Magazine Contents mockup & Proposed masthead

My Contents page mock-up

The above image is reflective of the type of look and layout I wish for for my blog. I propose that all of the images I use, which are taken for the purpose of being used upon my contents page are taken against a white background and are presented in a torn fashion. In case this is not clear the type of look I am going for is mirrored in the image below, from a recent music video.

I feel this gives the contents page a contemporary, quirky edge and reflects the kooky, fun nature of pop music (as it was essential upon reflection of the results from my questionnaire, that my magazine maintained this quality). On one hand, choosing to display my contents page in such a fashion will put more pressure upon the amount of photos needed, but I feel this is a small price in order to obtain the look and feel that is needed for this magazine to maintain a consistent approach towards pop throughout.

My logo mock-up

The two images above show the type of look I am hoping to achieve through the masthead of the magazine. The choice for this name and colour scheme, came, following the questionnaire results, in which it was clearly shown that the magazine needed to maintain a teen friendly, bright design. This is when the decision to use a slang term came into my head, in that he phrase "OMG!" is automatically identifiable by a teenage audience and so it is obvious straight away who the magazine's target audience is and the tone of the magazine.

Questionnaire, Results & Analysis Of These Results.

Pop music magazine – questionnaire

The following questionnaire is comprised of eight questions intended to educate myself about what the average reader of my magazines demographic would want/expect from my magazine.

1.       Which is your preferred genre of music?

·         Pop music            

·         Rock/Alternative

·         R&B/Hip Hop

·         Other

2.       How often do you generally buy music magazine?

·         Daily

·         Twice a Week

·         Weekly

·         Fortnightly

·         Monthly

·         Bi monthly

·         Rarely

·         Never

3.       Which type of articles would you most like to see in a Pop music magazine?

·         Reader Letters

·         Editorials

·         Artist Interviews

·         Reviews of Music, Film, Books & TV

·         Live Reviews

·         Other (please specify)    ........................................................................................

4.       What connotations do you associate with Pop music?

.........................................................................................................

5.       What tone towards pop music would you like the magazine to adopt?

·         A formal approach

·         An informal approach

·         Other (please specify)................................................................

6.       How much do you spend on an average music magazine?

·         £1.00-£2.00

·         £2.00-£3.00

·         £3.00-£4.00

·         £4.00 +

7.       Who are your favourite artists in pop music?

............................................................................................................

8.       What colours would you like/expect a pop magazine to follow?

·         Bright colours: pinks, oranges, yellow, greens etc.

·         Sophisticated colours: reds, gold, silver, blacks etc.

·         Dark colours: Violets, navy, black, browns etc.

·         Light pastels: Peach, sky blue, meringues etc.

The questionnaire was carried out on twenty people throughout the course of the week. To suit the teenage based target audience of my magazine (and to make it alot easier for me to collect people to take part) it was carried out on fellow students over the course of a lunch time in the common room and the results were all recorded by me, on the same sheet of paper (as this allowed me to save the effort of printing off many different copies). The results of this questionnaire are displayed below, with the questions which I felt were most benefitial towards the making of my magazine, being anaylsed and displayed in charts.

Questionnaire results and analysis

One thing I found, when carrying out my questionnaire was that, if my magazine were to be soley based upon pop music then the first question of my questionnaire was not needed.

The results for question 2 of my questionnaire are displayed in the pie chart below.

The pie chart above expresses the data which was collected in order to find out how often the average teenager (as I carried out all of my questionnaires upon sixth form students within the common room). The data shows that the most common, rate of purchase (after never) is Monthly. This reflects the decision I have made to make my magazine a monthly magazine, in similar vein to Q Magazine.

The results for question 3 of the questionnaire are displayed in the bar chart below.

The bar chart above expresses the results I collected, regarding which type of article out of the selection I specified, people would most like to see feature in my magazine or in any other magazine. They express that people feel artist interviews are the most essential part of a music magazine, followed by reviews of music and reviews of gigs in joint second place. From this graph, it is indicated that to a teenage audience editorials are not essential, though I presume this is due to a lack of knowledge as to what they are and why they are used, as teenagers are unlikely to be educated in editorials, compared to the more ‘obvious’ features, such as reviews and interviews.

When I asked people what connotations they would usually associate with pop music, I recorded the words they said on the piece of paper and the results were as follows:
- the word "dancey" was remarked twice
- fun was the most common word, as six people said this.
- three people said "popular" as a literal translation.
- one person's comment was "girly"
- the rest of the people I tested simply said "Dunno" (presumably as this was the first question to actually make them think!)

The results for question 5 of the questionnaire are displayed in the donut graph below.

The donut graph above shows an overwhelming response towards the magazine adopting an informal tone. 18 out of the 20 people I asked opted for this style and this is clearly reflective of the teenage approach towards the media. However, I do agree that taking an informal approach towards the magazine would be a more suited way of writing, as there are many magazines and forms of music commentary (such as NME Magazine, Popjstice blog) which use this approach, and it is a much more engaging way of reaching out to a yound audience.

The results for question six of my questionnaire of displayed in my bar chart below.

It is clear from the bar chart below, that if the results are disected in half, many teenagers favour paying £3 or less for a magazine than over this amount. This is the response I would have expected from the teenage audience whom I tested, as in theory to many youngsters (especially those not working) £3 a month on something that can be easily accessed through the media and internet for free, is not a very inticing idea. The idea, however, is at odds with their earlier inclination for a monthly magazine as most magazines which are printed monthly, cost within the £4+ region e.g. Q, MOJO etc.

The results for question seven of my questionnaire are displayed in my pie chart below.

Although this question was intentionally an open ended question there were only 5 results given so I thought I would display the results in a graph. The reasoning behind this question was so that I could get a sense behind the favourite acts of teenagers today and so I would know what type of “fake acts” to conceive for the making of my magazine. The results show predominantly female acts with Lady GaGa, Rihanna and Britney spears (earning 4 votes, 2 votes and 1 vote each respectively) and so this may be something that I have to keep in mind during the making of my magazine.

The results for question eight of my questionnaire are displayed on the bar graph below.

This question was intended to educate me towards what sort of colour scheme I should go for with my magazine. Although some might feel that the obvious colour scheme to go for would be the bright colours, as it reflects the “fun, dancey” nature of pop music, I felt that a teen audience may wish to challenge the conventions of this through a more unconventional colour scheme. However, the general concencus from collecting my results was that the typical associations of a pop magazine should be maintained for my magazine with only 4 people opting for a different option.

So, to conclude, generally from analysing my questionnaire results I can make the decision that the things my magazine needs are: A bright colour scheme, to be a monthly editional magazine, to take an informal approach, to feature artist interviews (essentially) and to cost £3 and under.

Remake & Remodel

I decided to make this magazine the Christmas issue. Using ‘YOU must’ is an imperative and I decided to have Liam taking different views on Christmas to intrigue the reader. The alliteration 'Gaga goes green' and the 'new year, new bands' also grab the reader's attention. I editted this photo to make the focus on Liam's face against the white background.The barcode and date are in the conventional place with listing underneath.

Remake and Remodel

Remake and Remodel

My magazine cover featuring Rachel. The magazine cover features Rach making an 'X' (the figurehead of Simon Cowell's X Factor) out of her middle fingers expressing the feelings expressed in "F**K THE X FACTOR". The magazine cover features direct appeal through her use of eye contact with the reader and the incredibly bright light making her appear sub-human and showing that she doesn't conform to the normal (such as the X Factor). "Simon's self..." is a use of alliteration and "Wild Child" is assonance.

P.S. The spelling error on Festival was unintentional but cannot be changed now :(

School magazine.

School magazine; Final contents page and Contents and front cover mock up.

For the contents page i decided to keep the colours red and black against a white background to keep to the school colours. I wanted the contents page to look interesting and so i added photos and kept to the colour scheme.

Before creating for the front covers of our school magazine 'SFM' we discussed the outcomes we wanted from the front covers. I didn't want to make to much reference to school with the colours so that it seemed more mature for sixth from students and not just the regular school magazine.
I used the colour blue for the masthead as i decided that it was a neutral colour and would not be just associated with boys unlike if i would have used the colour pink which may have only attracted female readers.
By using the alliteration 'Teachers, trips and timetables' I decided it would interest readers more than a regular sentence as it is eyecatching.
I kept the barcode and date in the standard place and kept the coverlines school related.

Before creating the final magazine i made basic layouts. This gave me to a chance to think about how my articles would be situated and what would look best. As you can see for the contents page I did not stick to my mock up as i thought it looked un tidy.
As for the front page, I took my own photo for the front cover and kept to the same layout.

2 Week Task: Analysis Of 'Rolling Stone Magazine'

2 Week Task: Analysis Of 'Kerrang Magazine'

'Freedom' magazine is aimed at a niche market. I decided to keep the colours black and purple and one coverline being red as it is a PUG. Changing the colour of the PUG draws the reader's attention to it. I used the alliteration 'security scrutiny' to draw the reader n. Also i think the main cover line 'Who is watching you?' would intruigue the reader as it includes them and makes it personal.

'Photography Now' magazine is aimed at professional and amateur photographers. I dislike the colour scheme i have used here as i think it makes it look untidy. I have used the PUG of winning 'a complete photography starter kit' as I think this would encourage new photographers into buying the magazine. The PUFF 'top 10 cameras' would also interest professional photographers. The 'exclusive' interview with a famous photographer would also interest the target audience.

The cover of 'Pitch' is aimed at a mass market audience. Therefore i decided as the main image was Marilyn Manson I would keep this as the theme for the issue. The magazine would obviously be purchased by fans of Marilyn Manson. By using the PUG winning free tickets would entice and intrigue the target audience resulting in the buying the magazine. As the main image has an eerie feeling about it, I decided the best colour to use would be black to add to this theme. The main cover line 'must read shocking interview' is an imperative and the choice of adjective 'shocking' would grab the reader's attention. The bar code and date remain in the conventional place as does the masthead.

Film X appeals to possible cult film audiences. When creating this magazine i decided that i would keep the colour scheme the same as the main image and masthead as I felt the main image should be the dominating feature on this front cover. By choosing red and white as the font colours i think this allowed the main image to stand out and the writing slotted in, making the cover look 'tidy.' To interest potential readers I included a 'PUG' and 'PUFF' which included winning free cinema tickets which i felt fitted in as magazine is aimed at people interested in film.

2 Week Task: Analysis Of 'Fader' Magazine

2 Week Task: Analysis Of 'NME' Magazine

2 Week Task: Analysis Of 'Q' Magazine

'In Style Forms and Conventions Task' & 'Image Manipulation Task'

This was the image manipulation task. This task verified that we knew how to use colouring and adjustments on the software of Microsoft Word and also that we were able to use WordArt for effect. This was not an indication of our proper skills but merely in order to see if we were good at making changes to an image through the software provided and will also stand as a way of showing our progression from begginer software (Word, Paint) to more complex software later on (Photoshop).

This task was the codes and conventions task and highlights all the major codes and conventions found within a typical magazine cover.

Preliminary Magazine Cover & Evaluation.

The magazine cover we used, features the main image of a sixth form student. The image is in conjuction with the main headline of looking at the new heads of house (with the mise-en-scene coming in the form of the lanyard round her neck to express she is a "model student"). The colour scheme used is red which I feel was a good decision as it means that any student can easily identify that this magazine is reflective of the school and that all stories inside are related to the school and is also bold an eye catching.

The 'pugs and puffs' around the edge are all reflective of the codes and conventions of standard magazines, which I feel was good. "African Adenture" and "The Wonder of Wiggins" are both alliterative and so are immeadiatly more accessible to the reader reading them. The real life story of "My mother won the raffle 12 Times in a row!" is humourous showing a more soft side to a school magazine which would appeal more to a child-targeted audeicne and show that against the stereotype of a school magazine that it is all work.