Mood Board

InDesign Introduction

Another software that we have been taught to use in preparation for our Music Magazine is Adobe InDesign. InDesign is a programme that is used often in the magazine industry for magazines such as NME, Q, MOJO etc...

The reason why it is used so often is because it allows you to position/ align text and images correctly which is essential when making your work professional. Once you have opened InDesign a pop up comes up like every other Adobe program asking if you want guidelines such as gutters, borders, leaning and kerning this is important because it is helpful to give our page an organised look which is what makes it professional.

 

Here is an Example on InDesign:

 

 

Analysis and Deconstruction of Old School Newsletter

Last week I took part in a task of analysing and deconstructing one of Deyes High Schools old Newsletter. I have analysed each feature that I could and commented on what I think is a good attribute, I have also attached it bellow so you can see what you agree with or what you don't agree with.

The last thing is please comment on the post, if there is anything that you think I have missed out or wrong on please comment, this way I will be able to see someone else's view and compare it to my own.

 

School Magazine

For the past week in media we have been taking part in an assignment to create a school newsletter using Photoshop and InDesign.

 

Before I created my Newsletter I decided that it wouldn't be as good as I could make it because it can show my progress through using both Photoshop and InDesign.

When we got the set the task to gather picture I was quick for ideas. I decided that it is best to promote Deyes by being happy and not dull so I settled with an idea that I could have two student walking down the school discussing work and also being happy that way I could promote the students smart dress code, the schools facilities, the hard work that students put in and also that they can have a good time and be happy. I used the Clone Stamp to get rid of any marks on the walls and also little pieces of rubbish on the floor. Another technique I used was Brightness and Contrast control where I increased both by a little bit so that the corridor didn't look to dull and dark.

The second page I made was the contents page, on this page I decided to show off the schools memorabilia as it shows what the school has achieved over the past couple of years. I used bold text so that it can stand out to the reader. One of the main changes I did you can see in the bottom right hand corner where I clone stamped a chair, the reason I did this is because I wanted the trophy cabinet to be centre of attention which I tried to do as much as I could using the rule of thirds. The last thing I did was put a yellow/gold glow on the cabinet as it increases the sense of achievement with connotations of yellow and gold being victory, first place and happiness etc..




             

Semiotics

Semiotics can be applied to anything and in media it is applied a lot as it can be seen as signifying something. In other words, it can be applied to everything which has meaning within a skill or perception.

Even within the mass media you can execute semiotic analysis to any media, for example: Television and radio programmes, films, cartoons, newspaper and magazine articles, posters and other ads that you analyse using semiotics and also the practices that involve  producing and interpreting such texts.

 

The most common semiotic signs are:

How they or something is communicating to the reader?

What does it symbolize?

What does it indicate?

How they make us feel?

Who are they designed for?

and...

Why are they designed?

 

Looking up semiotic has proved to me that it is going to be a valid term to keep in minds when creating my Music Mag as it is all going to link up to create a relation between signs and the reader because they have the decision on deciding what each sign means.

 

 

Photoshop Introduction

Over the past couple of weeks during media lessons we have been set tasks on Adobe Photoshop CS5, using all the tools that will be essential when making my Music Magazine.

Adobe Photoshop is a software that is used across the magazine industry and also in general publicity. It allows you to give your work that professional edge that you see in the stores.

 

One of the tools we used was the Spot Healing Tool :

In this video it shows how I used the Spot healing tool and also another tool called a Clone Stamp. First of all the spot healing tool quickly removes blemishes and other imperfections that you don't want in your image. It paints with sampled pixels from the image you are editing and matches the texture, lighting, transparency, and shading of the sampled pixels to the pixels being healed.

Before and After Shots:

                                                                                                                                                           

As you can see the original photo needs a little bit of editing so using the Spot Healing tool I clicked on all the imperfections that I didn't want and then I used the clone stamp to edit the areas that I previously used to get rid of the imperfections so that I could make the image more natural and not blatantly obvious that I had used Photoshop to edit.

The other tool I used was the clone stamp, the clone stamp tool paints one part of an image over another part in the same image. You can also paint part of one layer over another layer. The Clone Stamp tool in my case though is useful for duplicating objects or removing a defect in an image such as spots etc..

Before and After Shots:

Using the Clone Stamp it allowed me to eliminate the plane below however I prefer the original image but this shows how testing different methods can help with your ultimate decision and that is why I am going to use these two methods when creating my Music Magazine as it will make my Mag look more professional and they could also be the decider with what I am going to include in it.

Ideology

Ideology is important throughout a music magazine because it distinguishes who the target audience is.

For Example:

 In this Top of the Pops magazine you can easily distinguish that its for little girls that have a 'Crush' on the latest teen pop sensation, it also says in block letters 'World Exclusive BATTLE of the FITTEST' The magazine publisher has used teen slang such as 'fit' to make it more interesting for the young reader.

My second example is an NME magazine:

On the other hand this magazine cover is completely different to the top of the pops magazine and will appear differently to different age groups. On the front of this magazine you could say it is more formal because it says 'ARCTIC MONKEYS on the third album that changed them' instead of  'World Exclusive BATTLE of the FITTEST'

 

These two examples show how important ideology is in Music Magazines because without using your sense of ideology the magazine wont appeal to the target audience you are looking for.