Modern Jazz Potential

With the deaths of many Jazz legends already past, I have had to turn my attention to other potential artists. One artist which has caught my attention is on the show X factor 'Chloe-jasmine'. She has brought a bond and twist to revolutionise the jazz genre and has the potential to revive the dying genre. This is due to the fact that no one young creates jazz music, this is bad as people use young artists as role models. This Chloe-jasmine has the potential to revive the genre and I can use this as a topic for my course work.

Apart from that I will be doing research into smaller, less well known british jazz artists which are keeping the genre alive. If I find a young jazz artist then that will be an added bonus as it is potential and I can use it to expand the magazine.

Issues with terminology

It has come to my intention that the term 'fusion' was going to be a masthead. This now cannot happen because upon doing further research I found out that the fusion festival in birmingham has altered the terminology of the term 'fusion'

The fusion festival has changed the terminology to that of house/club music so if the term fusion were to be used as a masthead, this would bring across the wrong message.

Masthead reseach

I have been looking at terminology of Jazz and have come across a good word which can be used as a masthead;

"Fusion: a style developed in the late 60s by Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Chick Corea and others, partly as a reaction to the eclipse of jazz on the music scene by rock. Incorporated elements of rock into jazz and made greater use of repetition and non-improvised passages. Harmonic language was simplified; key feeling tended to be established by repetition rather than harmonic movement. Straight-8 time and a strong back-beat predominated."

I found this on a website which does all the terminology - sonic.net

Using this I have thought up ideas for my masthead.

Other names in the Jazz genre

I have found another collection of famous jazz artists and have created a slidely including all of the new ones found. I hve implemented a small caption during the whole slidely bcause the eras differ and spread between now and the early 1900s.
Click here to see the slidely

CeltX Image

Using some of the mages from the Orchestra session from 22/10/2014 i evaluated them on CeltX this is my results;

Possible targets for subjects and Famous artists

I have just done some research of the most famous artists in the Jazz genre and was surprised to find a lot were in the past and not many going now. Some of the most significant ones I saw which could be targets for the magazine are:

• Marcus Miller
• Wynton Marsalis
• Herbie Hancock
• Sonny Rollins
• Louis Armstrong
• Pat Metheny
• Keith Jarrett
• George Benson

These all have something in common which can hinder the use of the artists stated. That flaw is that they are all in the past and will be extremely old with the youngest being in his 50's. One way I can counter this issue is to use these in some quantities and after using some of these, I shall look in the local area to try and find local jazz players which are fairly young. If this can be done, then I will use them and do an interview with them. This will help as it can give me ideas for a Double page spread.

Photograph idea 1

After thinking about different ways I could get photos and differing angles I figured out an idea for a possible front cover photo.

This photo would be of a model on stage with saxophone. I would make them wear fairly modern clothing which is a mixture of casual and smart clothing. They would playing the saxophone and the angle  would take would a step angle from below. A good example of this would the photo on the right The Omega Men. The camera would be below them and bring across an idea of status and power. The distance of the shot would be roughly the same as the image below of Antonio Forcione. I would possibly make it Medium shot instead of a medium close up just so I can et more of the person in the photo.

Photography and presentation practise

On 22/10/2014 I went to the Vale Academy's orchestra practise rehearsal. This was for upcoming Concert. I found out that in the orchestra there are multiple brass and jazz themed instruments, so I took this opportunity to try and et some photos and use this time to practise different angles. After getting a dozen photos I made a slidely using the said photos. Click here to see the slidely.

Research results so far.

After going through all the research I have done so far I have found multiple plans and possibilities for my magazine;

-Masthead needs to be at least 1/4 of the page in size.

-Colour schemes I have decided to use from my research are (Red and Black) (Black, white and yellow) and also (Blue and grey)

-Main image to be displayed on the front cover can be close up with grey scale or long shot with enhanced colour.

-The models I know I could use include a female model and two male models.

-The female pull I can use includes female models and a few articles which introduce female artists. 

-Puffs in which I could use would be small shapes with images of the artists embedded into them. This breaks a convention as there are normally no puffs on jazz magazines.

-Banners would be considered because they give a little extra information and also breaks a convention by 

having the banner as they normally aren't included.

-Strong cover lines as otherwise the front cover can get very confusing, therefor less appealing.

-Range of features should be considered as this makes the magazine more informative and also sticks to a convention.

-Pugs which will be included are a QR code for the young members and a barcode for the companies. These are likely to be located on the bottom right section of the cover.

-Layout for the Double Page spread will obviously have a lot of text, but i am considering having the text split up by a variety of images.

I have a list of  other parts I will research and these will help me have a much deeper understanding of this magazine.

Photographs (locations, models)

Male pull

Costumes/ props

features - need a variety

different poses for image

Researching Jazz magazines 4

To help prepare to create my music magazine I have found multiple magazines from my genre and am going to assess them on what I should do to create a successful music magazine.

The fourth magazine front cover I will be using for research is the July 2013 edition of Jazzwise.
One point I have noticed and can take note of is the size of the masthead. The masthead is 1/4 of the page in size and also quite loud in appearance. This is because the masthead is white and is in an Arial black style font which can be thought of as quite modern.

Something I have realised about his cover is that there is no immediate cover line. This is because out of all topic titles and lines, none are exceptionally bigger than others which gives the idea that they are all of the same importance. This gives me the note and makes me take into account that i will definitely need to have one other wise the cover lines will get mixed up and people might not know which of the cover lines is the main one.

Researching Jazz magazines #3

To help prepare to create my music magazine I have found multiple magazines from my genre and am going to assess them on what I should do to create a successful music magazine.

This front cover is from the July/August 2010 issue of 'Chicago Jazz Magazine'.
This looks like an appealing front cover as this has multiple parts which look good and make me want to pick this magazine up.

One point which makes this an appealing front cover is that it looks very professional compared to others in such a way that the colour scheme seems very formal. Everything has a black outline text wise which gives it a good touch.

The image itself isn't very appealing to be honest simply because of the fact that it is just an older man stood there smiling slightly with a trumpet variant. it would be better if the image was of a younger or early 30s person playing the piano or mid gig.

I like the idea of the masthead being done in a font which slightly resembles handwriting, giving the magazine a very personal touch and shows the target audience is a very small group of people.

Points I can take from this magazine include script fonts to give the feeling of personal touches in the magazine and the colour scheme as this is a colour scheme which actually works, while breaking a convention that yellow isn't commonly used in jazz magazines. Banners across the top might be a good idea to add more detail onto the front cover.

Researching Jazz magazines #2

To help prepare to create my music magazine I have found multiple magazines from my genre and am going to assess them on what I should do to create a successful music magazine.

My next magazine I will look at is the December 2011 issue of 'Jazz magazine'

This is a completely different front cover to the one I last researched and this one I definitely do not like and can take a lot from this magazine in which I will not use. One of these factors includes the image. I personally hate the idea behind this image. The blue hue brightening in the background looks alright, but this idea of Keith Revit unveiling himself from a red mass of hot colours with an artist's impression of him looks extremely ugly. This is partly to the fact that the hot and cold colour combination done in this style doesn't suit very well and almost looks like a battle on the page.

The black font colour done over this also looks very boring. This is because the publishers of this popular french music magazine have layered the whole page in colour and then almost decided that there is enough colour on the page. The black also doesn't fit well as there is many bright colours and instead of using a bright colour to keep the theme o brightness going, that potential theme has been invaded with this dark text.

Points I will take from looking at this cover is to try and be careful as to what colours I use. This is because of the scenario of certain colours not fitting together and therefore ruining the feeling. Another point is that if I want to set a colour theme that I must keep to it and not use any colours which do not fit within the them as this can ruin the front cover.

Researching Jazz Magazines #1

To help prepare to create my music magazine I have found multiple magazines from my genre and am going to assess them on what I should do to create a successful music magazine.

My first Jazz magazine I have chosen is the September 2007 issue of 'Jazz magazine'. This looks like a simple front cover which could have been improved. One thing which could be improved for me is that the masthead appears to not be one of the most significant parts of the magazine front cover. This to me is wrong as the masthead is the brand you are trying to sell and if the brand doesn't come across as the most important, then people will not buy the magazine or not know straight away what the magazine is about.

One thing I like is the way the image has been taken. The image has been taken during a recording session so this to me appears to be a natural image. Even thought the model is in fact being photographed inside an institute, this model is not inside a photography studio and has a facial expression as though he is enjoying himself. This gives off a positive feeling to people who look at the magazine and may make them have a look as to why the model is happy.

I also like the organization of how the colour scheme has been implemented. This colour scheme fits into the conventions set for the jazz genre, and they have took the most out of the set amount of colours and created a very attractive scheme of blue and black.

I will take note of the colour scheme combination and the pose and environment set in the image for possible ideas in my jazz magazine as these appear very positive and attractive to me. On the flip side, one thing I will NOT take on board is how this publisher has established the brand identity by placing the mast head in a small corner of the cover as this comes across as demeaning the brand making it seem less important than it really is.

Music magazine decision.

Today, after a lot of thinking I was given a choice between nine genres to do. These include; opera, classical and country, etc.

My final decision is to do a music magazine for the genres jazz.

I have chosen this genre because I can find people from the local area to photograph and i can also use the gap in the market to my advantage by setting a high line for quality.

I can also link the jazz genre to the soundtrack of multiple films as I know a few a fe films which integrate the jazz genre into their films.

The conventions on this genre are really quite lenient, so I can experiment a lot!

The conventions of the jazz genre are;
-Masthead must be 1/4 of the page and is normally in blue, black, white or red.
-Colour themes include the main colours to be red, blue, black and white only.
-Cover stories have a large range of subjects.
-Features of the magazines include new, events, biography, information about performances/ artists, concert reviews, what's on, regulars, letters, gigs, instrument news, new artists and advice.
-Puffs are quite rare in jazz magazines.
-Pugs which are common include the price, date, and in the top corners. bar code is normally bottom right.
-If banners are to be used, which is rarely, they are used on the contents page only.
-Names of the existing magazines are actually quite boring but can be used as research. (Eg. JazzTimes)

Fonts used include sans serif styles, times new roman, italic fonts, thin looking fonts and fonts which give the impression of handwriting.

Layout includes Boxes, Thirds, and Text on double page spreads are quite dense.

Front cover evaluation #3

I uploaded a third and final evaluation to a third format known as slideshare.
Click here for the presentation

Front cover evaluation #2

I have created a separate presentation for another front cover I have done this one is very different to the other one as well!
Click here to see the Presentation

Front Cover Evaluation #1

To prepare to research and draft my music magazine front cover I have thoroughly examined three different Magazine covers to make an understanding as to what makes a good music magazine front cover.

My first cover is from Q June 2014.

This was a good front cover because the masthead is big enough to see but not covering anything it shouldn't do (Eg. The main image). The most outstanding part of the cover to me is the image because it is very dramatic giving me the idea that the image can be very action packed, while the magazine can be successful.

The colour of the masthead also sticks to the house style as Q's house style of red colour. This is good as the house style s basically the brand identity of the magazine if the magazine goes off these colours, then it is possible that the brand identity cold be lost.

On this cover, there are 4 cover stories. This is a good number as it tells us a good amount of what has been put into the magazine and the stories it covers.

The difference between my college magazine cover and this cover is that this cover has the cover stories spread out around the outside. I can use this to my advantage by putting less text for each cover story and by also spreading out across all the edges.

This cover also appeals to the target audience because it is very modern and new. The cover appeals to both sexes because Lily Allen appeals to younger women due to being their idol and also being a significant role model to teenage girls. Young men are appealed to because they can use the male-gaze and also a lot of the cover stories appeal to men including, Ricky Gervais and Nutini. For the older audience, Oasis is also included on the banner at the top of the page with a front cover story.

This image has been altered in multiple ways to enhance it to a higher quality. One way this has been done is the microphone has been edited to give the image that the middle has been completely smashed into many pieces. This is done to give the microphone a more dynamic look to it. The colour has also been enhanced to the next that the shine was distorted. The background has been chosen to not be cluttered so that all the attention was focused onto Lily Allen.

From this magazine I would take the idea of using the masthead in the top left corner. This is because it doesn't take up any important space, while also being big enough to notice straight away. I would also use the idea of putting the cover stories around the outside because it is very tidy and they all fit very well.

Creativity and Reflection

To develop my creativity when designing and making the college magazine front cover, I used the internet to do some research on how other colleges have done the front covers and how I can take notes on them. This helped as I saw that the title is mainly at the top of the page.

 My target audience research didn't help as a lot of my results were inappropriate and open for debate. This is because of my questions being open to any answers instead of having fixed answers. This tells me that my questionnaire and Target audience research needs to be more specific otherwise I will get results just the same as this time and if I do then it wont help at all.

 Font research done was very successful as I found an appropriate font to use and also from looking at other peoples magazines I saw that college magazines mainly use modern, yet professional fonts.

 After uploading the photos i took to the vale media group on flickr, I found that the comments were very useful and I took them into account. One comment said how a photo, which in the end I chose my final choice, had to have a light line in it edited out to make it a good photo.

 I used my draft so much that I almost brought it to life as well which tells me that either my draft was really good or that I could have brought it to life really easily.

 Overall, I feel that I was actually quite creative in how I took this challenge to such an extent that I am proud of what I made.

Evaluation of the front cover

After reflecting on my front cover I have realised there are some things in which were not so great and that there was a lot of things in which I enjoyed and looks appealing.
First of all, I like the front style I have used as I feel it suits the theme well. It is easy to read while at the same time being modern. "Apple Casual" therefore was a good font in my opinion.

On the bottom of the page, I had drafted to put three stories on the page but during the design and  layout period, I found out that I could only do that if I put the cover stories to an impractically small size. I altered this by putting two at the bottom and putting the third on the right hand side. This didn't look that right so in the future I'm going to improve by only using two cover stories, instead of three.

On the flip side, I though the layout of the cover stories on the bottom and the title at the top was a very tidy and organised idea. When I make the music magazine cover, I am going to use this layout as I feel this is an appropriate layout.

The colour scheme for me so far, has worked and I like it. I feel it really symbolises the college well as both schools which the college is made up of have all four colours related to them. These colours are black, white, blue and yellow. Using the blue on the title I fell was a good choice as it fits really well on the black background. I could improve on how I applied them by including the white as the description to the cover stories.

My image I used for the background which was of one of my friends, I did not like how I photoshopped the eyes to look a bit better. This is because I accidentally made it so the iris was completely one shade of blue and it didn't look good at all. How the white was done I feel was quite good but it did look a little over done. I could improve how the photo by making the photoshop a lot better. The only way I can do this is to practise my photoshop skills by altering multiple photos over and over until I do it really well.

Final college magazine contents page

After playing around with the photoshop and sticking to my draft I have created a basic contents page.

Final College magazine front cover

After working on photoshop for a while and taking several photos, my front cover has finally been finished!

TA Research and my chosen image

This is my chosen image for the front cover of my magazine. This is because i had two other pictures for my cover, but one had bad lighting and the other had a poor background. I have chosen this one as the image is appropriate and the only major alteration I must do is get rid of the blue line down the middle.

My feedback on flikr informed me about his one being better as on one photo, the background was well lit, but the face was really dark. And the other background was mainly brick.