Task 5: Meeting the client brief

Learning Outcome 5: Be able to carry out post-production techniques and processes for an original media product to a client brief.  (M4, D1)


My front cover and magazine fit my client brief of a music magazine based in North London due to the fact that throughout my front cover and double page spread I've stuck to the theme of North London and Music. An example of this is on my double page spread I focus the band ‘Fire In Her Eyes’ by doing an article on them. They are a Indie Pop band based in North London, therefore I am fitting to my client brief by focusing on an upcoming music band based in North London. Within the front colour I used the colour scheme of white, black and orange, the orange symbolises brightness and the bright up coming success of the artists the magazine focus on. The bright yellow light at the top of the page represents the happiness and joy from Indie Pop music. The outfit worn by Natasha (Fire In Her Eyes lead singer) is very casual yet stylish, this demonstrates how indie pop is a mix between rock and pop music and can be enjoyed by any person as it offers a range of music styles.  

For my post production I used adobe photoshop to edit my photographs and put together my front page as well as double page spread. All the photographs used were taken by me myself on a Nikon camera with a tripod and are of Natasha from the band.

For the front cover the main font I used was Leixo, I picked this font as it is a very distinctive and memorable front. As well as the fact that the font goes well with the theme of indie pop as the letter looks a lot like a music note, it also has an edgy look to the font which contrasts well with the more natural Helvetica font used for the cover lines and puff. For the front page my main colour theme was white, black and orange as I felt like they all corresponded well together. The deep orange red tones as well as the brown tones give the magazine front cover an urban  gritty look by being rustic colours. I used white as one of the colours on the front cover to create a less aggressive look and to make sure it fell into the indie pop genre. For my puff I made sure it was translucent therefore it wouldn't be too bold and overpowering and take away the attention from the main photograph. I used a Z layout for my front cover as its been proven that the eye automatically looks from top to bottom and therefore the whole page will be looked at. I had to make sure on specific areas that I used white instead of black as the black blended in to much with certain parts of the brick wall then the words would be lost and un noticeable.     

The image on my front cover is attached as a JPEG and can be opened correctly when clicked. 

Strengths: 

All photographs were taken by me personally which created a more realistic feel to the initial magazine and would create intrigue to the youth market. Adobe Photoshop allowed me to create a more intense and gritty urban feel to the publication and my chosen bold black fonts were used to create a similarity to a music note which effectively complimented the ‘pop indie’ music theme to the publication. I decided to use black, white and orange colours works well together as the background to the main from cover and did not detour from the main mast head editorial. Translucent background colours allowed the main images and text to lift off the front cover and by maintaining the unaltered format of the images allowed them to relate well to the youth sector. I made a conscious effort that for the main image on front cover it was not enhanced or altered in anyway as I wanted to keep the perception and integrity of the artist real to capture the attention of the reader so they could relate to her. I felt that black, white and pink were effective colours and complimented well together as the background to the double page spread as the editorial still felt quite visually dominant, and by being new and innovative with  afresh approach I felt it would stand out from the competition and be singled out.

Weaknesses: 

There could be a feeling that readers might initially find it hard to relate to unknown featured artists and find it unappealing to purchase the magazine. I decided to make the front cover slightly minimalist and use a limited number of colour shades which may not be that appealing to potential readers. By having a lack of ‘A List’ celebrities used on the main front cover might not create an immediate positive first impression and entice the potential purchaser to lift the publication from the newsstand. I decided to use some unique editorial content and unusual fonts coupled with some minimalist colour shades which was always going to be a risk as it may not appeal to the youth sector. There was also the possibility that by launching a new title against well-known existing publications with significant design and production budgets would be difficult in terms of their layout, design and editorial ability. I had no past experience in relation to what I think our readers wanted with regards to the editorial content but I still needed to keep it fresh in design and compelling with editorial and layout and not repeat what is already on the newsstand in this particular youth market sector. There was always a risk by being different and creating my own niche in terms of targeting the youth market and formulating my unique design might not be appealing to this particular sector.