Friday, 10 May 2013
Preliminary Task
Before we
began the research and construction of our magazine we carried out a
preliminary task which helped us understand basic codes and conventions of magazines.
The task was to create front cover and contents page for a school news magazine
which was catered to student, parents and staff. We had to follow basic codes
and conventions of magazines such as a masthead, feature stories and main image
to attract the wide demographic which we had been set. This provided us with a
starting point to understand basic magazine construction knowledge and realise
the crucial need for research and planning when creating a magazine for your
desired target audience. I used Microsoft Publisher to construct my preliminary
task and based the main theme of the school newspaper around the 2012 leaving
prom. This would appeal to a wide audience as it is one of the biggest social
events of the year for many schools.
Research: Annotation of Existing Texts
FRONT COVER ANALYSIS
These two magazines are aimed at completely opposing audiences. 'The Wire' is aimed at a very niche audience who enjoy professional and serious writing and reviews on music and appreciate the time and effort that is put into the making of the magazine. In complete contrast, 'The Source' is aimed at people who aspire to be like the person on the front cover with the money and the power. They enjoy music but look at music as another means of finding their identity in a mass of people that are doing the exact same thing, instead of having a passion for the music. This is why 'The Source' uses other ways to attract their audience such as high-profile rap artists and named designer brands, rather than getting down to the main back-bone of the music. 'The Wire' prides itself on its professional approach to music so feels it does not need high-profile celebrities to attract its audience because the content speaks for itself. Howver, the audience they are aiming to attract already feels that they do not follow mainstream pop culture so being able to break conventions is easier for them as their demographic like the idea of breaking conventions as it represents their attitude to breaking social conventions.
Although these two texts are very different, they do hav features which coincide as after all, they are still music magazines which are out to make a profit. The mastheads are both placed boldly at the top of the front cover to promote their brands identity at the forefront of it all. However, the image on 'The Wire' appears behind the masthead whereas the image on 'The Source' is placed infront of the masthead. This could be due to the fact that 'The Source' is a more established magazine so can afford to have part of its name hidden, whereas 'The Wire' is independently published and still hasnt found its feet amongst big named magazine titles so cannot afford for the image to cover the masthead as it needs to promote itself to the fullest. This shows the confidence of a magazine such as 'The Source' in comparison to independently published works.
The way in which each magazine promotes their inside articles is also very opposing. 'The source' advertise one main article in the banner running along the top of the page. This is a feature that does not appear on 'The Wire' as they promote the articles by using the name of the artist/band on the front cover as they know their audience take their music very seriously and are prompted to read the magazine if they see the name of an artist which they like. Additionally, these people are more open to new music so if they see the name of an artist they have never seen before they would probably be more intrigued to read more about them than a mainstream demographic who would be put off at the prospect of new and individual music. Hence why 'The Source' are using a high-profile rapper on their front cover who has been in the industry for a long time to create a sense of familiarity for the reader.
CONTENTS PAGE ANALYSIS
These two contents pages have taken two very different approaches to creating their contents pages. This is due to the fact that they have two different audiences and they need to create the correct mode of address for their audience to get as much attention as possible.
Vibe's contents page is quite sparse and challenges a lot of common conventions of contents pages. The main idea of a contents page is to create an easy way of navigating through the magazine but many magazines use this opportunity to promote as much as possible as people usually pick up the magazine in the shop and look at two things; the front cover and the contents page. This is why Vibe has challenged conventions on their contents page by making it very clean and crisp. They have used the page predominantly for professional fashion photographs which, although not music, fits into the theme of their magazine. They have anchored these images but not with descriptions, only designers names. This is an effective way of making people pay attention to the pictures to become intrigued and then move on to read more in the magazine.
'Q's way of creating their contents page was to pack as much information into it as possible to give the idea that there was a lot of content within the magazine. This even goes to the extent of including a short article on the contents page as if to give the impression that there wasnt enough room in the magazine because there was so much content. The pictures they used are anchored by the page number of the relative article which forces the reader to view the article if they are interested by the picture and this is an effective way to get the reader to move on through the rest of the magazine.
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD ANALYSIS
You can immediately see that the demographic for both of these sopreads is completely different. 'Q' are creating a more professional and classic style, aimed at an older demographic. We can tell this as firstly they have no title or sub-title, which gives us no focus or indication as to what the article is about. This can only be known through reading the lengthy copy which would immediately deter a younger teenage audience that the NME are trying to aim their magazine at. The NME have created spread that appeals to the crude and humorous nature of teenagers and uses innuendos and colloquial language to address their audience. The article is also much shorter than that in 'Q' magazine which is trying to approach a more intellectual demographic through their clean and classic look, compared to the cluttered spread in NME.
Both spreads are dominated by the image and this is a common convention of most double page spreads. However, NME has also included other smaller images which give the reader yet another line of focus. Whereas 'Q' have placed all their attention on the singular image of Lady Gaga. They are confident enough that the image is striking enough to not need suplementary images and as it is both in line with the male gaze and is in greyscale, this portrays a sexy but sophisticated mode of address for the audience.
The fact that Gaga is portrayed as a sex symbol here and the boys within NME are not is linked back to the male gaze theory. If the men were doing Gagas pose they would be degraded. Gaga, even though presented in a subordinate fashion, holds the attention and power in this shot. Therefore, women aspire to be like her and creates a successful double page spread. The boys in NME however are represented as care-free and therefore respected and looked up to by teenage boys. This reinforces dominant hegemonic values in our society.
These two magazines are aimed at completely opposing audiences. 'The Wire' is aimed at a very niche audience who enjoy professional and serious writing and reviews on music and appreciate the time and effort that is put into the making of the magazine. In complete contrast, 'The Source' is aimed at people who aspire to be like the person on the front cover with the money and the power. They enjoy music but look at music as another means of finding their identity in a mass of people that are doing the exact same thing, instead of having a passion for the music. This is why 'The Source' uses other ways to attract their audience such as high-profile rap artists and named designer brands, rather than getting down to the main back-bone of the music. 'The Wire' prides itself on its professional approach to music so feels it does not need high-profile celebrities to attract its audience because the content speaks for itself. Howver, the audience they are aiming to attract already feels that they do not follow mainstream pop culture so being able to break conventions is easier for them as their demographic like the idea of breaking conventions as it represents their attitude to breaking social conventions.
Although these two texts are very different, they do hav features which coincide as after all, they are still music magazines which are out to make a profit. The mastheads are both placed boldly at the top of the front cover to promote their brands identity at the forefront of it all. However, the image on 'The Wire' appears behind the masthead whereas the image on 'The Source' is placed infront of the masthead. This could be due to the fact that 'The Source' is a more established magazine so can afford to have part of its name hidden, whereas 'The Wire' is independently published and still hasnt found its feet amongst big named magazine titles so cannot afford for the image to cover the masthead as it needs to promote itself to the fullest. This shows the confidence of a magazine such as 'The Source' in comparison to independently published works.
The way in which each magazine promotes their inside articles is also very opposing. 'The source' advertise one main article in the banner running along the top of the page. This is a feature that does not appear on 'The Wire' as they promote the articles by using the name of the artist/band on the front cover as they know their audience take their music very seriously and are prompted to read the magazine if they see the name of an artist which they like. Additionally, these people are more open to new music so if they see the name of an artist they have never seen before they would probably be more intrigued to read more about them than a mainstream demographic who would be put off at the prospect of new and individual music. Hence why 'The Source' are using a high-profile rapper on their front cover who has been in the industry for a long time to create a sense of familiarity for the reader.
CONTENTS PAGE ANALYSIS
These two contents pages have taken two very different approaches to creating their contents pages. This is due to the fact that they have two different audiences and they need to create the correct mode of address for their audience to get as much attention as possible.
Vibe's contents page is quite sparse and challenges a lot of common conventions of contents pages. The main idea of a contents page is to create an easy way of navigating through the magazine but many magazines use this opportunity to promote as much as possible as people usually pick up the magazine in the shop and look at two things; the front cover and the contents page. This is why Vibe has challenged conventions on their contents page by making it very clean and crisp. They have used the page predominantly for professional fashion photographs which, although not music, fits into the theme of their magazine. They have anchored these images but not with descriptions, only designers names. This is an effective way of making people pay attention to the pictures to become intrigued and then move on to read more in the magazine.
'Q's way of creating their contents page was to pack as much information into it as possible to give the idea that there was a lot of content within the magazine. This even goes to the extent of including a short article on the contents page as if to give the impression that there wasnt enough room in the magazine because there was so much content. The pictures they used are anchored by the page number of the relative article which forces the reader to view the article if they are interested by the picture and this is an effective way to get the reader to move on through the rest of the magazine.
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD ANALYSIS
You can immediately see that the demographic for both of these sopreads is completely different. 'Q' are creating a more professional and classic style, aimed at an older demographic. We can tell this as firstly they have no title or sub-title, which gives us no focus or indication as to what the article is about. This can only be known through reading the lengthy copy which would immediately deter a younger teenage audience that the NME are trying to aim their magazine at. The NME have created spread that appeals to the crude and humorous nature of teenagers and uses innuendos and colloquial language to address their audience. The article is also much shorter than that in 'Q' magazine which is trying to approach a more intellectual demographic through their clean and classic look, compared to the cluttered spread in NME.
Both spreads are dominated by the image and this is a common convention of most double page spreads. However, NME has also included other smaller images which give the reader yet another line of focus. Whereas 'Q' have placed all their attention on the singular image of Lady Gaga. They are confident enough that the image is striking enough to not need suplementary images and as it is both in line with the male gaze and is in greyscale, this portrays a sexy but sophisticated mode of address for the audience.
The fact that Gaga is portrayed as a sex symbol here and the boys within NME are not is linked back to the male gaze theory. If the men were doing Gagas pose they would be degraded. Gaga, even though presented in a subordinate fashion, holds the attention and power in this shot. Therefore, women aspire to be like her and creates a successful double page spread. The boys in NME however are represented as care-free and therefore respected and looked up to by teenage boys. This reinforces dominant hegemonic values in our society.
Research: Quantitative data
After analysing existing texts and seeing how magazines code their conventions to suit their demographic, I had to get an idea of the target audience i was going to cater my magazine to. I did this by creating a questionaire on QuestionPro which gave me good results on who my demographic were and what they wanted from my magazine.
Planning: Rough Design of Pages
Now I have a good knowledge of basic codes and conventions through researching and analysing existing texts and getting a good idea of my demographic through my questionnaire, I can now create rough designs of my magazine. This will be a basic outline of what I want my magazine to look like, however through the construction process I know some elements of this rough design will be adapted.
Planning: Templates
After completing the roughly drawn templates on paper, I attempted to improve and develop the designs I made by creating them again on Publisher more professionally. I will then show them to a selection of people that fit my demographic and gain qualitative data on what my demographic want.
FRONT PAGE TEMPLATES.
When I came to making these computer templates I was still unsure which colour scheme I wanted to use toattract my audience sufficiently. I liked the idea of a coral/salmon pink colour as it is still feminine but not a bubble gum/popping pink which would deter my demographic as they see themselves as slightly alternative and this pink would not represent my audience. I also liked the idea of other pastel colours such as light blue and light green which give a cool and calming look to my magazine in contrast with the harsh black. However, I was unsure whether these would be too bland for my cover. This led me to make an electric violet colour themed cover just to give an alternative option to the paler colours, just incase I found my audience to like this striking colour instead.
CONTENTS PAGE TEMPLATES.
I have not yet established which colour theme I will choose but I will know that once I have carried out my questionnaire with my demographic. Once this is decided, I will apply the appropriate colour to these templates. For the contents page, I was unsure which layout would be best so I have made a variety of designs. Some include editors letters and some do not so I will get an idea of which is best to choose once I have carried out my research on my demographic.
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD TEMPLATES.
I then created templates for my double page spread, still not knowing which colour scheme to take so I designed them in a variety of colours. Again, I do not know which layout would be best for my double page spread so I made a variety of these too. I like the idea of a close up, striking image which can be seen in two of these templates but I also wanted to give my demographic the choice of a conventional style doube page spread, just incase I was surprised by the results.(The headshots in one of these templates would all be different, not the same like the silhouette in the template.)
FRONT PAGE TEMPLATES.
When I came to making these computer templates I was still unsure which colour scheme I wanted to use toattract my audience sufficiently. I liked the idea of a coral/salmon pink colour as it is still feminine but not a bubble gum/popping pink which would deter my demographic as they see themselves as slightly alternative and this pink would not represent my audience. I also liked the idea of other pastel colours such as light blue and light green which give a cool and calming look to my magazine in contrast with the harsh black. However, I was unsure whether these would be too bland for my cover. This led me to make an electric violet colour themed cover just to give an alternative option to the paler colours, just incase I found my audience to like this striking colour instead.
CONTENTS PAGE TEMPLATES.
I have not yet established which colour theme I will choose but I will know that once I have carried out my questionnaire with my demographic. Once this is decided, I will apply the appropriate colour to these templates. For the contents page, I was unsure which layout would be best so I have made a variety of designs. Some include editors letters and some do not so I will get an idea of which is best to choose once I have carried out my research on my demographic.
I then created templates for my double page spread, still not knowing which colour scheme to take so I designed them in a variety of colours. Again, I do not know which layout would be best for my double page spread so I made a variety of these too. I like the idea of a close up, striking image which can be seen in two of these templates but I also wanted to give my demographic the choice of a conventional style doube page spread, just incase I was surprised by the results.(The headshots in one of these templates would all be different, not the same like the silhouette in the template.)
Contact Sheets
FRONT COVER PICTURES
The reason i chose this picture was because it had the best lighting and represented my model as sexy through the pose she used. She is also making eye contact with the reader, compared to the sunglasses one which is very impersonal. It also cuts my model off at the correct point and saved me doing this in the editing process. 
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD PICTURES
The reason I chose this picture was because the pose my model did was quite striking and this is where I initially thought of the idea to let my picture cover both pages, even behind the text, as if she was taking over the new music scene. Additionally, there was a lot i could do with this image in terms of photo editing and I felt it would tie my page together well.
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