Although it has taken a great extent of time to develop and physically create my ideas into the best they could be, each minute has truly been worth it. My final magazine cover and contents are both two things that I am incredibly proud of. Taking centre stage on the cover, the denotation is a blonde, female students sitting down in the library catching up on some studies as gentle light caresses her cheeks. The light has very warm connotations of perseverance and high hopes - bright light guides people into the future towards success. Due to the gentle red tones within the girl's shirt, I feel a sense of a winter warmth as it contrasts with the gentle radiance's of white, both in the new Wyke masthead and soothing vector shape. The snowy-white headlines on the front cover almost act as an anchorage to the image, reflecting how good things are to come so keep your head up. I really wanted to emphasise that christmas is soon upon us and I did this of course by having the contrast of warm soothing red against the snowy white.
Circulating the magazine cover, a bold and defined border almost makes the image and headlines jump out. To make sure that the border and image didn't feel to fragmented, I conjucted the two together by allowing a small proportion of the masthead to seep out onto the edge. For me to have a somewhat house theme then I had to continue the style of the cover onto the actual contents page which included fonts and colours that shared similarities. On the cover of my magazine I included caressive light and a tree within the image. These two elements stay featured within the content page's background. The denotation of the background image is a college destination with fine light seeping through the top left hand side corner however the connotations say so much more. The way the light caresses the college buildings I feel reflects how college is the place where you follow the light to your future. At the top of the page, the headline font and style is exactly the same as the font and style of the Wyke text whilst the content information is the same font as the headlines on the cover. Once again the border style layout has stayed constant onto the contents page so the cover didn't come across as fragmented and be something completely different to the contents.
I would like to say that the ideology of my magazine cover is to perhaps infer some inspiration onto everyone that views it. Main headlines and exciting stories have hopefully intrigued the college students to read the magazine and learn more with what is occuring within their own college.
Friday, 22 October 2010
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Barcode
As I wasn't allowed to use any image on my magazine cover that didn't originate from me then i couldn't just use any barcode off of the internet. To get a really effective barcode so it looked genuinely I went through a number of steps.
Step 1 - Find Barcode Image.
http://www.theipadfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/barcode.png
Step 2 - Paste it into Photoshop and select all of the black sections using colour range.
Step 3 - Apply a black Colour Overlay and then click command and j whilst removing the original image.
Step 4 - Now add in a white background so that the barcode is complete!
Final Barcode!
Discarded Images Within All Of The Development
When taking the image, the sun directly shined into the camera which caused my female model to become quite shadowed whilst sections of the image became quite darkened. Also the angle within this image is quite awkward and there is also no tree which I had initially intended to be within the photograph.
Shining too brightly, the sun has made the image of Oak to bright making me unable to use it on my contents page. Also what I had in mind for my contents page was a gentle blue sky, where as this image was just a shear white shade.
I wanted to truly capture an all natural photograph however by asking my model to stand and pose while he directly looked into the camera, I didn't at all capture the "oh natural."
As my model moved whilst I had taken the image, the final product came across as quite blurred and unfocused.
I initially thought that this was going to be the final image for my front cover, however it wasn't until I actually viewed it full size on my Mac when I realized how specific aspects to my image were wrong. The first thing which really bothered me was the books which the person was holding. As they where quite far out compared to the model, the camera focused onto the books as to her, causing her to become quite unfocused and blurry. Also, having them once again to close to the lens, the books look completely out of proportion compared to the model creating a feeling of an unbalance within the image. As I’d not correctly took the image, the books have been dissected out of the photo as well as the models hand. This gives the photo extremely bad framing and allows to much space towards to upper end of the image. Having such an photograph with these faults on the cover would look un-professional and tacky. I don’t feel as if I would be able to capture that true college sensation with this sort of photograph
Draft 1 Magazine Cover & Contents
Initially I thought that this was an extremely good final front cover and contents page, however as time went on I felt far from that. The comic book essence within the design which I wanted to achieve is actually really good, yet everything else just deteriorates as you glance at it.
Things I feel are wrong:
- The image is quite bland and has too a simple background. Both of which don't give that loving and warm vibe that the college sensation gives you. Because of these two elements the cover doesn't feel at all soothing and has cold connotations.
-There is never, ever a time when the date and edition number are bigger then the magazine name or masthead.
-Next to the model, the headlines feel quite fragmented and don't bring the magazine together as a whole.
-Like i commented earlier, contents which are hectic won't be as effective as the contents which are light and simple.
-Help & advice never feature on the cover and won't really appeal to college students.
-The rendered, coloured halfstone filter effect has made the images on the contents page feeling to gritty and pixelated.
-Although there is a house theme, the connotations of the dark, navy blue have to many cold connotations making everything exude bitterness.
To correct all of this I will:
- Change the image of the model on the plain background to a more warm and soothing image. I have decided to take an image of casual female reading a book in the library as the sunlight gently caresses her cheeks. The background of the photograph will hopefully feature the tree which will have connotations of growth, life and the future.
-Change the headlines on the cover to "New York 2010", "Africa", 99% Pass Rate & "New Oak Building"
-Make the issue number and date much smaller and focused towards the left hand bottom side.
-Add in a barcode to give the magazine a more official feel.
-Keeping the Wyke masthead the same font, change the colours to a fresh white with light grey dots.
-Change the writing of the headlines to a more gentler and childish like feel to encounter with the college comunity's similarities.
-Instead of a blue background, give the contents page a warmer feel by using a sunny image of the Wyke Buildings.
-On the contents page reduce the amount of stories
-Remove the two images of New York & iPhone and then replace them with a more friendly image of a student at college.
After doing all of these points i hope to develop the magazine layout that I already have and make it into a bigger and better overall contents page and cover.
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