Shape of my Main Task magazine

After repeatedly looking at the same old rectangular shaped magazines, I decided that I want my magazine to be of a different shape. I feel that if I am to grab my target audience then I need to draw away from the same shaped magazines as everyone else and create something so different that it stands out and makes the target audience want to buy my magazine rather than the same shaped ones as everyone else. Another way that I could change up the layout of the magazine is to change from portrait to landscape.

Logo for the Main Task

This is my logo that I created for my main task; it was produced on Photoshop. I first decided to play around with the font. I knew straight away that I wanted an informal font which would play on the fact that the magazine is for an age group of teenagers. I went through all of the fonts that were available and this one struck me immediately. It had a playful yet formal look to it which makes it able to be taken seriously and appeals to most teens. 

Once the font was chosen I had to come up with the name of the magazine. From Analysing the magazines I found out that they use a simple name with either one letter like Q or a simple few letters such as NME which sound good together. Few of the magazines used long words like KERRANG. After looking at the magazines I decided to use the three letter idea. I felt it was an effective way to keep it short and make it stand out. I then found it really hard to come up with what three letters I was going to use so I went back to looking at my questionnaires. One of the most popular genres was rock; this information allowed me to use this to my advantage. I took the word rock and abbreviated it to RK. After repeatedly saying the letters out loud, I concluded that this sounded good but needed an extra letter to complete it. The next obvious letter was M for magazine. This completed the name of the magazine, RKM. The letters flow of the end of your tongue and is easy to say. 

After finding the right font and name for the magazine I typed the letters separately allowing me to move them each freely without them being in one line. I really like the way that Q magazine uses a square around the letter so I wanted to recreate this in a different way on my magazine. I played around with the three letters and as you can see from the above I created a square like shape. However, I felt that there could be something else added to make it seem as though it was part of the music magazine. This was when I added the cassette image. The image was black and white which made it link to the text but I felt that it could do with something else to link it. It needed colour. 

I decided that the cassette had to have the tape inside it coming out wrapping around the text somehow to make the two images link. This was hard but I came up with the idea of just one curve coming from the cassette to the K. This made it look like the tape was coming out of the cassette and wrapping around the letters. I wanted some sort of colour to be added as this is what the age group like. They are drawn into colour. This was the final element to the logo and as you can see from the image above the colour finished the logo nicely. I will be using this on my main task.

Double page spread analysis

Kerrang Double page spread

I like the way that this double page spread uses black and white images. This allows the text to stand out against the grey scale background. The text is red which stands out as it links to the bands style. The band uses the colours red, white and black and I like the way that this is represented in the spread. The page has used a images with a black background and the way that it uses this to its advantage draws me in. It takes the image and blends it by making one of the side completely back and the other with the image. One dislike is the use of the white bar in the right hand corner; it distracts the eye of the reader and takes away the focus of the article. There are more images than text which makes me ask what will my audience want. I will have to come to some conclusions by analysing my questionnaires.

NME double page spread

I really like the title that this magazine uses. Its very bold and makes the strory look interesting to read. It grabs the reader in and helps add the feel to the magazine. This magazine also uses the images background to use on the other page which means I may have to think about this with creating my own.



MOJO double page spread



The way that this image is in black and white really appeals to me as I like the whole feel of it having no colour and really just seeing the image as its self. Another thing that makes me interested in this magazine is the tittle. I like the way that the text picks out the main words and puts them in a different colour. This makes them stand out against the black background.

Q double page spread

I really like the way that this magazine has used a gigantic L that covers the whole page for the first letter of the article. It stands out and draws you into reading the magazine. This magazine uses a picture on the left but doesn't make it appear to be part of the article on the right. This makes it different from any other magazine.

Vibe double page spread

This magazine appeals to me in the simple fact that it is pure creativity; being an art student I am looking to be very creative in creating my magazine. The idea used of drawing onto the person adds a feeling of him being part of the article. The tittle is very bold as it has used a handwriting style. This magazine will be one of my favourites to take ideas from.

Questionaire results

Quetsionaire research

After getting back all of my 30 questionnaires I decided that to collate my findings I should put them into graphs. I decided that a pie chart was the most easiest one to read. This is only 4 of the 10 questions I asked. I found out that there was more males than females, however there was roughly half and half. I then discovered that my main age group would be the 15-16 one as I surveyed more of this age group. the next question was what type of music magazines do you usually buy?  this allowed me to find out that most people chose the option other. however the second top choice was kerrang. this information shows that I may need to analyse different magazines. This was also the case for how often do you buy magazines? many people said that they didn't buy magazines on a regular bases therefore i will have to think about this when I create my own.



MOJO magazine

MOJO magazine

 
The MOJO magazine was like the others and used the colour scheme of red, black and white. I really like the way that the image is black and white and the titles are in red because it makes the sub title stand out. I also like the way that the image doesn't have any writing over it apart from the name of the magazine really appeals to me as it makes the image seem to be very important rather than being hidden by text. I think the font of the "Michael Jackson" links very well to the story. Michael Jackson was very popular in his childhood and this is shown through the old writing tape that both i and older generations would associate with as an old retro theme.

contents

The contents of the magazine is very unique and I like this. by putting the pictures in a collage like way carries the theme from the front cover into the mag. when I was younger a scrap book was in every ones homes. the theme of the tape is also repeated onto the contents page.I like the way that the MOJO is very bold and is in black because it makes it stand out.

Logo ideas for preliminary task

These are some of the ideas for my logo. I decided that it had to include the letters TJRM as it was the name of the magazine. This gave me the idea to keep it simple but effective. I tried to link the letters together as you can see in all of them and even tried different fonts. Although they are not very good, I feel that this is only my Preliminary task therefore gives me time to improve for the main task. I now have to chose one of these for my magazine. I have decided to use the top logo.

Logo

I cant use the school logo due to copy right issues and I feel that I could make my own logo look extremely better; it will also give me a chance to practice for my main task. Seeing as though I took art at both GCSE and AS I feel that I should bring this element into my media work. This gives me the availability to look at both planning my magazine and creating logos. To create my logo I will have to think about what it is my magazine is about and then draw ideas from this. To include the skills I have learnt in art I will try to draw out basic logos and magazine plans and images I wish to recreate with the camera. I will then scan them into my computer and edit them on Photoshop.

Mood board

I would have to create a mood board to show how magazines differ from other magazines and also how different issues differ. It also shows my ideas of what kind of styles I would like to produce in my own magazine and create my own ideas from the existing ones. As you can see, the colours are very much black, white and red. I feel that these colours are a good way to keep things simple but doesn't damage it's effectiveness. I think that I will try to include this colour scheme within my own magazine but replace the colour red with another.

Contents of Preliminary task trial

This is my first attempt at a contents page layout. I decided to only basically design the layout and I am going to improve this along side the front cover. This gives me opportunity to link the two together.

Preliminary task trial runs

 

These are two of my trials for my preliminary task. I decided to name the magazine TJRM (The John Roan Magazine) because the task is to create a school magazine. I used the same image but changed the way it was presented; this gave me two very different outcomes. Although I didn't use a bar code or my own logo this helped me to see where i need to expand and develop it into a further better version of the previous ones.

I then decided that the image needed to be bigger and fill the whole page as it is the main story. Unfortunately I stretched the image and therefore I'll have to re-do this one. I also didn't create my own logo on this one so I'll make sure that this is done as well. As you can see, I decided to improve this design a lot. The three images show how it has progressed but is still in need of some work.

Preliminary task expermenting with photoshop

This is one of the experiments I carried out in order to test out my photoshop skills. I was asked to create a Magazine front cover and double page spread with included a well known actor. I chose Helena Bonham Carter, this allowed me to incorpriate her husband, my favourite director Tim burton. I chose the gothic font to link to her style, she has a gothic feel to her so I tried to add this to the style of the magazine. I also chose the black on the double page spread because of this same reason, as black is a very gothic colour. Although I was only focusing on creating a basic layout I could of then introduced barcodes and prices that I will then use on my main task. This is a very poor use of photoshop but  feel that this gives me time to improve my work on my preliminary task by increasing the level of my skills.   

NME magazine

This is one of the ideas I would like to include in my magazine. I really like the whole idea of the image being black and white (like VIBE) and then the red and black writing in the background. I feel that I could do this by using my Wacom Tablet at home (basically a pad and pen linked to the computer) in order to create this really interesting effect.

Photo shoot

For my photos I would ideally like to have them taken and edited before Christmas; this allows me to have the prep work done for when I start to create the magazine after Christmas. I have now decided that the photo shoot will take place on the 16/11/11 and I will be taking the photographs of a friend who is willing to be my model / interviewee. I am also going to try and take some of the photos using a timer or get someone to take the photos so I can get some of myself.

My photo shoot has to be planned very carefully I’m doing this by setting a date of when I will do it by. I then have to think about what images I am going to try to recreate and how I will create them. I looked at both the cinematography and the mise-en-scene (especially the lighting) when deciding to find a location for my photos to be taken. I decided on my bedroom for some of the photos as I really like the colour purple and the design on my walls. The style really reflects the type/genre of magazine I want to try and create. I also wanted to try and get some of the photos taken in either Camden or South bank (skate park in image above) because these locations have a lot of graffiti and or art on their streets which would create a punky feel to my mag.

Target audience

In marketing and advertising, a target audience, is a specific group of people within the target market at which the marketing message is aimed. A target audience can be formed of people of a certain age group, gender and status, and more; for example teenagers, females, single people, etc. A target audience can also be a combination of factors, e.g. men aged 20-30 is a common target audience. Although, this doesn’t always mean that this is their only customers, a different audience may also be interested. Discovering the appropriate target market and determining the target audience is one of the most important activities in marketing management.

The biggest mistake it's possible to make in targeting is trying to reach everybody and ending up appealing to no-one. With this being part of my aims to appeal to most genres of music I will have to try to compromise due to this fact. I will also have to decide whether to appeal to one audience or try to expand it. As well as this from my questionnaires I will have to work out what people want the most to include in the magazine and see which people will like what.

Questionaire

This is the Questionaire that I produced in order to find out what my target audience wanted in a magazine. I handed it out to 30 people which will allow me to get a significant number of answers in order to find out what people like and how I can include this in my magazine. I will then take these results and create graphs to present my work.

Questionaire

NME magazine

NME magazine front page

The front page of NME is very simple yet effective. The way the simple colours of red, pink, white and black are very striking colours and therefore do not need the acomplishment any other colours. I also like the way that the image of Hayley Williams is infront of the tittle/logo and the rest of (Paramore) the band is behind it. It gives the effect that she is the more important one and therefore has to infront of everything else. I think that the way her lipstick is the same colour of the tittle "PARAMORE" shows a link between the two, allowing the reader to know what the tittle is linked to.
I dislike the fact that the writing "professor Jack White" is above the NME, this makes it appear that this story or article is more important that the name of the magazine. I feel that the magazine name should be the most important thing and therefore be at the top of the magazine.

  NME magazine contents page

The contents of NME is very newspaper like and is put into colums. The way it is split up into news, radar, reviews, live and features gives it a very formal style and is easy to find out what you want to find. I also feel that the way the colour scheme of the name of the magazine is repeated onto the rest of the contents keeps it very simple but very effective. However the red writing on the left I feel is very hard to read and could get lost in the image all together. I like the way the NME THIS WEEK is very bold and the font used is very formal. The fact that there is only one picture doesnt appeal to me and I feel there could of been more to grab the readers attention. on the other hand it doesnt acompliment the formal style of the magazine.

Media 2.0

Media 2.0, My daily consumption.
This shows how much and what media I consume in one day.

VIBE

Vibe

vibe is a magazine that I wouldnt personally buy however I will use the way in which it is sructured to help me improve and develop my ideas for a magazine of my own.

Front cover:- the front cover has the same colour scheme as the kerrang one however it sets a very different atmosphere. the colour scheme once again is red, black, white and grey. i really like the way in which the picture is black and white making the title that is red stand out against the black of his hat. the title is a bold red and the font is also bold as well. i feel this is good for its audience but for who i want to consider i dont think this kind of font is for me. The way that the smaller sub-headings are in "slang" doesnt appeal to me however according to my research most of my class favour this magazine in the way it is on the same wave length as them. i dislike the fact that the names of artists are just listed on the page; i feel that there should be some structure to way that they present information. 

contents:- I really like the way in which the contents are presented. the title is bold and stands out against the back ground of grey and blue however I feel that the picture of the man is hidden by the background. The colour of the background and the picture are very similar therefore there's no contrast against them meaning that the picture isn't very eye-catching. I like the way in which the only colour on the page is the red of the heart in the supposed woman's hand; it draws you in and makes you look closer. I think that the actual contents (text) is very hidden and compared to the other magazine (kerrang) is very boring and doesn't really grab your attention. Personally I wouldn't sit and read the contents page of this magazine, I would simply look at the picture and skip to the next page. If I was to do this type of structure on my magazine I would use either a bolder font or a different colour on the text so it stands out against the background. This will make it the main thing on the page and means that the reader will be drawn to read it before looking at the rest of the page.

KERRANG!

Kerrang!

Front cover: - The front cover is very bold in the way it uses colour. The colour scheme is red, black, white and grey. These colours complement each other and allow the heading and pictures to stand out, grabbing the audience’s eye. I like the way that the pictures and smaller stories have borders making them stand out against the background of the main story however I feel that the picture for the main story is crowded by everything else on the page. Perhaps a different font would allow extra space but I like the way in which they have used capitals to make the writing stand out.

Contents: - I like the way in which the contents are structured. The pictures catch the reader’s eye and draw you into the story. It makes you want to find out what’s going on in the picture. The way in which it is structured makes certain people drawn to certain images as their favourite artists will grab their attention.  The images are quite shocking and also make you wonder what’s going on in them. I like the way the font is simple yet effective and the way the yellow stands out from the black for the heading, subheading and page numbers. However the structure could be changed into a more “random” state rather than the neat squares it appears to have.

Q&A

The interview with Karolina Karalkevicicute; where i've played about with the layout. I think that the way I have placed the text is an interesting way that grabs the reader however I think I could of changed the background to make it more interesting. I would of liked to of added a coloured background where it would of caught the readers eye rather than the plain white one I have used.