The brief was to create a  front page, contents page and double page spread for a new music magazine, only consisting of my own photos edited in Photoshop. I researched online on the conventions of proper music magazines so as to be sure that mine would look like an actual magazine that would be on news stands and be available to purchase. Upon observing the magazines, I kept in internal checklist of the conventions they used, after deciding whether to abide or not by certain ones. I had a little look at how the institution showed what the music genre was via the front page, double page spread and contents page. I also looked at how they used certain features to attract people who were into that genre of music. After a little research I noticed that most music magazines chose text fonts, images and advertisements that fit in with the genre of the magazine. I did LIIAR evaluations of contents pages, front pages and double page spreads so that I could see how to design my magazine in a professional way.

Upon careful deliberation, I decided that my magazine would be based on pop music and aimed at about 15-year-olds to about 19-year-olds. I think people any older than that would find the magazine a little childish. Especially due to the vivid and bright colours I have used for it. However, although I said it was based on pop music, it wouldn’t be based on popular kind of pop music. I decided that the music and bands included in my magazine will be the less well-known, but still awesome, kind. To create this kind of image, I had to make sure my front cover appealed to that group of people and attracted them into buying it, then continued to do so throughout the magazine. I also needed to make it look like a conventional magazine so added an issue number, barcode and price. I decided to take a lot of pictures from lots of different angles so that I had lots to work with later on when I actually created my magazine. For my front cover picture, I decided to something a little quirky and instead of using a friend or somebody to pose I decided to use my dog. I dressed her in a furry dog coat that I had bought for her a while ago and looked like pop star attire and put on some reflective sunglasses to complete the look. I knew I was going to edit out the background of the scene when I used it in my magazine so it didn’t really matter where I took the photos. I took them near a blank piece of wall in my house so that it would be easier to edit that out using the magic wand tool. Because I was editing out the background, I didn’t have to worry about mise-en-scene that much. The only thing I did was put the dog’s paws on a keyboard and take the pictures. I wanted to make it seem as if the dog was a superstar, which is why she was wearing a designer jacket and an iconic pair of ‘rock star’ sunglasses. The fact that the sunglasses were reflective and you couldn’t see her eyes gave her the upper hand, like she was in control of the cover. For my double page spread I added a few humans (one of them being myself) into the equation so that it would have more relevance to the music industry. I had us both wearing the same t-shirt and some sunglasses so that we matched and it created a sense of unity. I again knew that I was going to edit out the background in the pictures so I took them in the same place I took the others. For the main image in my double page spread I took pictures of the band separately so that I could get the best possible images of all the band. Then, when I edited all the pictures together I ended up with a ‘super band’ so to speak, a collection of the best images all added together. The rest of the pictures were supposed to be of the band ‘chilling out’ and being relaxed so I just took a few pictures of me and my other model playing with the dog and wearing casual clothing. The contents page was a collection of the images I had left over and some of the dog that I’d taken before that I thought good enough to be used in my magazine.

I tried to make my music magazine follow the conventions of real magazines so that it would attract the right kind of people to read it and buy it every week. My front cover focuses mainly on the large image of the dog, which I think is a good thing as the dog represents everything the magazine believes in, the kind of thing that will be in the magazine and the kind of people that should be reading the magazine. The picture is a full shot so that the keyboard beneath the dog’s feet can be seen properly. People might not have realised that the magazine was based on music if there was just a random dog on the front which was why I made sure that the keyboard was visible. This probably wouldn’t be that vital for if there was a human on the front, but for mine it was. I used the coverlines ‘Candy rocks out on keyboard’ and ‘the pint-sized pop-star dog talks to PopVibe’. This explained the dog on the front and told us the name of the dog. I used the name PopVibe for my magazine, which includes the word pop, which is the type of music the magazine promotes, another way to tell people who look at the magazine what it’s about.

I like to think I have progressed a little since my preliminary task and have grown in myself. I’ve learnt more about conventions of magazines and have applied them to my own work. I think I’ve learnt to use Photoshop and the other tools more effectively to create something more professional-looking.