Full and Final product

 

 

Full Magazine

Since my last update I had altered my double page spread a bit, I had edited out some spelling mistakes after prof reading it and I had also added more stars to the spread, to make certain areas look less empty and plain. I had also noticed a small error in my content page, it seemed that I had put in page number of the story in my news column as the same number of my double page spread, so I quickly altered this on Indesign by changing the page number on the content from 20 to 25.

Magazine double page Spread final draft

 Here is my completed double page spread, I am very happy with the results and I am hoping that I would have to alter it in anyway. My Indesign skills have definitely improved since the first time I used Indesign and all together this has been a great project to do, I cant wait unto I begin my evaluation and hopefully my magazine is successful with my chosen demographic.

Designing My double page spread

I began my double page spread process on Photoshop as they were a few things I needed to do before I started layering text that I didn't know how to do on Indesign. What this was, was to create a background consisting of a greycale and RBG version of the same image on the same image on a black and white background.
First I cropped out my desired images from its background and edited it more, Then I saved the image, and duplicated it but this time I made the image black and white, after this I had layered the black and white image onto of a black background then I layered on a white shape on top of the image, I then warp the shape to make it look distorted, after that I had then layered on the RGB image on top of the white background, saved the entire image as a JPEG and that was the end of the Photoshop process.

 

After the Photoshop process I created a new Indesign document, with two pages and four columns in each page, my the document was created I then drew out a massive frame box that took up most of the page, I then placed my photoshoped image in the frame box and made sure it fitted proportionally by right clicking and going to the fitting option and making sure that the the fit frame proportionally option was selected this made sure that my image was not squeezed or squashed onto the frame box.

After this I began putting the tittle of the article into indesign, I used three different fonts, Knockout, Quicksand and Quicksand regular. I put each word into a different text box , this was done to make sure that there wasnt any spacing problems when I decide to change the size of proximity of the individual words.

 

For my next step, I decided to add a pull phrases in quotes in black and white boxes, this quote was done in the Nemoy font, I also added pages numbers at the bottom left and right of the page in the Quicksand font. I also added some stars to my DPS to decorate it and fill up some empty blank spaces. 

For My final steps I added a few more stars to the page to fill up more gaps, I added a tag line giving photo and editing credits to be self at the top right next the the black image and at the bottom of the article. I had began to right m Article I used a drop cap for the two first letters in each paragraphs and I had used the knock out font for the drop cap whilst everything else was the Quicksand font apart from the word 'Radical' which I made all capitals and in the Nemoy font because during my research I had learned that radical is on of the slang words that teenagers who listen to alternative rap use, I done my made it stand out to pull the attention of the readers so that the first thing they see in the article is that word, letting them  be aware that this magazine was created for their demographic. I also decide to use another quote in my DPS but this time it was in the middle of the article, I made it bold and used the Knockout font so that once again audience will be draw to it first instead of any other word, I also use the wrap text option to allow the text wrap around the text box which gives it a much more sleek and professional look.

Double page spread planing 2

After doing some research on the conventions of double page spreads I came across a video and a man analyzing double page spread conventions, which I found very interesting and after watching a few of his videos I can across a double page spread which I thought was very beautiful and well done, this double page spread will be what I will be using as my inspiration for my own double page spread. I also drew up a new draft for my double page spread to make it easy when actually creating my DPS.

Double Page Spred planning

So here a a quick and sloopy plan I had created for my double page spread, for inspiration I looked for double page spreads with large images in the center.

 

Front Cover and Content page (Side to side)

 

So far I am very pleased with the progress I am making with this project especially with the progress I had made with Indesign, I have to admit before I started my content page I was very anxious about using Indesign but after creating my contents I am reassured that I will be able to make a great double page spread. 

So far with my magazine I am able to convey a tone of uni sex this was because from my research I had learned that the alternative rap scene is mostly male dominated and females in the scene were not getting enough coverage, so I decided to make my coverstar a female and also use neutral colours for my magazines so it doesn't connote and gender dominance and inequality.

Designing my content page

First I wanted to create my masthead, the method I used to create my masthead in Indesign is very similar to the method that I had used in photoshop, except the tools were in different places with different names, first I drew out a large text box for my "INDIE" text then i changed the font to Ali, changed the size of the font, changed the spacing between the font and also changed the opacity of the font to get my desired look. Then I drew out a smaller text box for my "Magazine" text changed the font to Quicksand regular, altered the spacing a little bit, changed the opacity and then used the rotation tool to rotate it to a 90 degree angle, after this I then layered the magazine text on top of the e in my masthead to recreate my masthead.

 The  next step I had to make was adding my content title text, the date of the issue and the page number. This process was fairly similar to the process of creating my masthead. First I drew out a text box for my contents, changed the font, spacing and size of the font, the font for my contents is Quicksand dash. For my date and page number I drew a smaller text box and did the same thing, except at a smaller scale, for my date I used the Quicksand regular font and for my page number I used the Quicksand dash font.  

 

After this step I drew out a rectangular frame for one of my images to fit in, then I began drawing the boxes for my tables, I tried saving a paragraphs style to use for my heading but for some strange reason it wasn't working for me and it slowed me down quite a lot so I gave up and drew up my content tables, I drew out my content tables with a text box then adding a stroke with a 0.25 weight. The font I used for my headings was Nemoy I made the font size 26 and added spacing to the "Features" and "Regulars" text so they fill up the tire text box. 

 

For next step I wanted to import a photo of my second model into the content, but instead of in a box like my first modelI wanted him the image to act like a background for my content page, first I made a new layer for my second model and then placed in underneath my initial layer then I clicked on the file button the went to the place options and chose the image of my model that I wanted to use. After scaling the image I went to the object menu and clicked on clipping path, in the pop of menu I changed the setting from none to detect edges, this just removes the background of the image and allows me to wrap text around the image.

Next I had changed to colours of my text boxes to grey and then changed to opacity of of the boxes to 50%, after that I began adding text, just like I did in my front cover I used different colours to make it text clearer to read at some points. The fonts I used for my text were Nemoy and Quicksand regular. At some point I was staring at the mirror and saw my work, I though the content page looked a lot better flipped so I flipped my work and i was very happy with the results. 

Next I imported a picture of my magazine front cover and placed it in the box at the bottom center along side some text encouraging my readers to subscribe to my magazine. I also added a few more text to the white and plain part of my content to make it look more busy. 

 

My next step was to add some stars to my page, I just copied and pasted them from my cover page, I also drew a cross to go with the stars along with a puff that is identical to the puff on my front cover. 

 

The final changed that I had made was to add more stars to the empty spaces, I made a pull out quote for my male model in the Rapier Zero font; this draws out the masculinity of my male model, in contrast to the floral font I used to draw out the femininity of my female model, all together this connotes a sense of unity through genders as this is a uni sex magazine.  

All together I am very happy with ow my content page turned out and i hope to make no changes to it.

Content Page Planing

Well before I hit Indesign I thought it would be really necessary to create a m ore updated version of my content design. I had hand drawn this design and I had also used the content pages of NME and Mojo for influences for planing for planing my content page. Since my last post I have watched a few video tutorials on using Indesign and I have since become fairly confident in using Indesign.

Learning Curve

Up until this point I viewed my self as some sort of an expert at using Adobe programs and doing effective research but unfortunately I am quite inexperienced at using inDesgin and at previous attempts to cover the basis of this program I had failed, but I need to overcome this fare of using this program, so before I began creating my content page and double Page spread I will research online and watch video tutorials on how top use this program to perfection, and I aim to be a pro at using inDesign by the time I finish this project.

Photo edit 3

Before

After

Photo edit 2

Before

After

Photo edit 1

Before

After 

Photo Editing ( fast and easy)

Unlike my first photoshoot these images did not need that much editing because they were already at the desired quality I wanted for my content page, for example I did not have to change the colour of my models hair because it is part of my star image, ( frankly my model barely had any hair hehe :D). for my photo  edits all I did was use the curve tool to get the desired brightness and contrast that I needed for my photos, and then I cropped out my model and put him in a plain white background, but this was barely noticeable.

Photoshoot 2 outcomes

Here are the photographs that I took for my magazine second photoshoot.

2nd Photoshoot Inspiration and planing

Since my magazine is a unisex magazine and I had already featured a female model for my coverstar I though it was only right to feature a male model to feature next to my female model for my content page. I did not really have an inspiration for my second photoshoot but I did have a set outcome in my mind, I aimed for my photshoot to consist of a handsome male against a white backdrop.
I had asked my school if I could use its photography room for my photoshoot and they had granted me access the photography room and the equipment I need for my shoot, I unlike my first shoot this shoot did not have any props or a set so the shoot was very quick since Tyler the creator and Asap rocky were part of my star image I decided that I should use some photos of them for inspirations for shoots.

I had asked my model to bring a slim fit black top to the shoot and leave the rest up to me. I had brought in a denim shirt for the shoot and a light blue shirt similar to the shirt Tyler the creator is wearing above but at a much lighter tone.

Magazine Front Cover draft

Here are my final changes to my front cover  

Not alot has changed to my magazine since the last time I uploaded it, except the change of colours to certain fonts so that they can be read properly without the white border, I removed the white border because I believed that it made my magazine look more like an album cover that a magazine cover page so it had to go, besides the front cover looks alot better without the white border blocking out most of the image, there was a spelling mistake at the bottom line, it read "you use listen to" instead of you should listen to so I changed it, and WALA!! My final draft (hopefully ) for my front cover.

Magazine front cover draft 4

Here is my new and improved front cover  

 

Nemoy Font

The only thing I had kept the same in my front cover since the reboot was the font used for the artist name and the coverline everything else is alot different, I had finally decided on a half body shot that I would like to use as my cover image. I had introduced two new fonts for my paragraphs styles, Nemoy and Quicksand regular, I had also used different coulours for the font as I had seen in the Rap Up magazines in addition to this I had also included a puff at the bottom right of the magazine for a competition.I had taken influence from Pop magazine by placing ,my cover image in a circle in the center of the page and leaving the rest of the page a blank colour, I believe this helps to set the new sophisticated tone for my magazine that I was hoping to set with my new masthead and title. I had also included little stars on my cover similar to the stars used in the Rap Up magazine cover, I believe that this not only helps to fill up empty spaces on my page but it is also appealing to look at.

Quicksand Font 

 

Changes

Before I began to create a new Magazine front cover I though it would be necessary to create a new magazine masthead to match the new look. In the process of creating a new masthead I also slightly changed the title of my magazine, I had changed the title from indie to INDIE MAGAZINE. I felt that the change of title was necessary to match the new tone of ,my magazine.

Ali font

Quicksand font

I had decided to base the design of my new masthead off the design of the Hip hop connection logo, this is because the masthead and titles consist of two words and I liked the way the editors and incorporated the word Connections into the word Hip-hop, which is what I had done to my masthead, I had incorporated the word magazine into the word Indie. I had used the Ali font to form the main body of my Masthead whilst I used the Quicksand regular font to create the magazine text. I had change the main color of my masthead from red to grey, because I believe this portrays a more sophisticated approach the the theme of my magazine and also ,makes my magazine look "expensive" (cost for than £5.00)

My new Masthead

Hip-Hop Connection Masthead