The Source - music magazine

Article on R&B artist Chris Brown

The article has a simple look I think this layout is very tasteful. the medium long-shot of the interviewee Chris Brown shows that he is an important major artist, the fact that this image has been taken in the same photo shoot makes a reader know this article is a top story.

I feel this article really connects with The Source magazines typical reader. Aliya S.King the writer uses modern language and urban slang to create a comfortable and informal feel to the article. The interview the article is based on is with a popular artist who the typical reader will most likely like as the magazine is themed on hip hop one of his genres, even so the writer introduces him, positively pointing out his achievements and briefly combining facts and details with gossip and rhetorical questions to engage the reader rather than detailed specifics which would most likely bore the young vibrant age group that the magazine is aimed at.

prelim evaluation: final draft

I feel my magazine cover and contents meet the task asked, as I have designed my magazine around my female student typical reader and taken and used an medium close up photograph of a student too, whilst being a fun magazine it still focuses on school life and important matters. I have done everything possible to represent this unique theme in the design of my magazine. To begin with I found using Photoshop difficult to use but I think that the results were worth it.


I began my project after creating my black and white flat plan by choosing appropriate colours. I took into account that my typical reader was a young female, I used the feminine pink to show this, the green represented a more formal yet unique side to the magazine and the white keeps the magazine looking fresh as the title states it is. I also had to make sure the colours went well together, I always knew pink and green was a risk but by neutralising the dark colour and the bold one too they fit together better. When choosing fonts I was confident about using a bold text this makes the magazine clear and easy to read which means more people are more likely to read it. for my second font I knew it could be more eccentric than my simpler font so I used italics purposely choosing this as my font which would mostly be in pink to emphasise my girly theme yet keep my magazine sophisticated. I really found deciding on fonts enjoyable and I feel all turned out well in this area. Some things I feel didn’t turn out as well as I had wanted would firstly be my background. Despite it matching my colour scheme of white, pink and green I felt the white in the end made the magazine look less professional, this white space would usually be filled by a full page image but I realised a little too late that I had taken my photo landscape so it would not cover my cover page, this is my second disappointment. after trying some colour backgrounds which I felt didn’t work well on the magazine I decided white was the best choice but to add some colour as not to be boring I used a gradient tool to add some fading pink in the corner behind my title I feel this has fixed a lot of insecurities I felt about my magazines look. Overall I really love how my magazine turned out and more importantly I think my typical reader will too!

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prelim evaluation: flat plan developement

from my school magazine's flat plan to the final draft some differences can be seen to begin with the main shot on the front cover has been taken at a slightly different angel to how I sketched it on my flat plan. I have changed it because whilst taking the actual photograph I found I had to take other things in to consideration such at the light and as it was natural light I had to work around it. I also began to feel the shot strayed from what my brief had specified which was a medium close up shot but my sketched shot included the students feet in the high angle shot I found this was controversial with my peers so when taking the photo I specifically made the shot show the students face and shoulders whilst cutting her feet out of the shot overall I am happier with this alteration.

there were other minor alterations such as the original star shape which contained text on the front cover which after some constructive criticism I found that perhaps the bright bold shape was out of place on the magazine and made it look almost tacky in some ways.

less significant alterations were what the text said I knew this was bound to happen and slight adjustment to the placement of the issue no. price and date which I have now placed more out of the way and neat.

contents page

my completed contents page

magazine cover

my completed school magazine front cover

flat plan: contents

this is my flat plan for my contents page

flat plan

This is my school magazine front page plan