COVER page
Final front cover
My magazine's genre is made up of themes revolving mainly around: Elite and luxury lifestyles as well as high fashion aspects
This means the name of the magazine must represent these ideologies and aim to attract my target audience of upper-middle class women, focusing on the A and B socio economic groupings, of women and men of a higher class, income and spending habits. My magazine aims to focus on the interests and preferences of this class by showcasing expensive products and by having the general perception of 'elite'. I will firstly try to achieve this by choosing a suitable name that reflects this.
This means the name of the magazine must represent these ideologies and aim to attract my target audience of upper-middle class women, focusing on the A and B socio economic groupings, of women and men of a higher class, income and spending habits. My magazine aims to focus on the interests and preferences of this class by showcasing expensive products and by having the general perception of 'elite'. I will firstly try to achieve this by choosing a suitable name that reflects this.
Possible names for the magazine:
- lusso- Luxury in Italian
- Chic- Classy in French
- Moola- Slang for money
- Coin- Slang for money
- Revolve- Signifies importance
- Ten- Signifies perfection
- Ace- Signifies perfection
I decided to conduct primary research by creating a survey about preferences for magazine name:
- Chic- Classy in French
- Moola- Slang for money
- Coin- Slang for money
- Revolve- Signifies importance
- Ten- Signifies perfection
- Ace- Signifies perfection
I decided to conduct primary research by creating a survey about preferences for magazine name:
My results showed that the top two choices were Revolve and Ten.
CHOSEN FONT style:
Photoshop practice: Drafting a cover
Due to my inexperience with photo shop, I decided to practice my editing skills by watching videos and asking teachers for tips. I then did a test shoot to practice my photography skills and applied my photo shop practice to editing the photos shown.
Photos from my test-shoot:
|
|
Choosing a colour scheme:
Gold is the color of extravagance, wealth, riches, and excess, and shares several of the same attributes of the color yellow. The color gold is a warm color that can be either bright and cheerful or somber and traditional. The color gold is cousin to the color yellow and the color brown, and is also associated with illumination, love, compassion, courage, passion, magic, and wisdom.
|
PHOTOSHOOT PREP
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/1/3/111313315/editor/img-4352-2.jpg?1509248558)
Planning for my photography:
-My models
- Positioning of my models
- Clothing and props
-My models
- Positioning of my models
- Clothing and props
PHOTOGRAPHY
choosing my cover photo
This was the photo that I initially decided would best for my cover.
Reasons for:
- All of the models had strong eye focus creating direct address
- Good positioning of the models and levels
- The lighting was effective and shadows were minimal
Reasons against:
- Difficult to Photoshop and remove background due to fine details
- Many faces and features to correct
- I may have to correct the blue dress to make it black for a more cohesive cover.
Despite the possible difficulties I decided to go along with this image as I felt it represented my chosen theme and would carry my house style of luxury and importance effectively.
Reasons for:
- All of the models had strong eye focus creating direct address
- Good positioning of the models and levels
- The lighting was effective and shadows were minimal
Reasons against:
- Difficult to Photoshop and remove background due to fine details
- Many faces and features to correct
- I may have to correct the blue dress to make it black for a more cohesive cover.
Despite the possible difficulties I decided to go along with this image as I felt it represented my chosen theme and would carry my house style of luxury and importance effectively.
editing the image: |
Some areas still had a clear green outline that could not be removed with the magic wand tool or quick selection tool. For these areas I used the eraser tool and removed the green lines by hand
After multiple attempts with trial and error in Photoshop, I managed to find a more efficient way of removing the faint green line that outlined the models in my image. By selecting the model, I created a layer copy and then deleted the original, this allowed for the outline to be erased, creating a crisp and clean-cut image.
My next obstacle was changing one of my model's dresses from blue to black, in order to maintain a cohesive colour scheme on my cover.
These were the steps I followed to achieve the colour change:
- I created a layer copy of the dress outline
- I altered the colour of the dress by using the black & white adjustment
- I replaced the new dress into the original layer and merged the 2.
These were the steps I followed to achieve the colour change:
- I created a layer copy of the dress outline
- I altered the colour of the dress by using the black & white adjustment
- I replaced the new dress into the original layer and merged the 2.
Next:
I put my edited image onto my chosen background for my cover
I put my edited image onto my chosen background for my cover
Then I added shadows by using the blending options feature in order to make my image appear more realistic:
Before adding my masthead and sell lines I realized that by removing the 2 bars on the background of my image, I would have more space for my masthead. I removed them by using the clone stamp tool:
Unfortunately, I began having trouble with the placement of my masthead and sell lines
I decided to ask for opinions from a group of people who would represent my target audience as well as my teachers and experienced peers with knowledge of the common codes and conventions of a magazine . Together we concluded that my main image was too large and would make it difficult to include effective text on my cover due to a lack of space and likelihood of a cover that is too busy and lacks focus. Furthermore, the aspect ration didn't fit with a portrait cover. |
Choosing my second cover photo:
This is the alternative photo that I decided would be the best fit for my cover photo.
Reasons For:
- Both of my models are engaging in direct address which creates a personal connection with the reader
- The aspect ratio fits perfectly with the common portrait cover.
Reasons Against:
- The lighting causing a reflection on the top of my models' heads needs to be corrected.
- shadows on female model's legs must be corrected.
editing my photo
I spent a considerable amount of time correcting the green outline and shading on my models that was caused by using the green screen during my photography, I used the magic wand selection tool to remove larger areas, whilst adjusting the tolerance for smaller areas as well as using the eraser tool for even smaller areas such a between hair sections. On the hair of my female model, the green screen created a green shadow on her hair which I found was more difficult to correct. To tackle this, I used the stamp tool which allowed me to copy sections from the hair which were not green to cover green areas. I then used the healing brush tool which allowed me to select certain areas and copy them to cover up unwanted blemishes or imperfections. I also used the blur and sharpen tools to soften certain areas such as wrinkles whilst drawing attention to other areas such as the eyes. This gave my models a more glamorous look which ties in with the house style of my magazine, which symbolizes a high end lifestyle centered around being ' the best of the best', and as the name of my magazine suggests, ten/ten.
Creating my cover page:
The first step was adding my masthead that I had previously created, I decided to keep it at the corner of the page to emphasis the right angle shape it already had. Furthermore, the building in the background compliments masthead in this position as it connotes the luxury style of my magazine, with the skyscraper being close to the masthead, it will be the first place the reader is drawn to on the cover and so add to the impact of my masthead.
Next I added a banner on the top right corner of my cover by adding a rectangle and then adding some bevel and shadows with the blending options tool. The banner is intended to further emphasis my house style of luxury and a high-end lifestyle. The text 'elite Parisian jet-set event' is an adapted tag line from an online website for luxury events that inspired many of the sell lines on my magazine. I decided to make the banner gold due to the connotations of wealth, money and power, which strengthen the impact on the reader by emphasizing the aim of my magazine.
I then added my anchorage text. For this step I took some time researching effective techniques and began reading about the effectiveness of using a play on words. I studied an article from http://thevisualcommunicationguy.com that included:
(pink text is from my analysis and topics I studied for using a play on words for my anchorage text)
"What is the Play-on-Words Appeal?
The Play-on-Words Appeal is one of roughly twenty advertising strategies that marketing professionals use to persuade people to buy a product, pay for a service, donate to a cause, or otherwise be persuaded. The Play-on-Words Appeal uses creative use of language and visual metaphors to intrigue and please audiences. The Play-on-Words Appeal applies figures of speech like puns and idioms and hyperbole to encourage audiences to pay attention, remember, and enjoy the advertisement as a unique display of creativity.
When Should I Use the Play-on-Words Appeal?The Play-on-Words Appeal is a great way to showcase your company as creative, fun, and personally engaging with your target audience. Because most people tend to enjoy the puzzle and subtle humor that is embedded in plays on words, the Play-on-Words Appeal is useful for creative a positive, memorable perspective of your company, product, or idea in a way that is often not too controversial (but that will depend on the subject matter you choose). Be careful when using the Play-on-Words Appeal to make sure that your target audience will actually understand the play on words and that you don’t create something too cliche.
How Do I Apply the Play-on-Words Appeal in Advertising?There are nearly endless possibilities with the Play-on-Words Appeal as you might integrate any type of figure of speech (thing of puns, similes, hypberbole, metonymy, metaphor, idiom, synecdoche, or many others) or as you actually play with word choice. The Play-on-Words Appeal can be tricky as you determine the education level of your audience and the effectiveness of your visuals and language in harmony with the play on words. Note that your audience will need to understand the puzzle and humor very quickly, thus it’s a good idea to test your play on words with several people in your target audience before you actually launch a campaign using this method."
After coming up with an idea for my anchorage text, I conducted a short survey for people that would represent my target audience in order to determine how understandable and effective it was.
My results showed:
For the aesthetic of my anchorage text, I used a bold font in a maroon red colour and I used the blending options tool to add a outer-glow that resembled glitter. This was to add to the imagery of my anchorage text that Is centered around a fairytale theme.
I lastly added my sell lines. For these, I spend some time researching websites such as https://www.theeliteevents.com/ and magazines like Town and Country for ideas. I aimed to write sell lines that were interesting and effective whilst still linking back to my over all house style of luxury and importance. The fist sell line is centered around a high end 5 star hotel that many upper class socialites would visit often, and so a scandal would appeal to them as everyday news would to a middle-class reader. For my second sell line I used the element of uncertainty to create suspense for the reader, drawing their attention to the article within the magazine and so urging the purchase. For my third sell line I used a rhetorical question, research on this technique expanded my understanding and I learned that a rhetorical question subtly makes the reader linger on a particular sell-line of a magazine as they take a pause to mentally answer the question.
After receiving feedback from my peers and teacher, I realized that the design of my anchorage text was not effective enough as the text was not bold or eye catching. For this task I used a more simple and bold text in order to carry the house style of my magazine as luxury magazines are conventionally simple and lack ornaments such as glitter and fancy fonts.
Photo used under Creative Commons from Jef Harris