drawing of idea for magazine cover

Progress Production of a magazine

Content- At the beginning of the production cycel of a current issue an editorial team will get together to decide what will be covered in the magazine. The meeting is a forum for new ideas but also it is where the editor can inform the editorial staff of changes to the format, extent or placement of regular items. Many magazines feature articles about topics they have covered in previous issues. This is because the repeated topics are particularly relevant to their target market and there is an opportunity to include new developments. Regularly featuring key topics increases the likelihood of enticing new readers. The editor has to be careful to keep the balance between old and new to keep longstanding readers happy too. Once the focus of the particular edition and the topics to be covered are decided, the editor can then meet with the art director and/or commission an illustrator or photographer to work on imagery for the front cover. The main front cover image needs to be striking and symbolic of the issue’s main theme. Sometimes imagery for features and news pieces will be discussed, however, it is often the writer of an article who sources the imagery to go with it.

Research and Writing- What follows is a frenzy of research and copy writing. The editorial staff phone around contacts, arrange meetings with interviewees and often do background topic research using the internet and any online subscriber news databases they have (eg Reuter’s Textline). Often they will do background research specific to a particular interview or press conference before they attend. Members of an editorial team usually take it in turns to do ‘post duty’. This involves sifting through post sent to the editorial office by marketing managers, agents and PR agencies and sorting it into useful items, potentially useable items and rubbish.

Sub editing- Depending on the publication, sub-editing can take place before page layout or during page layout. The editor or sub-editor, if there is one, will act in the interests of quality control and query any loose ends, ambiguous text or items that may not be clear to the reader. Once they have read an article they will cut it down to a size to fill the space available or ask the person who wrote it to cut down or re-write certain parts to clarify them or bring them into house style. If the article runs too short they will ask the writer to fill it out.

Production- When most of the articles have been written, the editorial staff and/or dedicated layout staff typeset or lay out the pages using Quark XPress, Pagemaker or InDesign. Often the layout team, under the direction of the art director, focus on setting advert pages while the editorial team, under the direction of the editor, lay out the article pages. This saves time because the writers of the articles don’t have to spend time passing their text on to someone else to do the layout. Difficult or complex articles to lay out are usually given to the art director to arrange a suitable layout treatment.

Proof Reading- As laid out pages are completed, members of the editorial department will print them off and give them to the other members for proof reading. Once the corrections are taken in, an article will be printed out again for a second round of proof reading by the editorial department and any corrections previously missed will be incorporated into the publication.

preliminary front cover mock up

research- kerrang linkin park

Research- Vibe Magazine

Magazine research- elektro

The Magazine cover is dominated by the title. Using the red font and it is extremely bold instantly makes you look at it as soon as you see the magazine. The title is a plain simple title. This connotes that it gives the reader what they need without being muddled by unneeded information. Elektro shows that it is a big music magazine. This is shown by the amount of the famous DJ’s names which are printed onto the magazine. This gives the reader an idea that these DJ’s are a main part of the edition of the magazine. Using the amount of names which have been used, it connotes that there is going to be a lot of information about these DJ’s which may give fans of these a lot of excitement about purchasing the magazine to see more things about their favourite DJ’s. Along with the title, it has the words ‘premiere edition’ going through the title. Using this shows that this edition of the magazine a huge edition. This is because the word premiere is spelt as it could be one of its first published. Also, it is in a bright yellow colour. By using the colour yellow, the brightness of the font would have the reader looking at the ‘premiere edition’ along with the title. The background of the magazine is a DJ who we can assume is the main feature in the magazine. The lighting of the picture shows that this type of music makes people happy. The DJ’s eyes show that he is looking at the crowd. This instantly connotes the happiness of the background.

Preliminary exercise evaluation task- completed

Evaluation

Points of success- 

The points of success about my preliminary task was that i could layout a simple magazine and contents page. Another success is that i could remember the basics of using Photoshop and In Design from GCSE Media. This helped me a lot so i could get on with my work without asking for help from Miss.

Areas for improvement-

I think i need to improve on my layout for my layout for my magazine. This is because i couldn't decide  where i would put my pictures and texts. This would help me loads in my final task because it could help me get a brilliant grade in my final design. 

What have i learned?-

During this task, i have learned more about Photoshop and In design that what i did at GCSE. When i come up to do the final task, i will understand which tool is which and how to use these tools. I have also learnt how professional i can make my final task. I also have learnt how a professional Magazine looks like. I have learnt how i can make my final design look as professional as i can. 

Have i met the criteria for the brief?

i feel that i have met the criteria for the brief. I have placed a picture and text on my front cover to show what would be in the magazine and information about the magazine.