Magazine names - getting creative!

You need to think about your magazine name carefully to ensure you are not duplicating what already exists, that you're hitting the right target audience, and that the name matches the aim of the magazine.

Here's a handy list of some example titles you could use BUT you really want to try and come up with your own. Double check your title with your teacher - we don't want it to be lame!

• Drone
• Reverb
• Deadline
• MMM (Modern Music Monthly)
• Resonate
• The Mix
• Frontman
• Riff
• X
• Vox
• Rumpus
• Turntablist
• Freak Out!
• Invisible Jukebox
• Amok
• Fred
• Whoa
• Haute
• Light Fantastic
• Folk You

Magazine fashion and styling

In order for your magazine to successfully appeal to your audience and to meet genre expectations for your style of magazine, you need to research the fashion and styling of the models you will use for your photographs.

You need to therefore produce:

• Mood boards that cover male and female (where appropriate) fashion
• Explanation of how your styling reflects the genre of magazine you're creating

Some examples of good work are on Hanna Burrows' blog and Harry Butler's blog.

Fonts and colour pallettes

Fonts Exemplar – Jojo Downing 2014

Pallette Exemplar – Phoebe Williams 2014

Portfolio schedule

As Foundation Portfolio Schedule

Examples of analysis on double page spreads and contents pages

Magazine Contents Page

Magazine Double Page Spread

Analysis

Magazine and newspaper glossary

Magazine and Newspaper Glossary

Design Layouts: Gutenberg Diagram, Z Pattern & F Pattern

Several layout patterns are often recommended to take advantage of how people scan or read through a design. 3 of the more common are the Gutenberg diagram, the z-pattern layout, and the f-pattern layout.

The pattern applies to text-heavy content. Think pages in a novel or a newspaper. The pattern isn’t meant to describe every possible design.

The Gutenberg diagram describes a general pattern the eyes move through when looking at evenly distributed, homogenous information. Read that last part again.
The pattern applies to text-heavy content. Think pages in a novel or a newspaper. The pattern isn’t meant o describe every possible design.
The Gutenberg diagram divides the layout into 4 quadrants.

• Primary optical area located in the top/left
• Strong fallow area located in the top/right
• Weak fallow area located in the bottom/left
• Terminal area located in the bottom/right

The pattern suggests that the eye will sweep across and down the page in a series of horizontal movements called axes of orientation. Each sweep starts a little further from the left edge and moves a little closer to the right edge. The overall movement is for the eye to travel from the primary area to the terminal area and this path is referred to as reading gravity.
Naturally this is for left to right reading languages and would be reversed for right to left reading languages.
The Gutenberg diagram suggests that the strong and weak fallow areas fall outside this reading gravity path and receive minimal attention unless emphasized visually in some way.
Important elements should be placed along the reading gravity path. For example placing logo or headline in the top/left, an image or some important content in the middle, and a call-to-action or contact information in the bottom right.
Designs that follow Gutenberg are said to be in harmony with natural reading gravity.
The claim is these designs improve reading rhythm, by being in harmony with the natural reading rhythm, as well as improving reading comprehension, but there’s little empirical evidence to support the claim.
Again Gutenberg describes large blocks of text with little typographic hierarchy. As soon as you create a visual hierarchy the diagram no longer applies. Keep this in mind with the other patterns described here.

Year 13 - generating solid ideas

Task:
Brainstorm items or situations that scare people.

Narrative theory
Narrative conventions for trailers are similar to films - Todorov's narrative theory.

• Stage 1 - the state of equilibrium is defined
• Stage 2 - disruption to equilibrium by action or crisis
• Stage 3 - character(s) recognise problem and set goals to solve it
• Stage 4 - character(s) try to fix problem, but there are obstacles
• Stage 5 - equilibrium is re-instated, problem solved, conclusion

Film trailers follow similar patterns - however they can vary in which stages they employ. For example, many trailers will remove stage 5 to build appeal.

Task:
Pick ONE idea from the brainstorm - map out a rough 5-stage narrative for that idea.

Horror narrative structures
3 part play:

• First act focuses on central characters beginning ventures into strange or new and ultimately threatening settings
• Second act focuses on what is unleashed as a result of being in this new and strange environment - violence is rife leaving many/most protagonists dead. Survivors become worn down, fear and tiredness starts to break the group down, people who want to raise the alarm often get laughed off
• Third act is the climax, involving dramatic/apocalyptic showdowns with varying outcomes

Task:
Now fit in the horror narrative structures into your 5-stage narrative (if you haven't already)

Propp characters

• Villain
• Hero
• Donor
• Helper
• Princess
• Dispatcher
• False hero

Task:
Now define the characters in your story - you may need only some or all of these. Who are they in your story?

Task:
Watch three different trailers from your chosen genre. For each trailer identify the different stages of Todorov's narrative theory - use screenshots and explain how it demonstrates the stage in the narrative theory.

Now link the stages of a horror trailer to your own idea - which elements from your narrative structure would you include in the trailer?  Which characters? Which stages and characters would you exclude? Why?

More idea generation suggestions:

Pictures ideas from Sarah Ghost

 

Introduction to year 12

Welcome to year 12!

Things you should have completed in preparation for today:

• Set up your own blog
• Customised your blog
• Researched 10 examples of music magazines
• Find front covers of each
• Read three different types of music magazine and completed a case study on them (see the summer homework PDF for guidance)

This work should have been completed and uploaded to your blogs in preparation for today.

5x5 instructions

1. Choose five areas of the media that you like (see my attempt for guidance)
2. Within each area pick your five favourites
3. Add a description/explanation/justification
4. Add images to illustrate
5. Post on your blog

Preliminary magazine examples

 

AS Foundation Portfolio Brief

Print

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. 

Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.

All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate, minimum of FOUR images per candidate.

Excellent student work 2014