Category: Unit 3/4
This is my final magazine cover, I decided to shot in the studio to give the image a high end look, this was done by using artificial panel and soft box lighting.The layout was inspired hugely by ID magazine as well as the style of the image, I felt inspired by ID magazine as i think it linked back to my age range as they use younger models to attract a younger audience, they also use dark colours to make the cover feel edgy and almost like it breaks the boundaries. By using muted, block colours it draws the eye to every individual part of the magazine, this is effective because it helps the viewer gain an insight of what the magazine is about etc. By using the studio I was able to use a plain, low key background to make the model and other aspects of the cover the main focus, as I used a bright white background I wanted to use camera raw editing to my best advantage to make the overall background much darker. As the model was wearing various colours I wanted to capture each colour and style, I done this by using a low angle shot to make the model to powerful as the face of my magazine, I found this was effective as the viewer is able to see what fashion style the magazine is based on.
I decided to name my magazine Rooted as it means to be set on one thing and my magazine is for men’s streetwear fashion, this immediately indicates to the buyers what you can find in this magazine. I also decided to have the text sideways to show that the title is not needed once the viewer sees the main image, the inspiration for this idea was from ID Magzine, I decided to have the title in orange as I feel it makes the models clothing stand out as it is pulling the orange from his top to the for front.
I took many photos using many different angles and decided on this image as I felt it gave an edgy feel. I took the image into camera raw as I felt the original image was to bright so I decided to edit the image to give the almost mysterious feel that it has in the final image. I also decided to inhance the shadow behind the model to create more depth. By editing the image, I think it gives the final cover a higher quality look and is more appealing to a younger audience as it looks modern and gives off a cool vibe. This means that it will attract my target audience as I think as myself being amongst my target audience if I was a viewer my eyes would be immediately attracted to this and other covers like this one.
Overall I think my final cover was successful as I was able to create the look that I felt would be the most effective due to the research and planning I done towards my final magazine cover. 
This questionnaire helped me gain an insight of what the age range I chose would be more attracted to. By doing this I have also decided to change the style of fashion to base my magazine on as I feel that streetwear fashion is more popular and accessible to my age range (16-24) rather than urban fashion.
For this project we studied magazine covers, by the end of the project we made our own final magazine cover. We achieved this by doing various steps through out the project, this helped us gain knowledge about magazines, what is popular and what type of magazine we would like to accomplish.
Research – during the project i done continuous research throughout. This helped as i was able to understand the value of magazines, what looks are successful and what type of magazines are most common/popular. At the start of the project i started looking at retro fashion but after more research i realised retro fashion is not as widely promoted and fewer members from my age range wear retro fashion as i found out through my questionnaire. After i analysed my questionnaire i decided to base my magazine on street wear fashion as i felt it replicated the target market that i decided on for men’s fashion (16-24). I also researched different high end magazine covers like Vogue and ID magazine so that i was able to see what layouts, colours and texts where the most effective the to the public and to myself. I also studied the four elements of a magazine cover to assure that i was able to include these on my final magazine cover, these included, art (graphics, photos, and illustrations), text, headlines/ titles and subheads, decks, and captions.
Pre production/ planning – For my pre production I first planned for my final magazine cover to be shot outside to increase the aspect of street wear. The further I researched into different magazines and soon was hugely inspired by ID Magazine, this magazine is a high end street wear magazine which made me change my idea to then do my final shot in the studio as I felt ID Magazine represented street wear successfully but using muted colours and harsh artificial lighting in the background and on the model to highlight the main focus instead of other distractions. Throughout the weeks I also done different types of practice photography including, photo therapy, portrait images, emotion with in photography and general fashion images, I feel this helped gain an understanding of what photography would best suit my final cover, it also helped towards my final shot as I was able to practice various angles, lighting, facial expressions and many more other techniques.
How it went – I feel that this project was successful as it helped me gain knowledge in many different aspects of media, the aspects that it helped we with were, portrait photography, different types of photography, layout, how to attract a specific target market and what colours work together to make a successful magazine cover. Portrait photography is the main part of making a magazine so I felt that it had to be mastered, I felt I done this successfully through many mini tasks to build up my experience, I also found that with the knowledge I was given throughout the project helped me complete a high end look for my magazine covers, another main focus is the camera angle as it decides whether the model will look powerful or vulnerable to create a distinguished look on the final magazine cover. I also researched what type of front covers would attract my target audience by looking at other fashion magazines, this helped as I was able to distinguish colours, layouts etc of what my age range are most attracted to, I also feel making a questionnaire strongly changed my views of what was the most attractive. Overall I think this unit was important and helpful to increase my knowledge of media as a whole.
I chose these images as i feel that it replicates affordable fashion that i envisioned for my final magazine cover. This style of fashion relates to my target market as it is the ‘in’ look at the moment, this means that they are more likely to approach magazines with that relate to this type of fashion.
For my magazine i chose fashion, i started looking at urban men’s fashion but soon changed to affordable street wear fashion, i decided to change what type of fashion i was looking at as i felt that street wear fashion was more known and popular to my age range (16-24). Once i changed the type of fashion that i was looking at i researched many magazines, i finally came to a decision to take inspiration from ID Magazine as i feel it replicated the edgy high end look that i envisioned for my final magazine cover.
I decided to base my magazine on affordable fashion as my age range (16-24) will find it more approachable as people of this age are still in education or in further education so are on a lower income. This means that it will be popular to the age range i have chose, another reason for my age range is because my magazine will also be digital which would make it more accessible to my target market. This will also increase my social media marketing as it can be shared worldwide for example.
Nearer to the end of the product we planned to merge our ideas with one other person to create our final magazine cover. Me and my partner looked through each others plans and research of other magazines and we decided to keep the inspiration of ID Magazine but use different types of camera shoots that my partner had found. This helped give an edgy look without it looking identical to ID Magazine as we are going to use a low angle shot to make the model the main focus.
Monday – On Monday i researched ID magazine in more depth to get an understanding of the magazine as a whole, i also looked at other street wear magazine covers and looked at different angles so that when i was in the studio i had an idea of what i wanted my final magazine cover to look at. I also looked at common colours used in high end magazines so that when i came to edit the picture i could make it look professional by using colours that indicate a high end magazine cover. I also booked the studio and a camera so that there where not any delays in my shoot.
Tuesday – Tuesday morning i looked back at research to finalise my plan for my shoot later on that day, i asked another student to model for me as he was wearing similar clothes to what i envisioned for my final magazine cover. Later that day we headed over to the studio and played around with the lighting as i had booked the studio out for an hour which gave us enough time to be able to play around with lighting to see what looked the most professional and high end. After we had successfully choose the correct lighting we started shooting and used different angles that i had previously looked at and liked. I took 47 photos of different angles and some had a prop in so that i had a vast selection to pick from.
Wednesday – On Wednesday i choose an image that had successful lighting and an interesting angle that connoted ID Magazine as that magazine was my inspiration for my final cover. I edited in camera raw to give it the edgy look i was looking to create, i was then inspired by the layout of ID Magazine so i followed a similar layout. 
Finb 