institution

An institution is either a company or it can be a corporation that sells products to make a profit. The products they sell can be anything but as I am creating a magazine I will therefore look at magazine institutions.

The total of consumer magazines in the UK is 2,471 with an estimated value of £1.4 billion. The total of business to business magazines in the UK is 4,395 with an estimated value of £3.2 billion.  It is expected by 2014 it will reach revenues of £7 billion.

The magazine publishing institutions are constantly expanding by using a variety of platforms such as mobiles, social media and live events. They are constantly expanding because they are buy independent magazines; this then increases money consumption because the independent magazines will be exposed to a much larger audience so therefore more companies will be bought by the readers.

They have more than 60 iconic media brands; IPC creates content for multiple platforms, across print, online, mobile, tablets and events.  As the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher they engage with 26m UK adults which is almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. IPC Media is committed to working in partnership with its consumers, advertisers, business partners and employees to deliver exceptional value, service, innovation and creativity.

BBC Magazines was the magazine publishing division of BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It is now part of a new venture called Immediate Media Company which merged the operation with Origin Publishing and Magicalia.

feature/double page spread construction

Firstly, I had to take some good quality images that represent my genres. After I had took a few decent images I had to create a background. I took some good images of a forest at night and the sun shinning down, I then over layed these images and put a few effects onto it and I got a really detailed background that fits well with my genre.

Next I got the band name from my magazine cover, which I created before hand. I had to follow the common conventions and made it big and had to make it fill 1/8^th of the page. Then I got my masthead from the cover and pasted it onto the feature article, this is because the reader can see that it is from the same magazine.

After that I had to create a good catchy slogan that represents my genre, then put it onto my feature article. Then under the title I gave a rough idea about the feature article so the readers have a good idea before they actually read it to see if it was necessary.

Finally, I had to make up the text that was going to be on the feature article, I decide to do a Q&A, so I made up a set of 5 Q&A questions and answers that fitted with the title of the band and the star vehicle. Then I had a few little finishing touches to do, so I had to add the page numbers in, and a website, this is because when looking at the other magazines these stood out to me as a common convention. Then I had finished my feature article and I thought it looked really professional and I was happy with it.

feature article draft

Q&A - Lost Tapes

Q. How did you start off?
A. Well basically we met when we was all at university, that did the same courses at uni. We all enjoyed rock music and all played and instrument. One day John (Guitarist) said "want to try play a song together?". We played that song and it went really well an we formed from that one song. So basically started as being friends at University.

Q. How did your first world tour go?
A. Well in all honestly we all thought it went really well, had loads of laughs and was really good. But the press spotted us taking drugs; but I don't know why they care so much most people do it nowadays.

Q. Why did you lot take drugs?
A. We did it for a bit of fun, none of us has tried it so we thought we would with other people on the tour, it made a better atmosphere so it was good. However the press are making  it sound bad when it wasn't bad.

Q. Was it just the once?
A. Actually no; we did it twice, one at the start and one when the tour was about to close, it was after the last performance. We had an amazing time so we done it again for memories. We all said we have no regrets on doing it twice so yeah.

Q. Do you think it will be the last time of taking drugs for you three?
A. Who knows? We don't think it will happen again but to be honest we probably will on other tours. We don't give a **** what the press think! Its our life and we enjoy it.

I proof read my work, and notice there was errors so I have made some corrections:

Lost Tapes are the next big thing in the rock world, even the Rolling Stones went to one of their gigs. We are truly honoured they have found the time to talk exclusively to Death Hammer about their last tour…

DH: How did you start off?

LT: Well basically we met when we were all at university, we were all studying on the same campus and we kept bumping into each other in the music department, at gigs and at parties. We started jamming together coz we all enjoyed rock music and all played an instrument. One day John (Guitarist) said; "Want to try and write a proper song together?" So we got drunk tried to write something and a few weeks later we had a song. It all formed from that one song, after we had written it we knew we were onto something great.

DH: What happened next?

LT: We worked hard to get gigs at pubs and at student parties. But it didn’t really kick off until we won Battle of the Bands. That is when we got properly noticed and got signed.

DH: How did your first world tour go?

LT: Well in all honestly we all thought it went really well, had loads of laughs and played some f*@king sh*t hot sounds but it all got overshadowing by the ba*st@rd hacks.

The press spotted us taking drugs and it made all the front pages of the tabloids. I don’t know why they care so much a rock band doing drugs is hardly news.

DH. Do you think it harmed your career?

LT: No. If anything it was good publicity because so many other people got to hear about us. And no one got busted, no one got arrested so no real harm done.

 We did it for a bit of fun, none of us has tried it so we thought we would with other people on the tour, it made a better atmosphere so it was good. However the press are making it sound bad when it wasn't bad.

DH: A lot of rock stars have ruined their careers through drugs or even ended up dead, do you think you have it under control?

LT: Rock culture, bike culture, youth culture and music culture it all involves partying. If we weren’t famous we would still be going to gigs taking drugs and whatever, the only difference is if you are famous you have more money and more time to get wasted. That is the danger. We don’t get high before a gig, we take out music seriously and anyway we are not lightweights that can’t handle it the music comes first.

DH: So you don’t think any of you will be joining the 27 Club?

LT: Who knows? Everyone thinks they are invisible and we don’t think it will happen. We don't give a F**K! It’s our life and we enjoy it. If it is illegal to rock & roll kick my ass in jail. I haven’t made a pack with the devil so I don’t think I will be joining the 27 Club.

Content construction

First I started off with a black background, same with the cover as this is a good colour to have for the background because it connotes death and rock.

Next I made a white rectangle to go over the black background; this was because I was planning on red and black fonts. Then I created a red rectangle to go in to the top left, this was where the word ‘Contents’ was going to go.

Next I added the features. The features are what are going to be in the magazine, and it is good to give the reader some hints to what is going to be in the magazine. I gave 4-6 features; this is a good number to give so that I don’t give away everything that is going to be in the magazine.

Next I put on the title of the magazine, I went onto my cover and got the masthead from that and put it onto my contents page, and this is to tell the reader that it is the same magazine. Then I put on the word ‘Contents’, this is to tell the readers that they are on the contents page. I used the colour white on the red background so that it will be easy for the readers to see it as it stands out.

Finally, I added a date to the page so they can see what magazine they are reading. After that I had to put the images on. I took good quality images so that they look clear and the readers can see the image. I added a few images as it is a common convention to have a few images on the contents page. Then I gave number so that the readers know what page these pictures are from so they can get an idea of what the image means and the meaning behind it. Then it was complete and I was happy with what I produced.

Cover Construction

First I started off with a well-known magazine so that I can get a good idea on how to lay it out so that it looks professional and follows the common conventions. Then I started with a plain background which I choose to be the colour black. Next I took a few images of my star vehicle, and edited the photo to make it of a better quality. After I had chosen one I put the image onto the background and gave it an effect.

Next I added my masthead, first I had to take time to create a masthead which I thought stood out and would grab the reader’s attention, and I decided to call it ‘Death Hammer’. I chose to use the colour white as it would stand out better on the black background. Next I added a bar code, and then I added some small pictures at the top, these were to show what free stuff was in the magazine.

Finally I added some captions to the cover; these were some short phrases to show the type of things that were going to be in the magazine. Next I added the name of my bad that I was going to base my double page spread on, I called them ‘Lost Tapes’. I added a price of the magazine which was £3.99; this was a general price that most rock magazines are. Finally I added some more text onto the magazine, to show what bands/artists are throughout the magazine.   

original images

This image here is one that I was going to use for my front cover and then for my contents page. However I really liked this photo when I took it, but it did not look at a high quality when I started to edit it in photoshop. When I zoomed in it went blurry; so immediately I couldn't use this.

This was another photo that I wanted to use in the creation of my products but with the same as the top one when I started editing it and zoomed in it went blurry again so again I decided not to use it.

This next photo I really liked, because it to a good quality, and very good for the genre that I chose. It is in mid play and was taken very well. However, when I started to look at it I thought that the background looked like it was in a classroom which I couldn't use as it does not look very well thought and not professional. So I did like this photo but the background let me down and thats why I decided not to use it.

This is another photo I took. I have used a really good camera to get the best picture I could. However when it went to editing this photo it went blurry when I zoomed in, which was not good. So next time when I'm going to take a photo of someone I need to make sure I am: the correct distance away; make sure it’s focused, however probably best to manual focus it. So this was one of the images I was going to use, but because when I zoomed in and it went blurry I decided not to use it.