1. Construction process

2. With all of my chosen images, I edited them using Photoshop CS3. I deleted the backgrounds using the magic eraser, then tried out a few effects on the pictures to see if they would be effective on my magazine.

3. I chose this image for this particular story line as the character, Royal S is a successful Japop artist. Therefore, I wanted the image to portray happiness and show how much she enjoys. This will aspire the audience to be like Royal S because of her mood and her personality. Once I erased all of the background, I was left with the white squared background. Then I saved the image as a PNG file and eventually ended up with the final image to use.

4. When our group had chosen our magazine name, we came up with ideas for the masthead and here are our top four ideas which we liked the most. We chose these styles because they were creative and this added to our mixture of genres by being simple, yet effective because of the effects they have. We then asked the audience which masthead would be most appealing to them by doing a vote. We asked people from our target audience to vote. Eventually we got the result that the most liked masthead was the first one, using the Elegance font. Therefore, we decided to use this one, so we knew the audience would be attracted to this compared to the other ideas because of the amount votes it got. Therefore, our magazine would be read by our target audience.

5. Using Adobe Indesign, as a group, we started to create the masthead. We tried out various backgrounds on each of our magazines to see if they would work, although the images and colours I was going to work did not look real or good enough so I used a black background as the colours stand out and additionally, it is one of our colours in our house style. We decided that we wanted a creative masthead that would be noticeable and attractive. We began by only writing our magazine name in bold, white Elegance font, then tried out a shadow which made it look more creative and unique.

6. We then tried out a box out in a bright colour but later on, decided to remove it because it looked too out of place and our images needed to be positioned somewhere else. After we got our slogan ideas voted, we made it together as a group. We used colours from our house style so it would have elements of pop and jazz. However, when we got further into the process of creating the magazine, we decided to change the colours so it would suit our magazine and our own individual style better.

7. I decided to place my other front cover image onto the magazine, so I could work on the main image later. The picture for the cover line was easier to position as it was smaller and I knew it was going to be placed at the bottom. However, I did have to work on the image by cropping it. I then began to add my images onto the template we had started. It was quite difficult positioning the images as sometimes, they looked too squashed or too blurry. As it was my main image, I wanted it to look real and clear. I tried various places to place it and some worked while others did not. I wanted the position to be at a high standard because if the image looked out of place and strange on the cover, then the audience won’t be interested in buying the magazine as it wouldn’t look as professional as real magazines.

8. After I decided where the images would go, I changed the colour of the box out so it would suit my magazine more as the images had a lot of purples, pinks and blacks so I thought that a softer colour would work better. Therefore, I chose a light shade of purple, which did look more realistic and appropriate.

9. Next, I started to work on the main story title by trying out a selection of fonts and a wide range of colours to find the best outcome. I started to position the sub story line image once again and it looked a lot better with the purple box out than the blue one.

10. I found it difficult to find the colours as many of the colours did not stand out enough because of the image and the colour of the outfits in the image. To make the writing stand out more, I tried using an outline on the title, although I thought that it looked too out of place and not part of the magazine, so I decided to continue to look for the colours that would stand out. I wanted to find two colours from my house style to make the front cover more colourful so the audience would find it eye catching and appeal to them.

11. I continued to try out different colour combinations and find out which colours would work and which colours did not work well at all whilst maintaining the Jazz/pop vibe and the house style.

12. Next, I tried using different colours on the masthead but theses did not look as effective as my original masthead so I kept it the same. For the moment, I kept the story line title to the red and white colour scheme but I would change it later. Therefore, I then worked on the box out that became a bottom strip advertising the Royal S story. I thought that the bottom strip was better as the colours and font stood out from afar and still looked part of the magazine even though, it was a completely different colour from the other colours on the page. Audience feedback is what confirmed my choice for which colours I decided to use for definite.

13. Then, using my own colour scheme for my magazine, I changed the red bottom strip to pink as I have used that colour various times on the front cover. Next, I tested more and more colours for the main article title. The white font on the bottom strip worked better than the black writing so I used that instead. I wanted the slogan background to be more suited to the magazine so I tried out a light shade of pink that would portray elements of pop.

14. I finally found two colours that worked well together and are clear on the image for the main story title, using the light blue for the pop element and the lilac for the jazz element. As, my magazine looked too simple and basic with just the images and bottom strip, I added more box outs in bright colours to advertise the other story lines inside the magazine, therefore, adding more variety into my magazine because of the different storylines that would attract the audience to buy it. I placed the barcode and date in various places but eventually put it by the box outs as it doesn’t stand out from the rest and is positioned well and many magazines place their barcodes in different directions and various places. This is my final front cover. Our group decided to pick a colour suited to the house style and place it in the masthead shadow and titles throughout the pages. I kept the light shade of pink in the slogan as it was part of my own colour scheme and stand out from afar. Also, I kept the bottom strip as I found many magazines that feature a bottom strip to advertise certain stories.

15. I began creating the contents page by making the title once again from the previous page. Having the same title would make the pages noticeable so everyone can know where the page is from. Our group wasn’t sure whether to write, ‘Contents’ or ‘Inside’. We eventually decided to go with ‘Inside’ as it is more different and more interesting than just writing ‘Contents’.

16. Then, I changed the writing to ‘Inside’ and used the same colour for the title shadow as I did on the front cover to make it more of a house style and I used the same font, ‘Elegance’. I wanted the image to stand out on this page as there wasn’t too much to add so I tried out a shadow glow on the image using Photoshop and it looked more creative so I continued to use it. I added two text boxes for my content listings and used the font, Arial Rounded MT Bold as it is clear, bold, bubbly and simple. I had to find two colours that would be clear and easy to read and finally came up with a light shade of pink and purple which suited my colour scheme too. I then had to place another image which I found it difficult to as many of the images would not fit in the position available.

17. I eventually chose a picture to use but I had to crop it first so it would fit into the shape available. Just like the image on the contents, I tried out the same shadow glow on this image, then I tried to position it onto the page.

18. When I finally got the image in place, I decided that this image with the shadow glow did not look good or real enough for a contents page because of the other image already on there. Therefore, I tried to do something else with the same image using a frame. I began placing the picture onto the page, which was easier as it was already in the shape that it needed to be.

19. I had to use a frame as the image on its own would have looked strange on the page because the arms of both of the models are cut off. I started by using the line tool on Indesign and try out all the various options. I liked the wavy option best and next, began to build a frame around the image. The frame was quite difficult to make because the lines were different lengths and made it hard to join them up.

20. I liked this frame because of the boldness and how it looked around the picture. It was easy to create and looked a lot better than the previous frame. I could change the colour of the outline and also the inside. Therefore, I tried out many different colour combinations but I tried the frames out on the contents page instead so I could see how it would turn out. This is how the frame finally looked but I didn’t think the frame looked realistic so I tried out the other frame options. The frame above made the picture stick out and it still made the arms look missing. I felt this was completely ineffective in establishing the image I was looking to create.

21. Once I had the frame in position, most of the colours of the frame looked too out of place and unrealistic for a photo shoot image. This is one of the colour selections I tried, sticking to my house style, but these colours, also made the image look odd and not part of the page so I did not use a colour behind the image. Consequently, I decided to use a purple frame, adding to the elements of jazz and not have a colour inside the frame. This made the frame look simple but effective and creative.

22. Therefore, I came to the conclusion to stick with the framed picture as it drew attention to the image which is a positive thing as this image is advertising the main article. I then had second thoughts about using the image with the frame but all the other creations I demonstrated with the image did not look better than the frame. I tried more frames and other images but none of these looked up to standard.

23. The real magazine on the right has elements and features that I used in my magazine contents page to get ideas, the use of the main image is effective and makes the page stand out. So, using this ideas I decided to use one bigger, main image which fit in well with the space that was there. All of my content listings are to do with music as I had to try not to go of the subject and write listings about other subjects. I liked the images I used and their effects because it makes the page look more productive, therefore, these stand out from the rest of the page at they are the most interesting elements of this page. The final code and convention I had to add was the page numbers which are vital as they appear on every magazine. Each member of our group made different page numbers which were creative and suit our own individual style and colour scheme and made our magazines unique but still recognisable to the audience. This is the final outcome for my contents page. In my opinion, this was the most challenging page to create because there was not as much content to add to this page compared to the front cover and the double page article, so I had to made the page look filled up and not too spacious. The content listings look realistic because this is how many real music magazines lay their listings out.

24. I then placed the song words into the box, then had to rearrange the words because of the size. Then, I tested out many fonts for the content. Firstly, I began creating my double page article by placing a box out onto the side. This box contains the song words for the single that the artists are promoting in their interview. In every Diverse magazines, in the main interview, it features song words as it is part of our house style.

25. At this point, I hadn’t come up with my interview title yet, therefore, I was trying out many fonts that were creative but easy to read and eventually decided to use the Nevada font. I wanted to use a pink or a purple for the title as it would match my colour scheme for my magazine. Within, our group, we discussed what font would look the best and be clear for all of our pages. We wanted the same font so that our pages would be easily recognisable to the audience that they are all from the same magazine.

26. I then thought that the colour of the box out looked too out of place on the page, so I changed the colour to a light shade of purple for the moment. After I left the box out, I concentrated on the main image which went over the two pages. We decided to use this layout because it makes it look more interesting and is seen in a lot of music magazines. I am glad that I used this image as it fit into position quite easily because of the shape of the image. It suits what the interview is about, targets the audience and enhances the presentation of Japop. The real magazine article in the middle is a different layout to mine, but looking at other articles meant that I could take some of their ideas and incorporate them into my magazine in my style. One similarity is the use of a main image which immediately grabs the reader’s attention. Furthermore, the title is from a quote in the interview which is what I decided to use as I believe it is effective because it is generally the most important quote and can be often advice from the star, so aspirers will listen to them as they want to be like them.

27. Next, I came back to the box out and turned the font white instead of black. This made the song words stand out a lot more and so I used this feature. Then, I decided to change the box out to the same colour as the masthead shadow as it became part of our group’s house style. When I had wrote my article and checked it through, I put it into the article which made the page looked a lot more realistic. In my article, we put some parts of the article in bold and in different colours as it splits the article up so it isn’t too much writing and doesn’t look simple and basic. Also, when I came up with the title, it was straight to the point and snappy. It stood out and is a quote from the article which is portrayed in many magazines.

28. Another part of our house style is that the double page article would contain a CD cover advertising the single as most music magazines feature this code and convention. Instead of placing the cover right at the bottom, I moved it a little upwards but then I had to rearrange the text which was quite difficult and took a lot of time. However, I think it looked more effective and professional with this layout. To make the image look more interesting, I edited it using Photoshop. I added a spotlight effect on the image using a gradient tool. This looked a lot more inventive and made the double page article display more creativity.

29. The final element to add was the page number which I made on Photoshop. Using my content listings, I added the page number into the shape which was a star and placed it at the bottom of the page where I fortunately had the space. Later, I added a caption for the CD cover so the audience would know what the image was of and also adds information such as when the single is out. This is a form of advertising which all magazines do in some way or another. I made the CD cover on Photoshop then imported it onto Indesign.

30. there, so it does not look like there is too much writing and so that it isn’t in bocks, which would have looked too boring and the audience probably wouldn’t want to read my article. The title is eye catching and suits my own colour scheme and also, the font is a lot more inventive than using a simple font. Our group wanted our magazine to be completely unique to the other magazines so we added various codes and conventions in various ways. One element was our song words which are featured on all of our magazine interviews. I enjoyed creating my double page article the most out of the rest of the pages as they were unique features to add. This is the conclusion of my double page article. It looks like a real article that you would find in a real music magazine. In my opinion, the image looks more creative and a lot more effective. The layout of the text is tidy as it fits in all of the spaces which is how other articles are set out. The use of splitting the article up adds more originality to the page as on each column, something different is