Prelim Task: Photoshop Masthead Practice

In this lesson my task was to practice manipulating text, making text bigger and creating word art. 

Here I had to create a basic Masthead out of two words; one word had to be large while the second word had to be smaller and placed underneath the first letter. 

Next I had to make both words bigger without stretching the text, I did this by holding down shift while using free transform.

Here I had to make both words large and go vertically I did this by rotating them in free transform, holding shift allows you to rotate the text without it stretching. 

To create this I had to place an image inside of the text, firstly by selecting each letter with the magic wand tool, then by copying the image and using the "paste special" option to place the image inside the text.

Here I had to paste different images into each individual letter, firstly by highlighting one letter with the magic wand tool, then copying and pasting the images into the letter. 

 

To do this I had design a brush preset with text, I did this by 'Rasterizing' the text into a shape, I then set it to brush preset.

Main Task: questionnare

For this task I had to design a Questionnaire based on these  three Music Magazine Front covers I have been studying; RollingStone, Metal Hammer and Classic Rock. I picked these three Covers because of how different they are from one another.

 

This is the questionnaire I made based on the three front covers, Firstly I wanted to see if the target audiences of the covers had any link with age, so my first question was based around age. My second question is used for further reference (meaning you can't answer the others without answering this question) this question asks which of the three covers was the readers favourite. the later questions include things like; why do you like the cover? is the information useful? who do you think is this magazines target audience? Etc.

 

RollingStone's magazine is the more 'Artistic' of the three covers, its use of a collage to form the face of a famous artist adds a creative theme to the magazine. The use of this artist, Jay Z, makes this magazine more "Modern" compared to the others since he is more popular to todays demographic.

 

 

Metal Hammer's front cover has a darker tone compared to the others, including the artist on the central image, Rob Zombie, who make heavy metal songs as well as some high and low profile horror films. so this magazine feels more exclusive to fans of him and fans of the same genre. this magazine doesn't have the easier approach that the other two covers have.

 

Classic Rock's Front Cover follows most of the traditional codes and conventions, it uses a cover that features one of the most famous bands of modern rock, Guns and Roses. the use of this band in their cover makes the magazine easier to approach compared to the other two which has either a lesser known artist (Metal Hammer) or an artist more familiar with youths rather than older generations (RollingStone) on its front cover. This cover has a balance between older and newer generations.

Main Task: Music Magazine analysis

to make this document I used; Microsoft PowerPoint and Photoshop

Front Covers:

 firstly I had to pick from a wide selection of music genres, I looked for the magazines that caught my eye and made sure the three I chose were different from one another. I chose to pick magazines from: Classic Rock, Metal Hammer  and Rolling Stone.

                                                                      Metal Hammer:
With the Metal Hammer magazine I picked this cover because it has enough codes and conventions to talk about and I found the central image appealing to people from their proffered demographic. despite how this was the first magazine I picked to talk about I found this one to be the more difficult of the three to analyse mainly because the other two had a lot more detail and unique features.

                                                                    Rolling Stone:
I found the Rolling Stone magazine to be the best one to talk about, it was an easy choice as the central image and typography has so much creativity and colour compared to my other two choices. this cover, I feel, would appeal to a wider range of people since, as shown in its cover lines, there are a larger range of content in the magazine which includes both music and politics.  the artistic style of the cover would attract more people as well for many reasons, for example art students could use this for inspiration.

                                                                       Classic Rock:
I picked this Classic Rock magazine mainly because it features 'Guns N' Roses' on it. as I put in my analysis, this magazine would attract fans of the band due to the attention to detail (with the fonts) and the central image. I found this magazine easier to talk about compared to the 'metal hammer', this one had more content such as graphic features and variation between colours and fonts.

                                                                        Comparison:

Contents Page:

                                                                                Vibe
This contents page from vibe magazine, I feel, lacked in content but I feel its strongest aspect and main focus was the central image; the central image features Kanye West, one of the biggest selling artists and one of the most famous celebrities in the world, the image is also in monochrome with a single red heart. this image is both pleasing to the eye and includes a well known artist so it was an easy choice.

                                                                                 Kerrang:
This contents page contrasted Vibe's Heavily, while Vibes main focus was on the use of its artist and the monochrome lighting of its central image, Kerrang's main focus was the complete opposite, this contents page was more information focused, this contents page included graphic features in the form of advertisements and subscription offers. The magazine takes care to not conflict the info with the images, this includes the use of a dogs leg, the other images are small and not as detailed/ artistic as Vibes.

Comparison

  Double Page Spread:

For my Double Page Spread's I decided to use pages from, again, Kerrang and one from American Gothic. I used these because they are both in different genres of music.

American Gothic:

I used this Double Page Spread since it suits the Gothic style and contrasts the other double page spread. The main focus of the double page spread is the central image which includes; black and white, cloudy skies and religious buildings which suit the Gothic style. the typography I also found interesting, the font was in a Gothic style and lacked colour; using only white and bronze, the giant letter I could also be seen as a human bone.

Kerrang:

This Double Page Spread I found to be more difficult to analyse than the American Gothic page, the central image lacks in content and creativity which contrasts the American Gothic page, this Page seems to focus mostly on the information rather than the central image. The typography I found to be very interesting, the spontaneous change between Fonts and Text Sizes was appealing to look at, the use of pink text to highlight key words (like names) made the page eye catching, the use of white boxes to highlight the titles of the contents was a good way to separate the titles from the text. 

Comparison

Prelim Task: College Magazine

Prelim Task: College Magazine
I have been researching college magazines more specifically how they lay out their front covers, contents pages and double page spreads
I have been using Adobe Photoshop and In-design to create these documents.

These Pictures were taken during our lesson, we had to use these in order to make our 'college magazine'. We created this college magazine with a; 'front cover' 'double page spread' and 'contents page' this is so we can get used to using Photoshop and in-design. As well as prepare us for the main task; creating our own Music Magazine.

For this image I turned it into monochrome, I did this in Photoshop by opening this image, going into 'Image' and selecting the 'Black/White' option. Then I was able to adjust the lighting and contrast to get the image looking the way I wanted it to.

 

 

With this image I did the same thing with the image on my front cover, but I made the image a different colour instead of black and white, instead I went for a colour more similar to old style photographs.

This is another image that I wanted to change into monochrome. like the others I did this by going into 'Image' and then selecting the 'Black/White' option.

This is the Final image of Paddy where I have removed the background from the image as well as the 'Box outline' this is so the image will be visible in front of other images without having a white box in the way of the image behind.

This is the final Product of my Contents Page. I was able to place in my own backgrounds and images as well as changed the size and font of the cover lines to make the text more visible.

 

This is the final product of my front cover, I changed the colour of the text to green in order for it to stand out in front of the darker background.

 

This is the base of my contents page, the boxes with X's in them will be where images will be placed, the dotted lines will be where the cover lines will go.

 

 

Here I have started adding in image, I did this by clicking on the box where I want to add an image, then I selected 'File' then 'Place' then I pick the desired image, then the image will appear inside the box, if it is too small or out of place I changed the size of the image by clicking on it and stretching it. I made sure to hold shift while stretching the image in order to keep it the same shape as originally intended.

 

Here I made my own background in Photoshop, I used a 'Brush Pre-set' that looked like leaves. I outlined the image with the Brush  and, using the bucket tool, made the background a darker shade of green, this is where the images or text will be placed.

This is the final Product of my Double Page Spread, I have made the text smaller so it would fit into place with the background as well as moved the images to make them stand apart from the text, in order to make it easier to read.