Article

The first thing to do on my article was to decide what the subject would be. I wanted firstly to focus it on the model on the cover my first attempt at a magazine cover. But, after the changes I made to that, I wanted to also change the article focus. I used the same name, but used different pictures. These pictures were better than the original ones as they had natural light and a more detailed mise-en-scene, using four models instead of one, all in smart outfits. The original pictures I took are already published on my blog, but I edited them on photoshop to enhance their effect within my article;














So, my final decision for my article subject was an article about an artist "SHH!" This was going to be the original name for my artist, although I completely changed the artists look. SHH! was changed into the lead singer of a band Sammy and the Boys, who are in my pictures here.
This is the first draft of my article, I changed a few things towards the end to fill it up in my final.

Music in the 80’s: AS TOLD BY SHH!

The 1980’s were a time of bad haircuts, horrendous fashion mistakes and angst ridden teenage dramas; a time for Thatcherism to either be much loved or much despised and a time when a lot of notable things changed in the world of music.

One person who remembers the decade well is our very own Shh!, lead singer of indie/pop band ‘Sammy and the Boys’ and currently the new face of L’Oreal men, in the advert that everybody’s talking about. Despite what the press has been saying about him recently, we at The Classic feel he is very much the prince of pop he has been since the early late 80’s early 90’s when it was all about loud clothes and even louder hair.

“As a teen in the 1980’s I very much felt the impact of all the changes in society. My dad was a politician and he would have to be in London for long periods of time doing what he called; ‘Thatcher’s dirty work.’”
But Shh! was never bothered with the political side of life; his days consisted of clubbing with his friends – the soon-to-be other members of Sammy and the Boys. I asked him what those times were like, when he was young and free and careless. He looked at me with deep, black eyes before answering with a vague, “well…”
I got the feeling that the stories that have just recently been written about him in the papers had affected the way he spoke to journalists, and really, it was not surprising. I asked him whether he didn’t want to go into too much detail (to show how kind and considerate we at The Classic are) and he just shook her head. I was going to have to work harder if I wanted any real answers…

“Let’s talk about music” I said, realising that that was really the whole point of this interview. “Who were or are your inspirations?”
“Ooh, now this is a good question. How many can I have? I was really into anything and
everything as a teenager; Adam Ant, The Culture Club, Banarama.”
“So quite a mix then?”
Grinning, he answers “You could say that. But my favourite all time band had to be Blondie. I was deeply in love with Debbie Harry.”
“But weren’t most young boys in the 80’s?” “Yes, and also, although we are ashamed to admit it, the girls from ABBA had quite a large place in our hearts. But maybe I’ve said too much…” What a revelation. Grinning still, Shh! carries on to say that even though being in a teenager in the 80’s should have meant he was all about the rebelling against society and worshipping music like The Cure, he actually favoured the quieter, less aggressive styles of music which were deemed ‘girly’ by his peers. “I still listened to a lot of everything, and I even had a cassette of Joy Division’s album “Unknown Pleasures” somewhere, a thing that made me very popular for a while.”
After all these revelations, I decided to turn the topic to more neutral grounds and asked Shh! whether he attended the wonder that was the Live Aid concert of 85.
“Of course I did!” Shh! looks shocked that I could ever question his allegiance to the very best of British music at so important a time. “I was 18 at the time, so of course it was somewhat of an excuse to take a road trip up to London for the day. It was such a brilliant concert, in so many ways. I was with my mates at the time, 3 of whom would go on to become members of Sammy and the Boys in a couple of years. We were all so hyped up on excitement the whole day that we kept missing people go on stage. At one point, after Queen had played, we were so awestruck by Freddie Mercury going off stage that we failed to see David Bowie coming on the other side. It was an awesome sight.”
And it certainly sounds like it.
I could tell Shh! was beginning to open up more with me, and so I asked him what he was planning to do with his career now that he was a true connoisseur of pop.
“A connoisseur? Really? Wow… I would never have called myself that. But I guess I have been in the business for quite a while now. So, yeah, I like that title! At the moment, me and the boys haven’t got any big plans, but we’ve had some offers to guest on a couple of albums. Not going to say whose, but its all quite exciting!”
“Sounds like your career is only just beginning then, what with the new advert and all these offers!”
Shh! Looks at me for a moment before answering my last question with a smile. “Well, I wouldn't say just beginning, but it’s certainly not over!”
That’s the spirit I like to see in a guy and I tell him so as we leave the interview room. What an insight we have had into the life of our greatest pop star and what a taste of things to come!TC

I ended the article with TC to inform the reader that this article had finished. It stands for The Classic, which also gives an identity to the article.
I then made the double page spread for my article to be on using Microsoft publisher. Firstly I added a title, using Word Art and different fonts to create a professional looking headline.

Next I added the first picture plus a caption. This added a focal point to the first page and meant that it would not be completely filled with text.

I decided to keep a very straightforward layout for my article page, and so my text was split into three equal columns. I also added in a few of the most interesting quotes at random points in my article in bold, red letters to link to my title.

“I was deeply in love with Debbie Harry”

For the second page, I kept the cohesion by still using a very straightforward font and layout and also adding in pictures and quotes in a simple pattern.

This was how I thought my article pages would look:

This is my final article: