final product of my contents page

this is my final, packaged contents page. i believe i have done a good job on this, as i have solved problems and based my magazine on an NME layout but gave it my own flair. the colours would not be ideal for a magazine of a lighter genre, but metal and hardcore are very dark and heavy so dark colours would be more appealing to the fans of these genres, my target audience.

i believe i could of improved this by making changed to the colour schemes shade of red, ans it might not actually be dark enough to blend. i also would of used more optimal pictures for this, if i had of had the resources and time but these were used with the materials i have.

i also would of researched more into magazine layouts instead of reflecting the ideas of NME but it was simplistic and effective.

problem with my contents page.

 This was the first draft of my contents page. i realized that it was almost colourless, so i decided to use the black and red swatches to make it a darker colour but more eye catching than paper white. i also realized that the top and bottom picture were unprofessional, and at the time it was all i could use as a placemark. after February 27th i managed to get a new photo and replaced it to look like this:

in my second draft, i had added much more detail news and reviews columns where i realized the fonts were unprofessional(the subtitle font, VT100) and were unable to be packaged. i solved this problem by changing the font to the constant font i have been using, Helvetica Bold. but the next problem was that the bottom image was unprofessional and needed cropping.

as i attempted to fit this picture on, but due to its dimensions, as in a previous problem it needed to be cropped, it had lost its rectangular properties and had become square. when i re-sized the picture using shift(to keep it in proportion) it did not fit the required dimensions to make the magazine look neat.

Once i realized this, i tried to make the image fit horizontally, and that did not work. so i tried to make it fit horizontally after this.

This was my attempt at making it the correct size. this is in proportion still, and proportionate pictures are professional, so if i was to take it out of proportion, image quality would go down and it would stretch. so i decided to use a picture from my double page spread and used a new article.

After i placed a new picture, and a new article, it fit well, and then i could leave it at this, as i have solved almost all of the problems i have encountered with my contents page.all the problems concerning image resizing and non professionalism have been encountered and dealt with.

however looking back at my project i realized that it needed my logo on the page so i decreased the size of the words contents as it was huge and added my logo. also there was a large space next too one of my pictures so i added the words 'EXCLUSIVE' to cover some ground.

this is the final product of my music magazines front page. overall i believe that i did a good job on it but by going against conventions i caused myself a few problems. my magazine logo had to have a white background which gives a patchy effect. also, the red boxes do invade the vital areas of my page. if i could go back i would re-shoot this picture and use a 3/4 body shot to appeal to conventions(i chose full body). other than that my magazine seems to meet my standards,

contents page

the idea i wanted to create was a simple easy contents, like nme magazine, which i used as the base, i stole the ideas of the subscribe, the centre main articles, and the band index.
this is what i got in one lesson:

i used the band index on one side as it allows the reader to focus on the parts of the magazine they want to read and are attracted to. the centre pictures. the main two articles are placed in the middle as they are the ones that would appeal to my target audience.

my final product reflects NME in another way:

in my final product of my contents page i have reflected NME in its layout: band index  on the left, main articles in the centre and the rest of the contents on the right. this reflects NME magazines layout so my audience will recognise it  and it will make it more easily navigable for my audience, which will convince them to buy it.
                                          

Album Review: The Kids We Used To Be(2010)
The latest album from the melodic punk and hardcore band from St Albans, Your Demise have created a musical masterpiece. The intro 'MMX' takes the catchphrase of the album 'Your Demise, 2010 B*tch' and continues with heavy riffs and a strong drumbeat. The next song is the single 'Miles Away' a 90s punk throwback song with melodic riffs and a upbeat feeling. The album switches between hardcore and metal boundaries, with classic Your Demise-esque songs such as 'xo' and 'scared of the light' in classic beer and hate fuelled anger. However, some of the album is very melodic, such as 'teenage lust', 'like a broken record' in which ed mcrae, the vocalist does some convincing singing. Another song to be noted for its melodic singing is 'life of luxury' which features Mike Duce from Lower Than Atlantis for the singing parts. There's even a comedic punk song 'Get the f**k out of Little Rock' a short interval from the hard hitting riffs and double bass fuelled drumbeat. The title track 'the kids we used to be' is a mixture of punk, metal and hardcore. There's a hardcore, original Your Demise style beatdown, some sweep picking from the metal genre and lot of Punk influenced drums.

Rating: 9.1/10
Comments:'The st albans hardcore 5 piece have done it again, with a blend of punk, hardcore and metal, they are destined to become an influential band of this decade. Simply a masterpiece.'

feature story

With roaring riffs and harsh vocals,Your Demise stormed the Camden Underground this January. Celebrating their new album of the same title, The Kids We Used To Be, The UK tour kicked off in London. Supporting acts Stick To Your Guns(US), Break Even(Aus) and Letlive (UK) shared the stage.

The opening band, Letlive, released their passionate 80's roots style hardcore punk, comparable to Black Flag and Bad Brains. The live set was well composed for an underground band, who's strong guitar and shouting vocals got the crowd jumping and singing along. They played the full tracklist from their new album, 'Fake History', but did a surprise cover of Black Flag's infamous single 'Fix Me' which got the crowd chanting along for their closing song.

The next band to take the stage was Break Even, a hardcore band from Austrailia. This was their first ever UK tour, and first ever UK gig but were received well by the crowd(half of the crowd was wearing their t shirts!). They opened with the intro from their latest album, 'The Bright Side' called sunrise, a very mellow acoustic buildup to the rest of the hardcore punk with emotion from this band. The crowd reacted well, with many of them singing along into the microphone, many mosh pits and a lot of activity. They finished with a more mellow, acoustic cover of their biggest single 'October 27th' a light way to finish a energetic, heavy set.

The main support act was next. Stick To Your Guns, a US hardcore band. Hard hitting riffs, and crowd vocals were rife throughout the set. They opened up with their new albums intro which got the crowd moving. During their hour set they did a whole playthrough of the new album, which got the crowd jumping onto the stage and singing along and pitting against the walls. They ended their hour long set with their title track 'We're what seperates the heart from the heartless' which included guest vocals from Ed Mcrae from Your Demise. At the end of the set they went wild, with a wall of death covering the whole venue, and then the crowd invaded the stage in a flurry of singing, fists and moshing.

Finally, the headlining act was to show. Your Demise, a hardcore band hailing from St Albans, UK hit the stage. This is their first album promotion tour, 'the kids we used to be tour". They opened with the intro of the new album 'MMX' getting everyone hyped up with its famous chant of 'Your Demise, 2010 b*tch!'. The next few songs were taken from the old album, 'ignorance never dies', the songs were 'blood ran cold', 'nothing left but regret'. Half way through the set, there was a fifteen minute break, they played their 'unknown dub' track, a dubstep track which got everybody dancing along to it. Once the set started again, they played an old song from the 2007 album 'thick as thieves' which was called 'No Half Measures' which got the whole crowd moving, and got them chanting their famous line 'see you, you c**t, ill cut you first'. They then proceeded to play their final song of the set, their tour and album title track 'the kids we used to be'. Once the set had ended, a crowd hungry for more songs chanted for an encore. They came back on to play their most famous track 'Burnt tongues' which involved a constant crowdsurfing, a wall of death spanning the whole venue and a whole crowd stage invasion of hardcore dancers at the end.

3 things to finish today

- get my title font on - after a long battle, my font is on.
- Add the baseball swoosh - couldnt do this as it was impratical to add to my magazine and caused too many problems.
- add some details to my front cover - some details about the magazine are there, its coming together.