QUESTION 1

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Here I was influenced by the contents page for THE SOURCE to create a bold title for my contents page and to create a name for my contents page; "THE SOURCE-MASTER PLAN, 808-THE SCHEDULE", also with my contents page, I centre aligned my text and made the main heading of each page bold just like that of THE SOURCE magazine, I liked the simplicity of the text and followed it through on my contents page.

Just like with THE SOURCE MAGAZINE, I was inspired by RESPECT. magazine to give my contents page a title; "RESPECT.-Order of Operations, 808-THE SCHEDULE."

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD-planning

Here I scanned pages from my book which I wrote down, these are the notes I used to plan out my double page spread interview:

FINAL

808 MAGAZINE FINAL PIECE

FRONT PAGE, CONTENT PAGE, DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Here are the final piece I have created for my front cover, content page, and double page page spread for my Hip-Hop and R&B magazine, 808, derived from the first programmable drum maker.

After submitting  them, my class teacher might ask me to change some contents-design & layout for the magazine.

PROGRESS

The on-going process of completing my music magazine

This post is going to be showing the process in which I had to take in completing my final magazine products-the contents page, and double page spread interview. Just as my front page is subtle, I carried this style through my contents page and double page spread, I used the THE SOURCE magazine as my inspiration for them.

While editing my contents page, I decided to delete the images I used on the first page and kept only one image, I also made the text-THE SCHEDULE much bigger like that of THE SOURCE magazine, I also change the text layout, alignment, and colours here and there. Here is a screenshot I took of my process in creating the contents page

For my double page spread, I started by photroshopping the images which I was going to use for the page, I used various tools like, adjusting levels-for colours & curves-for highlights & shadows, hue & saturation, clone tool, brush tool and the spot healing tool. Here is a screen-shot of the process:

I had a change of mind and decided to select another picture for the double page spread, I also photoshopped them and further placed them on an A3 canvas in photoshop-the space left here is where the text would be inserted.

I started by typing in the tagline from the interview with the artist and selected a different font then made them bold so that they could stand out from the rest of the text. 

I got this idea from THE SOURCE magazine-their interview with the artist Big Sean.

I added the bold letter later on for the start of the interview just like that of THE SOURCE magazine and I started typing in the main text. I moved the text around so it could fit in with the image and other text on the page.

Here I had finished typing in the text for the double page spread artist interview

After doing this, I had to justify, move, delete, and add text to the page so as to make it look well organised with a good layout, furthermore, I changed the colour for the page number to match that of the content page. I also added who the pictured was taken by and who made the story.

These are the main steps I had to take in creating my final content and double page spread.

Refresher on Semiotic Theory

The Study of Signs & Meaning

I will be looking at the THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING of my work.

Creating a sense of collective identity:

Mode of Address-was quite narrative. Clean, stylish, simplicity & wealth.
808 Magazine was created to be different, subtle, unique, artistic, serious, simple, stylish, to have originality within the Hip-Hop and R&B music world.
Layout-Simple & organised
Colour- Gold, white, black & Aquamarine.
People I chose to take pictures of-two males of ethnic origin, dressing, facial expression and body language were chosen to show strength, fashion sense, wealth, style-it's made for an audience which appreciate music, and want to know much more about the music. For those who listen to music, want a deeper meaning into their music and are quite stylish.
Cost- average-for financially stable-not expensive not too cheap just Okay.

My Template approach:

I was aiming for a simple and artistic template, so each publication of my magazine would have a gold frame, a black and white high quality image placed in the centre within the frame, the Header-808 right aligned with a subtle colour and other minimal subtle coloured text.

Reason for dressing my characters in a certain type of clothing, facial EXPRESSION & POSTURE-Reason for my Location:

Dressing-My characters were wearing suits and jewelleries because I wanted to represent them as wealthy, stylish, into fashion & formal. To show that they're business men, not just artists.
Facial Expressions-I wanted an intense face-a serious facial expression, shows they're serious about what they do.
Posture-I wanted that body posture so as to show that they are in power, they're a boss and aren't movable-strength.
Location-I chose a studio because I wanted a simple background for the front cover, and I needed the focus to be more on the artists.

SEMIOTIC THEORY

Iconic-It is what it is
Symbolic/Arbitrary-Has a meaning that must be culturally learned because it doesn't look like what it represents.
Indexical-Has a connection to what it represents and is more suggestive, rather than directly resembling what they represent.

Is the main image of my front cover Iconic, Symbolic or Indexical?

The image I used is symbolic because the artists have to be culturally learned.
While my magazine front cover is indexical because it doesn't look like a music magazine.

MAGAZINE CONCEPT

The Process Of Developing The Concept Of The Music Magazine

I annotated my music magazine's front cover so as to break down the steps in which I considered and took, on the basis for the conception of my final product. Here I considered the layout and design of music magazine conventions, as you would know, I created a music magazine which is unconventional to how most music magazines look, however, there are some elements to my magazine which make it look quite conventional. I wanted my magazine to be unique, simple, artistic & stylish.

MY MAGAZINE

808 MAGAZINE

Here's the first version front cover and contents page for my Hip-Hop and R&B magazine I made, it's called 808  which is derived from the first programmable drum maker.

After reviewing them with my class teacher, I have decided to edit my contents page by looking through some magazine contents page, deleting and resizing some images here so as to create a better contents page layout.