Coursework: Print magazine research

1) Research magazine cover key conventions. Look over the magazine cover key conventions notes sheet and write which of these you will use for your magazine cover.

• Title
• Slogan
• central image
• 5 cover lines
• colour scheme
• price tag

2) Find at least five culture magazine front covers (either current or former magazines) aimed at a similar target audience to your project (adults interested in popular culture). For each one, pick out one design idea that you could use in your own print work. Some examples you may wish to look at include the Guardian Guide, Sunday Times Culture magazine, Time Out, The Face, the Radio Times, Aesthetica, the move and Paper:

• In the culture magazine I will adopt a colour scheme as they seem to have a red theme I will try to do the same except with the colours of my choice.
• The RadioTimes magazine has interesting tag lines as I like where they have been placed, at the sides of the central image.
• An idea that I took from the paper magazine was the title, the font is very simplistic and stands out and I would like to place the title around the same area.
•  The lighting from the guide magazine is good because it sets a good tone letting us know that the magazine is serious
• Timeout London has an appealing abstract look which makes it very appealing, the central image is appealing as it takes most of the page 

3) Find at least three contents pages from culture, lifestyle or music magazines on Google images. How are contents pages designed? How do they use a combination of text and images to create an effective design?

These two content pages seem to be following an overall colour scheme. The image used on the left side seems to be a character from a TV show which could be there to advertise the show, also there seems to be page numbers and text showing what to expect when you read the magazine which is effective because it gives us insight into what might interest us first. The font used for the word "contents" sticks to empires branding as its an old school font used in movies a lot.

The contents page on the right has a very clean look to it as we see a timeline-esque design on the left side of it where each category of the magazine is named and they are also coloured showing how each category is distinct. Furthermore, the main image used is female sitting down with a phone which probably lets us know that it a culture magazine. Overall, the reader will get a good idea what they will be reading with this magazine.

This contents page has a strong colour-scheme to having red white and black. By the looks of the images and actual content it seems to be a musical magazine which I believe they have established well through pictures and captions. The use of multiple images shows how the magazine has a lot of substance and uses star power of celebs to bring in an audience.


4) Find at least three double-page spread features from culture, lifestyle or music magazines on Google images. How are they designed? How are text and images displayed? What design tricks can you borrow from your examples?

This double page spread has a nice colour scheme to it and does a good job establishing that it is a music magazine. The close up image does a good job conveying the magazines edgy vibe. "wild child" also enforces how the magazine likes to subvert stereotypes

This double page spread has a very clean look to it as it takes a simplistic approach, it does not seem like there is a specific colourway but this could be argued with the repetitive use of the turquoise colour. But, overall this is a very clean page and easy to read. However, I personally would not go with the minimalist approach because I have a more eccentric magazine so it would not fit my theme.

This double page thread is clearly a rock magazine and its rocky colour theme also supports this as well as the images which show that the magazine is music based.

5) Read at least three example features from newspapers and magazine to learn the format, writing style and content for a culture magazine. You may wish to use the following to help you:

Guardian review of The Morning Show - new Apple TV drama (500 words)

Time Out - The 10 Best TV shows of the week (1,500 words)

Benedict Cumberbatch hints at female future (250 words)

Planning, sketching and writing

1) Plan a title and slogan for your new, original culture magazine. Sketch out possible designs for the masthead - font, style, colour etc.

Title: Wavey

Slogan: Embrace the culture, Be the culture

2) Plan the content for your magazine front cover. Your double-page spread will be the main story but what other cover lines, images and more will you include on the cover?

Central image: Picture of me posing as character "daryl"

Price: £2.99

Cover-line 1: 

Learn how these Teens

got rich Fast!

Cover-line 2:

Iphone 8 review.

Best phone of

this generation?

Cover-line 3:

New drama

Syke School

Hit or miss?

Cover line 4:

Latest Fashion

trends!

cover line 5: 

Newest watch

brand makes

teens go wild

3) Write a list of the all the features, regular sections and more that will appear on your contents page. If you've chosen to produce a different internal page, plan that here instead.

-Lifestyle

-Tech

-Film and TV

-School

-Entrepreneurship

-Politics

-Life Hacks

-Fashion

4) Create a spider diagram or bullet point list of all the issues or topics your TV drama addresses. How can you use this information to create a main feature for your culture magazine about your TV drama that will appeal to your target audience?

• Crime in urban london
• Teens discovering themselves
• Relatable topics
• school
• depression

My Tv Drama will try and address topics that are not spoken about enough as the aim is to relate to a teenage audience who might be going through the things talked about in the TV drama.

5) Write the text for your double-page spread feature. This needs to be a minimum of 400 words and be completely original and feature an aspect of your TV drama. Make sure you include a headline, subheading and any pullout quotes or sidebar contents. 

3 upcoming crime dramas to look out for this year. These are the highly anticipated dramas of 2020 as we see a major uproar concerning the releases of these crime dramas, I will be giving a basic rundown on what to expect from these TV shows.

Syke School: Your Power Is Your Weakness.

The first and most anticipated will be Syke School. A show where 3 teens named Daryl, Arthur and Steele find themselves in a strange predicament as they learn they have supernatural abilities. The story outline see's the teens adapt to daily life with their new found powers as they seem to be on the cusp of turning to crime. However, they are found by a mentor like figure who also has abilities of his own who works to lead them in a better direction as they end up solving a number of crimes making their powers hard to hide as they keep drawing more and more attention. Will their secret be revealed?

Synthetics: Synthetics rise, Humanity falls

In the next crime drama we see Black Mirror meet Luther. The name of this drama is called Synthetics. This show is about the future of London as we go into the year 2090 where London seems to be a borderline dystopia. The main idea of the story is that the police force are all artificial machines as all the human members were discharged from their jobs. These robotic officers malfunction as hell breaks loose as the story follows multiple character perspectives showing the encounters they have with these police robots and how they affect society.

Ms Omerta: Some people are chosen for a life of sin, Some people are the sin.

Finally, the last drama that I will talk about is called Ms Omerta, a crime drama where we see a teenage girls slowly build her drug business. The story takes place in london as the story follows a female named Natasha who loses both her parents in a car accident causing her to turn to a life of crime. She uses her smart nature and witty attitude to climb the ranks in the criminal underworld as she goes deeper and deeper into world she never knew could be reached.

6) Produce an A4 sketch of your front cover including the key conventions and design tricks you have studied in existing magazines and then planned in planning task 1 above.

7) Produce an A4 sketch of your contents page. This can be a single page of A4 or alternatively a double-page spread (A3).

8) Produce an A4 landscape sketch of your double page spread design now you have chosen the subject matter.

Photoshoot

1) Which of your main characters will appear on the front cover of your magazine?

Daryll (me)

2) What image or images do you need for the contents page?

Another image of a different character in my TV drama (vaag)

3) What image or images will you use for the double-page spread? Remember, you need seven different original images across the print brief.

• 2 images of the 2 main characters together.
• Image of designer watch
• Image of phone

4) Write a shot list for the photoshoot. Make sure you plan a variety of camera shots you will look to capture - medium shots, close-ups etc.

shot 1: Close up of Daryll

shot 2: Wide show of Daryll

shot 3: Wide shot of Daryll and Arthur

shot 4: Medium shot of Arthur by himself posing

shot 5: Shot of designer watch extreme close up

5) What costume, props or make-up will you require for the photoshoot?

A watch will be used in my photoshoot which is one of the crops as well as a phone.