Preliminary Task Flat Plans

Front Cover

This is the flat plan for my college magazine which was set for my preliminary task. The colours that are going to be used will be suitable for the college magazine and as the magazine is for Sunderland college the colours the college tend to use will be used on the front cover, as if it is following their house style. The Sunderland College logo will also be used on the top right third.

The image on the cover of the magazine shall be of a fresh faced student, smiling and looking well. The image will be a medium close shot where all facial features plus the body from the waist up can be seen.

Shapes will be pieced together in the colours the college tend to use and will be set as a feature in the top right third and bottom left third. 

'WIN' was used as a buzz word in one of the cover lines, this attracts the reader to buy the magazine.

Preliminary Task (college magazine) Contents Page Flat Plan

My contents page was made from inspiration from Billboard magazine, it is a very simple but effective layout that isn't too cramped or sparse. I think this will look very attractive to the customer. Due to my target audience for this magazine being for the age of 16-19 I wanted a range of colour to be used, this will mainly come across from the images that will go alongside the subheading of the main articles. I will ensure that the readers can clearly find the pages that they are looking for because if they have to look for something they will most likely just close the magazine.

Pulse Reader Profile

I collated the results I collected from my online surveys, questionnaires and focus group and produced this reader profile for my magazine.

This reader profile will let me know what features to include in my magazine, such as because my readers like to shop at Topshop/Topman I could do a giveaway for a voucher for that specific store.

Semiotics-Study of Signs

This is going to be a brief overview of semiotics. Semiotics is the study of signs or meaning.

It is something we use throughout our life without really realizing, such as seeing the colour red and thinking danger, love, etc. This can help me when producing my magazine as it will help make my magazines colours and images appropriate to my genre and target audience.

All of this information goes in our heads from a young age and gets drilled in for the rest of our life, such as when it comes to traffic lights, we know that once we see green we can go, green is also referred to as 'OK' or 'Good' but depending on the situation it can be referred to as 'envy' or 'jealousy' hence the saying 'green with envy'.

Another example is when you hear something such as a police siren, you automatically know something has happened or that there has been trouble as that is what you've known for as long as you remember.

One of the main reasons why semiotics can be a benefit to my design is because knowing about these theories when producing my magazine can provide relevance instantly and give the overall view of the magazine I am creating the correct feeling in relation to my target audience.

As it is very important for my magazine to be relevant to my target audience and genre I want to make sure I avoid colors associated with 'bubblegum pop' such as candy floss pink and baby blue as those colours are more aimed at a younger audience. The colours I will be using will be that similar to what is used by Billboard magazine. Which is typically block colours such as Black, White, Red, etc that will make the magazine look professional and more suitable to my target audience.

AS 

The Simpsons Photoshop Task

I was set a task on Photoshop to improve my skills on the software in preparation of producing my magazine. I had to produce a movie poster for 'The Simpsons Movie' that included an image of Homer Simpson, movie title and release date. This is the poster I produced. 

The first thing I wanted to ensure when making the poster was that it would be recognizable to the audience. I took two images from Google, removed the white backgrounds using the 'magic wand tool' and then began to edit. I took the colour from Homers trousers with the eyedropper tool and set the colour as the background. I did this as the colour blue used is seen often on The Simpsons, on Marge's hair, Bart and Homers trousers, Bart's shoes and Maggie's clothes. 

The images used are of The Simpsons family at the cinema eating popcorn, I thought this would be a relevant image as it is a poster for The Simpsons movie and it is an image of the family at the cinema, almost like they are watching their own movie. Nevertheless I felt that having only this image on the poster wasn't enough and left it with too much blank space therefore I filled the space with a high quality image of Homer Simpson with his arms in the air looking excited. Denoting the excitement Homer is feeling towards the movie. 

When I earlier removed the background from the 2 images parts of the white disappeared from the pictures, such as the characters eyes and popcorn. To fix this I used the paintbrush tool and used the '[' or ']' symbol to make the brush the correct size. I zoomed into the image using the magnifying glass to ensure I could get the best precision on the places I am filling in. 

I took the movie title from Google images, again removed the background using the magic wand tool. I found 'The Simpsons' font on Dafont.com and entered the release date. I saved what I made and placed it onto the title, fitting it into the letter 'I' in the word 'MOVIE'. I felt this worked well as the black contrasts with the yellow font and also links with the black 'The Simpsons' that is used above the title in smaller text. By doing this it conveys my poster to look professional to the audience.

October Schedule

This is the schedule I will be hoping to stick to throughout October.