1. Music Magazine – Amplify Construction Sundas Bostan

3. Front Cover

4. Step 1 After constructing my flat plan it was now time to develop and create my media product into life, I started to find a font for my masthead. I wanted my font to stand out from the rest ,something different and attention grabbing. I knew what type of font I wanted ,as the results of my music magazine questionnaire, suggested a three-dimensional font which would make the masthead more eye catching , as it will be the first thing the reader will focus their attention on, Thus it is also a cleaver form of instant branding , meaning when people just see the masthead , everyone will know it is a “Amplify” magazine. In order to find a good three – dimensional font for my masthead , I went onto a website called - http://www.logoease.com , using this website I was able to create a masthead, which looked more like a logo , this helped to give a sort of brand identity to my magazine and make it easier to identify in the shelves. I then saved my image and opened a program called Adobe Photoshop , this program allows me to enhance and edit my photos to create more professional looking images. Here , I removed the background using the “Magic Eraser tool”, and tried playing around with the colours to see which best suited the target audience , and would give my magazine a youth full look, I decided to stay with black as it was plain and simple and helps the 3-dimentional font to stand out ,also I tried to filter the masthead to make it more appealing , I could not find the look I was going for and therefore left it .I then saved my font as a PNG file, which allowed me to convert my file so I could move it across to Adobe InDesign where I would be making my magazine. Step 2 After opening Adobe InDesign, I realised I had to make , separate pages for the different pages needed for my magazine e.g. front cover, contents page and the double spread, all these pages had to be copies made from the" A- Master” Page, this was the original page which I had saved and am going to construct my front cover on. I then went back onto Adobe Photoshop to make my plain black background, to do this I opened and saved a A4 page and filled it in black with the paint bucket tool , I then saved it as a JPEG file and imported it back over to Adobe Indesign. To bring across a file, you have to create a new layer , then make a box for where you want your images to go, then click on “file” and “place "and insert the image. It was important to create a new layer because in future if you wanted to delete an image it would be easier because everything would had been saved onto different layers.. I looked back at my background and thought , was this good background which would reflect the lifestyle of my target audience. So I went back onto Adobe Photoshop and opened a picture I took of a school wall, it looked plain and boring , so I added effects such as “Dark Strokes "and altered the light and dark intensity and the balance creating a good picture which I would use for my background.

5. Step 3 After altering the light / dark intensity and the balance, I had to save the changes made and convert it into a PNG file, and then brought it over to Adobe InDesign where I placed it as my background, so now I was ready to , start to build my magazine. I made a new layer and placed the masthead in the top right hand corner of the page, leaving room for the pug to go into the left hand side , to do this had to overlap the layers . I did this by dragging the little pointer sign on layer 2 onto layer 3, this allowed me to bring forward the masthead and place it onto of my background. Now that I have got my masthead on the front cover it was time to add, cover lines, strap lines and other details that will help make my magazine look as professional as possible. To do this I went back onto http://www.logoease.com , and created my Strapline “Amplify your life..” and a fake website “ for more info visit … www.amplifymagazine.co.uk ” also I added the Issue number and the season in which my magazine came out “Autumn 2010”. Later on after importing the pug onto my magazine , I had to rotate the triangle so it fitted in perfectly in the top left – hand corner of the page , I added coloured rectangles to separate the top and bottom strips and the masthead from the Strapline. I used to text tool in Adobe Indesign to fill in the gaps with texts ,such as what my pug was featuring (e.g. *free poster of Lil Rayne*) To make the pug , I had to make a equilateral triangle on Adobe Photoshop and fill it in bright red with the paint bucket tool, then I removed the background , and saved the pug as a PNG file and opened into onto a new layer on Adobe Indesign. Once I opened the pug in Indesign I had to change the size of the shape as it was too small ,by doing this I learnt that you need to click “shift” and drag when enlarging a picture, so it doesn’t look stretched or distorted which I didn’t in my preliminary task. Step 4 After making and saving Strapline , Sub – headings and dates, I opened the Strapline image in Adobe Indesign and changed the colours using the “Hue Saturation” tool, and altered the colours of the Strapline to see which would best suit my target audience , I knew the colours I needed because the results of my questionnaire suggested that 70% of teenagers said they like the combination of red, black and blue as they are bright and youthful ,compared to green, orange and yellow , which people said was boring to look at and might appeal to the older generation. By now I realised I needed a main image that would portray my target audience and their lifestyles, I did not want my magazine to look too hard core, but it still had to resemble of the tough , urban hip-hop image, therefore I used an image where the model is not smiling or looking too serious , to get a mixture of potential buyers.

6. Step 5 There where many little steps, in the process of preparing my main image before I placed it on my front cover. First I had to remove background using the “Magic eraser tool” on Adobe Photoshop, however their where still bits of grey background in between the model’s spiky hair , which could not be removed with the “ magic eraser or the normal eraser tool” , and so the image just did not seem quite right , through long attempts of trial and error I found a solution, I removed as much of the background as possible, and filled in the background black with the paint bucket tool , this allowed me to pin – point accurately where the little grey bits where so I could remove them . After doing this I zoomed in to make sure that every pixel was perfect and used the “ Magic Wand Tool” , to select the part which I wanted to cut , I selected the models hair and carefully removed the grey bits around his head with the “Magic Eraser tool” .Then I replaced the part which I selected, and at the end of my operation, I had successfully removed the grey marks , thus making my main image look as professional as possible. * No grey marks * Step 6 After removing the grey bits, I played around with the filter effects, to see which would best suit my image and represent the messenge I wanted to portray. At the end I had chosen to use “Dark Strokes” again as it would match my urban wall street background. I altered the black intensity from “0 – 2”, I did this because it gave a shadowy look to my image , I left the white intensity at “0”, otherwise my model would look to ghostly and distorted , and finally I changed the balance to “8”, I did this so the colours did not blend completely together , but you could still define the image, and what the model was wearing. Later on , I saved my main image as a PNG file and imported it across to Adobe InDesign , where created a new layer and placed the image in the centre of the front cover, however there where still gaps in my magazine that needed to be filled. Therefore I looked back at the codes and conventions needed for a magazine , and realised that I did not have a left – third , after looking at some magazines, I learnt that the most interesting and exclusive interviews, and tips/advice are on the left third to attract consumers. Therefore I researched ,some major hip-hop artists and some of the latest news in the music industry, and included them on my left third, with the heading "exclusive interviews” and “features” to grab the consumers attention, as by buying my magazine they will be the first to know the latest stories. I also added the artist’s name , “Lil Rayne” which in this months issue its all about him and his story of growing up in the big world and how he has become a success . I did this to emphasis the well known artist’s name and therefore is will help encourage consumers to buy my magazine. I used the “text tool”, on Adobe InDesign. I chosen to leave the text white, to make it stand out with the contrast of a dark background and then I added the “outer glow” effect on Adobe InDesign and made the “spread” to 100 to get the maximum glow , to help it stand out in the shelves.

7. Step 7 Now looking back at my magazine , I had included most of the codes and conventions needed, but it still didn’t look professional , so I remembered to put a barcode on, which I altered on Adobe Photoshop and placed it on my magazine on Adobe InDesign. Then I added the price, this was a difficult decision if I did not have the research I had done beforehand .This helped me chose a suitable price which would be affordable for my target audience. However by looking at the typical 16-24 year olds , most teenagers are unemployed and are still in full-time education , therefore they are not going to pay £5-£6 on a magazine, therefore the price can become a major issue when it comes to buying, and the results of my questionnaire suggested that ,many teenagers would spend around £2.50 on a magazine as it is the middle of the range and a suitable price to market my magazine at, also the fact that it is a monthly magazine as I feel that there I more information to write articles on and the quality would be better and should hopefully be worth every penny. Now Its Time To Construct My … Contents Page

8. Step 1 To create my contents page, I started off with a blank sheet and gradually built up my contents page by layering and overlapping , images, shapes and text. Firstly I created a new layer and placed a black background as it was associated with the atmosphere of hip - hop ,also because on my front cover there where lots of different elements sparking to try and grab the readers attention. Therefore on the content page I wanted to create a fun-loving ambience that would be welcoming and easy to navigate to the desired page. After looking at some hip-hop magazine I realised that the colour trend or theme was continued throughout the magazine , so I kept the font “Gill Sans Ultra Bold "the same as I used it for the artist’s name on the front cover. This is a continuity within the magazine as the theme is continued thought out my magazine. Also I feel that this font is simple ,bold and gives off a cool trendy look . I used the same technique as I did on the front cover, I used the “outer glow” effect to enhance the readers attention on the heading “contents”, this shows that this page is used to navigate the articles and topics covered in my magazine. Since red & blue where some of the colours chosen to best suit my target audience , judging from my music magazine questionnaire analysis. Also on my front cover I used blue and red coloured boxes to underline the key aspects of my music magazine, therefore on the contents page I decided to put a red and blue rectangular boxed across the outline of the page to frame my contents page and make it look more colourful also added the magazines name “Amplify” by the heading. However due to the lack of place and my creative mind , I was able to rotate the text so it stood vertically , thus when people turn the page they will still know its an amplify magazine .On the blue rectangular box under the heading I put the season/time the magazine is realised as reader wanted to know what time period the information is coming from . Step 2 I needed a main image on my contents page, to do this I looked back at my flat plan , and researched on who I wanted my magazine to appealed to , as I wanted my magazine to appeal to both genders , hence I used a image of a female model. I wanted to place my main image is on the right hand side of my contents page, as would it be in a typical hip-hop magazine . I designed my layout so it matched the outline of real music magazines. In the main image, the model is smiling, even though I wanted to pursue a hard core look on my front cover , by having my model looking more serious and having a male model .However I wanted to create a more fun – loving atmosphere, on my contents page where it would appeal to both genders, different ages and of teenagers from different ethic backgrounds and general lovers of real hip-hop music , ,thus increasing my sales. Also because I wanted to make my magazine more original and not be too hard core because it would put off people buying my magazine, and in doing this is I have caused my magazine to look more diverse I uploaded the image I wanted onto Adobe Photoshop I removed the background, and started removing the small blemishes and sharpen the image using the “spot healing tool”. I then used the “film Grain “effect to highlight and brighten the image, later I decided to add the “Cut-out” effect to make my image look more authentic and , bubbly as it made my image look more like painting

9. Step 3 After editing my main image I saved it as a PNG file and imported and placed it across onto my contents page on Adobe InDesign. As I wanted my main image on the right hand side of my contents page the hands of the model could not fit, without being squashed or distorted, therefore I cut them off, so my image now looked more bigger, better and brighter, I also rotated the image so it was facing the text on the left hand side to focus people attention on the topics. Later on I added multi-coloured boxes to separate articles into different topics/sub-headings. I then added the sub-headings and small white rectangular boxes to underline them . After I added the article topics which would be of interest to the typical 16-24 year old hip-hop aspirer. Later I decided to add the models name , again I used the same font and the “outer glow “ tool to highlight the key features of my contents page, I believe this was successful, as I stood at the back of the classroom and mainly saw that the glowing part , stood out the most and therefore I know that it will grab peoples attention when doing there weekly shopping. As I need minimum of four images on my magazine, I decided to add another picture of “Lil Rayne” by the exclusives category where it would inspire readers to read his interview's wanted to portray “Lil Rayne”, as the real him, as I did not add any effects I only removed the background and saved it a PNG file , then imported it onto Adobe Indesign. After adding the image , there was still a gap under the bottom strip, so I added a strap-line or slogan at the bottom , to summarise what my magazine is all about "Turn up the volume and AMPLIFY your life to the MAX”, this is the main concept of my whole magazine condensed into one line - it evaluates the main point of my magazine and why is appeals to my target audience of 16 – 24 year olds. As your teenage years are usually filled with showers of homework, peer pressure and exams . The main point of my magazine was to show the fun side of growing up and getting your own way and I believe that my magazine’s slogan clearly represents this. Now Its Time To Construct My … Double Page Spread

10. Step 1 Started off with a blank canvas, and it was time to work my magic, I opened an image I took of another wall, as I feel the urban / hip-hop theme usually evolves around the streets , resembling the hard life and young aspirers lifestyles. I wanted that realistic view of the hard life and “Lil Rayne's” survival story to remain simple , therefore I only added the “neon glow” effect on the image , to enhance and blend in the image so the text would be clearer and stand out more. Later on I just duplicated the layer , so I put one copy on the left hand side and the other on the right. Later on I added in the heading “Exclusive Interview with…” and the artist’s name “Lil Rayne”, I again added in the glow effect as it was a simple, bold and plain effect which added to the impact of the overall double page spread then had to overlap the layer, so the text was on top of my background Step 2 I now started to chose , which image would be the best to use on the double page spread. I decided to use the one where the model is standing side ways , I had chosen this picture as it was clear, the lighting was good and the model was smiling thus encouraging readers to read the interview. Like always I removed the background using the “magic eraser tool”. Later on I was playing around with the effects to see which would be suit the image , I was looking for a effect that complimented my image and portrayed the look I wanted to pursue in order to get more potential buyers. I decided to go with the “film grain” effect as it did not pixelated my image , but sharpened it instead and brighten the image , helping it to appear more three – dimensional, and as if the model was standing out of the page which caused my magazine to have a bigger impact and look more diverse. I later I save my image as a PNG file and opened it on Adobe InDesign where I placed it on the left-hand side , even though on my flat plan I original wanted the image to be on the right, but it just did not look right so I moved it across to the left. Step 3 For the article , I typed it up on “Microsoft Word “ into little text boxes, as that was how I wanted my columns to be laid out like, I then started to add the question/answer columns in , I kept the white and added different coloured glows , to separate the question from the answers I then added page numbers, which where the same as the one on the contents page and added a different coloured glow effect – and I was finished

11. My Finished Magazine - AMPLIFY