My Final design - Contents page

My Final design - Front cover

Connotation and Denotation

today's lesson helped me to be aware of how denotaion highlights narrative and representational issues. I now also understand the difference between denotation and connotation.


Connotation:
 It is the second level of analysis which is identifying what the denotation of an picture represents .Connotation is linked to the cultural experience readers bring to it. Connotation is where we the readers add our own information so that we can recognize what the image is signifying.


Denotation:
The simplest meaning of and image. Denotating is identifying only what you see in the picture. Denotation only refers to what is actually reproduced in the text. whilst denotating an image we cannot say what the picture may symbolize as denotaion is the first level of analysis, consequently, in denotational terms if we cannot see anything else, we only imagine that it is there.

Identifying the ideal reader.

In todays lesson, we studied several magazine covers and stereotyped the type of readers we assume read them. The magazine covers we studied were, Mens Fitness, Junior, digital SLR photography We answered questions like, 'What breakfast do you think the reader eats?' and, 'Do they have a car' etc. the questions were based on the readers lifestyle. We based our answers on what we think the reader is like such as, For the 'Mens Fitness' we assume they would eat healthy/organic food.

Also, we were given a task to come up with 2 other questions that relate to our age audience. The questions I came up with were 'has he got a degree', and, 'What brand of clothes do they wear'.

An ideal reader for this magazine would be a middle aged woman/ mother. She would probably be eating cereals such as Special K for breakfast as they would be trying to loose weight from their pregnancy. they would also drive a people carrier as they may have more kids already and it is a family car. the woman reading this magazine would probably live in a 4 bedroom house, and in her free time would watch family shows and possibly cartons/l to entertain her kids. She would also want her family eat healthy and organic food, and most probably choose family holiday resorts to go over the summer.


This lesson helped me understand what type of reader I want to buy my magazine.

Front Cover Draft

Today I drew a draft of my magazine front cover and contents page. I used my research of other magazines to help me with the layout and what is most attractive to our age audience. I made the title of the magazine bold and eye catching to grasp the reader’s attention. Unlike my title ideas I decided to change around a few things like, I added an exclamation mark and moved the ‘A’ into the star.  I chose do decorate the page with flashy advertisements of what would be in the actual magazine such as ‘BANG’ this is just a replacement of what could be there. I wrote ‘bang’ as this particular subheading would have something special inside the magazine such as, prizes, vouchers, competitions Ect. Also I wrote some things that would draw the target audience to read it, E.g. ‘GOSSIP’, obviously on the actual magazine I wouldn’t write that, I would write the main subject of the gossip. This could include such things as; new teachers, facilities, or just general gossip within the students. The main picture I drew was the student in the centre of the page; I chose to draw a student as it is a student magazine but also because it is the biggest picture drawn and could be a focus for student buyers.

This is my draft of my contents page, like my front cover, I researched contents pages for a younger audience. There were several very impressive contents pages that I saw and will defiantly help me towards my final piece. For my draft I used the same title that’s on my front cover, joint with the word ‘contents’ preferably in a different font. I put all the sections into one area of the page as it helps the reader see everything inside the magazine. I wrote down 6 sections of the contents, however might well increase or decrease. I cleared a space for a photo maybe of a student. 

As this is only a draft i expect alot to change and improve.

Collage magazine questionnaire

Collage magazine questionnaire:

Circle the answer:

o   How old are you?    10-15    16-20    21-25    26-30    30+

o   What is your gender?     Male     or    Female

o   What courses are you studying?   ………………………………………………

o   List 3 of your favorite hobbies:  ……………………………………………….

o   How often do you read magazines?

               1-3 times a week   

 4-6 times a week

 6+

o   What genre of music do you listen to?

R & B

Rock

Pop

Classical

Jazz

Grime

Indie

Urban

Dance

Country

Blues

o   List 4 things you would like to see in this magazine for A-star such as, competitions, Trips, new teachers, new courses, new facilities, when you can use the gym, library, cantine, new sports, school gossip, Etc. Etc.

1)      ………………………………..

2)      ………………………………..

3)      ………………………………..

4)      ………………………………..

5)      ………………………………..

o    Rate the appearance of the front cover out of 10, 10 being the highest

………

o   Rate the appearance of the contence page out of 10, ten being the highest

……...

o   Rate this questionnaire out of ten, ten being the highest.

……….

o   Any other comments?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

                                   

stereotype: A stereotype or "stereotypes" is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and 'prejudice'  are often confused with many other different meanings. Stereotypes are simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions. E.g, All blonds are slow, All emos cut them selves, All Asians are smart.

archetype: An archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol recognized by everyone. E.g the Nike tick, in most advertisements we do not need the words 'Nike' to recognise what it is advertising

Media institutions use stereotypes because the audience will intently relate to them and this is called visual shortcut.

gender and media representation:

Gender is possibly the basic group we use for categorization individuals, and it is a key subject when discussing representation. necessary elements of our own identity, and the identities we assume other people to have, come from concepts of gender, what does it mean to be a male or a female? Many objects, not just people, are represented by the media as being particularly masculine or feminine, particularly in advertising and we grow up with an awareness of what make up 'appropriate' characteristics.

Research Film Posters

In this lesson I have decided to research Film posters for existing teenage movies. Firstly, I had to think of 3 movies with appropriate posters to post to my blog. Once I thought about the 3 films to research, i had to think about how the teenager is presented, how the image is used on the film poster and what comments i have about the layout and design.

 

'Juno' is a typical teenage movie about a girl of 16 who become pregnant. This poster includes 2 teenagers, a male and female. The presentation of these 2 teenagers are quite obvious, the male looks clueless and lost whereas the female looks dominant and sophisticated. The stereotypical view on this film is about the pregnant girl. this is becasue there is an increase of teenage mothers in modern day life.

This a great example of a teenage film. The title poster says it all. In this poster the teenager shown is to be a popular, good looking, Fashionable and confident teenager. In this poster the only picture shown in the teenager. This could tell the viewer that the whole film is based around this teenager. My comments about this poster is that it is very simple but very clear. The tagline in this film is shown at the very top of the poster, it says 'who says you are only young once?'.



Star Logo Reaserch

I have decided to research design titles which have stars in there logo to help me with designing my own. Firstly I looked all over the web to find design title that have stars included into there names. I chose three that i found as i think they are attractive to there target audience. As i chose them for there stars i will only be focusing on them.

I liked this design as it includes well placed stars in the name and in its setting. This particular is aimed at young, singing female audience. the colours of the stars are well chosen and are well suited to its title. This particular design encouraged me to add the stars to the surrounding name                                   

In this design they based the whole title around there star. I like how the font mixed well with the shape and colour of the star. It seems they made the design as if the was moving, this is also because the whole title is based on a racing school.

Titles Ideas

I have started to design my title. For my Frist design i didn't have Photo shop on my home PC, Therefor i used the 'Paint' application. Firstly, I looked all over the web for design ideas and Fonts. I looked through many websites such as, http://www.1001freefonts.com/ and http://www.urbanfonts.com/.

But then i came across http://www.dafont.com/. This was much easier and faster. You simply select a font and write whatever it is you want to write. There was hundreds to choose from but this particular font caught my eye. I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate for my magazine but after much thought i choose to work on it.



This is my first design, I went for an 'Urban' look. I kept the letters and the star black as bright and vibrant coloring wouldn’t suite it. I choose this font as it blends well with the star. I didn't design the star to be anything exciting as i think it looks better and mixes well with the font.


For this design i went for a 'Stamp' look. As if a teacher has stamped a grade onto a students paper. i thought this would well suit the title,'A-star' as it is catchy and believable. The chose to use a font as stamp like as possible. i chose to use the colour red as it mixes in well with the style of the title.

For this design i tryed to make it look trendy and modern. i can imagine this as a good magazine title as it is big, bold and colourful. I used the colour red as it is bright and is suitable for the font.

Photo Shop Introduction

In today’s lesson I was introduced to Photoshop. First of all we were told to choose a picture from our folder and to upload it onto Photoshop. We were then told to experiment with all the unfamiliar tools to see how confident we were with Photoshop. After having a little play- around with all the tools we were then given a lesson on how to give our chosen picture weird and wonderful effects and colors. We were taught about how to move things around, how to color them, rotate them etc.
Today’s lesson was very productive and will help me a great deal in photo shopping pictures.

Magazine Cover Reaserch

To begin my preliminary work, first if all I searched online to find out how other popular magazine producers displayed there magazines.This would drive in the right direction to creating my own magazine cover for a school/collage. I examined the font, Style, Contexts and colors and how the convey a magazine cover.
 In conclusion to this, I looked at how different magazines are aimed a different people and genders. For example the way that Console magazines are aimed at gamers and mostly males.

This is a typical example of a 'girly' magazine. This magazine purpose would be to inform woman about this years cloth fashion, how to look better, how to increase your confidence ect. Notice how it is very bright and colourfull. The most noticable colours are pink and white. We accosiate pink as a very feminine colour. All the subheadings that are dissplayed are related to a womans life. For example, in bright pink on the left hand side, it says "43 things every confident woman knows", this is aimed at a female audience.

The most obvious picture shown is a woman. This also tell buyers that this is magazine is for woman.The fonts shown are very big and bright, this is to attract the target audience. The title of the magazine "Glamour" is very clearly shown at the top of the magazine. The first time I saw the magazine, the title and the woman as the first thing that caught my eye as they use most of the space available.

In contrast to the "Glamour" magazine, i have chosen to study a games magazine. This targets a younger, more teenage audience. The purpose of this magazine is to inform teenagers about the latests games, gaming eqiupment, soon coming games ect. This particulare magazine is advatising a new realised game, "Medal of Honor". The chosen colours in this magazine are quite dark. However, they use bright yellow on the title to catch the readers eye. I think the reason they chose dark colours to promote this game is because it is a combat/war type of game. Dark colours suite this genre. the first this i notice about this magazine is the man holding a huge gun. this is also the main picture of the magaizine. This is a very good picture to use for this particular front cover magazine as it attracts a gamers eye. The font used for the title is very big and very clear.

These magazines have helped me towards creating my own magazine cover. It has told me that the fonts, styles, images, colours and contexts should all suite the genre on the magazine and be appropriate for the target audience.