First Front Cover Draft

Unused photos from my photoshoot

Costume research & planning

Covers I used for inspiration:

Costume ideas:

Final costume:

Mockup of front page, contents and two page spread

 

 

The use of photography in music magazines

Test shots

Music magazine LIIAR analysis

 


Front Cover

Language

The use of language on the front cover is to help attract the correct audience to buy the magazine, in this case the audience are teenage girls who have an interest in pop music.The slogan under the mast head is "don't bore us. get to the chorus" which relates to the fact the magazine is about music. The main story is obviously "Saturdays soap operas, tears, tantrums and total meltdowns" This is of interest to readers as people love hearing the latest drama about their favourite celebrities, and the Saturdays are a very well known girl group. The "12 page 1D pull-out spesh" of posters would help gain many buyers as the band one direction are very popular today, and this is a freebie the majority of readers would have an interest in. More posters are labelled as "Girl power posters" which readers would also have an interest in as the magazine is aimed towards girls itself. The story advertising the top trainers of the year would also be effective, as bright and colourful trainers are in fashion for young girls, so the words "top 10" would catch their eye as they will hope to be learning about the best ones available to buy.

Representation

The choice of having The Saturdays to model on the front cover is very relevant to the magazines genre. They are a well known pop music group, and many people would have an interest in reading about them. As this magazine is aimed towards young girls I think the idea of the main image having the models not looking "perfect" is a great idea. The idea of the image is that they are not ready for the picture to be taken, hence the fact their hair is still in rollers with smudged lipstick. This represents the fact that celebrities don't always look perfect to young girls. The outfits of the models are also bright and colourful, which matches the colour scheme of the cover which is white, blue and orange. Bright coloured dresses are also in fashion right now so younger girls would like to see what they consider fashionable on the cover.

Contents Page

Language

The title of the page is "We love this..." which is a relation to the magazines name and also a good title to help gain interest, as readers would be intrigued into what it is that they "love". There is a large amount of text on this contents page and a lot of it are actually quotes. The quote that is for the main story featuring The Saturdays is "I was in pieces leaving Marvin", which may make readers gain an interest into the story so they can learn who this Marvin was and what happened. Another quote is from the group the Wanted stating "we buy Tesco's own brand" which would make readers feel more related to the celebrities, as they love hearing that their idols are not that different to them. 

Representation

The representation of the contents page matches the rest of the magazine with the bold and colourful look. Some the images used on this page are more natural and not took in photo shoots, which shows young girls that the celebrities they love are not all different which is what they like to see. All the images are of well known pop music artists which helps the magazine achieve recognition from the readers, as the magazine would not be as easily recognised if the images were of unknown artists. As the bright colours are continued on this page readers will always be aware that the genre of music is pop through the representation, as pop music is often associated with bright and loud colours.

Two page spread

Language
There are a range of different uses of language in this article as there is a lot of text on the pages.The idea of putting "Exclusive interview" in the top right corner is a way for readers to think the article is more special and important, therefore making them want to read. I first realise the title which is a quote itself "Justin Biebers my mate, but... Maaan, I fancy Selena!" this use of language would interest readers as a celebrity is revealing who they like, and the fact that another celebrity is dating her adds more interest, plus the fact they are all in the pop music genre. A drop quote is also used, "When I met Selena, I couldn't speak, I just gawped!" which is a key answer to the interview made larger for readers to see, in the hope it convinces them to read the full article if they had not already. A use of language that relates to the music genre is "Now Nathan's GAGA for Grande" As Lady GAGA is a pop artist, so making this link is clever.

Representation
The images on this article are once again trying to show the normality of pop music artists, the main image looks to be from a professional photo shoot, whilst all the others on the page look to be shots taken by the paparazzi, therefore showing the celebrities having normal social lives. The colours on the page are keeping within the magazines general colour scheme, all of which typical teenage girls would like such as pinks, yellows and blues. The bold and highlighted parts of the text helps the most important quotes and questions stand out, which is a way for them to be repesnted more easily for the younger readers.

Focus Group Video

I asked my focus group a series of questions as part of my research, the answers helped me make some decisions about my music magazine before deciding on my chosen genre and target audience.

Social class table

I have decided to aim my music magazine towards young teenage girls, these would fall into the unemployed/recieving benefits category of the social class table I found. My target audience will most likely not buy this magazine themselves considering they are not at the working age their parents may buy it for them, because of this I need to make the price of the magazine as affordable as possible.

After doing some research on music magazine price I saw that they are very varied. Billboard magazine is definetly aimed towards middle class and higher, this is consdiered expensive for a music magazine to most. You can tell this mazgine is quite high end from the look and style aimed towards students and people older and will have a lot of  content inside. I can assume this magazine would have issues less frequently becuase of the large content and higher price, it may come out just monthly.

We love pop on the other hand is the opposite, at just £1.00 it is much cheaper. I can assume it has less pages and content inside and most probably no free gift, this is aimed towards young teenagers in other words those unemployed or in working class. The magzine may also have issues more often, for exmaple every fortnight.

Top of the pops seems to be in the middle compared to these two, at a price of £2.99. I assume this magazine would have a free gift included and a fair amount of content, this is aimed to younger teenagers also however it is a better magazine to some competition. This magaizne would be aimed to those from working class to lower middle class, and will probably also have an issue every fortnight.

   Top of the pops (£2.99)






          Billboard  (£5.50)








   We love pop (£1.00)



From this research and since my target audience is young teenage girls I will be pricing my magazine around the £2.00 mark, so most similar to "Top of the pops". I believe this is a sensible price as my magazine will feature a small free gift in very issue and have a fair amount of content, whilst being on the cheaper side compared to others on the market. Young girls aged 12-16 are the people who would most likely buy this, and considering my earlier statement of their parents paying for the issue I believe my chosen price is sensible and can be bought by even the lowest social classes.

Planning: Name & Colour scheme

Colour schemes of existing magazines

 

From research, I have discovered that existing pop magazines generally use bright and bold colours for the cover. This is obviously a way to get noticed by readers, but also a way to represent the genre as pop music is energetic and loud. A magazine usually has just three colours for the colour scheme, I have seen that normally one of these is black from my research, as it is a simple and solid colour for text.

 

 

My possible colour schemes

 

Name

 

I have decided that the name of my pop music magaizne will be Replay, I wanted the name to be in block capital lettering as I believe this makes the mast head stand our more and fill up the page better. I used some websites to experiment with fonts annd colours depending on my research.

 

 

Magazine mockups

I used the website picmonkey.com to create my pop music magazine mockups.

I decided to experiment with different colours and conventions as well as the layout whilst creating these mockups. I choose several different curently well known pop artists to be featured on this mockups.

 

 

Mockup 1

 

For my first mock up of my music magazine I used Taylot swift as the model, as she is currently doing well in the pop music industry. I used contrasting colours to her clothing,being gold, and black as a second solid colour.

Mockup 2

 

For this mock up I chose am image of Adele with a black background so i could use bolder and brighter colours. I think the neon pink helps the cover stand out and is quite a popular coplour for pop magazines. I also added a skyline to help promote whats included in the magazine.

 

Mockup 3

Katy perry is a popular pop artist at the moment so she is featured on this mockup. I used the colours red black and white on this cover, which i think work well together. I also added more conventions to this mockup such as a plug snd skyline.

Mockup 4

 

I decided to keep the colours of this cover to just black and white, JessieJ's clothing gave me this idea. I think the colour choice works well and helps the main story stand out to th rest of the cover.

Genre research

 

Existing magazines in this genre

 

Currently in the charts 

Reader profile research

Music magazine conventions

 

Cover

 

 

 

Contents

 

Two page spread

The Brief

To design a front cover, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, a minimum of four images must be used.

College magazine evaluation

When I began research for my magazine, I started by gaining an understanding of magazine conventions. I did this by looking at past magazine covers of many different genres but mainly existing college magazines. After understanding the conventions I did a LIIAR analysis of a magazine cover, contents page and two page spread of my choice, for this I chose Vogue. Writing this analysis helped me gain ideas and an understanding of magazine layouts, which became useful in creating my final product. During research I also made a spider diagram and mood board with general ideas and plans for my college magazine, which included font types, images and topics of interest to college students. After completing all my research and thinking about my audience, which is college students ages between 16 and 18, I had a general plan for my College magazine. This lead to me making my page Layout drafts, which simply show the positioning of conventions on the pages, I used my front cover plan to guide me whilst creating my final product although I made some changes.

I wanted my cover layout to look as professional as possible, and relate to the audience as well as different social groups. The cover had to appeal to both male and female teenagers, to do this I should think about the use of colour and my choice of stories that will be featured. From my research I saw that on all magazines the mast head is either in the top left corner or goes across the top of the page. The main story of the issue will be placed in the bottom right in a larger font to the other stories, this will make it stand out and hopefully draw attention to the audience. I will also place the other stories in a list form with is very conventional and easy to locate and read. All the writing on the page will be outlined too, which will make it clear and visible to read on any background or colour.

In order to make the magazine gender neutral I had to think about my use of colour, fonts and images. My final image was modelled by a girl, so I had to make sure the over conventions made it clear the magazine is not just aimed towards girls. I chose what I would class as a basic font that would apply to both genders, and used stories that would appeal to all students. I decided to use just two colours for on the cover, those colours being purple and black. Purple as it is the colour of the Wyke College logo, and black because its simple, bold and appeals to everyone. These colours in my opinion are not aimed towards one specific gender or social group, and this continuous colour scheme would be the same throughout the full issue. Deciding on the name of my magazine was quite easy in my opinion, I needed something that was simple and straight to the point to explain the purpose of the contents. I thought it should include the college name too, and that's how I came up with "Wyke Life". I believe this name would appeal to the audience as it would include information on the college they attend and their student lifestyle.

The main story of my college magazine was the new students attending, which I wrote as "Welcome, to the class of 2015" this would hopefully gain attention from all of the new students. I also think the other stories I chose to include would appeal to the students, especially "New student offers inside" as this would allow the readers to gain knowledge of offers they are eligible for as a college student. I also believe the story "Freshers party tickets now on sale" would gain interest as it is a chance for the new students to get to know one another and feel more comfortable at college and therefore improve their learning in lessons. These stories all related to the student lifestyle and therefore suggest that college will be a happy environment that everyone will enjoy attending.

During my research process I had taken many different images whilst learning about different camera shots. Although many I took for usable, I decided on choosing a mid-shot image. A mind-shot image is the most common shot type used for magazine covers so I thought this would work well. When taking the photos I used sensible areas within the college as backgrounds that would be good choices for a front covers main image. The picture I chose in the end was took in front of the college lockers, which immediately gives the correct impression for the magazine, this being education. I also had the model hold a folder, once again a way to give the correct impression that she is at college and ready to learn. I also made sure she was smiling happily, to show she is enjoying the student life at Wyke and is happy to be there. I chose this image over my other ones for many reasons, The main ones being that the background was not too busy and therefore drew most of the attention to the student, and that there was plenty of clear space around her to add text.

I used the program Photoshop to edit my image and create my final product, which is a sensible choice as Photoshop is a professional photo manipulation program and therefore keeps the professional approach of my magazine I was going for. I actually did little editing on the main image, only slightly changing the brightness and contrast to improve the clarity. For the text on the page I looked for a basic serif font that would be easy to read and not to different from the original Wyke logo, for the normal stories I used a different font to the mast head and main story font as a way to make those stand out. I used layers to add the text and conventions onto the image, and different tools available on the program to add effects. For example, after adding all my text I decided to outline it in black to make it more clear to read, I did this by using the "stroke" tool in Photoshop. Whilst editing as well as adding text I also added a bar code and a plug in the right corner stating it is the magazines "debut issue".

Overall I am pleased with my final college magazine front cover, I think it applies to the target audience well and I have kept the colour scheme consistent. One thing I would change if I were to for this task again, is that I would use the flash on the camera whilst taking my photos. By doing this I believe it would improve the quality of the image and make the models face stand out more, this would also mean I would not have to edit the brightness in Photoshop. I would also possibly add one or two more stories onto the page, or a more varied amount of conventions, as this would result in the page space being used to its fullest. I believe I have met the criteria of this task well and have worked at the height of my ability during this project.

College magazine final front cover

Existing magazines research

    

For all of these magazine covers, the mast head takes up the full width of the page, which immediately draws your attention to the fact they are college magazines. The colour schemes are all primary colours, which are bright and bold and stand out against the faded and black backgrounds. These all have a standard magazine layout, with a mid-shot as the main image, a mid-shot allows you to see any books the student is wearing which implies that its a college magazine. The feature stores are all in a list form, which makes it simple and easy to read, they are also in colours coordinating with the mast head. The stories included in these magazines are all to the interest of the readers, such as real life stories and social news, which college students would have an interest in. These magazines also feature conventions such as footers, plugs and bar codes. From researching these other college magazines, I gained knowledge on the subject and it helped me with ideas for my own college magazine I will be creating.

Unused images

 

Camera shot types

 

College magazine page drafts

Front Cover


Contents page 



Two page spread