front cover and contents page and website 15/10/24

 

https://topickmagazine.wixsite.com/catalogue

Final masthead design

 

This is the final design for the Topick masthead. It was created in photoshop using the transform tools. The 'o' is meant to resemble a vinyl record. The legs of the 'T' and 'k' are lightning bolts, and are meant to evoke thought of the sound an electric guitar makes when struck, similar to the Kerrang! masthead. The legs of the 'T' and 'k' also double as a frame for the star on the front cover, who will be between the two. I ended up spelling it 'Topick' as a play-on-words involving 'topic' and a guitar 'pick'.

The Kerrang! and Metallica logos, which I used for inspiration, are pictured again below.

Current Kerrang! logo. Originally used from 1983 through 1996, again since 2021

Iconic Metallica logo, featuring a prominent downward swoosh on either side. 

Rose photoshoot

Overall I took almost 400 photos for the photoshoot. Below are the ones I have shortlisted for features in the magazine and website. Rose is wearing a leather jacket to convey a sort of rebellious, punky attitude. She also wears a t-shirt featuring the English rock band Blur. Fans of the genre would recognise the intertextuality here and appreciate the reference to the older band.

Mood board for cover 1

Cover 1 mood board

 

Masthead Planning

 Masthead

The name of the magazine will be Topick (a play on the words 'topic' and 'pick' as in the pick of a guitar). A guitar pick will be incorporated into the logo somehow, for instance by putting one in place for the dot for an 'I'. The 'K' will by stylised such that the right leg will look like a lightning bolt. The 'T' will also my stylised, such that it's leg will resemble a lightning bolt striking in the opposite direction to the 'K'. The 'O' will resemble a vinyl record.

The lightning motif in the stylisation of the magazine masthead was chosen in reference to how a chord is 'struck' on a guitar. It is a similar idea to that of the KERRANG! logo utilised from 1983 to 1996, then re-adopted by the publication in 2021 - the typography (and indeed the word itself) is representative of the 'sound of a power chord struck by an electric guitar'.

The overall shape and form of the title also takes inspiration from the American heavy metal band Metallica, who's logo is designed such that it features prominent downward spikes protruding from the first and last letters. The downward angle of the lightning bolt-esque leftmost and rightmost letters in the title of Topick are designed to bring the consumer's attention between the bolts - they are designed to frame the talent chosen for the front pages.

Current Kerrang! logo. Originally used from 1983 through 1996, again since 2021

Iconic Metallica logo, featuring a prominent downward swoosh on either side. 

Talent Pictures

 

Rose Ward

Edmund Gray

OCR Summer 2022 Moderator's Report

Magazines

The magazine work provided some very lively, informed and creative responses to the brief of ‘real life’ stories magazine, with thoughtful representations and careful consideration of target audience. A significant minority of the magazines were only tangentially related to the “real life stories” requirement of the brief. It would seem that many candidates focused on ‘real life’ rather than real life stories and as a result productions tended to be lifestyle magazines, with offerings focused on sport or music, for example. A number of candidates also ignored the specified target audience, actively addressing another audience of their own choosing, often quite a niche audience.

In the best examples candidates had achieved everything required by the brief, with some well- considered and appropriate photography being used and an overall design aesthetic being carried across both editions of the magazine, including the contents pages, and to the websites. Such magazines had clearly been inspired by existing examples from Bauer and captured a sense of verisimilitude. Most magazines understood the requirement to appeal to the target audience and there were some inventive approaches to this.

It was very common for moderators to see front covers which included images with no direct address and with a lack of coverlines, or with only one or two included. Font sizes were often either inappropriately small (for coverlines), or over large (for issue dates). In some cases, it was not clear which was the main coverline, usually signified by being the largest font on the cover after the masthead, and this didn’t always anchor the meaning of the main image, which is conventional. In a small number of cases candidates included vertical coverlines and/or masthead, which is extremely unconventional.

In general, less successful magazines either missed key elements from the brief, did not adhere to the codes and conventions of the form or did not show understanding of genre. For example, some magazines were not aimed at the target audience (including stories or characters which would be of no interest to 16–25-year-olds). Others demonstrated a lack of consideration of the need for representation from two different social groups (several magazines were seen where models were of the same age, gender, and ethnicity). Some candidates did not place models in different settings on the cover, even when the backgrounds had been Photoshopped. A number lacked reference to the website, failing to draw attention to this either on the cover or the contents page (a call to action was specified in the brief); some magazines used QR codes with no context.

The most successful magazines linked the coverlines to the contents page; the less successful ones included little or no copy other than titles in the contents page, did not consider the leading and typeface for the coverlines or created small mastheads, which lacked impact. Some did not include the dateline on the cover and others did not refer to the fact that they were the first two editions, both of which were requirements of the brief. Some magazines had excellent front covers but had less effective contents pages. Indeed, contents pages tended to be the least successful aspect of candidates’ work for this brief. Some contents pages duplicated text, stories or imagery/ models across both issues; it was very common to see pages which only contained four or five articles, which then led to the use of inappropriately large font sizes, combined with overlong text, sequential page numbers for articles, no sub-headings, little or no copy and poorly considered fonts.

Many contents pages would have benefitted from a greater number of images as well and page numbers on the photographs, anchoring them to the written contents. It was concerning to see work which was allocated a Level 4 or 5 mark which showed no understanding of how a column structure is used on magazine contents pages.

                                                                                                                                

https://ocr.org.uk/Images/687923-moderators-report-making-media.pdf