Magazine practical production: tasks

 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.

The gentlewoman magazines make use of different colour themes for each of their magazine- these colours are bright or even pastel. The models are usually female and are portrayed both in colour or white and black theme. Additionally, the magazine uses simple font type that is bold, making the cover's name stand out at the top and at the bottom in a plain font, the name of the model is usually written. Mostly, the picture taken of the model is a close-up shot which zooms into the model's face, almost enhancing the facial features.

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.
the gentlewoman- - no* 32 phenomenal women's magazine ( autumn 2025)

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.

 Close-up face in black and white, right in centre. 

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

  the gentlewoman- no* 32 phenomenal women's magazine ( autumn 2025)

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: 01/01/25

Time: 12:00

Location: At home

model: Gurleen
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

 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 attempted to meet the brief and have completed the task by using my own image and mimicking the original layout of other THE GENTLEWOMAN magazine covers. I believe alongside the original magazine covers, the cover i have created looks quite similar as I have attempted to include small details such as : the placement of the tagline, the border frame and the barcode.

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

I would love to experiment with other colour themes like the other magazines produces, i would also perhaps attempt a different aspect in the picture ie: bold makeup look.