Magazine practical production

Magazine practical production: tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Magazine practical task research and planning' and complete the following tasks:

Research

1) Use Google to research potential magazines that you could use as your brand/design for this project. Create a shortlist of three potential magazines and upload an example front cover from each one. We recommend looking at lifestyle magazines or a similar genre as these are more achievable to re-create.

2) Choose one of the three magazine brands to use for your project e.g GQ, Vogue or The Gentlewoman. Then find three different front covers for your chosen magazine and embed them in your blogpost. Analyse the fonts, colours and typical design. What is the language or writing style? How are the cover lines written? What camera shot is generally used for the cover image? You need to become an expert in the design and construction of this magazine and its branding.

Planning

1) In your blogpost, write your main cover line (also called the 'main flash') - this is the main cover story that links to your central image. It must be 100% original - all your own words.

Janice-Cianna "Do it like me"

2) Briefly plan the image you will need for the cover - model, costume, make-up, lighting etc. At this point, simply describe the image you need to capture.

Janice as my model- alternative look

Costume: 2000s alternative

Make-up: alt make-up

Lighting: bright lighting, multi coloured

3) Write the cover lines and any additional text you need for your magazine cover.

"The new wave: subversive fashion for the bold and brave"

"Chaos & Couture"

4) Sketch out your cover on plain A4 paper using your written planning. Take a photo of your sketch and upload it to your blogpost.

Photoshoot

We will do a photoshoot in class next week with lighting and backdrop. However, if you prefer you can arrange your own photoshoot for the cover image in your own time - you can use your phone or your own camera to take an image. If you don't have a phone or camera that is suitable, you can sign out a camera from Mr Ray.

1) On your planning document blogpost, state the date, time and location of your photoshoot and the name of the model or photographer you will use (you can choose anyone to be your cover model or you can be the cover model yourself).

Date: 5th May 2025

Time: 13:00-16:00 (1pm-4pm)

Location: Antonia's house (Mine)

Name of Model: Janice-Cianna Lewin

Photographer: Antonia White

Photoshop or InDesign?

You will have one Media lesson to create your magazine cover on Adobe Photoshop or InDesign but you will probably need more time than this. In order to complete this work, you will need to work in DF06 when you don't have other lessons or use Photoshop/InDesign at home. You already have access to Adobe at home via our fantastic Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (worth around £25/month!) as long as you have a PC or laptop that can run it.

Online tutorials

The best way to learn Photoshop is simply to start creating your magazine cover and learn as you go. There are thousands of tutorials on YouTube to help you - here are just a couple of examples of Photoshop tutorials: 

You can find an excellent InDesign tutorial here or alternatively try this: 

Publication to blog and evaluation

1) Once you have completed your design you need to save or export a copy as a JPEG image. Then, upload it to your blogpost. 

2) Upload two genuine covers of the magazine you have used and put them next to your front cover. This is a brilliant way to check how professional your work looks alongside the real thing.

 

3) Write a short evaluation of your work: have you succeeded in your brief to create a new, original edition of an existing magazine? Does your cover stand up alongside the genuine covers of your chosen magazine? How professional is your work alongside those genuine examples?

I have succeeded in creating a new, original edition of an existing magazine (Vogue)

It does look real, taken into consideration of features and words/ phrases. In my research on Vogue magazines i noticed there isn't a specific genre/ aesthetic but, they do their magazines to match the model or the what the model is famous for or what message they are putting across. I embedded that into my creation.

It is professional in the sense is used Adobe Photoshop and inspiration from other professional magazines. However, It was taken on phone rather than camera (Good quality however) and the location of the photo was just a casual domestic setting. 

I just noticed I forgot a bar code, pretend it is there. 

4) Finally, what would you do differently if you completed this assignment again?

Take into consideration of the background the photo will be taken in because originally my plan was to get rid of the background but that created struggles in making a new background for the image, so next time just choose an appropriate one.