cover:

Magazine Name and Font

My magazine font - header

For my magazine, I came up with the name "Blackened" I got this name from a very popular Metallica song and did some research and found out that is not used as a magazine name yet, though it is used for Blackened Records. 

After finding the perfect name that matches the style of my magazine, plus being influenced by the magazines biggest role models, I decided I needed to find a suitable font. I looked online a lot for font makers and found a great font.

I found this font on the website below:

http://cooltext.com/Logo-Design-Skate

I tweaked the design of the original font, for example I changed the colour scheme to suit my house style. Apart from that minor tweak and a few gradient changes, I was happy with the font.

This is what my finished font looks like. I just need to add this onto my cover photo.

Editing Cover Photo 2

My second update

Here is my second attempt at editing my photo cover final. I tried to make the image as dark as I could without losing too much clarity. I wanted the image to still be of good quality, but suit my magazines style. After using various filters, over the top of one another, I managed to get this look.

I found the spotlighting in the image to be rather cool as it is directly on the frontman. The darker, edgier look I was going for was achieved by overlapping different filters to get a good look. I am quite pleased with the colours of this image and also the spotlighting on the band member, without losing too much quality. I may use this image as my front cover, unless I do some more improvements to better suit my magazine.

Editing Cover Photo

My Cover Photo - Option 1 - Editing

Here is one of my final cover photos that I may use for my magazine. I have been messing around with some of the filters on Photoshop to get a kind of darker, heavier look. So far I have changed the colours of the photo to cold colours. Here is what I have done so far, using one filer over another.

I still think that I need to change the style a little more, maybe get the colouring a little darker to match the style of my magazine. For now, I am pleased with this result but I will keep working on this until I am satisfied with the end result.