proposed double page spread

Drafts of double page spread.

draft contents page.

I like the idea of my contents page and would like to use this in my design.My idea was to create a montage or collage of images that connotates the meaning of my magazine and I also think that it makes my magazine more quirky.

I took the idea from 'NME' magazine and I would like to the tidy it up a little, making all the images the same size and removing the text.

draft of front cover.

I like the picture used as the main background in my text so i plan to use this in my final design.

I would like to improve on this piece by making it less crowded and the font and the colour of the font becoming more consistent.

 I also used non-original images on my front cover which ontradicts the brief so I plan to change this also.

Draft, possible ideas.

This is a possible draft for my magazine. I'm not sure about the name yet, but I like the content.

Price and publishing.

I think that the price of my magazine should be cheap and affordable, but enough so I can make a profit.
As my target auidence or niche audience is teenagers or young adults, I think that if I raise my price to more than £2.00 like more conventional magazines then it's more likely that I'll lose readers.
I think the most likely price for my magazine is around £1.50, as I believe this is a resonable price, it's enough for them to feel like they haven't wasted their money.

I think that my magazine should be published every two weeks, just to make sure my publicaton doesn't get too boring and to make sure it's interesting. Publishing every week is more a convention of magazines such as "heat" and "more".

market research into three existing magazines using LIIAR.

L-anguage:
This magazine has it's logo or masthead in the left hand corner of the page, conventionally used by many magazines to make sure the logo is the first thing seen and is easily recognisable to customers. The name of the magazine is abbreviated "IDJ" (international DJ) so that it fits easier on the page and so that people can see the full logo if theirs was among other music magazines.
The text of the artist is a medium shot and covers most of the front page, which is mainly because the double page spread or main story is about that specific artist.
There is also a colour theme, being red, white and black which is on the cover and also the contents page, and they also use the same font throughout .
The language used in both is simple and consists of mainly a sub-heading and a little information about the article, enough to make the reader more interested and more likely to read it.
The contents page choses the magazines  main features and most popular stories and again uses the red,white and black theme.

I-nstitution:
The institution of this magazine is the "IDJ" brand  which is published by Chris Kempster and is mainly aiming for those interested in Dj'ing and dance music.

I-ntention:
The intention of the "IDJ" magazine is to advertise the unique part of dance music but also to inform those that are DJ's whose popular and who to look out for. They also advertise DJ'ing equipment but also give people who are trying to get into the business a chance by listening to their mixtapes.

A-udience:
Their main audience is young people, or those who are  interested in that specific music genre.
people use it to inform them of changes and additions to the music genre and can also use it to purchase new equipment etc.

L-anguage:

This text is a picture of the artist used as the main background. This is normally a convention of most magazines and is something that I plan to do myself. The sub-headings are placed around the main picture in similar or the same font and are either in pink, green or white, which is the magazines colour scheme that follows through to the contents page.

The contents page depicts the main stories and the headings on the contents page are given to show the reader which are the more exciting or interesting stories.

I-nstitution:

The institution of this text is the brand "Clash" that publishes a magazine to do with modern music and fashion.

I-deology:

The ideology behind this magazine is the life behind thhe music, but also the people to do with the business.

it's interested in people who enjoy and frequent music festivals and promotes the music as best as it can.

A-udience:

has a circulation of around 40,000 but only gets published 12 times a year. This is less frequent than the theoretical amount of publishing I would expect form my own publication.

It aims for people who enjoy the music scene ( gigs, festivals) and those who enjoy modern music.

L-anguage:
Instead of the conventionally artist being the background "NME" uses a picture of a stage from Glastonbury. This is good because it ties in with the article "40 years of Glastonbury" and also shows the audience they aim for; people who have vistited Glastonbury.
The main colour scheme is black, white and orange which attracts your eye as it stands out from the dark background.

Refined target audience idea using demographics and psychographics.

My target audience will be young adults or teenagers,  meaning the demographic will probably be 15-24's. The audience of  my magazine is more likely to be girls as my magazine will feature mainly female artists; those that have changed pop. music and pop.culture (i.e Lady Gaga). It will also attract those who are socially conscious ( groups that are inner-directed) and those that have a situated culture, probably students who enjoy music gigs and perhaps have an aim to succeed in the future.
The text will also attract those concerned with self-image and I will try not to exclude any social groups i.e ethncity, religion, sexual preference.

Identify and explain choice of music genre.

I think the music genre of my choice is going to be pop or pop culture, influenced by artists such as Katy Perry and Lady GaGa.
I like this music genre because it appeals to the majority of the social groups and is popular with most people, and I believe it shows individuality and is also quite fun. I also think it would be a good idea to involve pop art such as Andy Warhol as this again is individualistic and differs from other publications but still defines pop culture.

I've identified a gap in the market aim for this genre as most publications don't aim for this demographic, as others cater for mainly rock and R'n'B ( NME, GQ, KERRANG).
I think it would be a good idea if I used such ideas from magaazines such as Teen Vogue, Sugar and Cosmopolitan as these appeal to what I think my target audience would be; teenagers who enjoy the music scene and also those who may have an interest in fashion and art.

Another genre that would fit in well with my magazine is R'n'B which I plan to incorporate into the the house style and also use it when taking the pictures of my artist. This will help in making decisions such as style of dress and artist name.

LIIAR interpretation of the brief.

L-anguage:
For my magazine I think I'll use a medium shot for the artist/s that I choose. I think this is best for my magazine, and if you deconstruct most music magazine texts, medium shots are the most popular for displaying the acts.

Music magazines such as NME use the convention of using the text of the artist as the background as the full front cover, with the banner headline or their logo overlapping the age, on the left-hand side as we read from right to left.  Here is an example of the NME magazine, with the codes and conventions I have mentioned.

I haven't really decided on but my colour scheme yet, butI think that I first need to find a music genre I'm happy with.

I-nstitution: 

I think I should target an audience that isn't really considered in the market, although most age groups that I believe would theoretically enjoy my magazine are those that most music magazines already aim for.
These groups of people would be either teenagers with the disposable income that a magazine needs to succeed or young people in first time jobs that still enjoy music.

I-deology:

I don't want my magazine to exclude any social groups, and I'd like to portray the music scene in a different light; perhaps shedding the sterotype of people who actually read music magazines and maybe attracting a new audience.

A-udience:

I'm not sure who my audience will be yet, although I think it should be people who enjoy music and everything that goes with it.

R-epresentation:

Basically the genre of music is what my magazine shoul represent, as well as the people who read it, putting their views as well as mine across.

Brief for music magazine task.

To produce the front page,contents page and a double spread page of a music magazine, in the music genre of my choice.
Using appropriately taken photgraphs, I will try to identify my chosen music genre and it's audience, as well as trying to make my magazine look as professional as possible.

Evaluation of my preliminary brief using LIIAR.

For my college magazine, I chose to use a picture of a student as the main text for my background with the Wyke College logo at the far left of the page. I also included a mast head with the name of the magazine itself, and also the institution I was writing for, which is "Wyke College Magazine". I used Arial rounded MT Bold for my main mastheads (contents page and magazine title) and Arno Pro for my sub-headings. The connotation of this is because the font was interesting but not too distracting.
I liked the fact that I chose a student as my background as they were my target audience and the magazine was mainly about them and college life, and what's happening around their college.
I used smaller headlines using simple language, as my aim was to be as informal as possible; using the colour purple as it's associated with Wyke, and also it's quite bold, which makes it more eye-catching.
I intended to make it look as attractive as possible so I used colourful pictures that had something to do with Wyke, whether it was the new healthy eating or sports such as netball.
I think my magazine uses the conventions of any other newsletter or magazine supplied by colleges or schools, as it holds information about this specific college and has pictures that personally identify with most students who study here. I believe the ideology of this piece is the fact that Wyke itself is a happy environment and a positive place to learn.

I don't believe I exclude any specific social groups on purpose; the picture of the student is a boy, but I have included other pictures with both sexes in it.
On the other hand, I haven't included any people with disabilities or those in different ethnic groups but this wasn't purposeful, although it could be considered that way.
If I could redo this assignment, in hindsight I would include more of these social groups, as Wyke doesn't just cater to certain individuals, it's open to all sorts of people.
Also, if I did go back and change things, I might have added a slogan or something along those lines, although I didn't do that in the first place. This is because I thought a slogan might make it seem quite cheap, and that most of mainstream magazines use slogans to sell; and I wanted to be different from that sort of text.

To create my cover and contents page, I used the Photoshop application which I thought helped me to construct my piece, as it made it easier to add more than one picture and make it look more realistic.
I would have liked to make it look more professional, but I did my best and that it turned out quite well.

To conclude, the negative aspects of my cover and contents pages were that they didn't include more than one social group, which didn't represent the college as well as it should have. I also would've made my piece more professional looking, but overall I enjoyed creating it and I think it's alright to say the least.

My finished magazine cover and contents page.



Font styles.

I tried different fonts for my text, as I was looking for something that stood out but went with the conventions of my magazine:

This is an example of  Adobe Caslon Pro Bold, which I liked as it's bold and clear, but I think it's abit boring for my magazine.

This is an example of Brush Script Std, which I think is interesting but difficult to understand.

This is Arial font, which is boring and conventional.

I like Arno Pro Smbd caption and I  think this is a good font to use for my sub-headings.
I’m going to use this one for them I think.

I think this font would be good for my mast-heading. It’s Arial Rounded MT Bold.

structure analysis- what I intend to do with my Wyke College magazine.

L-anguage
I-nstitution
I-deology   
A-udience  
R-epresentation


To make my planning better, I'm going to constuct a written plan of my ideas for the college magazine using LIIAR.

Language:
- As the brief states that I have to use medium shots for my pictures on my front cover, I'll try to experiment with different camera angles to see what works best for that specific shot.

- I'm going to experiment with different fonts and styles on my front cover, keeping them simple yet not boring.
I also plan to keep the writing consistent to keep the magazine looking professional and appealing to a wider range of students.

Institution:
- The institution I'm making this magazine for is wyke.

- I aim to write for the students of Wyke.

Ideology:
- I plan to use a message or moral within my magazine, something to do with learing and achieving within Wyke College.

Audience:
- The audience I'm aiming for is Wyke college students, something that can appeal to all the social groups that study here.

Representation:
- I think the magazine should promote Wyke college and it's positive atmosphere. It should be represented as a great place to learn and achieve.

I like the idea of using a text with students playing netball as the background of my contents page.
It shows more about the college and what it provides and also interests more students; mainly the ones who play or watch sport.
Unlike my front cover, this isn't an original picture, but I might consider using it as I think it'll make a good contents page.

Another picture I decided not to use. I don't think it's right for a cover of a college magazine, although as said before in my intentions for this magazine, I wanted to experiment with different camera angles, which I did with this one.

One of the pictures I decided not to use for my magazine cover.

The reason for this is although it shows a medium shot of a student, it's not in a college enviroment and is different to my original idea.

Again, I'm not sure this one is right for the magazine. If I deconstruct my idea, this doesn't really fit in with what I wanted.



Analysing blog examples with LIIAR.

This example isn't that good. It's over simplistic and very boring, although I like the picture in the middle of the two students, who are both girls which exclude boys in the newsletter, but I don't think it was on purpose.  The language is informal and basic, which is a convention of either a newsletter or magazine for young people.
I think this specific one is a front cover for a sixth form magazine, which means the six th form students who created it would be it's institution. It represents the students who study at "Deyes High" and the people there are the target audience. It could represent most of the social groups who may read it, but again it's content would appeal to young people. It's main ideology is the celebration of good GCSE's and being  part of the sixth form.

Analysing blog examples with LIIAR.

 

The first example I have chosen to evaluate is the Henders magazine, and when looking at it first I realised that it's constructed quite simply, and I dislike the fact that the text is all bunched together and it looks too overcrowded which I don't want my front cover to be like.

The language of the text is simple and informal, which is expected of a normal college magazine's conventions, and the font is used to attract attention to the sub-titles and this works because it's quite bold and colourful.

The background of the cover is a student, which is also easy to do but meets the brief''s criteria, which is what I plan to do with mine. The price of the magazine also relates to students, as the price is quite cheap, which again attracts more readers. This shows that the whole of the magazine represents students.

The institution of this magazine is the student who created it, which means the content would mainly appeal to students themselves as the content will relate to their own college lives, or what they want from college. The content maybe wouldn't appeal to anyone outside their own particular collge, and I doubt adults would want to read it either. This point also shows the audience that the magazine is aiming for; people who study at the college. I prefer the contents page of the magazine which is the one on the right, as I think it's clearer than the front cover and looks more like a college magazine.

Hand-drawn draft

My draft of what I think my magazine should look like.

I plan to use a bold text for the mast head, and keep the wyke colours which are green, purple and white.



Brief - Preliminary task.

Preliminary exercise: Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.

Research for preliminary task:

Can't say I know what I'm doing, so this girl's blog will be pretty useful I guess.
:|
Like the fact that it's simple, just a picture of a student and some text around it, might have to construct a similar one..
ciao.

Example of blog and magazine cover.