DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD DRAFT

    This is my draft of my double page spread for my music magazine. I had the idea that my magazine, as it pays homage to vintage and classic music, would have a monthly article where they would review and talk about an artist prior to the 21st century. So I decided to make a mock up of this article. I had David Bowie as the main point of my article as I had already made a cover of him and I decided I could continue with that theme to demonstrate my ability to follow a house style. I am also working on a mock content page which I will post soon. 
 
For my double page spread, I followed on with the colour scheme I had previously laid out in my David Bowie cover. However the pink, which is what I was going to use for the block back ground, was too dark, so I used a more washed out pink for the main body.
 
My article on the page is unfortunately not my own, as I didn't want to spend to much time on my draft. So instead I wrote the introduction so that the basis of the article was down, and then the rest of it was a Wikipedia article. For my real thing I will write it myself but just to get the feel of what the text would look like on the page I cheated a little. I added a few bits of intertextuality into my portion of the article to indicate I understand what it means and how to use it consciously. In addition I thought that would be a nice add on for Bowie fans out there.
 
The main layout of the page was just to demonstrate that I knew how conventions worked and to be honest I like it much better than what would happen if I did it non conventionally. I don't know if this is because the conventions have been ingrained in me since a young age but that's an essay for a different post. Within the main text I used 3 basic columns, then went onto adjust around the quote I put on there. I wanted to use it as a pull quote but unfortunately I did not have an interview with David Bowie so I used a famous quote of his instead.
 
 
And finally to add more interest to the second page, I added a picture of David Bowie at the bottom right hand corner. I choose one specifically where he was looking dead into the camera as I wanted to make this page stand out a little more, and so having his signature eyes on show, was a way I hoped it would catch the readers attention. In addition its the only picture of David Bowie I have so far that is looking at the camera. The main photo of the article and the cover have him looking away, but this one he is looking ahead. I did this because the quote is on that page saying how he wants to be more than human, and the way he looks into the camera is almost as if he is addressing the reader himself. The idea of being more than normal hits home with a lot of people, so looking them in the eye makes them relate more to him than the other pictures where he is looking away.  

MAGAZINE MOCK UPS

I decided to make some mock magazine covers so that i could be certain with the style that I wanted for the magazine. These turned out a little differently than from what I had in mind but I'm still very pleased with how they turned out. I kept with the idea of space and vintage all mixed to together, but I did it in a way I had not originally planned. 


My first one I took a picture of David Bowie on the cover of one of his albums, because the background was so clear, it was easy to edit out. However, when it got to editing around him and putting it on the background, it looked a little out of place. So a friend of mine suggested I make it look like pop art and put a white line between him and the background. I really liked the way that looked. I then went on to add the band titles. Whilst playing around with the editing I put a space image over the entire picture. I really liked the way it looked on his dark jacket so I went back and edited stars onto his jacket. I really love this element of the picture as it's subtle (most people didn't notice until I pointed it out) but without it the picture felt like it was missing something.



My second cover looked a little bit move unconventional. I found a picture of child playing a drum and thought that this could be some sort of album cover. In my survey, I asked which would people prefer, an artist on the cover, or album art, and most people picked album art.  

Here are a few over covers I made.








Intertextuality

Intertextuality, a way to make the nerd feel smart and the movie fans feel honoured. The time old method of paying homage to other pieces of text, within your own work. I plan on using a lot of intertextuality within my work, even my magazines name is based entirely off of intertextual references within intertextual references. So what is it?

Intertextuality is a way some content creators add references to other peoples work. A good example of this is actually the entirety of The Simpsons, which one of its main points of humour is built around intertextuality. Other shows like family guy and south park also use but sometimes in a more satirical way than The Simpsons.

However intertextuality can extend further than comedic value. In the recently released film The Martian, they have the character played by Sean Bean explain what the council of Elrond is from the Lord of the Rings. I thought this was a nice intertextual reference as Sean Bean is obviously in the Lord of the Rings films.

Intertextuality comes in a few different forms, Extreme, Subtle and unintentional

Extreme 

Extreme would be the Family Guy example to the right, where they are obviously dressed a posed like the Star Wars movie poster. This type of reference is so obvious you don't need to be a fan of the thing they are referencing to get it. This usually happens when people want to pay tribute to something and they want people to know they did. Some other examples are The Simpsons reference to Clockwork Orange, and the album cover of Nirvana

Subtle

Subtle would be like The Martian example I said earlier. It's only usually noticed by people who are fans of the text they are referencing. This personally is my favourite type of intertextuality as it makes you feel flattered and smart if you get the reference, and we all like to feel smart. I know that when I was in the cinema watching The Martian, it made me so happy that I got the reference they made and the person I was seeing it with didn't. So subtle intertextuality is usually used as a lighter way to pay homage to a previous piece of text, but is also used as a way to make the audience feel good about themselves.

Unintentional

This happens when someone does something in their content that is similar to that of another creators work. As this is unintentional, it means it is not a way to pay respect to the original idea, or a way to flatter the audience, it just sometimes happens by accident. It's usually much later when someone comes along and says that something the creator made is similar to something another creator made, and usually the person who had the reference in their content, didn't even know the other persons content existed.


Bauer Media Group is a huge European media company, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany that has more than 600 magazines, 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations under their wing.  They have been going since 1953 and are on of the largest publishing firms in the world. With magazines like Q and SmashHits in its portfolio, it definitely is a publishing firm to consider if I want my magazine to be guaranteed to reach a large audience. In addition, as it has a large amount of clients, it could be considered a reliable firm and they definitely have knowledge and experience in the publishing field. 


Time Inc. UK,  formally known as IPC Media, is a the leading British publishing firm in print and and digital magazine production. They were founded in the mid 1800's and has over 60 brands in its clientele including NME and UNCUT.

 
Independent Publishing is done mostly by Indie magazines. This means they rely entirely on the proceeds of their sales to keep them running. Magazines such as DAZE and CLASH as produced by there own private publishing firms. 



Apollo Greek god

NAMING THE MAGAZINE

Naming the magazine, one of the hardest choices in the entire design process that requires a lot of thought and time put into it. As I have already laid out a few of the fundamental themes I would like to have as the back bone of my magazine, it was a lot easier to come up with a handful of names that would fit these criteria. I had three main factors I wanted the name to include in it's connotation. 
  1.  I wanted it to have a space futuristic feel to it as I want the magazine to have an element of revolutionary themes. I thought having a name surrounding the theme of space would full fill this category very well.
  2. I wanted the magazine to also pay homage to our routes in music, for example classic music, or music that still sticks with us today. As my magazine is being sold in a western society, I thought it would be extremely fitting to link the name back what some people would consider is the route of western culture, Ancient Greece. I wanted this part of the name to tell a story as history is about stories, so making it link back to Greek mythology would connote the idea that my magazine likes stories.
  3. I obviously want the magazine name to be something that is music related, as it is a music magazine. There isn't much more to this requirement, but I knew the name had to relate to music in one way or another
All this considered I came up with a handful of names that links to some of these requirements, most of them link to two but I was especially interested in the ones that could link to all three. In the end I narrowed it down to three options which I then put them in my questionnaire to see what others thought of those options. Those three were 
  • Apollo
  • Pandora 
  • Aulete
In the end I opted for Apollo, for my current working title, as not only does it fit all my categories but the story behind Apollo fits my design perfectly. Apollo in Greek mythology is the Greek God of music, the sun, and also prophesy. In fact he was in charge of the oracle of delphi. Apollo's name also link heavily to space, as we all know about the famous space program in the 60's and 70's.

Apollo has all aspects that I wanted the name to connote, Music, Mythology and Space. So even though it is not final as I may change my mind along the way, I definitely am learning heavily towards the name Apollo.

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THE MISSION

To create a front cover, contents page and double page spread of a music magazine with original Images and design.

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