Padd Solutions

For the construction of my magazine, I used only four fonts, that I liked and deemed appropriate for my content, to create an in-house style, readers could easily recognise that each page of my magazine was designed for the same magazine.

The fonts I chose were: 'News Goth,' 'Telegrafico,' 'Chopin Script' and 'Varsity.'

'News Goth' was the font I used for all the standard text in my magazine. It is important to have an easily readable font for the main text of a magazine, however I feel that News Goth has a better look than other standard fonts such as Arial and Helvetica. I used News Goth in my cover page, my contents page, my double page spreads and my advertisement.

'Telegrafico' was the font I chose for my masthead, and some titles throughout my magazine to further the in-house style, as it is bold and edgy while being simple enough to see from a distance, on magazine racks for example, and would be easily recognisable to my magazine. I used Telegrafico in my cover page, contents page and my double page spreads.

'Chopin Script' was the font I chose for the main title of my double page spread article for 'Lily & Her Heart.' I wanted an elegant font that contrasted with the boldness of the rest of the text within my magazine. I used Chopin Script in my double page spreads.

'Varsity' was the font I chose for my advertisement to become the logo of one of my fictional singers within the magazine, 'Spectra Diamandis.' I chose it because the font is derived from American high school's football teams and is highly stylised, I wanted to make it clear the fact that Diamandis is a young up-coming American artist and this font achieved that well.

As for the fonts, I narrowed my choice down to three, 'Goca Logotype,' 'Sugo' and 'Telegrafico,' all of them downloaded for free from dafont.com.



Above are examples of my magazine's title in each font.

I like the artistic graphics of 'Goca Logotype' however I prefer 'Telegrafico' because it reminds me of retro newspaper font faces. I also like 'Sugo' because it manages to be simple but is effective as it grabs your attention with it's bold style. All three fonts have their merits, however, I like the look of 'Telegrafico' best so I will use it for my magazine title.

To create the magazine, we had a choice of using Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Publisher as they are both Desktop Publishers (DTP). I decided to solely use Adobe Photoshop as it allowed me to create a more professional look then would have been possible in Microsoft Publisher. I also have more experience with Adobe Photoshop so it was a natural choice for me.

Cover Page Hand Draft:



Contents Page Hand Draft:



Double Page Spread Hand Draft 1:



Double Page Spread Hand Draft 2:



Advertisement Hand Draft:

For an advertisement I will be advertising a fictional singer, Spectra Diamandis', album entitled 'Incendiary.' The advertisement will feature the album's cover in the centre of the page, which I will design to the specifications I have already discussed in the Photograph planning. The rest of the page will be filled with overlaid photographs of fire that I have previously taken. The colour scheme will be black, red, and white. The black to match the dark contrasts in the photograph, the red to match the flame manipulation I will add to the photograph and the white to use within the text to contrast the red and black. The advertisement will state the release date and provide a website for readers to find out more information on Spectra Diamandis.

The double page spread will actually be two double page spreads as it is rare to find a main article, especially one that is featured on the front cover of a magazine, like mine, that is less the four pages long. However the first page of the first double page spread is usually a large image so I will apply that idea to my magazine as well. The article will be based on my fictional artist "Lily & Her Heart," who is also featured on the cover and prominently in the contents page. I will also feature a mini-review of her album, "Fractured," for which I will also create a CD cover using my own original artwork combined with Photoshop.

The article will focus on Lily's return from America to her roots in England and her home and her relationship with her brother and sister's band 'Ghosts.' The photographs will feature Lily against brick walls to symbolise her own home and laid in grassy areas to symbolise her own garden. I will include a short 'Bio' section which will give some quickfire facts about Lily. The colour scheme for the text of the article will be primarily red/pink, black and white.

For my contents page I will give a simple, alphabetical list of the bands within the magazine on the left hand side and what page they're featured on, which is reminiscent of NME's contents page style which I find very effective, as it allows you to search for your favourite bands and cut straight to their article first, a feature I have found particularly useful when reading NME magazine myself. The rest of the page will conform to the usual contents page conventions and will contain information about the regulars of the magazine (such as Letters, Competitions and Reviews), and photographs relating to the main features within the magazine: the cover lines on the cover page, as well as another image of 'Lily & Her Heart.'

My cover page will consist of one straight on, close up image of my model acting as the fictional indie rock solo outfit, Lily & Her Heart. She will be wearing a fashionable checked shirt and will be smiling. The masthead will be placed in the top left of the cover page and the title of my magazine is Discord, it's tag line being "From Discord, Find Harmony." The price will be £3.10 and the bar code will be placed in the bottom right corner. The cover lines will surround the model's face and will be regarding other bands and artists featured within the magazine. I will use 4 or 5 cover lines (depending on how well they fit with the layout) which will be;

"THE LACKLUSTRES return to the UK for one-off show!"
"ALTERED YOUTH frontman, TRISTAN THORN's new solo record reviewed!"
"BELOVED launch UK tour with US giants, LINNET BIRD!"
"Sex, drugs & videogames, ROSE WITH SHARDS tell of their journey to the top!"
"Get your hands on KILL ROMANCE's live DVD!"

The main cover line will be;
"LILY & HER HEART: Returns home after whirlwind success in the States!"

Each cover line is relevant to music magazines conventions and although the magazine is aimed more at females the prospective readers would know they're mainly females and female lead bands, if they were real. I think it's better to not expressly state that the magazine is aimed at females as that might deter some males from buying it. I may adjust these cover lines to better suit the layout if necessary.

The colour scheme of the front page will be red, black and white as I have noticed in my textual analysis this a very prominent colour scheme in conventional music magazines.

Cover Image & Double Page Spread (& Contents Page):

Solo Female: "Lily & Her Heart"

Models - One female.
Cover: Medium close up. Straight on. Cropped to have model's face on the left hand side (to make room for cover lines on the right), brick wall in shot behind her.
Double Page Spread: Sitting/lying on grass and stood in front of brick wall again. Small photograph of model with a cat for a Bio section.
Locations - Locations; mixture of brick walls and grassy areas.
Costumes - Fashionable, checked shirt.

Contents Page:

Solo Male: "Polygraph"

Models - One male. Smiling, indicating a laid-back interview, sat on a motorbike.
Locations - Outdoors with a motorbike.
Costumes - Casual attire.

Female Band: "Rose with Shards"

Models - Rose and Leann. Serious looking portraits, back to back. Bright lighting, background whited out.
Locations - Anywhere with a white wall.
Costumes - Casual attire.

Advert:

Solo Female: "Spectra Diamandis"

Models - One female. Extreme close up. Straight on. Only her left eye and nose will be visible after cropping. I will also be adding a fire layer across her eye, the fire photograph has been taken previously by me.
Locations - Location not important as it is an extreme close up.
Costumes - Only the face will be visible so no costume details are necessary.

For the selling line I have decided that rather than make up a selling line I will use a quote relating to the magazine title, Discord, to give it a more professional feel. I have found two that I feel are appropriate and would go well with my overall aim to create a sophisticated music magazine aimed at both men and women, but leaning more to being aimed at women.

The first is a quote by Albert Einstein; "From discord, find harmony," which is speaking about using discord, a harsh mixture of sounds, to find harmony, which in music terms would be the kind of music that gets an artist well-known, and therefore is the music the magazine will be covering.

The second is a quote from the play 'A Midsummer's Night Dream' by William Shakespeare; "So musical a discord, such sweet thunder," which is speaking about how something that could be interpreted as sounding terrible by one person could be wonderful to someone else. I feel that this quote is more appropriate to my magazine as I have already discussed that the name Discord gives this message as well, however, I think the Einstein selling line is much more memorable as it is simplistic so I will choose "From Discord, Find Harmony," as my selling line.