For my second assignment I have to create a student magazine. I have to make a template and examples of a front cover, back cover and some articles for the magazine.
I will be using photoshop for this project for the digital end of it and for research I will be using Pinterest and other sources.
To plan out my research and what I need to do I have created a mind map so that it is clear how I am planning it out.
For examples for my Student Fashion Magazine I decided that the best place to find examples was the Vogue website. I thought it would be very interesting to go back as far as I could to find some really vintage magazines. This is one that I found from December 1916, I think that it is so different from the vogue we know today and how it has progressed over the 100 year period.
This issue of Vogue pays tribute to the Queen of Spain as a fashion icon. I think that knowing what was popular back then is so interesting as it was the latest news.
By looking at the cover of this magazine you could tell that it was during the winter season; as her coat that she is wearing it reminds me of the style of an eskimo coat. The colours chosen in this cover are very icy colours, white, dark blue and ice blue. The colour palette for a cover is very important because it needs to represent the season.
This is the latest issue of Vogue. It is very different than the vintage cover of Vogue. I have noticed that the font on the title “VOGUE” has been kept exactly the same. Both of these covers has a picture of a woman in the middle, this is to show who Vogue is dedicating that issue to. However on the latest issue they have lots of information about what is inside the magazine; the vintage cover does not have that, this is how the magazine has evolved.
In this December’s issue the colour palette is still icy colours, the background is white with turquoise-green. The green lace dress really compliments the background and really ties in with the winter season.
I have looked on Pinterest for examples of articles in magazines. This is one that I found, it really caught my eye because the colours are so vibrant. I think that is one of the most important to take into consideration when creating something like this because it is one of the first things people will notice.
I also think it is good that you pick 2-3 solid colours and stick with them because then it will make the magazine article uniform and consistent.
I really like the size of the images in this article, once you see the pictures it will instantly give you an idea of what the article is about. I will make sure that my images are around this size and I will make sure that they are well spaced out from each other.
The only thing I would have to say is that there is too much text and paragraphs. The text is very small and quite hard to read. As someone who reads magazine articles if I saw text like this I would lose interest very quickly; I think it would be better to have less text, bigger font and less paragraphs.
This is another example of a magazine article that I found, it is very different from the first example in many ways. I really like the layout of the images; I like how they have dedicated a full page to one image, I think this is really good for a fashion magazine because you can really see the outfit clearly and in great detail.
I really like that they have made an image the full size of the page and then put a text box in the middle of the page, I think that they have used an appropriate amount of text and my first impression would be that it looks interesting.
They have chosen to put the background of every page white, and then the only colours are from the images. I will take inspiration from this when creating my own magazine.
This is another example that I found which I think is a combination of the two previous articles. The colours are very bold and bright, and the images are very big and clear. However, much like the first example the text is too small, there is too much of it and there is a lot of paragraphs. I would space the text out more and make the font bigger.
I think that the images and colours are very eye catching which is very important, I like how they have took a picture of a man’s head and took it into Photoshop and changed the colours to look like a cartoon, this is unusual and you wouldn’t see it in many fashion magazines so I would like to do something like this.
This is an example of a back cover of a fashion magazine. Usually the back cover will be beauty related. When there is an advert for makeup the editor will often make the face the whole size of the page so that as soon as you see it you will know what it is about before even reading about the product. This model has dark eye makeup and long lashes, the smokey eye stands out against the pale skin and the red lips, I think that this was the look they were going for because it is more vibrant.
A smaller image beside the woman’s face is of the actual product they are selling. I think that it is a good size and the cover doesn’t look cluttered with images. The white text really stands out against the black/navy background and there isn’t a lot of it either, I think that everything is very well spaced out.
This is a photograph that I took when I was in the V&A in Decemeber. This was the ceiling of the cafe where I was having breakfast and I thought that the architecture was stunning and the colours were beautiful. When I received my project I thought that this image would be perfect for the front cover.
When I was in the V&A Museum in December I took this photo of "The Campbell Sisters dancing a Waltz". I decided that this would be a good photo to have as the front cover as it is a beautiful piece and I have information to write about it. I think that the structure and the detail in this artwork isincredible, so much time and effort has gone into creating it so I think it would be perfect for a cover photo.
I have added a white rectangle to the statue to make it stand out against the background image. I have then made the white rectangle more transparent by turning down the opacity. I didnt like the solid block colour so I think that by doing this it makes it softer and it is also a nice effect.
Since this magazine is for students, I thought that the name "Urban Student" was appropriate as it isnt like any other student magazine, taking inspiration from the name "Urban Outfitters" since it is hip and trendy I wanted to create the same impression on my magazine.
I have played about with tools on photoshop and gave my title a 3D effect. I think that this looks effective and it also stands out against the colours of the image on the background. The text was originally in white font, when I turned it 3D it added black shading around certain areas.
This is the final outcome of the front cover of my magazine. I have added a sub title to show what the magazine will be about just below the cover photo. I have used the eye drop tool to get the colour of the text, I have chosen this colour because it doesnt take away from the main title or the image. I have chosen this style of font because the sculptures are very elegant and this font reminds me of caligraphy and it is very classy so I think it suits it well.
This is the background that I have created for my page articles in my magazine. I have taken inspiration from the magazines that I researched when choosing the colours. I decided to go with bright bold colours because they are very effective and eyecatching. I think that adding these triangular shapes to the background gives the page structure and it doesnt make it look as bare.
I have taken the photo of the Campbell Sisters doing a waltz from the cover of the magazine and put it on the first page of the article. I have decided to copy and paste the image twice and I put a mosaic filter on it because the images on my research had interesting effects on them and I was inspired to create this effect.
I have stuck with the 3D title theme because I think it would be more effective than just a normal title, I think it also stands out well against the bold colours.
I have decided to go with a white font because it really makes the black outline on the title pop, it doesn't take away from the images and it is a loft softer than black text.
This is another photo I have taken in the V&A of Oliver Cromwell. I have done the same thing as the other image and I have added an effect so it shows up the light and the shading as block colours.
For the title, Oliver Cromwell, I have split the words in half and then moved the bottom half over to the right slightly. I have seen effects like this done and I thought it was so interesting and unique. So I decided to do my own interpretation on it. I also like how the text is going from small to large from one corner I think that also makes it unique.
I have chosen the same background for my next article because I think it is good to keep things like this uniform; it really gives it structure and it flows better.
I have drawn these models and then used the puppet warp tool to create patterns for dresses out of the photos that I took in the V&A. I have seen lots of unique patterns on garments and I thought that it would be effect and different to put these historical figures onto dresses.
I have used the same background image from the front cover behind my models to make them stand out against the bold colours. I have then added white rectangles and made them more transparent to separate the two patterns from the background image and the image on the dresses.
I have stuck with the 3D effect on the titles on this article as well.
I have put the image information on the other page because I like the look of the images having a page to themselves. I saw this in one of the magazines that I researched and I thought that it looked effective and it didnt look cluttered.
This is the final print out of my student magazine; I really like how it turned out, I think that the colours in the background image really stand out against the image in the middle.
This is the inside pages of my magazine, I have stapled the page to keep them together, even though magazines aren't put together this way I think that it has an "urban" feel to it aswell.
This is the back cover of my magazine, I have just chosen the same image as the front background to keep it uniform, from the research I have done I have noticed that all the back covers are very plain and simplistic, so I have just added a barcode to the bottom of it as all the magazines have it.
