Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My product, the music magazine, generally conforms to the codes and conventions of music magazines, though some aspects are challenged. I chose to use an image of an average-looking teenage girl, without altering the original picture too drastically to challenge the idea that celebrities on the front of magazines have to be thin and perfect - I wanted to connote that anyone can be a star, not just the glamorous - and I also wanted to show that 'average' is beautiful. The use of only one main image on my front page conforms to the codes and conventions, as does the positioning of the barcode and mast head; I felt that by sticking to these conventions it gave my magazine a more professional look, as I had intended my magazine to be for older girls who are interested and serious about my magazine, and I felt it made the front page more accessible to the reader. The layout of my magazine on the general whole conforms to the codes and conventions of a music magazine, as I stuck to the idea of using only a limited colour scheme - red, pink, white and black - along with a simplistic font to create a recognisable, yet fairly plain, house style; if I had challenged these conventions by not creating a house style, the magazine would have a messy, unappealing appearance.
With the contents page of my magazine, I did not conform to the idea of having an 'editors note' in the top right-hand corner; instead, I developed this idea by giving the editor their own page in the magazine, as I still felt that having this aspect was important. The font, colour and style of the contents page follows the same design as the front cover of my magazine, which is conforming to the codes and conventions, however, minor aspects (such as the background colour of the page) are different, which slightly challenges the idea of the use of the same design throughout. I conformed to the use of several images on my contents page, as visual information, I feel, is more important: people will generally be attracted to the images, and turn to those pages - I for one, as a member of my own target audience, tend not to read the text on a contents page, but instead flick to the pages with the most interesting pictures.
With the double page spread, the use of colour, font and background colour is all the same as has been used before in other parts of my magazine, which conforms to magazine codes and conventions, and creates a professional vibe. I conformed to the used of a blown-up direct quotation and a large image on this page, as I felt this would be most likely to attract my audience, as opposed to a large amount of text and a small picture. I conformed, again, by placing the page numbers and magazine title in the corners of the pages, as I believe this gives my magazine the professional look I was going for.


2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My  media product is representative of women, mainly, who enjoy Indie music. Indie music is all about being an individual - being who you want to be, basically - and I feel that my music magazine shows this through the way the women in the photographs are portrayed; none of them are overly glamorous, they do not stick to a particular dress code and they all appear to be relatively average. My magazine shows the audience something they can relate to: typical teenage girls and young women, being themselves. They do not conform to certain stereotypes, and each of them is different in their own sense: this is what makes them, I believe, 'Indie' artists. They are individual.
One other thing which relates to the Indie music genre is the names of the bands I used throughout the magazine; they were all a bit 'crazy' and 'out there' which is something which people stereotype with Indie music however, through my use of images I challenged this stereotype by making my artists look 'normal'.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The institution I believe would distribute my magazine would be the BBC as they have a wide range of magazines available, but do not offer a magazine aimed at older teenage girls or young women. The BBC are a popular institution, and offer a wide range of services from television & film, the music and radio industry and the print media industry: BBC already own The Top of the Pops magazine, which is aimed at younger girls, but the 'teen' section in their magazine range is dismally bare and limited in choice. I feel that by distributing my magazine they could converge and widen their audiences further, and it would fill in a gap in they have in their market.


4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would, essentially, be older teenage girls who have an interest in Indie music. The magazine is aimed at a "typical" teenage girl who wants a realistic magazine, which offers 'real' role models as opposed to glamorous superstar-types. A typical girl who reads my magazine will be around the age of 17, and I chose this audience because I believe that, whilst there are a number of magazines available out there for young girls, there is little in the market for older teenage girls who want to read about women in the music industry that aren't 'pop' musicians.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by using bold, noticeable colours and images which I felt were eyecatching and attractive to my target audience. I kept the text, particularly in my double page spread, casual and relaxed (like a normal conversation) but still professional, because I felt that this allowed my audience to connect with the magazine, but still showed that the magazine was serious about music: I didn't want to give off a childish vibe, as I wanted my audience to be mature. I used pictures of normal-looking girls to attract my audience, as I felt this would appeal to them more than images of glamorous superstars - people like this make ordinary girls feel unattractive, and my magazine aims to show that individuality is beautiful: this would certainly appeal to teenage girls - none of us want to feel ugly. I also used bigger images than text to attract my audience, because visual is very important with a magazine: we judge a magazine by its cover, certainly.


6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the process of creating my music magazine and school magazine, I have learned how to use programs such as Photoshop and InDesign in order to give my products a professional look. I learned how to use tools in Photoshop such as the Dodge Tool (to brighten) and the Clone Stamp Tool (to copy one part of an image elsewhere on the page) which I had not previously used before on the computer. I learned how to take a professional photograph in order to make my magazines look more desirable, and how to edit these photographs and manipulate images to make them more appealing to an audience. I also found out how to make text stand out on a page, giving it a less flat look by adding drop shadows and block-colour backgrounds; this is important because I feel that 'flat' looking text is generally overlooked.


7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From designing the preliminary task, the school magazine, I have learnt a vast amount about the time and effort it takes to create something as substantial and widely distributed as a music magazine. With the school magazine, I only had to consider what students in my school would want to see on a front cover or what would take their interest; with the music magazine, there was a large deal more I had to think about. The school magazine was simple to create, as the target audience was pretty much already decided - students of around my own age who were still in education. However, with the music magazine, I had to do a considerable amount of research into the music industry, and find out what available gaps in the market were out there, and also had to consider whether anybody would actually be interested in what my magazine had to offer: perhaps there was a gap in this area of the market because nobody wanted an Indie music magazine aimed at females. I also learned that a lot of time has to be taken when choosing a colour scheme, font type and image - particular things appeal to particular people, and I had to choose things which would be neutural and attractive to everyone who reads my magazine; with the school magazine this process was much easier, as my school already has a colour scheme so I used that, and the image was without a doubt bound to be of a student - because that was who the magazine is aimed at. With the school magazine, I felt that I put much less effort into the planning, as a school themed magazine is usually generic, and they all seem to have the same style; with the music magazine, I had to consider audience, genre and content far more, because everything varies from magazine to magazine.

Front Page

This is my final product - the magazine front cover.



Initially I had decided that, because I wanted my product to be an Indie magazine, and thus a little daring and outlandish, for my colour scheme I wanted to go against the codes and conventions of music magazines by using purple, pink and red, but was told that this seemed to connote childishness or seemed "too girly": I then changed the colours to green, purple and white on the front cover - but I quickly discovered that the combination did not work well, and I received some negative comments regarding my choice. Instead, I opted to go with black, red and pink. I liked this combination used on NME magazine, but decided that, because I wanted my magazine to be aimed at women, I would use pink more frequently, instead of white,  as it gave the magazine a bit of a girly feel. I chose to use the font 'Eras Light ICT' because I felt that it looked soft and feminine, but still seemed professional - this was ideal because although I wanted female readers, I did not want to go over-the-top or too childish, like Top of the Pops magazine.

When choosing the image for my magazine it was ideal that I use a picture of an independent female - I want to show that, though the Indie genre is very male dominated, females can also have a very central role in this area of the industry: though there are a lot of female musicians, many of them are considered to be 'Pop' musicians, and I wanted to avoid this stereotype. I chose to have my artist looking upward, toward where I placed the title of the magazine - I felt that this connoted that the artist was interested in my magazine, and gave it a little bit of a "wow" factor. I also decided that I wouldn't use much text on the front cover - unlike NME or Kerrang - as I felt it made the page seem too cluttered, and I wanted the magazine to have a simplistic feel to it, as the majority of my target audience said they prefered this approach: "less is more".

I gave the mast head of my magazine a bold, black outline to make it stand out against the page, and chose to use the colour red from my scheme as it was the most noticable of the colours - it's aggressive, and grabs the attention of readers, yet also connotes sensuality and sexuality of females; I also used red for the name of the featured band in the magazine 'Giants' but some respondents felt that this wasn't as effective as the title, unless I used a different font to make it stand out more. I gave the band it's own font which "dedicated fans" would be able to recognise, as my magazine is aimed at people who are already interested in this type of music. With the direct quotation I placed in the bottom-left corner of the page, I thought it would be interesting to use the colour white so that we know it is a quotation, and so that it stands out entirely from the rest of the text - so that we notice it - and I recieved positive feedback about this decision.

I also decided that I would use the colour pink (to give the girly effect) for the other bands mentioned on my front page, so that the words would stand out and so that people would recognise these band names - again, to attract the "dedicated fans" but also to perhaps encourage people who had never heard of them to take interest.

With the layout of the page, I decided to keep it simple and conventional with the mast head in the top left-hand corner, leading down to the barcode in the bottom right-hand corner (the last place we look). The main feature is central to the page, as with most magazine layouts, and I also chose to place a direct quotation from this particular article in the corner - the positioning of this quotation is so that, hopefully, people who look at the page will remember it and become interested, as it is one of the last things our eyes are drawn to on the page.

For the image itself, I made a few small but noticeable modifications to the original image. To begin with, my subject had brown eyes, but I decided that I wanted to make her stand out and seem different by changing the colour to a bright blue - I felt that this gave the female a more desireable, 'special' look, yet also made her stand out a little bit, as I wanted girls who read my magazine to feel like they can stand out if they read this. Also, the positioning of the image allows the eyes of the subject to be in one of the most ideal positions - according to the rule of thirds. I also chose to remove any imperfections on the image, again, to make her seem glamorous, even though she looks like an average teenage girl - the way I want my readers to feel. The contrast on the image has also been adjusted to give the girl a slightly tanned look, which makes her stand out from the typical 'emo' or 'indie' stereotypical girl, giving the impression that anyone can be like this.

Double Page Spread

This is the finished version of my double page spread.

I kept the colours on the background of this page fairly similar to the colour used on the contents page, though I did choose to use two colours which weren't connected with a straight line to give the page a bit of a quirky atmosphere, and once again the main colours are black, red and pink. The font is the same as used previously, to keep up with the house style I am using for my entire project: the only difference on this page is the choice of font for the 'Giants' band name, but this is consistent with the front cover, other than the golden outer and inner glow I decided to give the word. Like the article about Lily Allen in NME which I analysed, I chose to make my image dominant and on the left side of the double page. I also chose to use a direct quotation in the same font as the band name, to make it stand out from the rest of the text; the desired effect of this was to capture the attention of a reader if they were browsing through the magazine. A simple, but crucial, key point with this page is the positioning in the magazine itself; I decided I wanted my double page spread to be in the center pages of the magazine, because they are quickly accessed and often are the first thing people skip to when deciding whether or not to buy.

A conventional feature of this page is the use of the page numbers in the bottom corners (which would correspond to pages mentioned in the contents) and the use of my magazine name, 'mystic', at the top - this would remind readers of the magazine, subtly. Also, when my magazine name is mentioned, I chose to continue to use the exact same design as is used on the front cover, so that readers will associate this with my magazine subconciously.

With the image of the girl on this page, I chose to have her looking downward towards her hands - this connotes the power she holds as a songwriter and vocalist, and is symbolic that (because she looks like an ordinary girl) anyone has the power in their own hands to change their lives - like she did. The adjustments I made to this picture were minor and not very noticable, so as to keep up the 'ordinary girl' appearence; I used the dodge tool to make her hands appear brighter - the symbolic 'power' - and removed any blemishes from her face and arms. I also used the burn tool very slightly, to give her a little bit more of a natural-looking tan (this also helped to make her hands stand out).

The text I used in this piece was rather informal, but asked direct questions relating to the band and music - this gives the interview a bit of a personal note, almost like we are having a regular conversation with the artist, but also shows the professional side of this magazine by not going entirely off-topic.

Lastly, at the top of the left hand side there is a brief summary of what and who the article is about, to allow the reader to judge whether they are interested or not.

Contents Page

This is my final, finished contents page.

When creating the page, I decided that I would go against conventions and not have the word "contents" written on the page - I felt that, although it is a straightforward addition to the page, it could perhaps connote that the audience may not be intellectual enough to figure out what they are looking at. I decided, instead, to place the name of the magazine at the top where, in the majority of magazines, an editorial note would go; though I did want to have an editorial, I felt that more time could be given to it if it was an actual column of the magazine, so I gave it it's own page. I kept up with the standard colour scheme of my magazine, using pink, black and red over the page: I felt that this connoted consistency with my magazine, and gave a positive impression of the time taken in creating it.

To attract my readers to certain pages (the ones which would, perhaps, be the most popular if this was a real magazine) I used images with corresponding number boxes, to allow for easy access to the sections I want them to read. By using bright pink boxes, this made the numbers stand out, but I felt that it made the page look very flat, so I gave each box an outer glow to give the impression that they are jumping out at the reader.

Each of the images, as you can see, is of a female; this is because my magazine is aimed at ambitious young women, and by showing the girls in the pictures as successful musicians - or in the case of the 'editor' - as just women who are successful in general. The top right-hand image is of the artist featured on the front page - this allows my readers to gain quick access to this page, as it is likely to be the one they wish to read as it has been advertised on the front cover.

All of the women in my pictures are, however, fairly average and I chose to use this approach to show that it isn't just the glamorous size-zero models who make it into magazines - very little editing was used on each of the pictures (other than that of my 'star artist') to give them a "girl-next-door" look. One other thing I believed would be interesting is the use of an image other than a person's face, etc. so I picked to use the picture of two hands, connected in a heart shape: this corresponds to one of the bands I came up with, but I thought it could also subtly connote friendship or relationships - things which are, stereotypically, the most important to women.

The layout for the contents was fairly straightforward -  I was inspired by the headings and captions in the Kerrang magazine, as I felt they created clear sections for each different area of interest. I kept the band names in red to make them stand out against the 'normal' words, as some of the names were a bit outlandish, but this is to be expected of an Indie magazine. The purple/grey colour used in the background seems much more neutural than the orange used on the front cover, and I felt that this gave a more professional, laidback approach: this also helped to make my front cover stand out more, because of it's difference.

Magazine Front Cover (first draft)

Initially, this was the design I would use for my magazine front cover, though after receiving negative comments and constructive criticism I decided to change the design to something my audience prefered.

I had chosen, to begin with, to use purple for the mast head, but respondents I asked though that this looked "too plain" and "unappealing" as it is the same colour as the band title. Respondents did like the image used, but disliked the grey background colour - they found it boring and "sexless" and believed a girlier colour would be more appropriate.

The colour scheme was unpopular with my target audience as they felt that it was too feminine, and could connote childishness through excessive use of baby pink and purple. Some respondents also suggested that the text was hard to read.

After hearing these comments I chose to rethink my design, and thus I started the project again.



Analysis of Front Cover (NME)

NME is an indie music magazine aimed at both males and females who are interested in this genre of music, from around the ages of 16-19. As the magazine seems to only feature pieces of information about bands and artists on the front – as opposed to the quizzes, competitions and prizes which are generally offered on the front of Top of the Pops magazine – we can assume that the audience of the magazine is intended to be more mature.

We can see that the main article in this magazine (the double page spread) will be about the band ‘Paramore’ as they are the featured image and the band name is in a large, bold font across the front of the page. The image of the band is placed behind the text, so that we associate this band name with this image (basically, so that we know who they are) and the lead vocalist is placed in the centre of the image. The positioning of the band members shows us that the female, Hayley Williams, is the leader of the group. Hayley stands out against the rest of the group as they are all wearing dark clothing and have dark hair, but her image is colourful (i.e. her orange hair, red lipstick and green eyes). Because Hayley is placed in the middle of the image, it gives the impression that all eyes are always on her, and that we are supposed to be looking at her, not the rest of the band: her pose is seductive and feminine, and she is looking down at the camera slightly which shows her power in the band and over the audience. Interesting anchorage text has been used alongside the band name, and it questions the reader, almost tempting you to pick up the magazine and read: it seems to compel you to join the crowd.

The colour scheme of the page is standard for NME - black, red, white and pink - and the positioning of the mast head is conventional to almost all music magazines; it is in the top left-hand corner, where our eyes go first. The mast head is in red which makes it appear bold, and the font is large and block-like - this shows that this piece of text is imporant, and regular readers of the magazine would associate this design with NME, as this style is consistent for every issue: this design could suggest that the magazine has an agressive, blunt approach to music, but the plain style of the font gives it a less 'angry' feel than the font used by Kerrang. The page also has little puffs of information to catch the attention of the reader, which are mainly on the left side of the cover, and the barcode is placed in the bottom right-hand corner - again, this is conventional to most music magazines. At the top of the page, right above the mast head, is also info for the reader on an article, but the positioning of this piece seems to go against the codes and conventions of a magazine, as it almost seems to overshadow the name of the magazine. Like Kerrang, there is a lot of text on the page, giving it an almost cluttered look, but this page seems more reserved and organised, almost plain in fashion.

Images Taken For Magazine

Below is a screenshot which shows some of the vast number of pictures taken for my magazine project.

Though I took a lot of images, I have decided to narrow down the pictures I would possibly chose to use for my magazine. They are as follows:

I liked these images the best out of all the photos taken, as I believe they depict average teenage girls - which is exactly who I am aiming my magazine at.

 

Double Page Spread Analysis

This article is taken from NME magazine and focuses entirely on the artist Lily Allen: when first looking at this page the eyes of the audience would be drawn toward the title of the article first, then to the image of the artist, and lastly to the text.

The positioning of the text, title and image allows the reader to see what and who the article is about, and this would draw the audience in as they would perhaps feel compelled to find out why people say Lily Allen is an “attention seeker” – we would expect this audience to be fans of Lily Allen already, considering her image was used on the front cover of this magazine also, but through the presentation of the article it would be likely that a wider audience would be drawn in. The style of this article matches that which is used on the front cover of this issue of the magazine, which shows us that the magazine is consistent.



The title of the article is the dominant piece of the double page spread, and takes up the most space on the page. The font is the same as the one used on the front cover of this issue of the magazine, and by using it again on this page it shows that the magazine is consistent and organised in its presentation. The style of the font looks like magazine clippings, giving a disjointed, quirky image which could be linked to the personality of the featured artist. Overall, the text used on these two pages is almost entirely on the left-hand side, and the title takes up the majority of the space so that we know this is what we are supposed to be looking at. The main block of text is at the bottom of the page, so this is where our attention is drawn to last; the size of the font itself is fairly small and takes up a very little amount of the page.

(Image used to show consistency between colour schemes and style of magazine)

Colour is used quite sparingly in the article which allows more attention to be given to the text, so that your eyes are not distracted by vast amounts of it, and only the three main colours (red, white and black) are used – this follows the codes and conventions of a music magazine. The image of Lily Allen almost entirely takes up the right-hand side of the page, and she is wearing the colour red which makes her stand out to the reader and draws our attention to her. The shirt the artist is wearing is more masculine than feminine, which could suggest that she is more boyish than girly and that the article could appeal to both males and females: Lily Allen’s dress code also follows the red, white and black colour scheme of the magazine, perhaps to make her seem “normal” or plain, like an everyday-girl to the reader, and her shirt could support this idea in that it is fairly ordinary in style. In the photograph Lily Allen is also looking straight at the camera which connotes that she is strong and demands the attention of the reader. Her body language in the image (i.e. her hands on her hips) gives the impression that she is somewhat bossy and may be someone who has to have her own way. Lily Allen, overall, is presented as a strong and independent female artist through the use of this singular picture, and the plain fashion in which she is dressed suggests that she is not primarily focussed upon her ‘image’.

Contents Page Analysis (Kerrang)

This is a contents page taken from an issue of Kerrang magazine, and I shall be analysing and taking ideas from this design when considering how to lay out my own contents page for my music magazine.

One of the first things we see when looking at this contents page is the Editors Note, located in the top right-hand corner. Many other magazines feature an Editors Note on their contents page, and the language used in this particular section is chatty and informal - which is effective as it would appeal to the target audience of the magazine, allowing them to feel as though they have connected with the editor on a personal level. It also appears as though the editor has personally signed the end of his piece, which is considered conventional and again compels the audience to connect with the editor personally - almost as though the editor is their friend. Also, an image of the front cover of the magazine is featured next to the editorial, which reminds us what we're reading.

Next, we see the word "Contents". This informs the reader what it is that they are looking at and the colours and font follow the house style of the magazine. This particular choice of colouring stands out because of the contrast between them, and is also widely associated with Kerrang magazine, so readers easily recognise it and become familiar with the style. Because the colour scheme throughout the magazine is also yellow, black and white, it gives us a feeling as an audience that the magazine is consistent.

This page is dominated mainly by images which are found on the left-hand side of the page, and they give the reader an early insight as to what will be featured in the magazine before we've even read anything, because our eyes are drawn to the images before the text on the right-hand side. By putting eye-catching images on the page readers who are interested in this particular style of music (Kerrang magazine features artists in the Rock genre) can quickly see if their favorite bands are featured in the issue, which would grab their attention. Or, even if they have never heard of the bands shown, they may feel compelled to read the pages about them because these bands may be popular with other readers of this magazine, and they would want to stay up-to-date. Alongside each of the pictures the page number and a brief description of the articles is displayed, giving readers faster access to something they may be interested in. However, a problem with displaying this many images is that the magazine may give the impression of messiness or disorganisation, which some readers may find off-putting.

With the actual text on the page, (as mentioned before) the colour scheme and font is the same throughout the magazine, but as this page mainly consists of images, there is very little text used here. The text that is used, however, is bold, eyecatching and aggressive - which fits in nicely with the genre of the magazine, as a tidier approach would look out of place on the page. It is this bold attitude used by the magazine that I feel attracts readers, as they know what to expect of a magazine in this genre, and the style matches the aggressive, rough stereotype which fits rock music like a glove.

Questionnaire and Feedback

Basically, this is the questionnaire I gave out to 30 young people, between the ages of around 12 and 25, to see who would be most interested in my magazine, and to give me an idea of what my target audience would be interested in. Though my target audience is females from 15-21, I also wanted to offer my questionnaire to people outside of those margins, to see if anyone else would be interested in the magazine.

Are you male or female?

Male                                      Female

How old are you?

11-16                     17-21                     21+

How often do you buy a music magazine?

Daily                      Weekly                Monthly               Never                  

Other (please specify) ____________________________

How much would you be willing to spend on a music magazine?

£1.89 - £3.10                       £3.10 - £4.50                       £4.50+

What sort of music do you enjoy most?

Pop                        Indie                     Rock                      Hip Hop/R&B

Other (please specify) ____________________________

Which feature do you enjoy most about a music magazine?

Pullouts               Free stuff            New Bands         Tour Dates          Articles                Quizzes

Editors Section Other (please specify) ____________________________

Which do you think is the most important feature on the front cover of a magazine?

Colour Scheme             Artist                Images                     Headlines                           Free Stuff/Offers

Other (please specify) ____________________________

Would you be interested in an Indie music magazine focused mainly on young women?

Yes                     No

I received varying results from my questionnaire, and asked some of my respondents (the ones who best fitted my target audience) to supply me with some feedback on what they would want from a female orientated music magazine.

The majority of the people asked said that they prefered a weekly magazine to a daily or monthly issue; this was because they felt that this would allow the magazine to be up-to-date (which is difficult to achieve with a monthly magazine) but not struggling for new ideas (which would inevitably happen with a daily magazine, as it is very unlikely for breaking news to happen daily in this genre of the music industry). When respondents came to the question about the price, 24 of them said they were willing to pay £1.89-£3.10 but of these 24, twelve of them said they would be willing to pay a higher price if the magazine was of a high quality.

The overall outcome of the genre question confirmed that an Indie magazine - with 20 of the 30 respondents choosing it - would be the best choice for my target audience, and I was pleased with this result. The respondents seemed to find that articles about new bands were the most interesting aspects of a magazine, however, several of the people asked also said that they would enjoy the magazine if it offered album reviews for artists in this genre, as it would provide them with opinions to consider when looking for something new to listen to.

Generally, the thing my respondents found to be the most important on a front cover was the images, as they are the first thing you really see when glancing at magazines in a shop; one respondent commented "images of well-know artists could draw in a crowd". If you have a bad picture, people would likely be discouraged from purchasing your product.

The last question, about whether the respondents would be interested in a magazine aimed at women, had a predictable outcome: the 7 males that I asked (so that I could get varying feedback) said they would not be interested, and all but three of the females asked said that they would be interested.

Mock-ups

Now that I've decided on my target audience and have collected data from my questionnaire, I have begun planning the layout for my main task construction pieces.

These are example layouts of how I would design my front page and contents page. The colours in the white boxes indicate the colours I would possibly use for those sections: mainly, I would like to use green, white and purple for my colour scheme, as I want my magazine to be individual and stand out on a shelf.



(Right = Front Page, Left = Contents)

The light purple on the front page mock-up indicates how much space I would like the main image to take up on the page - conventionally images on the front of a magazine take up almost the whole area.
Unconventionally, I would like to place a puff of information in the bottom-right corner of the front page, where a barcode would usually go. The lead article and anchorage text will go in the center of the page, over the top of the main image so that we associate this image with the article, and also so that it will be noticed by readers.

On my contents page I would use mainly images, and the section of text would be rather small as I feel that images would be more appealing to the audience. I have not yet decided whether I would like to include an editorial on the contents page, but if I did I would place it in the top-left corner, as this is were they usually go. All of the images on my contents page would be relevant to sections of the magazine, and each would have a page number in the corner.


Below is shown the mock-up of my double-page spread.

Again, the colours indicate what I would use for the text on this page. I would use a large image on the left-hand side, which would be of the band/artist I will use for my main article.
At the top of the page, I will have the magazine name (so that readers are reminded what they're reading) and an article summary/description below this, so that the audience know what to expect from the piece. The text will be at the bottom of the page, which is conventional for most music magazine articles. I believe that the top of the page should consist draw attention to the artist's name and quote from the text, so that the audience know who it is about/what they will talk about - the direct quote will be relevant to the article title.

Planning - Target Audience

When beginning to plan my main task - the music magazine - the first thing I need to look at is what I would like my target audience to be, as this will be the basis of the product design.

I have decided to aim my music magazine at older teenage females and young women, from around the ages of 15 to 21, as there is not a dominant magazine in this area of the market. Though there are a substantial number of music magazines aimed at teenagers, such as Kerrang, Rocksound, NME and Q, I feel that the majority of these magazines are male dominated: when I browsed through several issues of NME and Kerrang in particular, only a handful of the images used were of females. I want to create a magazine which shows women in powerful positions in the music industry, but without disregarding males entirely; my magazine is intended to be slightly girly to appeal to a female audience.

I want to make my magazine inspiring, and want it to show female role models for older girls who are interested in music - but not specifically Pop music, which is the area in which most of our female artists stem from. A good example of a female role model (the kind I would like to encourage to be featured in my magazine) would be an artist like Hayley Williams; she is arguably the most dominant member of the band Paramore, and is largely successful and considered to be a role model to a large number of teenage girls.

Whilst I recognise that there are music magazines aimed at females, the majority of them give off an immature impression, which is something I would like to go against when creating my magazine. For example, Top of the Pops magazine gives off a cluttered, childish vibe because of all the bright pinks, purples and bubble-style fonts - though this is popular with readers of a younger age, I want my magazine to have a more mature, professional style and layout.

I have decided that the genre of my magazine will mainly be Indie music, as this particular type of music varies in style from band to band, and this would allow a lot more female artists to be involved in my magazine, without being Pop musicians: if I had decided to create a rock magazine for women, it would have been considerably harder as there are very few female rock musicians.

So, to sum up my target audience, they would ideally be:

• ambitious females
• in their late teens, early twenties (15-21)
• interested in Indie music

Prelim

This is my finished preliminary piece - the front cover for a school magazine. I thought it would be appropriate to use an image of a student on the front cover, as this would be someone the target audience could relate to: students may not have liked a picture of a teacher on the front, as it may have made the magazine less personal or more authoritative. With the image, I did very little to edit the picture as I wanted to make it seem as realistic as possible, as though it could be any student. I wanted the person in the photograph to look academic, but still casual, as I believe this gives off a positive impression of the school: you can learn, but still be yourself. I decided that a good way to show this would be to have an image of someone reading and looking studious.

My magazine is aimed at Sixth Form students, so it would have been inappropriate to have an image of somebody in a school uniform; I also wanted my subject to be wearing reasonably plain clothing, so as not to give an impression of disorder through a messily dressed student.
I chose to keep the name of the magazine relatively plain and simple, so I picked "School Smart" because I liked the used of alliteration and felt that it directly informed readers that this would be an academic magazine.
The colour scheme of the page is pretty straightforward, as I wanted to send a positive, simplistic view of my magazine to the audience; I chose red and blue because they are the school colours, and black because it made the words stand out clearly on the page.
I decided that, in order to make my magazine more appealing, I would offer my readers a study guide pull-out, as I felt that this would be useful to the targeted audience and may compel them to read the magazine. Also, because I wanted this magazine to be widely available to members of the school, I decided against giving my magazine a price and would offer it free to students - I felt that this would be more appealing to students, as they may not want to pay for it.
To encourage the audience to read the magazine, I chose to use red and blue over a black background for eyecatching articles, in order for them to stand out against the page. I also picked topics which I felt the students would be interested in, but kept them relatively school-related as opposed to off-topic articles about fashion, etc. which would not be relevant for an academic magazine.




I also did a mock-up of a contents page as part of my preliminary piece, to give an idea of what I would do if I did make more of this magazine.

Above is shown the layout I would use for a contents page for this magazine. The title would be located in the top-left corner, using the same colours as were used on the front cover of the school magazine. I would primarily use images on this page, as images would grab the attention of the reader more directly than large bulks of text: the actual contents would be displayed down the right-hand side, next to images which would correspond to different sections of the magazine (I would also choose to use little blocks with numbers in over the images, which would quickly tell the reader which page to turn to for that particular section). I also think it would bring a more personal element to the magazine if I were to include a large picture of the people involved in the school magazine (i.e. the students who write the columns) as it would perhaps encourage readers to want to get involved, and to have their picture included. In the top right-hand corner I think it would be a nice touch to place a picture of the editor of the magazine - which ideally would be a teacher, as I feel this would show positivity between students and staff working together.

Brief

This year for my print portfolio in AS media we have been asked to do the following:

Preliminary

• produce the front page of a college/school magazine

Main Task

• the front page of a music magazine;
• a contents page for the magazine;
• and a double page spread