Composition and Layout

The fourth and final task, I was thinking up ideas about what the page layouts of the magazine would be. I did some sketches first of different layouts that I could possibly do and then transferred them digitally.

I used the collages from the previous task to show where the pictures would go and just played around with background colours. I didn't want the page to look too garish but I didn't want it to be too dark. I still wanted some black in there because that's the colour that stereotypically associated with rock music.

I played around with different font sizes and also played around with where the text would go. I didn't want it to be in a big bock, so I made it fit round the images. When I'm developing these ideas in the future, I will start to incorporate my articles in so it looks more professional.

3D work

The third task was taking our previous ideas and making them 3D. Yet again, I was working with the CD sleeve and played around with the idea of the scanned in magazine text. I also started playing around with different fonts, different colours and drop shadows.

I think that all of the ideas worked really well and I think there are a few that I'm going to explore further in the future. For example, the black and white one with the black background with the bands names.

Also for this task, I looked through existing magazines for examples of 3D work there and came across collages of photos and also came across Polaroid print that had been crinkled up at the ends to make them look 3D. I decided that this was really effective but then I realised that technically, I had already done this idea with the collage of scanned in magazine text. This time, I was going to make a collage of band photos that were going to go in the spreads of the magazine and also make Polaroid prints. I created these by using the 'Pic Collage' and the 'InstaCard' apps on my phone. I think they worked really well.

Mixing It Up

When we get set a different task every week, I'm finding it hard to think up ideas for the magazine front cover to use for the tasks. I then remembered that I'm not only doing a magazine front cover, I'm doing a CD sleeve too and I have more space to work with for that. So I decided to use the idea of the CD sleeve for the next couple of tasks.

This weeks task was called 'Mixing It Up' where we had combine different typefaces and experiemting with it against different backgrounds. On this task I used the idea of the using the covers of the band that are going to be on the CD and then make the covers into a collage background. I then played out with different bold fonts and colours to make the title stand out against the background. I then scanned in different parts of text from rock magazines and used that as the background. The next idea I had was to use scanned text from magazines that had just a white background - yet again playing around with the typography of the title.

Another idea I had was to type the names of the bands that were going to be on the CD and use that as a background.

ScAlE aNd PrOpOrTiOn

Over the past week, I've been working on scale and proportion with the phrase 'Rock Movement', which will be the title of my magazine. Firstly, I did a page that had big, blocky ideas and I annotated the effects. The second and third page consisted of illustrated rectangles that would represent the magazine front cover and I had illustrated different ideas within the rectangle for the sale and proportion of the title. This was helpful because it gave me a shape to work with.

To finish this project off, I'm going to include some digital ideas and then compare them to the illustrated ideas to see which one I prefer. Part of me wants to use the bog-standard 'title across the top of the page' layout, but another part of me wants to make the magazine front cover look different to other covers since the magazine is about new bands which means I could try a new layout.

Summer Work

Over the summer holidays, I continued my work on my rock music magazine. I researched different types of rock magazine front covers to see what kind of techniques some designers used. These magazines varied from 'Classic Rock', 'Kerrang!' to 'Metal Hammer' and I analysed each cover and decided on which style I liked best, which surprisingly, turned out to be the 'Metal Hammer' one.

I then went on to watch a DVD about how a magazine is put together piece by piece. This sort of research really opened my eyes to actually how much work it takes to put a magazine together.

After that, I took some photos of page layouts from different rock magazines and analysed how they varied from page to page. Since I'm not just making the front cover of a magazine, I'm including content too, researching page layouts was very helpful.

I also started thinking about what my magazine would be called. Straight away, I thought of 'Rock Movement'. My magazine is about new and upcoming bands so having the magazine being called 'Rock Movement' tells people in the shops that.

I feel more enthusiastic about this year than I did last year because I'm doing something that I have a passion about. Hopefully, this will turn me into a more motivated graphics student.

Unit 3 mindmap

I have decided to use a narrative event for my Unit 3: personal development. I have chosen to do a narrative event because my idea for the personal development is to do my own version of a rock magazine. Since I want to write for a rock magazine later on in my life, I feel like doing my own would help me practise and open my mind to what has to be done.

Outside of college, I wrote my own music articles and interview bands, so I have an idea that I will include some of these articles and include a couple of spreads so it builds up the magazine a bit more.

After looking at some existing rock magazines, I've noticed that they sometimes include some CDs, so I might make a CD and create my own cover for it.

Review of AS work

During the time of working on my AS graphics projects, I realised that taking this course meant I had to endure a lot work and tight deadlines. Deadlines that – in the end – would have me screaming.

The projects were fun, don’t get me wrong but they enquired a certain amount of motivation and commitment that I couldn’t seem to find. I know it was there, somewhere in me, but I couldn’t find it so I found it difficult to keep on top of all the work and in the end it stressed me out.

I think the course has made me embrace my creative side and has made me develop my illustrative and computing skills. I found it quite hard to understand Adobe Illustrator at first but after a while, I got the hang of it and managed to produce something worth showing.

I also lacked confidence in what I was doing. I looked around me and I criticised myself for not being as good as the people around me. I put pressure on myself and this made me question the path I was taking on the course.

Some positives about my work would be that I think I showed my development throughout my sketchbook and arranged work well on the mount board to show this. Looking through my sketchbook, I realised that my illustrative skills had progressed throughout the year. I managed to think creatively about the target audience of my project and managed to make the final product look eye catching so the audience would be drawn to it.

Next year for the A2 course, I definitely need to be more motivated and more confident in the work that I’m doing and I think I need to do a bit more work so I have more ideas to choose from.