Contents Page

 A Draft of what the contents page could look like, complete with original images.

I chose to use a very blocky style 

The images used:

Picture of Yem in front of Train Tickets, to go with the story about Overpriced Transport, showing that students have to buy a lot of train and bus tickets. The way the train tickets together are larger than the model shows that they are a 'big' problem to teens. 

Picture of coursework that goes next to the title of the story about keeping up with coursework. The framing of the photo shows the books in front of a person, overpowering them - a metaphor for coursework taking over someones life.

Photo taken at a music festival to go next to Uni Night Life story. The darkness and artificial lights show that it's taken at night, which goes well as the story is about 'Night Life'. People are dancing and having fun, showing the audience that the article will show them how to have fun.

Photo of 'fashionable teenagers' to go with the Fashion Look Book, taken with Polaroid Camera to create a 'Vintage' effect, and mise en scene of a house party created to portray a 'cool' lifestyle. The model's poses were chosen to look 'care free', a symbol of youth.

Photo of the Empire State taken from the Rockefeller in NYC to go with the "Travel the World" story. I chose to use a photo of the Empire State as it is one of the most well known buildings in the world.

The first content page looked a bit "blocky" so I tried shaking it up a bit by firstly putting all of the text to the left side, and then using only 3 pictures but making them less square and stylising them a bit so they pop out more.

Box Draft Content page

Website

I checked to see if the website "grad-mag.co.uk" which is on the front cover is actually an available domain and it is!

Front Page Second Idea

I updated the front page, shortening the text beneath the cover stories, and also using less cover stories. I used the photo of Yem in front of the train tickets to add to the Mise En Scene, linking to the cover story on overpriced transport. I also make the text stand out more by putting boxes (some slightly opaque) behind the text, and I used less writing underneath the text - as the first cover felt a bit too wordy.

I didn't like the framing or the quality of the photo above, so using the long shot of Yem in front of the train tickets, I cut out the train tickets, used them as a background and super imposed the headshot of yem on top. This incorporated the good framing of the original photo (used on the first design), and the Mise-en-scene of the train tickets behind. I also rearranged the cover stories:

I feel like the colour scheme works really well, and the train tickets fit perfectly with the orange of the colour scheme. Although I think I cut down too much on the cover stories, and there should be more than 3.

Front Page with Cover Stories (College Magazine)

Cover Stories (For College Magazine)

1. Overpriced Transportation Tickets Breaking Your Bank
2. Unhealthy Cafeteria Meals Are Making YOU Fat
3. Top 10 Uni's in the UK
4. Study Abroad? Save Money!
5. Top De-stressing Tips
6. Win a 2 Year Supply of Stationary from WHSmiths
7. How To Maximise Your NUS Card Usage
8. Stay on Top of YOUR Coursework This September
9. Orange Is The New Black Review
10. Student Fashion LookBook
11. How To Make Extra Money To Get Through College
12. Exclusive interview with [Student Name].

Evolution of Front Page (College Magazine)

First Draft. The colour scheme Yellow, Cyan Blue, Orange and Red was chosen. The photo of the model ("Yem"), was taken affront a white background. Firstly I edited the photo in photoshop to remove blemishes, make the hairstyle more even and smooth out the lighting on Yem's face. Then using the magnetic lasso tool and refine edges wizard I isolated Yem, allowing me to remove the original white background and make it transparent:

I then used increased the canvas size, and used the crop tool with aspect ratio 1.141:1 (to match that of an A4 sheet of paper - the size of the magazine). I then created an additional layer beneath the layer of the model and used the Radius Gradient tool to create an orange gradient as the background, this created a nice effect similar to a four point lighting effect.

I then used the text tool with font Arial Black to make the Mast Head Title (GRAD), which I then rasterised. I then made a selection using the text, and:

1. Created a mask on the orange background layer;
2. Created a layer behind the background, filled it with black and made a mask with the logo in, then gaussian blurred it, and shifted it down and to the right (10, 10) pixels. (This was to give an inner shadow effect, which makes the magazine cover look slightly 3D and pop)
3. And finally I made a blue linear gradient behind the black layer

Together this created:

< These Layers |  

 | Produced  This>

And finally I put the photos together to create the basic front page. The front page was partly inspired by Photographer Lucia Giacani's shoot for Vogue Italia:

 

Digital Draft (College Magazine)

The Contents Title would be "Content - GRAD"

Blue Boxes and circles indicate images.

Photos for College Magazine

I selected Yem as my model because she's edgy and cool, she is very photogenic and has experience modelling and therefore I felt it appropriate that she would be my model for this media project. The poses were improvised and made to look natural and youth-like.

1 - Long Shot

2 - Medium

3 - Medium Close Up

4 - Close Up 

5 - Extreme Close Up

Other Photos:

LIAAR

LIIAR Stands For:

Language

Institution

Ideology

Audience

Representation

Language

All media texts follow the same codes and conventions depending on what kind of media platform they use. These codes and conventions make it easier to understand what kind of text you’re looking at. For example, a Magazine follows the rules of “Print”, these are: Layout, Colour, Image and Text.

Institution

The institution is the organisation that makes the media text. The institution could be a huge company like the BBC, or a small company Hull Daily Mail. 

Ideology

Ideologies are a set of beliefs and values held by a group of people. It allows society to understand the meaning of messages presented in media texts. 

Audience

The audience are the people who watch, read, listen or use media texts. They are usually grouped together by different characteristics such as age, gender, interests/hobbies and income. Institutions put in a lot of effort to appeal and attract the correct target audience.

Representation

Representation refers to the way that real life is presented on television, in the newspapers or magazines, on the radio and any other media text. Institutions use stereotyping to appeal to the audience, usually on things like place, gender and social class.

Mood Board

Conventions Research: Labeling a College Mag Front Page

Colour Scheme: College Magazine

Using Adobe's website, I created 3 different possible colour schemes for my College Magazine:

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Draft Sketch of College Magazine

First Draft (sketched)

Second Draft (sketch and added some text in Photoshop)