Recreating an existing magazine cover

I decided to recreate an existing magazine cover from NME to hone my skills at photography, editing and photoshop. I am happy with the result, as it is the best I could do with the tools I had, and it does look similar to the existing product. Doing this will help me produce a realistic looking magazine cover at later stages, and also give me a look at how an editor may produce a magazine front cover

Bauer Company Case Study

Bauer Media Group are a large publishing company, based in Hamburg, Germany. Since its conception in 1875, it has been privately owned by the Bauer family and so isn't a subsidiary of a bigger company. Starting as a small printing house, they have since grown into a worldwide publishing and media company. On average, Bauer sells around 38 million magazines a week, comprising of 282 magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and Radio Stations. Starting in 1987 with Bella magazine, Bauer has become Britain's third largest publisher.

Magazines published by Bauer;

Q (Music Magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. It was founded by David Hepworth and Mark Ellen in 1986 and it was initially aimed at an older audience who were buying CD's (new technology in the 80's) from artists such as Level 42 and Dire Straits. Modelled after Rolling Stone magazine, Q set itself apart from other music magazines of the time, with a monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing. This is possibly Bauer's most successful magazine selling over 80,000 copies per issue.

Kerrang!

Kerrang!, named after the sound made when a power chord is played on an electric guitar, was originally devoted to Hard Rock in Britain when it first hit the stalls in 1981, but now covers a much wider variety. It is sold weekly, and since 2000 has been the best selling music magazine in the UK, with an average of 43,000 copies sold per issue. The Kerrang! brand has now moved to other mediums, such as TV and Radio. Kerrang! was sold to Bauer by the company EMAP in 2008.

Music Magazine Research and Analysis

For my research, I have analysed the front cover of NME- Nirvana Special. This research will help me develop a realistic looking magazine in the later stages of development, whilst also refreshing my knowledge on the typical conventions on all magazines.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

I have completed my print preliminary task to a standard I am happy with. I have effectively used the software to create a magazine front cover, research of existing school magazines and a mock up of a contents page. I believe that my product was professional looking and followed the basic conventions of a school magazine. I didn't clutter it with too much text or pictures, but I put in the relevant information that would be included on a school magazine front cover. I also kept a realistic colour scheme.

Areas for improvement would be to use a better range of fonts and styles and to fully understand the different effects that can be used on photoshop. I would also like to make it look more professional like one that would be sold in a shop, and to do that I will have to fully understand photoshop and its effects.

I believe I have met the brief as I have created a realistic school magazine with the aid of photoshop, I have used a medium close up picture and have included text. I have researched other school magazine covers, and furthermore I have created a simple mock up of a stereotypical contents page.

In doing this task I have further fuelled my understanding of photoshop and photography. I have had a better experience of A level Media and what the tasks entail. I hope I can progress and achieve better skills over the length of this course.

Preliminary Contents Page Mock up

Preliminary Magazine Cover

This is my preliminary print task, a magazine cover for a school magazine, created on Adobe Photoshop. It maintains a simple aesthetic and isn't cluttered with pictures and text. it follows the generic conventions of a school magazine, having a definite colour scheme, news on events happening, logos, the school name and web addresses

Research of School Magazine 1

This is my research of another school magazine cover, from KEHS (King Edward VI High School for Girls). I have attempted to follow similar conventions in my work

Brief

For my work at AS Level, I have chosen to do the Print brief. Our brief is to create a front cover for a school magazine, following the typical layout conventions for a magazine. We will also be producing a contents page, showing understanding of the task at hand.

I have chosen this brief as I believe I have some useful background knowledge and experience of print, and I believe I could do it well. I want to achieve a good grade at Media AS Level and I want to create a professional looking piece of work. Challenges will include getting used to the software and getting out of working at a GCSE level. Another challenge will be getting used to the cameras an photography. Overall though I am looking forward to the challenges that will be provided in AS level Media