Costume, Hair, Make Up & Props

Here are my initial ideas for costume, hair, make up and props. I want my work to have a mix of relatable outfits etc and very stand out professional images. By doing this my work will have a sense of relatability and also a almost celebrity and professional presence with the more unrelatable images.

Media Institutions

Here I have looked at some media institutions, Bauer, Time Inc & Immediate. Each of them are well known with a number of big brands. I have looked at these and decided which I feel would best represent my brand.

Colour Scheme Ideas

Here are my initial colour scheme ideas. I have compiled a number of different colours and analysed them. I feel looking at what I want my magazine to become (Regional lifestyle) I need to Incorporate a number of colours with black and white being my base. By doing so I am able to include different colours and looks whilst still keeping a professional look with the two base colours.

Time Management Calendar

 Here is my time management calendar. Here I will record my progress as I go through my work using my calendar to fill in the precise day I have started or completed certain tasks.

Font & Masthead Inspirations

Here are my inspirations for font and mastheads. I chose these fonts and masthead for their bold and distinctive look. Their stand out look allows them to be distinguished from other magazines and would give my regional magazine more of a presence if placed near a national magazine.

Image Collage With Millum & Ferguson Analysis

Here is my intiial research into the different images used throughout magazines and websites. I have looked at Millum & Ferguson which help name certain poses used by men and women in magazines.

Website Deconstructions

Here are my website deconstructions. As you can see I deconstructed 3 magazines, 3 pages from each. I decided to deconstruct 2 lifestyle magazines as this is my choice that I'd like to recreate. I looked at one national and one regional magazine. The other was a regional magazine but was an alternative style and was more news related. Through my deconstructions I was able to develop a number of ideas as to what I'd like to include in my own work, as well as colour scheme ideas. Colour scheme's will feature individual colors for individual section. This will allow the different section of my work to be more distinguishable and identifiable as well as adding more color and a more friendly look. I also learned that certain features such as the masthead and navigation bar should be available throughout, on each and every page and in the same area as the home page. This allows for easy navigation.

Billboard Deconstructions

Here I have deconstructed three different types of billboards including a film, fashion and a lifestyle magazine. Each billboard exhibited different features and style although the one I found most appealing due to its aesthetically appealing colour scheme and look was the Tom Ford billboard. I felt the simple look was most attractive and the smooth dominant image made the billboard flow and look smooth, similar to that of the hunger games. I do however wish the billboard featured more text like Vogue, giving more information to what the billboard is about or advertising.

Double Page Spread Deconstructions

Here I have deconstructed a number of double page spread from 3 different magazines, two of which were regional and will help in my research and a third which was national, inspiring me with different ideas that I could possibly defy regional magazine standards by using. I enjoyed a number of aspects from both magazines, some of the ideas I liked best from regional magazines were the dominant image from "The Crack" magazine, spanning over two pages the image was very colourful and set the theme for the page colour scheme, additionally, the page consisted of a few smaller sub images in contrasting colours. This in my opinion helped the page stand out further than it already did and added some different colour without breaking the scheme too much. I also liked that to ensure the font was visible, it was put into a box almost which stayed with the colour scheme but made sure it was visible. This meant the magazine could use any image because the font would be visible regardless. Also, to ensure the font was kept clean they used gutter lines, something I intend to use in my regional magazine as I feel it keeps the page less cluttered. In the national magazine I also liked the image but was initially disappointed it only filled one page, however, I liked the layout between the image and the separate text page. I felt by separating the two you could really take in the image and the model, enforcing her importance, almost suggesting the image is equally as important as the article its self. Another unusual feature I liked was the large S in the national magazine. Although I couldn't figure out the meaning of it, I felt it added something questionable and interesting to the page, also filling some empty space and giving the plain page some excitement. The S also may of had connotations for us to guess. I think if I was to replicate this I would add more of a meaning to it although it is equally as interesting without a meaning, such as this case. I did notice that the national magazine is also more organised and smooth in comparison to the regional magazines which has text in different places. I liked the smoother aspect of the national although I also liked the way the images worked with the text in The Crack.

Contents Deconstructions

These are my initial deconstructions of three magazine contents pages. The slides feature the deconstructions of three lifestyle magazines, two of which are regional and one is national. By choosing to deconstruct national and regional I was able to clearly see the difference between the two and choose which features from both I will incorporate into my own work, now knowing the differences. From the work I have now identified that regional magazines don't generally have a dominant image on their contents pages, from this I have decided that I too will not have a dominant image as I feel it is too much of a focus on a specific article and takes attention away from other potentially attractive articles. This is particularly important in my magazine as it is Lifestyle and contains a variety of different categories. If I was to use a dominant image opposed to multiple sub images, potential audiences might not know my work features sections that may interest them because the focus would be entirely on a dominant image.

Front Cover Deconstructions (Lifestyle Magazines)

In doing this task I have learned a number of things about the front covers of both Regional and National magazines. When looking at things such as mastheads, particularly in The Crack, it became clear that an interesting font made the magazine a lot more memorable. I also liked the other two magazines and their mastheads, however, I felt they were less memorable due to their mundane fonts. I also noticed that sell lines and main sell lines were a lot less prominent in regional magazines, an addition that I liked opposed to national magazines which are host to a lot of sell lines, giving an overall cluttered look in my opinion. Overall I learned that regional magazines generally go for a more minimal look but with a more visually impacting image, allowing it to stand out against national magazine who generally just go for single person mid shot images in 3 point lighting. I will in my work attempt to make a more creative look.

Regional VS National Magazines (Initial research)

So far this is the information I have gathered on the differences between regional and national magazines. So far in my initial research I believe that regional magazines generally have a lot less information on the front and appear to go for a more minimal look unlike national magazines which because of their large variety of article options, has a lot of information, main sell lines and sell lines on the front. Doing this task allowed me to determine a number of conventions followed by both regional and national and those that are regionally or nationally specific. I uncovered a number of conventions which I will use in my own media product; conventions such as a primarily white website are common in both regional and national but allow for a clean and professional look. I will also possibly implement adverts into my magazine or website as these are important sources of revenue for regional magazines, something I noted the national products did not require of feature, presumably because they already make enough profit.

Exploring Regional Magazines

This is my initial research into regional magazines, exploring the different aspects of them including layout, colour scheme, font, style, images, language & register. So far I have gathered that regional magazines go for a very minimal and aesthetically pleasing look, with a under cluttered front cover and double page spreads with quite a lot of information on, spread about the page using gutter lines to keep it clean. I also like that the font colour often matches the image for the double page spread, again going with that aesthetically pleasing look.