Flat Plan

Draft questions for Double Page spread.

Sharnee is a young RnB singer from London. She signed to DJ Mustard’s 10 summers label after DJ Mustard discovered her talent on Instagram. Her first release at 10 summer’s records was her Souls EP, which was released June 15 2016 and has blown up since.  London caught up with Sharnee for a quick chat on how everything is going for her so far.

1)      Hello Sharnee AKA Miss upcoming superstar, How are you?

2)      How did you get started into making music?

Well I have always loved music, even when I was a little baby if a song came on I would sing along to it. Music has always been a part of me. When I was eight years old my mum bought me a piano so I learnt how to play and write music myself from young. I think the first song I ever wrote was called “broke my heart” with the corniest chords ever, I still laugh thinking about how an earth I thought making that song was acceptable. Over time I improved and got better at it. When I was around 13/14 I started going to the studio to sing songs I wrote and just mess around with the sound.

3)      Have you always wanted a career in music or was it a bit unexpected?

From the day I was born I knew I wanted to be a singer, I’ve just always been that passionate about it. I can’t imagine myself doing anything different or anything outside the music entertainment industry. I know that it is a competitive field which is why I work really hard at what I do trying to stand out and be the best.

4)      Who is your biggest influence in your music?

I would say that my biggest influence in my music is… Mariah Carey and Jhene Aiko. Mariah Carey has been my idol since before I could even remember, I look up to her because she has an enormous range and her riffs and whistle tones are just perfect. She is a diva and won’t take shit from nobody which is something I look up to because it is very easy to lose yourself and be taken advantage of in this industry. Secondly, I say Jhene Aiko because her sound is just amazing and unique. Also she is just herself and down to earth which I respect and aspire to be like as like I said, it is really easy to lose yourself in all of this. My sound is more like Jhene Aiko which is why she influences me so much as well as us creating music in the same genre.

5)      What is your friends and family’s response to your quick rise to fame?

Yeah, they all think it’s crazy! Honestly it’s just been so overwhelming for the lot of us. My family and friends have been my biggest supporters as they were there supporting me from when I was very young and before anyone even knew of my name. I mean my life has drastically changed like before if I went out shopping or something, no one would even bat an eyelid but now all I hear is people screaming my name and asking for pictures and autographs.

6)      How do you feel about your fans and their response to your single “He won’t”?

It’s been crazy. It’s like something that you always wanted to happen. The response I got back was mainly positive. It blew up all over Instagram, Everyone was sharing and reposting my stuff, making covers to it and there were even dance groups creating choreography to it. It feels amazing to know that everyone loves my work and what I’m doing and that my fans are 100 percent behind me.

7)      So we know that you got spotted off Instagram, how long were you making videos for and when did Mustard reach out to you?

Yeah, I’m on Instagram 24/7, I’ve had it for ages. But it’s like one day I had my moment and told myself “Sharnee what are you going to do to get yourself out there and take yourself to the next step?” like I go to a music specialised college and all my friends know how passionate I am about music, but how do I get onto the next level and that’s when I decided that I would make singing videos. Not on YouTube though because that’s what everyone does, I decided to put them on Instagram as it would be short and snappy which tends to grab an audience more. I would sing songs that were currently trending, at the time it was “679” by Fetty wap, but then I would put my own twist on it to showcase my own sound. Mustard discovered my Instagram probably around November 2015. He reached out to me through DM’s and was like “where are you from”. He was surprised to find out I was from London as most people think I’m from like LA. And yeah it took off from there really.

You said that most people think you’re from the US, Is it important to you to promote your London identity?

Yeah, 100 percent. Everyone assumes I’m American when they hear me sing but London is where I was born and where I am from so of course I want to represent that and make my city proud.

Being from London, Brexit is quite a controversial topic now, what are your opinions on it?

Personally, I am quite upset about it as I came from a family who voted to stay in so it came as quite of a shock to find out we was leaving the UK. I think it will be harder for Britain now since we just left one of our main trade blocs which means tariffs and quotas will be higher resulting in higher prices for us as the consumer. There’s nothing we can really do about it anymore but pray.

I agree with you on that one, anyway we have to wrap it up now. It was really nice meeting you sharnee and I hope everything goes great for you.

Thank you for having me, it was great to meet you. 

Magazine Proposal

College magazine evaluation on a presentation software

exploring different software ; adobe illustrator

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We used Adobe illustrator to create our mastheads for our music magazines. First we wrote the text using a basic font and then manipulated the text using the anchor points so that it became our own personalised font. We then picked a textured background image (mine is pink fur) and sent it to the back. We duplicated the masthead (as you can see on the image there are two mastheads) and dragged it down so that only one was placed on the image. we then made only the outline of the masthead visible by going on 'object' and clicking on 'compound path'. Then to make the text take the background image we clicked on 'object' again and clicked 'clipping mask' this time which lead the masthead to become the pink fur background i had in the beginning. You can see this in the image above.

Distribution of magazines

Magazine newsstand task

This is a photo of the magazine section I took in Sainsburys. You can clearly see that most of the magazines are of a lifestyle/food genre considering it is located in a supermarket and not a specialised book/magazine store such as Whsmith. They did have popular music magazines such as Q magazine because it is particularly a magazine that sells well, however I noticed that they didn't have magazines of a Rnb/Hip Hop genre such as XXL. I then found XXL magazine at a newsstand located next to Clapham Junction station.

Unlike most newsstands where they overlay the magazines so that only the top-left of the magazine is showing, here we can see that the magazines are placed so that we can see the full cover of the magazine clearly.  The magazines are organised in genres; this means all the food magazines are next to each other and all the fashion magazines are next to each other etc. This is so that the buyers don't get confused and so that they can find the type of magazine that they are looking for quickly. They have also labled the separate stands with what genre those magazines are to help keep organised.

I've also noticed that most of the magazines on display are packaged in plastic, this gives it a more clean and organised look instead of having random pages and magazines located everywhere.

College magazine evaluation

We made a college magazine so we could practice and experiment with adobe Photoshop and Indesign. This helps us so we know how to use it when making our music magazines for our coursework. Also by evaluating our college magazines, it will help us on how to improve to make our music magazines the best that they can be.

What went well: Front cover

I think and others as well gave their opinion that the colour scheme of my Front cover went really well together (black, white and red - same as the lanyard which creates a student and college theme) and I think the layout of my magazine works and follows the conventions of a typical magazine. I chose to name the title of my magazine 'Leyton' because I wanted it to be exclusive to students at Leyton Sixth Form College than it being called something more vague like 'Student' or 'Success' which would make it for every student in college rather than those specifically who study at Leyton. The red font is really bold and makes it easier to read which is a good thing because it means the readers wont have to strain so hard to see what it says. The main image on the front cover is of a student posing which makes other students more relatable and have a more youthful and playful theme and this shows that it is not one of those boring and serious student magazines.

What didn't go well and what I need to improve on: Front cover

To improve I need to add more short and snappy cover lines to draw people in more, rather than having long paragraphs on the front cover as this is the first page people see and I don't want them to get bored or completely skip my magazine because there is so much words on it. Also, the picture used is not that clear but is an issue that can be fixed with using a better camera. In addition to the main image, there is no direct address which breaks the conventions of a magazine so next time i would need to have the person looking directly at the camera as this draws in viewers and makes them engage more as a student. The word "Success" looks almost as big as the masthead which could mislead people into thinking that it is part of the name, therefore I would need to make the size of the word more smaller so that the masthead is more clearer.

What went well: Contents page

The titles are bold and stand out making it easy to read and the font is red which links in with the colour scheme of the front cover. This creates a more organised look as I have specifically chosen certain colours and not just used random colours for the magazine. Also red is a bright and attracting colour which is useful because it grabs the attention of viewers. I have listed page numbers which is good because it directs people on where they need to go and where about in the magazine everything is. I think that the images I used worked well because it was of students (around the same age as the target audience; 16-18) in a school environment having fun which creates a youthful and fun theme which the readers can relate to.

What didn't go well and what I need to improve on: Contents Page

My contents page looks quite plain and looks like it doesn't have much content in the magazine which would make potential buyers question if they really want to spend their money on it. Therefore I need to add more content on to the page so that it looks like it has more in it. Also the writing underneath the titles are spaced out which gives the page a weird look so I need to find out how to get rid of the huge gap between the lines so that it looks more professional. In addition, I should've added at least one or two more pictures to the page because it looks a bit dry and not attractive. The font of the subtitles doesn't really suit the look and doesn't look as professional so I need to change the font so it looks more like the conventions of a magazine contents page.

College Magazine

Contents page

College Magzine Plan

Task 2 case studies

Practice exercise:photoshop