Research and Planning
Photo Shoot
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Here are some pictures of the photos I took for the front cover, contents page and double page spread of my magazine. I took them in front of the green screen as I thought it would look more professional than doing it on a background and also I can edit the background to make all the changes I want.
I wanted to get as many different poses and styles so I can have a variety of pictures but so that it can also flow and have continuity.
The picture on the bottom row in the centre is different to the rest as the picture wasn't intentionally taken to be part of my magazine. But when I looked back on it I saw it had potential to fit my magazine and the style I would like to go for.
Reconnaissance
I took some pictures of some places in school to find some potential backgrounds for my music magazine cover, contents page and double page spread.
Here are some of the pictures that I took of places that I think could be suitable for my magazine:
As I want my pictures to be taken outside I took pictures of walls and such around the school as they can be used as good backdrops. Also as my genre is Rap, Hip-Hop, and R&B and they are often described as urban, so I thought it would be a good idea to take pictures of walls and concrete as urban relates to cities which are mainly tall buildings effectively referred to as concrete jungles. As it's the city I didn't want lots of greenery, plant sand flowers otherwise it could go down the route of no longer fitting the Rap, Hip-Hop and R&B.
Minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism is a movement in sculpture and paintings which arose in the 1950s characterised by the use of simple, massive forms.
The term less is more comes perfectly into play when talking about minimalism. It's uncluttered, clean and different. Sometimes a more simplistic approach can be more successful and easier on the eye than something that is cluttered which can look messy and busy.
As for creating my music magazine, I've looked at other magazines and have decided to go forward with the minimalistic approach. They look more captivating and intriguing, also they stand out more from other magazines which I want my magazine to. Hip - Hop, Rap and RnB are all about setting trends and being creative, there is currently a lack of minimal styled music magazines in the market so I think my magazine could fill that gap.
Pop Identity
Name: Andrietta Simbi
Age: 16
Birthday: 8th July
Hometown: Corby, England
Genre: Hip - Hop/Rap/RnB
Personality: Andrietta is known for her extravagant personality and her determination. She is humble and hard - working and willing to do whatever is takes to achieve her dreams. Andrietta is different to your usual rap stars in that she doesn't think it's all about flashing what you have and is more about just appreciating what she has. She is adventurous, enthusiastic and open minded in general.
Her style of music ranges from relaxed blues to more upbeat hip-hop. She is heavily influenced by artist such as Beyonce, Jhene Aiko, Drake, Beyonce and J Cole.
Her fashion style is laid back, street but classic. She likes to wear trainers, converse and more relaxed clothing but loves to dress up and be glamorous. Her clothes come from a mixture of high street shops such as H&M and River Island but some pieces from designer brands such as Alaia and Celine. She gets a lot of inspiration from the like of Zendaya and Kendall Jenner.
What Makes A Good Magazine Cover?
A good music magazine can be different for every person as everyone has individual taste. Some prefer minimal, others prefer cluttered. Bright colours may appear to one person whilst another may hate it and love a black and white theme.
On I-D's 35 most iconic magazine covers of all time, one of the most recent covers they've picked is the popular Vanity Fair cover featuring Caitlyn Jenner - previously known as Bruce Jenner.
The story behind this cover makes it very iconic. World Olympic champion, Bruce Jenner earlier this year revealed he was transgender and talked about his story. The image itself makes the cover more interesting as she is showing off her body and revealing her new self. The cover is minimal and simple with one centre image. It is uncluttered with just one main cover line which makes its more appealing to look at.
Another from I-D and also #3 on ASME's list is Esquires controversial cover starring Muhammed Ali.
Again the story behind this cover makes it one the top magazines in the last 40 years. Ali was refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army because of his religious beliefs. Similarly to the Vanity Fair cover, it is minimal with one centre image. Its a good cover as at the time, much controversy would have been sparked when it was released. It has one main cover line that is small and in the bottom right corner, so no attention is taken away from Ali on the front.
TLC on the cover of Vibe in 1994, made it to I-D most iconic.
This cover differs in comparison to the previous two, due the fact it's more cluttered. There are more cover lines and there is more to look at however at the same time it's no too overwhelming. This cover also made it to I-D's most iconic list for the story behind the image and main cover line. The image and main cover line are a play on words and reference to one of the members of TLC - Lisa Left Eye Lopes, burning down her partners house. The image does a lot for a magazine cover as it's the centre point, when there's a popular story related to the image it makes the magazine cover good and memorable.
Next up is Kanye West on the cover of the Rolling Stone from February 2006. Where the idea of christening himself as 'Yeezus' stemmed from.
This was such a popular magazine cover as it was controversial and many saw it as blasphemous. In the image West has been portrayed as Jesus Christ and this is what caused all the controversy, making it such a memorable cover and also as Kanye was... well just being Kanye. The cover has many of the typical magazine features, such as the masthead and cover lines. It is not as minimalistic as the previous magazines but is still intriguing as it has a good image like the others.
#1 on ASME's top 40 magazine covers is John Lennon and his Yoko Ono.
This issue of the Rolling Stone is seen as iconic due to the fact it is simply John Lennon and Yoko Ono. John Lennon was previously married to Cynthia Lennon and when they divorced, he married Yoko Ono. A lot of controversy and racism arose as many took a dislike to Yoko and were upset about the divorce with Cynthia. The image was taken hours before Lennon was shot in New York on December 8, 1980 and released on January 22, 1981. The cover is simple and minimalistic with just the masthead and date line at the top. The image is bold and stands out as it is different. Typically on magazine covers, the women are the ones who are nude or showing their bodies whilst the men are fully clothes however it's the other way round and shows Lennon's vulnerability.
So what does make a good magazine cover? From these covers that I've looked at, minimalistic and simple seem to be appearing the more than often. Those with a different and unique image are the most attention grabbing, some being controversial and topical at the time. But most of all those with the best story behind them make the best covers, whether that is Kanye West depicting himself as Jesus Christ or Muhammad Ali following his religion and being rejected for it.
Mood Board
For my mood board I decided to include certain aspects to help create my magazine. I chose to gather images of musicians for my chosen genre so that when it comes to picking the model on my cover I know what type of look to go for. I gathered different types of fonts and magazine layouts as some inspiration to help build my magazine and to help to create my own house style. I also included some colour palettes to contribute to developing a theme throughout my magazine as well as different fonts. Lastly I brainstormed some magazine titles to help me come to a conclusion of which one to use.
Genre - What Have I Chosen?
In music there are many different types of genres as everyone has individual tastes. The word 'genre' means 'a style or category of art, music or literature'
The genre that I have opted for, for my magazine is Rap/Hip-Hop/R&B. I have gathered a few magazine covers from this genre as some inspiration for creating my own.
Magazine Publishers
For magazines to make it to the shelves of shops and into our hands they are first published. The two main music magazine publishers in the UK are 'Bauer' and 'Time Inc UK' which was previously known as 'IPC Media'.
Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media group and is Europe's largest privately owned publishing group. It was founded in 1875 and is based in Hamburg, Germany. The company manages more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 radio/TV stations around the world. Some of the top brands in the UK that they manage publishing for are Kerrang!, Q and Mojo. 
Time Inc UK previously known as IPC Media - international publishing corporation was founded in 1968 and is based in London. They are a consumer magazine and digital publisher, selling over 350 million copies each year. Some of the top brands they publish are NME and Uncut.
Narrow magazines with specialist appeals are likely to be published by independent publishers. An example of this is Shindig! magazine which focuses on 60/70s music and covers other things such as fashion, art, architecture, tv and film. It is independently published by Volcano Publishing and the magazine achieves a circulation of 26,000. 82% of its readers are in the ABC1 category. 83% of it's readership are men and a small 17% are women.
Reader Profile
Demographics
Gender: Male or Female
Age:16 - 24
Religion: Christianity
Education: Sixth Form/College, University
Occupation: Part time job at H&M
ABCD:C2
Martial Status: Single
Income:£300.00 a month
Nationality: Black - British
Psychographics
A confident, positive and independent individual, who is currently in sixth form supporting herself with a part time job at H&M. She has been bought up with African and British influences and speaks the language of her country. She is a lover of all things lifestyle, fashion and beauty so she loves to shop whether they are designer brands, high street shops or a bargain on eBay. She is a lover of comedy films such as Rush Hour, White Chicks and Clueless. Also films like The Great Gatsby, The Wolf of Wall Street and the disney classic Aladdin. Some past concerts she's been to are Drake, Ed Sheeran and Wireless Festival where the artist Kendrick Lamar and Partynextdoor played. She listens to a lot of genres ranging from pop, alternative, indie, rap and RnB. However her preferred genres are Rap, Hip-Hop and RnB. She often takes trips to the cinema and theatre. Some of her favourite TV Shows are Empire, Keeping Up With the Kardashains, American Horror Story and Pretty Little Liars. She loves to read books and fashion magazines and loves food and cooking. She loves to travel and hopes to visit many places around the world and experience different cultures. She values family time and treasures time with her friends. She is honest, intelligent and hard working.
Existing Music Magazine Names
I had a look into different music magazines from different genres and the connotations of them in order to help me decide what to call mine.
"The 50 Quid Bloke"
"This is the guy we've all seen in the record stores on a Friday afternoon, possibly after a drink or two, tie slightly undone, buying two CDs, a DVD and maybe a book - fifty quid's worth - and frantically computing how he's going to convince his partner that this is a really, really worthwhile investment. He is likely to be a big user of the web and probably owns an iPod and is an avid radio listener."
The 50-Quid Bloke' was first talked about in July of 2003 by David Hepworth of Development, an independent magazine in a speech to the BPI's AGM. According to the BPI, the amount of 40 to 49 year olds buying albums has increased from 16.5% to 19.1%.'When the '50-Quid blokes' were younger, music was very central in their lives. Their social status, friends and fashion more or less revolved around music. But now they buy records, albums and music magazines to stay 'cool and current'. Record companies target '50-Quid blokes' as they know they are most likely to purchase records.
The '50-Quid bloke' uses the web for websites such as Amazon to search for old albums and records. Some may some why not just get them on iTunes or Spotify but, the '50-quid bloke' likes to own thing and have an actual hard copy. He's not a fan of the Pop sensations like One Direction, but a strong lover of bands such as the White Stripes, Coldplay and Blur.
Near enough everything can be done digitally and online so less and less people are buying hard copies.
Is this the end of CDs, albums and records?
Questionnaire
We had to create a questionnaire to help get our target audience to later build a customer profile. I made a questionnaire that consisted of 20 questions that ranged from simple closed questions and open questions.
The age range of the people who did my questionnaire ranged from 15-17 and the majority were female and the minority were male.
One of the questions I asked were 'how often do you buy magazines?' I gave the four options of 'Weekly, Monthly, Yearly and Never.' from the pie chart we can see that no one chose weekly or yearly. Most people buy them weekly and some don't buy them at all. 53.3% buy magazines monthly and this helps me to get an idea of how many times a year I would produce my magazine.
I also got from my questionnaire that most people would be willing to pay between £1.51 - £2.00 and £2.01 - £3.00. I aim to put my magazine between these price ranges as that what consumers would like.
For the appearance of my magazine I asked what colour themes people would like. Here are my results: a small amount of 5.9% people prefer dark colours for the theme and 23.5% liked a monochrome theme. 35.3% liked Bright colours and another 35.3% chose Pastel colours, so for my magazine I will opt for either a Bright or Pastel coloured theme as they had the same percentages.
I also asked whether they would prefer cluttered or uncluttered and 18.8% chose
cluttered whereas 81.3% opted for uncluttered. Therefore, for my magazine I plan to take the uncluttered approach.
As I will have to design a double page spread, I thought it would be good to ask what content they most enjoy in magazines. It appears that the most enjoyed content are photo shoots with 29% then interviews with 25.8%. The least enjoyed are celebrity gossip columns, so I am most likely to not include them in my magazine and do a mixture of an interview and photo shoot.
My next question was 'who would you rather have on the front cover?' The three options were 'a single artist,' 'celebrity' and 'a band'. The most popular answer was a single artist, then a celebrity and lastly a band. As a single artist seemed to appeal the most to everyone, I am most likely to use a single person on my front cover. Also, I will have one single image rather than a collection of small images as many preferred a single image and it would be uncluttered like many people I asked wanted.
For my contents page, I asked whether people would prefer to see pictures, page heading or pictures and page headings. 14.3% liked just pictures, whereas only a small percentage of 7.1% liked only headings. Finally 78.6% liked the idea of both page headings and pictures.
I asked whether they would prefer a conventional approach or an unconventional approach and whilst many opted for conventional and few chose unconventional. However, I personally think the conventional route is better as unconventional magazines are seen differently by everyone and it is either liked or disliked. Whereas conventional magazines are more or less preferred by most as gathered from my research.
My next question was very important as it's what genre I plan to base my magazine upon. The question is 'What music genre do you prefer?' 5.9% said Metal was their preferred music genre and another 5.9% said the same for Classical. For Rap/Hip-Hop/RnB, Pop and Indie they all had the same percentage of 29.4%. As they are the most popular and preferred, I will choose from one of the three. I'm most likely to choose Rap/Hip-Hop/RnB as it's the genre that I personally like the most out of the three.
The least favourite genres of all were Country and Heavy Metal with the highest percentages of 31.3%, then classical with 25%. Lastly was heavy metal and jazz both with 6.3%. From this, I know to avoid these genres as consumers wouldn't opt to buy my magazine.
I learnt that not many buy magazines and those that do don't buy magazines apart from one which was 'Kerrang!' Those who do buy magazines, buy fashion magazine such as 'Elle', 'Vogue' and 'Cosmopolitan'. Others buy gossip magazines like 'OK!' and 'Hello'.
My questionnaire gave me good results to help me develop my target audience and to have an idea of what to put in my magazine, as well as the style I want to go for. However, as I put my questionnaire out in a girls school, it means that I don't have much of an indication of what males would like therefore I don't have much of range of an audience. However this means I can make my target audience more specific to females and have my magazine appeal more to them as that is where most of my data predominantly stemmed from.
David Carson
American Graphic Designer, David Carson, is best known for his work as the art director of 'Ray Gun' magazine. He challenged the usual conventions of magazines layouts and designs by creating unique and innovative magazine covers. The bar code and masthead - if there was one was never placed in the same particular place. As all the magazine covers were abstract and different there was no particular house style and theme as the logo was never the same.
To the right are some examples of his work. He challenged the magazine conventions as none of the mastheads re the same they are all in different fonts, sizes and colours so there is no uniformity or continuity. The cover lines are never placed in the same position as other issues, similarly to the masthead they are in different fonts, sizes and colours. The main images have no certain style and for example on 'Vogue' covers they always have models on the front or music magazine such as 'NME' would have artists on the front. Raygun however doesn't always feature the artist as the main image on the cover and the image isn't necessarily upright as shown in one of the cover shown to the left.
As Carson created unique covers every month it meant that it lacked a theme so there was no certain recognition for the magazine which could reduce the amount of consumers as they cant't recognise the magazine. Not all the covers were eligible due to the fact the font on some magazine were not readable. Whilst every issue is recognisably unusual and interesting only 74 covers were released as there was a lack of of a sense of familiarity. This shows us that magazines need a logo and a theme to maintain ca strong customer base as its easy for them to spot the logo on a busy magazine stand.
In my opinion I found some of the magazine covers very interesting and attractive as they were unique and different so it was something refreshing from your usual music magazine. On the other hand I strongly disliked some as to me I didn't see the point in what Carson was trying to portray. Some of the fonts were difficult to read so it gave me the impression the rest of the magazine would be similar. I feel that my opinion maybe explains why the magazine failed to continue as not everyone could see Carson's perspective and what he was aiming for. Although breaking the conventional magazine rules can be cool and unique, I personally would stick to the conventional way as it's more likely to attract and maintain a customer base.
Representation of Men and Women in the Media
It's common knowledge to everyone that men and women in the media are represented in different ways. Women are often sexually objectified, posing with fewer clothes or nude to entertain the eyes of the male audience. Women are made to be alluring, appealing and pose in invitational ways and stereotypes play a big part when women are portrayed as they are commonly stereotyped. Some examples are 'the dumb blonde,' 'the bitch,' 'the housewife,' 'the cougar' and 'the tart.' They are associated with words such as weak and powerless simply down to the fact because they are women. Men on the other hand are seen as the opposite of how women are portrayed - strong and powerful. A fine example of this are the two following covers of GQ magazine:
On the left we have Lana Del Rey, a well respected musician who has won awards for MTV Best Alternative Act, Brit Awards International Female Solo Act and many more. She's a role model and powerful figure to many however, she's degraded on this magazine cover due to the fact she's been stripped down so the attentions on her body and not her talent. It doesn't come down to just her nudity the pose she's in adds to it as she has her body pulled together, looking as if she's protecting herself from something which makes her look vulnerable and accessible.
On the right we have Tinie Tempah, who is also a well respected musician who has won many awards and is a role model to many. Tinie Tempah is stood upright in a suit, looking proper and strong. The connotations of a suit suggest intelligence, wealth and power, these words in which are often associated with men. However Lana may posses these qualities but they are not seen through her cover. Men are seen as the highest and have control therefore women are not equal as we live in a patriarchal society and it's seen through everything.
Magazine editors face issues when editing their magazines as more and more people are aware of feminism and it's a recognised movement. They have to avoid problems of degrading women and making sure men and women are portrayed equally. They must try not to sexualise women as well as men to show equality. There are wider issues such as race and language. They have to make sure their images and articles are appropriate as well as the language to make sure it's not offensive.
Laura Mulvey - a feminist film critic, came up with the Male Gaze Theory in 1975. The Male Gaze Theory is that audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. In the film industry what takes place is:
The camera lingers on the curves of the female body with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact
Through editing and framing the female body gets 'cut' into pieces, creating a passive object to be 'gazed' at.
Events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events.
In the industry most of the higher roles are filled by men so it makes sense for this theory to be apparent. In 2011 only 16% of women were writers, directors, producers, cinematographers and editors. As men are directing, writing, filming and producing these films, they are done from their perspectives and film what they would like to see - sexy women. The power roles in the industry have historically always been men and to this present day in film industry not much has changed. As all the higher, executive roles are men the audience is gendered to be male. It's said that 'men look at women, women look at women and women look at themselves.' This is true due to the fact that women watch the films that are put together by men that include scenes of very attractive women. So they are looking at women, they then go onto look at themselves as individuals and compare themselves to what they've seen in films.
Marjorie Ferguson came up with the Facial Expression Theory in which she separated the facial expressions cover models use into 4 sections:
Chocolate Box Invitational Super-Smiler Romantic/Sensual
Chocolate Box: This is when the model has a half or full - smile, the lips are together or slightly parted with the teeth barley parted. Projected mood: warmth and blandly pleasing. The uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or individuality.
Invitational: It emphasises on the eyes with the mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile. They usually have their head to one side or looking back to the camera. Projected mood: it suggests mystery or mischief in a sexual way.
Super - smiler: The models have a full face with a wide open toothy smile with their head thrown forward or chin thrown back. Their hair is usually flowing and wind - blown. Projected Mood: It gives of a 'look at me' pose which is demanding and subtly aggressive.
Romantic/Sensual: This pose includes a male and female 'two - somes'. The image is often sensual, overly sexual and dreamy. To create this the models are usually heavy lidded and not smiling. Projected mood: the models in the photo represent availability.
A documentary named 'Miss Representation' was made in 2011 and focuses on the aspect of female representation in the media. The issue the documentary focuses on is 'The media is selling young people the idea that girls’ and women’s value lies in their youth, beauty, and sexuality and not in their capacity as leaders. Boys learn that their success is tied to dominance, power, and aggression. We must value people as whole human beings, not gendered stereotypes.' It featured women of all ages and young girls talking of all their experiences, jobs and feminism. It talked of how the media can lead to eating disorders, self - harm and low self - esteem as many women compare themselves to the women they see in the media. Also men judge women more harshly so it's more pressure. However those in the media are photo shopped to looked 'perfect' so it's not possible for women too achieve the look they're striving for. It's said that women spend more money on cosmetics than education and this is a result of the media and striving for perfection.
One of the women spoke about The Bechdel Test which is a test created by Alison Bechdel that nearly all films fail to pass. It asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. There are three steps to The Bechdel Test and they are:
It features a woman
A woman talks to another woman
A woman talks to another woman about something to do with a man
Nearly all films fail to pass this test which tells us that women in the film industry don't have prominent roles that don't revolve around men. Most female protagonist always have something to do with men and love and The Bechdel Test proves this. Even when women are the protagonist they are still objectified for example in many action films.
Only 16% of women are protagonist in film and television
47% of the population are women 40 and above but only make up 26% of women are on TV
5.8% of women own television and only 6% own radio stations
In my magazine I aim to represent male and female equally but not making women 'weak and sensitive' or making men 'strong and tough' and not sexualising either of the sexes. I want my target audience to buy my magazine for its content and quality not the sexualised image of the model on the cover.
Social Identity
According to simplepsychology.org, 'social identity is a person's sense of who they are based on their group membership(s).'
Henri Tajfel and John Turner proposed the social identity theory in 1979. He proposed that the groups - for example social class, family, sports teams - that people belonged to were an important source of pride and self - esteem. Groups give us a sense of belonging to the world and social identity. There are in - groups (us) the people with whom one shares a common identity and out - groups (them), those perceived as different or apart from one's in - group. There are three mental processes in which we evaluate other as 'us' and 'them'. These take place in the following particular order:
1) Categorisation: we categorise them and identify them - we do this to understand the social environment.
2) Social Identification: we adopt the identity of the group we have categorised ourselves as belonging to.
3) Social Comparison: once we're categorised we tend to compare ourselves with other groups.
A perfect example of in - groups and out - groups would be Mods and Rockers who were particularly popular groups in the 1960s/1970s. Mods wore parkas with a fur trim and suits, they wore generally more clean cut outfits and were well groomed in comparison to rockers. The music genre Mods were into was British Band Blues, Soul and RnB. They were very much centred on fashion and music and also loved Vespa scooters.
Rockers were more interested in motorcycling and were influenced by Rock n Roll as that's what they listened to. They rocked black leather jackets with studs and patches and completed their outfits with creepers and motorcycle boots.
These two groups were known for their conflict throughout their period and still are today. Both groups went through the three mental stages in which they categorised, identified and compared themselves.
What is the NRS?
The National Readership Survey is a 'joint company between in the UK between Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA) and the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA).'
It gives information about audience research about magazines and newspapers in the UK. It covers over 250 of the major newspapers and magazines, showing the size and nature of the audiences they have. Here are some results from music magazines:
From these results we can see that a total of 156,000 people read NME/New Musical Express and 93,000 of them are in the ABC1 group which is the upper class and more wealthy. 63,000 people from the C2DE group - the middle class read NME so from this we can tell that more of the upper class read NME.
The next category is 15 - 34 year olds which shows that 97,000 people of that age read the magazine. Then 59,000 of the readers are 35+ so we know that more of their readers are younger.
However the NRS doesn't always give the best information as the range of audience is too big. The 15 - 34 year old category is a rather wide range and there is a big difference between the ages. So it suggest to us that all the readers in that category have the same interest whereas they probably don't and could only share the same music taste. 35+ is also a rather large age range so therefore it is more difficult for the results to be accurate.
What Uses and Gratifications do people get from reading magazines?
Reading magazines means that we get uses and gratifications from them. Gratification means a pleasure that is gained especially from the satisfaction of a desire. ne of the gratifications is ritual pleasure as we read them every day and every month in which therefore it becomes a routine in our lives. This is because we buy the new weekly/monthly issue of the same brand of magazine every time.
Another gratification is visual and tactile pleasure and visual culture. We enjoy reading glossy, high quality magazine as they are nice to touch and beautiful to look at. Reading and holding a magazine isn't the same as holding an iPad, phone or seeing it on a laptop/computer. Visual culture is that we are obsessed with images and magazines are full of them. This makes us want to keep buying magazines as we enjoy them.
Billboard Magazine is targeted at young teens from the age of 16 to young adults and to the age of 26. The target audience varies as it provides an update of the charts but from various types of genres. The genre ranges from Pop, Metal, Rock, R&B, Country and many more. For example these covers of Billboard magazine have different types of artist from different genres like Kanye West and Lana Del Rey. Magazines provide information where audiences can find out about what's going on in their favourite genres such as which artists are going on gigs and tours. Customers of Billboard can find this easy as the magazine caters for so many different genres. Also they can read album reviews and interviews about artists, Billboard has a variety of different artist each month but there is something for all their readers. When the audiences reads the magazine they feel like they gain knowledge about their favourite genre of music and their favourite artists which can boost their self - esteem and power as they feel as if they know a lot.
A gratification of music magazines is that it helps us to construct our identities as we can find out a sense of what we like and dislike. The magazines have a direct mode of address as the magazine 'speaks to you' which contributes to us forming identities. As Billboard caters for many different genres all of audience can feel like the magazine 'speaks to them' which can make us feel like part of a community which is another gratification. It can make us feel like a part of a community as we share the same interest and values as others who buy the magazine.
Magazines often tend to give out freebies to attract more customers and to keep their current audiences as every. Everyone likes to get something for nothing. Music magazines usually give out free posters and free CD's. Another good use of magazines are that they are portable and always available. Any time, any place, any where you can have a magazine unlike TV and internet which aren't always available on the go.
The Four F's
The Four F's consist of format, formula, frame and function.
1. Format: The format is the design of the every magazine issue. This is to maintain the magazines house style and theme. This includes the logo, cover lines, size of the magazine, department headers and other things that are repeatedly found in every issue.
2.Formula: This is the editorial content of the magazine - what's in it. It includes the type of articles, the length of them, departments in the front and back of the magazine (sections that are in the magazine each time).
3.Frame: The frame is the standard size for outer page margins and the middle. Many magazines use the same margin width all the way through the magazine. Others vary the width, for example using tall top margins for features to be set apart.
4.Function: The function of the magazine is simply the point of the magazine. It's what message the magazine is trying to send to the customers.
Preliminary Task
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| Front Cover |
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| Contents Page |
This is my finished school magazine front cover and contents page for my preliminary task. The target audience for my magazine are sixth formers that are boys and girls aged 16 - 18. I chose this audience as I myself am in sixth form so I thought it would be easier for me to get an idea of what my audience would be interested in and what they wouldn't be interested in.
Front Cover
To get an idea of what to do for my school magazine I researched many others before beginning to see what route I wanted to go down. I decided that I wanted to use a green screen so I could use a different plain background to have my main image - the sixth formers, stand out. I took some pictures in front of the green screen using Isabel, Jojo, Kim and Georgia as my model sixth formers for my main image. I decided to use this one for the front cover:
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| Original Picture |
I chose this one as all four of them would fill the front cover and the main image would be central and stand out. I removed the green screen using Final Cut Pro using the keying feature, I had a few problems at first but finally managed to put on a plain background that I had chose.
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After removing the green screen
and adding my background
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As I didn't use a green sheet for the floor I had to crop there feet out so it didn't look out of place. I then cropped it to the size I wanted it to be then I began to put on more magazine features such as the masthead, cover lines and issue date. Using a mix of the web app Fotor and Word I added these features.
Masthead: I created the masthead using Fotor and chose this font as it was bold and it enabled the masthead to stand out against the white background. I decided to go with that colour as the school's logo is red and in order to maintain a house style I wanted to stick with just a few colours. I made the font big as it's the masthead and it needs to be seen. However I could've made it bigger so that it wasn't a close size to the main cover line. I put the word 'times' underneath so I could put the school logo next to 'Southfield' so the masthead and logo would be associated with each other as a brand.
Main Image: My main image takes up most of the cover as it's the focal point of the magazine. I used sixth formers from Southfield school as the target audience are sixth formers at Southfield and it's clear who the magazine is aimed at.
Main Cover Line: The main cover line is in a different colour and font to the masthead and the rest of the cover lines as it needs to be different in able to catch the attention of the customer, as it's the cover line that gets them to buy the magazine. It's central of the magazine above the main image so it's clear and doesn't clash with anything on the cover. It doesn't detract too much attention from the main image and it's in black to show the continuity of house style.
Dateline: The dateline is in the upper right corner as it's not the dateline that attracts customers. It's not something that many are concerned about so it's not a focal point of the magazine. However it can still easily be found as it's in black that stand out from the white background.
Coverlines: I made the boxes that my cover lines are in a black and transparent in order for them to be clear and easy to read over the main image. I didn't wan't the cover lines to not be seen and blend in with the main image as it's important that the customers can see them as it's what attracts them to buy the magazine. I used red, green and orange to maintain a house style and because some of those colours matched the main image. I used the same font for them all as I didn't want to use too many different ones otherwise it would like untidy and it's important to maintain a theme.
Contents Page
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Removed green screen and added
background
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For my contents page I used the same method as I did for my front cover in that I used Final Cut Pro to get rid of the green screen with the keying feature. I used the same background as the front cover to continue the theme.
For my main image I used just one sixth former Kim, as I needed more room on this page to write about the contents.
I decided to put Kim on the left hand side of the page to create more space and to make the words more clear instead of putting them on top of the main image.
I used the same font for the word 'contents' and used the logo as well to show the brand and for the magazine to flow. Also on this page I used the same fonts I'd previously used on the front cover, the same colours and style to incorporate the idea of house style. For all this, similarly to my front cover I used a mix of Fotor and Word.
