Almost Forgot !!! - My chosen sub-genre

I didn't even explain to you, what my chosen sub-genre is, it's going to be pop/rock. My reason's for this is because my favourite type of music is pop/rock, so I really wanted to do a magazine with some edge.

Flat Plan - Double Page Spread

Here is the flat plan for my double page spread that I am planing on using. I decided to have a large image centered in the middle because I want it to stand out, and I want everything to be centered around that particular image. I also have shown where I want to put the quotes. I have chosen to have them dotted about because I don't want them to be placed right on top of each other. I think this layout is good because it's not to0 simplistic that theres loads of white space left and it's not too full so it's not in your face.

Who Is My Rival Magazine?

Due to my research I believe that my rival magazine would be Rolling Stone as they had an issue on the Queen of Pop Britney Spears. So throughout the process of the making of my music mag, I will keep making referances to my rival as the process of my magazine goes on.

Research of DOUBLE PAGE SPREADS!

Below are a two double page spreads that I have chosen to gain some ideas from as I feel these are very effective.

Beginning with...

NME Magazine

The reason why I have chosen this is because I like the layout of the page as they have the picture on the left and the writing on the right. As we all know the colour blue is sterotypical that lads like it. It represents a calm laid back attitude. Which is shown in the image of the boys lieing on a bed relaxing. This is something again that I will try to achieve throughout my making of the magazine, trying to link everything together so it has a reason to be there and not so that it is random.

Kerrang Magazine

I chose this one from kerrang because it's defferent compared to the other. This one is a lot more edgyer than the other. The colour-scheme is red, black and white, which relates to their punk/rock genre of music. I also like the fact how they have put world exclusive on the side, I think this would attract the target audience a lot more than if it was just a normal article.

Again just like my other research I will take all this into account for the making of my own magazine.

Research on CONTENTS PAGES!

I am now researching contents pages for inspiration on my own.

Beginning with...

Rolling Stone Magazine

This is the contents page of Rolling Stone magazine. You can tell what the main articles are as the picture and headline are bigger than the rest. Plus the page number is easily seen than the other articles. The rest of the pages are placed on the left hand side. And the colour-scheme has continuity all the way through.

Billboard Magazine

I prefer Billboards contents page compared Rolling Stones because it has more colour and I think this would catch the target audiences eye more. I also like the layout a lot more as they have three images just below the title. Nevertheless, just like Rolling Stone the main Article still has the biggest image. So there are some similarities.

So throughout the process in making my contents page, I will think about everything that I have saw go into these contents pages.

Research on FRONT COVERS!

I have listed some magazines below that will be an inspiration to me for when I make my own magazine.

Beginning with....

Rolling Stone Magazine

The reasons why I have chosen this issue of the magazine is because Rolling Stone is aimed at my target audience. And even though people would normally associate this to be a rock magazine on the cover it has, Britney Spears, a pop star. Which goes with my pop/rock genre magazine.

On this particular issue they have placed the artist on the right side of the cover and the writing on the left side. I like this because as I have discovered most magazines place their artist exactly in the centre and the writing on either side. The magazine catches the target audiences eye because it's bright. The colour-scheme is white, yellow and grey. This links with Britney's mood in the image because yellow connotes happiness, white connotes birth. Which in Britney's case she is returning as it says in the headline and the colour-scheme links with this. Although she is wearing casual clothes she still looks sexual as she is pulling her pants down. This is a classic way to help sell the magazine as men would be attracted to it more.

I like how the main article is distinguished from the rest. And I also like how they have matched the name of the magazine with the decided colour-scheme of the other writing. I will take all this into account for when I think about the layout and colour-scheme of my own magazine.

To finish I have realised some typical conventions of these magazines that there are limited fonts as there are colour pallets for the house style. I will take all of this into consideration for my own magazine.

Institutional Information

- Rolling Stone magazine is produced by Wenner Media and is released every two weeks.

- The Rolling Stone Magazine was the first to be printed on carbon neutral paper. The first issue was on June 28th 2007. Where it had features on climate change.

- The celebration of Rolling Stone Magazine 50 years was promoted by radio advertising and was supported by national print.

- Rolling Stone is normally marketed by its website and adverts on TV.

Billboard Magazine

The reasons why I chose to pick this magazine was because it's different from the Rolling Stones Mag. Starting with the colour-scheme and the layout.

Here we have Miley Cyrus in the centre of the front cover and the writing placed on either side. We see that Miley has moved away from her child-like image and is now wearing black leather which is considered to be sexual as is the pursing of the lips. This is all done again to help attract men and sell the magazine it also links with the sub-heading "The Queen of Teen grows up. But will her fans follow?"  The gold M connotes golden child as if she may have grown up but she is still the Miley we all love. The background colour used is purple which connotes sophistication, which again links with Mileys new image and her growing up into her won person. So I like the fact how again the colour-scheme links with the main article. Which is something I feel I will do for my own magazine.

My main reason for picking this was due to the fact the photographer has used a prop, which I could use for inspiration in my own magazine.

Just like the previous magazine there are limited fonts as there are colour pallets for the house style.

Institutional Ideas

- Billboard Magazine is published weekly.

- Billboards most successful marketing tool is its website gaining more that 4 million new visitors each month in 100 countries.

- The magazine was founded by William .H Donaldson and James .H Hennegan in 1894.

This concludes my research on front covers!

Character Profile!

I wish to create a pop/rock magazine. The target audience I'm aiming for will be both male and female aged 13-30. To get them to buy the magazine I need to think about the layout, colour scheme and so on to persuade them to buy it. So in order to do this I need to get into the heads of my target audience.

Character Profile...Number One- The Teenage Girl.

- I imagine her to be able to mix in with anyone, she has a range of friends from those who like RnB to those who are into rock.

- She has her own individual style, to go with the mood she's in so her dress sense can vary, which is what helps her to mingle with different groups of people.

- I imagine that the colours she mostly likes to dress in are red, black, white, mostly darker colours.. Pink is definitely not on the table. However, she sometimes does like more brighter colours.

- As for her social life I think she just likes to hang out with friends, just like the typical teenage girl.

Character Profile...Number Two- The Teenage Boy

- I imagine this guy to dress like a Jonas brothers. The black skinny jeans, checked t-shirts and so on.

- I think the colours he would dress in would be similar to the teenage girls, however I think they may be a more darker shade.

- I think his friends would be dressed very similar to him, and they all just like to hang out and play video games.

Character Profile...Number Three- The 20-30's

- I imagine the women and men of this age range to be more of the party group. They like to go out drinking listen, hang out with friends and listen to some good music.

- They dress differently from the teenagers, which I will have to take into consideration when I think about the colour scheme of my magazine.

- They are more into the party holidays, where as the younger teenagers may still be going on family holidays.

That is what I imagine my target audience to be like, so I will take all of this into consideration when thinking about the colour scheme, layout, mise-en-scene and so on for my magazine.

Target Audience- Questionnaire!

Before I start my magazine, I have created a questionnaire that I will hand out to my target audience for insperation on what I can have in my magazine, and what my colour scheme might be.

Here is my questionnaire.

1.  Are you male or female?

2.  What magazines do you normally buy?  

3.  What music are you into?

      
4.  What do you like to know in music magazines?

5.  Would you like to see horoscopes in a music magazine?

6.  Would you like to see the top 10?

7.  What artists would you like to see in the magazine?

8.  How many magazines do you read within a week?

9.  What colour schemes would you like to see on a magazine?

10. Have you got any suggestions to what you would want to see in the music magazine?

 

Creating My School Magazine :D

As this was my first time using photoshop I found it difficult at first cutting my image out and so on. However during the process of making the magazine it got easier. To begin with I started with my front cover. But first I had to think about the house style. I stuck with using just three colours as I didn't want it to look blah!! The reason I used this model was because she is your typical average student which the target audience can relate to.

Here is a screen shot of the process that I went through. At first the title was in a small font but I decided to change it because it didn't stand out, and therefore the magazine wouldn't of caught the target audiences eyes. Another aspect of the magazine I decided to change was how big the headline was, I decided to make it bigger. This was because normal magazines wouldn't waste having something printed that didn't fill out all the space.

As you can see the headline has been enlarged, but I have also changed the colour of the two letters on the black part of the background. My reason for doing this was because it wouldn't have stood out as much if i had of stuck to having the colour black.

Now I'm not gonna lie, creating my contents page wasn't easy. At one point I wanted to throw the laptop out of the classroom window. Lucky I didn't that would of cost my mam a canny bit. Anyhow here is a screen shot of the beginning of my process. I decided to keep the house style the same as I wanted continuity throughout the magazine.

Here is the further development of my contents page. As you can see I have a range of shots showing throughout the contents page including a low angled shot. The reason I decided to use different colours for the text was to catch the eye of my target audience.

This is the last of my screen shots. The last change I made was to change the image for the front cover article as it would show a more variety of shots.

Here is my end result :) 

FRONT COVER

CONTENTS PAGE

Who was my Target Audience?

My Target Audience for this school magaizne was the ages of 11-18.

Layout

During my lessons I have learn't that layout is very significant when making a magazine. This is because if this was a professional magazine they wouldn't want to waste money printing a magazine with lots of blank spaces. So this is why I tried to make my magazine look as full as possible.

What is Ideology?

Ideology is peoples expectations which they achieve through ideas. Photographers use ideology a lot to help with the images they take to potray these ideas into their articles e.t.c.

What makes a good photograph ?

-Lighting is very significant when taking a photograph, because if the image is bright, the image will look more vibrant, and stand out more to the target audience.

- Lines are also important as you can use them to take your audiences eyes right where you want.

- Movement, this is just as important as lighting as it will capture the action in the shot and show the audience what is happening.

- Be unique, no-one wants to see an image they have already seen before so by capturing something different, you are sure to capture your target audiences attention.

Here is the image I originally wanted to use for my front cover of my school magazine. However, when I uploaded it onto photoshop the image was out of focus, therefore I chose a different image I had taken.

Now here is the image i decided to use for my front cover.

Why did I use this image?

The lighting captures how she feels about school, that its a very warm environment and she enjoys it. However there is a shadow on one side of her face.

I did this because the article I chose to put on my front cover was about why exams are making students go crazy, so I wanted to show this through my chosen image.

I also chose this one because it was more focused than the other image and showed up well on photoshop.