Double Page Spread Construction

27/11/08 - Today I began by starting my article for my double page spread and I did this on Microsoft Word. I managed to include the title and sub-title for the page as well as two paragraphs of the actual article. I didn't finish this in the lesson but as I have a long weekend due to teacher training I will try and do some more then.

28/11/08 - I did not have a lesson today as it was teacher training.

1/12/08 - I continued with my double page spread article although I dind't get far I began to understand how I would need to right my article in order to make it conventional to a real magazine.

2/12/08 - Again I continued with my double page spread article. managed to get further which I was pleased with as at the beginning I struggled a bit with how to start off. The story will focus around Dee as this is the person on the cover of my contents page as this would help and amintain house style as well as making my magaine more conventional as more often than not the person that is on the cover of the magazine is who the main story is about.

I also included something that wasn't on the cover of my magazine which was that the artist may be releasing their own clothing line. I even included an example. I thought this would be a goo idea as although articles are about finding the person behind the cleberity it also shows that cleberities can do other things other than what the media reports they are doing i.e. mary-kate and ashley, started off as actresses and developed into their won clothing line which was where I got the idea from.

3/12/08 - Today I finished my double page spread by adding a little extra to the article and completing the Q&A questions for the star interview, tomorrow I will move on to organising the layout for my article as well as deciding on the images that will be included.

4/12/08 - Today I recieved the necessary feedback for my double page spread and was told that it would be a good idea to include a few more questions as well as a closing sentence to the article. I also looked back at my Magazine Pitch presentation, specifically at the layout design section, I decided to try the first layout to see what it looked like which was where one page contained one big image. On the opposite page was where all of the information was to be positioned, the article beginning and Q&A questions. I was unable to finish the article though and I will try and do this tomorrow. If i do finish it tomorrow then I will e-mail it to my teacher to look at over the weekend so she can give me any improvements I could do. These improvements will be made at soon as possible but if i don't finish the article tomorrow this will be done at the beginning of the week and e-mailed to my teacher for feedback as soon as it is completed.

8/12/08 - On Friday I did not manage to finish the article like I'd hoped to but I did this this morning and sent it for feedback before the lesson began, as this was the case I updated this blog for a bit during the lesson until my teacher managed to look at my draft and send me feedback so I had the chance to improve. These improvements were done during the lesson and in my free time. I also plan to finish these improvements in tomorrow's lesson.

One of the improvements suggested by my teacher was a large quotation to be positioned along the bottom of the image which I thought was an excellent idea.

9/12/08 - I continued with improved today. my teacher suggesting insetting the quotes into the sentence which, at first, i did not understand but it was explained I grasped the idea. As I did this to my magazine I believe it began to look more and more like a magazine. The quotes in the boxes were removed and I'm glad I did this as they weren't very conventional compared to the magazine now. The page numbers have been added but I was unable to make any further changes as the lesson ended before I could do aything further. I will continue this tomorrow.

10/12/08 - I managed to finish the improvements on my double page spread today and the final version I was extremely pleased with. The final vinal is the same as above although the writing may have slightly moved as the changes I made today were very minor and hardly noticeable.

Once all of the changes had been made and it was the best I think I could produce I e-mailed this version to my teacher clearly stating that it was my final version.

Contents Construction

13/11/08 - Today was the beginning of my contents page. From my draft designs I had decided to go for the design with the 'contents' title going verticle down the left hand side of the page.

I began by colouring the background and adding the title as it was the only thing that i knew would be included as no matter which position it is placed in the page will still contain the title 'Contents' therefore it made sense to me that it was the first thing i added, I also made the background the same colour as the title page which I consider using on all of the pages. I then reopened by finished cover and looked at the coverlines I had used and as there were only three off them instead of more as there were on my cover draft I decided to include them all.

The next thing I did to my magazine cover was to include the three coverlines but as the article was only to be a two page spread I needed it to look more conventional therefore I decided to create more stories that people my age, teenagers, would want to see included in a music magazine. I came up with a few good ideas and included them, I just managed to include the coverlines before the lesson ended.

14/11/08 - Today i began by adding an image of myself as in various magazines i had realised that sometimes the editors include a message from themselves to the read which is something i had decided to do. However, with the coverlines down the page and the title down the left hand side this left very little room for me to write.

As this was the case i began to wonder what i could change to give me more room, i decided to move the title to the top of the page, i also changed the font from Bernard MT Condensed to Comic Sans MS, this way i could use the left-hand-side for me to write down. I made sure the title was to the the right at the top of the page and used the space to the left to put my image. Around the image I added a pink lined box so that the image wasn't simply floating in midair as i knew this wasn't allowed. I also moved the coverlines along slightly so I would have enough room. Unfortunately I didn't get the writing done today as the lesson ended before I could.

17/11/08 - I didn't have a lesson today as I was part of an entreperneur task that was going on.

18/11/08 - I began by finishing the writing I started on the friday as missing a lesson meant i was further behind, afterwards I noticed a few things wrong with the changes i had made. The title of the page seemed a little dull so i decided it would be a good idea to surround it with a coloured box and used a fushia colour to do just that which made it stand out much more. I also added underneath, in the same colour, 'January 2009, issue 1/Volume 1' which is what magazines have on them so customers know the dates of certain issues.

I thought the idea I had about adding writing for the readers would be a good idea but once it was done it began to look different. It took me a while to figure it out but I began to understand, it was because of the coverlines as on magazines each coverline usually has a small sentence underneath giving an overview of the story which was something that I hadn't done and, in my opinion, it began to make the page look a bit cramped.

I therefore removed the image of myself and the writing and inserted a picture of 'Dee' the star that was the focus of my magazine, I placed this image in the bottom left corner and placed the coverlines around it. With the writing underneath each one took up more room meaning that i didn't have as much writing as I thought I'd have which reduced the cramped look even more.

19/11/08 - Today I adjusted a few parts of it and finished the coverline changes on the contents page. I didn't have much to do this lesson and as this was the case I merely added and removed different aspects of the page until I thought it was the way it should be. I haven't e-mailed it to my teacher yet as I have another lesson tomorrow and I am waiting incase i come across any further adjustments that need to be made.

20/11/08 - Today i spent the lesson continuing to update this blog and finishing the adjustments to my contents page draft before e-mailing it to my teacher. This is the final lesson of the week and I am gald I managed to finish my contents page and e-mail it to my teacher before th end of the day as if I hadn't then i would have to wait until next week as I don't have macromedia fireworks at home.

24/11/08 - yesterday I emailed my final draft version of my contents page and recieved feedback this morning. I spent today doing these improvements. I recieved a grade C- for my draft but I hope to boost this up to a grade B. It had been noticed that the font for the title on my contents page and title page were not the same therefore this was on something that needed to change as I needed to maintain the magazines 'house style'.

Secondly I was told that the Comic Sans font I had used for the writing on the contents page made the magazine appear to be aimed at a very young audience therefore I changed this and used the same font I had used for the coverlines on the cover page which was Arial and was something I should have to to begin with as this would also maintain the magazines house style.

I was also told that the colour scheme should be kept the same in my magazine as on my cover page I had used green, blue, pink and purple whereas on my contents page I used orange, blue red, yellow and pink which meant I had added another colour but that i had also changed some of the colours. i was able to do this as it meant that the magazine house style had changed therefore I improved my contents page but somehow I forgot to change these colours and used the same ones in my 'final' copy.

After sending the 'final copy to my teacher via e-mail i asked if she could suggest any further improvements as I was still aiming towards my B target grade. She suggested that I change the background colour from blue to white, she thought that by doing this it would make my magazine more professional which was another comment on my feedback as it didn't 'have a professional feel' to it. I recieved that e-mail later tonight but was unable to do the improvements today.

25/11/08 - Today was the day I made the suggested improvements to my contents page and I believe it worked out. Instead of emailing it to my teacher again i asked if it looked better that way and she said it was a huge improvement which was good. Yesterday, although i emailed my teacher about my contents page feedback i also asked what my overall grade was for my front cover and recieved the reply which said a C, although I was partly pleased with this mark I wanted to achieve a B as i know this coursework is 50% of our AS mark. She also sent a cover example (left) with the email which gave me an idea of what I needed to do to improve my cover (right).

My teacher also said she could sit down with me and discuss what the best thing would be to improve it but I didn't do this, instead, today, during my free lesson I took the feedback I had been given for my contents page and applied it to my cover as the background was also blue and though tht by also colouring the background white it would look more conventional to a real magazine.

Today I also changed the colours of the writing on my contents and cover pages using the most popular colours chosen by my questionnaire resposndents which were, blue, green, pink, red and yellow. By doing this I had settled on a house style and made it consistant throughout my magazine so far.

My teacher also showed me the example magazine with duffy on the front, Spin (above left), and told me that it would be a good idea to make my coverlines different sizes and to use two different colours as, using the spin magazine as an example, it would make my magazine more conventional.

Final cover was completed on the 26/11/08

26/11/08 - Today I continued with the changes suggested on my contents page as I used an example focusing around oasis which gave me a good idea as to how to make my contents seem more like it came from a real magazine. I moved things round a bit and changed the number and location of the image on the page to make enough room for the information the way I had decided to position it.

Instead of having the page numbers and stories in one long list I used the example as an icon and positioned my stories a similar way, by splitting them intop differetn sections although instea dof having three I only had two, features and regulars in order to make the page my own and the layout different instead of copying it completely.

Today i also completed the final version of my cover using my free time to make the changes suggested to me in the lesson but I didn't managae to send copies of either of these to my teacher as time ran out but this will be done immediately tomorrow as in tomorrows lesson we are beginning to right our article and as this is the case I would rather have completed and sent of my cover and contents page so that I am able to focus on the task at hand.

27/11/08 - Today i sent my copies of my cover page and contents page to my teacher and will begin my douple page spread article. I will await any possible feedback from my teacher and if there is time make these improvements in order to get the best possible result I can get.

Front Cover Construction

03/11/08 - Today we began creating our front covers, at the beginning of the lesson we were given a list of 30 lessons we have from now until christmas, on specific dates we were told to right down notes, for example, on the 6th lesson we have to hand in a draft of our cover and hand in the final copy on lesson 8. However, I didn't start my magazine today as before the holidays Miss Furness was ill on the day I was supposed to be giving my presentation therefore I did mine today instead.


04/11/08 - Today I began my magazine, I began on microsoft publisher using a 'program' template in order to get the two single pages and the double page I needed for my magazine. The first thing I did was create the magazines background which, according to my questionnaire results, was to be green and blue. I used a shape drawer to draw a large square around the page and used the programs tools to fill it in with two colours in a fade effect. The colours came front the centre, they started in green and spread into blue around the edges. I then added on the magazines title which was to be 'Music Central' in the font Badoni MT Black using wordart on Microsoft Publisher.





05/11/08 - Today I decided that I wanted my magazine to have a logo so it was easy to differentiate it from others if, perhaps, some of its features were slightly similar. At first I chose a shape that I was going to surround the mian logo with and settled on a diamond, at first I settled on a musical note as the main shape as it is soemthing that is most commonly associated with music but once I had put it together it seemed to plain.
I then came across a guitar image with a bubble underneath it and fortunately it was in the same colours as my colour scheme, blue and green, so I decided to use this image as my logo although after a little though i decided not to go with the diamound shape surrounding it as it didn't go too well with it.

I also changed the background of my magazine today, I found that my current background didn't stand out as much as i wanted it to and therefore decided to change it. I thought back to when we created the school magazine and remebered the school's new logo which got me thinking. I eventually created a background for my magazine that was similar to the logo but with less colours, I kept the green and blue colour scheme but after looking back at my questionnaire results I noticed that pink and blue tied at four votes each , so I adjusted it slightly so that the background included three colours instead of just two.

Finally, today was bonfires night and every year me and my family go around to either my step-dads sisters or my grandas and set off fireworks, this year we went to my grandas and it was there that I managed to take the pictures I needed for my magazine (these images can be seen on 'The Photos' page).

06/11/08 - I changed the font of my magazines title today as found that the font caused the letters to be very close together and made it harder to read, I changed it to 'Berlin Sans FB Demi'. I also added an image to the front cover, it is of my brother. Unfortunately the way the image was taken you were able to see the contents of his jacket pocket therefore I had to edit the image just above the waste in order to hide the contents and make the image as professional as possible. I added the artists name 'Chriz' to the size of the image, that too was in 'Berlin Sans FB Demi' font, I added this using wordart on microsoft publisher and the positioned it so that it was on a slant. Today was the day I also thought of the coverlines that were to go my magazine cover, I used the same font but didn't use wordart, I used the shape drawing tool on microsoft publisher instead and used them to write in, these boxes were coloured the three colours of my colour scheme, green, blue and pink and the writing was coloured white to make sure that they were still readible.

10/11/08 - Today I was told that I was unable to have an image where the body was floating in the middle of the cover which is what is happening in the image in the above magazine cover. As cutting this image any lower would mean showing the contents of the pocket I decided to change the picture and use one where it was possible to cut lower.

I was also told today that it would be better to do my magazine in macromedia fireworks instead of powerpoint to give it that sense of professionalism. I therefore began to move things onto fireworks and plan to finish this next lesson.

11/11/08 - Today is the deadline for our cover draft, I was still adding things onto fireworks and once I finished this I had to e-mail my teacher my magazine cover so she can review it and give us feedback and improvements to be made the following lesson.
When adding things the layout slightly changed from what it looks like above as the image was moved from the middle to the far right and the boxes surrounding the coverlines were taken away. The title and logo were also moved slightly as instead of being spread along the top the title was moved to the the left hand side with the words beneath each other and the logo went in the small gap to the right of 'Music' and was minimised slightly in order for it to fit. I also changed the position of the artists name 'Chriz' as instead of being diagonal next the image the letters were positioned below each other and the whole name was moved so that it was reading from top to bottom over the top of the image but I made sure that doing this didn't constrict the view of the image.

During the day I recieved feedback on my magazine front cover and was told that a variety of things on it don't work and were given suggestions in order to fix it. However, instead of making these slight improvements I understood myself that nothing about the cover seemed conventional with a true magazine which is why I decided to create a whole new cover conventional to its requirements. I replaced the picture with a picture of a friend as well as changing the background and removing the logo. After completing it I then e-mailed my final, improved, cover to my teacher.

12/11/08 - Today I was off school ill so i was unable to do any further work today.

Magazine Presentation

This was the part of the project that i didn't enjoy. I don't like standing up in front of people but I was glad that my teacher had split the class up into smaller groups.

For the presentation each person put together a powerpoint presentation with all of their thoughts an ideas somewhere in it.

In my presentation I included the magazines name, genre and why i chose that genre, the target audience, magazine layout ideas and finally i mentioned my questionnaire results and how i may change things if I were to do this project again from the beginning.

The presentation began with the front cover (top right) consisting of the title of my magazine and who it was created by, I also included a few images as you can see in order to make the title page appealing which is something that needs to be done for the final product.

The second page was about the magazines genre and again I included a few images on this slide to make it more appealing as if the slide was only filled with writing then the audience wouldn't be interested and are more likely to ignore what your saying therefore it is always important to capture your audiences attention right at the beginning before going any further which is what the images and colourful backgrounds are there to do.

The layout section of my presentation (below) carries on like this up until the magazines layout designs are introduced (follow the link 'planning' and these designs will be shown there). It then goes onto the questionnaire results and how the audiences opinion takes presidence over my own as I am going to use all of the feedback they give me in my magazine.

Music Central is the title of my magazine and is one of the things chosen for me by my target audience showing that market research does in fact help you make decisions as well as helping you create something that the audience are going to be interested in.

The results included in my questionnaire show that 12 females and 8 males responded to my questionnaire which could mean that my results are slightly bias in a females perspective as more females answered the questionnaires than males. If this was to be done again I would ensure that the same number of both genders answered my questionnaires in order to get a set of results that is equal on both sides.

The same problem occured with the age groups as 7 respondents were 21+, 6 were 15-17, 4 were under 12, 2 were 18-20 and 1 was12-14 meaning that, again, my results could be bias and in favour of the 21+ year olds.

I believe that the results are this way as I didn't create my questionnaires straight away which limited the amount of time I had to get them filled out. Perhaps the results came out this way because I was hurrying in order to get each of them filled in and didn't watch the number of each male and female as closely as I should.

If I were to this again I would create the questionnaires first and get tje filled out before we finished researching exisiting texts as doing it this way would have meant that I had all of the results I needed and could begin to create my magazine straight away without any problems.

Planning

Drafts

After researching existing music magazines it was time to begin planning my own magazine. I began by making very brief drafts of my cover, contents page and double page spread. All these drafts tell me is where I plan to put everything such as the title, coverlines and images. It gives me as well as you the chance to see my designs before the final version.

For my magazine cover I have decided to go with design two as from the design to your right hand side you can see that the bands/singers name has been included which is something that may attract more people's attention than just an image. It also allows more room for the coverlines meaning that the magazines contents will be easily noticed.

My contents page is also going to follow design number two as the title for this page is running down the side of the page instead of across the top which is something automatically thought of when using the word 'title'. Including this in my magazine will strengthen its unique entity even more and the more unique my magazine is the more I think it is likely to be purchased. I also chose this deisgn as it left plenty of room for me to include at least one image.

Design one for my double page spread isn't the strongest one as I am unsure about devoting a whole page to an image as it means there will be less room to put information and quotes which are whats included in a music magazine. As you can see from this design the left page also includes an image which to me is too many images and would decrease the amount of space for facts even further.


This design is the one I am going to use for my double page spread as althought it includes two medium sized images it also allows plenty of room for all of the neccessary pieces of information and quotes meaning that there will be an equal balance of each. Another reason I have chosen this design is that everything is spaced out meaning that when the reader opens the magazine to read it it won't look as though too much as been squeezed onto one page.

Genre

I have decided to focus my magazine around the genre of Rock and R&B. I deciced on this genre as I am personlly interested in this genre of music and thought that I would enjoy creating something that appeals to my own tastes as well as my target audiences. I also chose this genre as they were the two most popular types of music on my questionnaire.

Content

The ideas I have had for the content of my magazine is that the singer/band it is focused on is either going on a new tour or giving up their career to be with their family. I chose these stories as they are realistic and can therefore happen in realife showing that the magazine is all about finding the truth behind the celebrity.

Some celebrities also, somehow, managed to hide their personal lives from the camera therefore another story idea could be that the artist has done just this but everything has came out and they are being constantly bombarded by paparzzi.

I have also decided to start the double page spread off as an article and then develop it into a Q&A session with the artist.

The Photos

In order to make my magazine the best it could be I took a variety of photos in order to keep my options open and allow me to chose the images that would suit the pages layout more than others. All of the images I took for this purpose are below.

The Photo Shoot

Images are one of the main things that draw a person towards a magazine, images and the cover lines as someone is much more likely to buy a magazine if the images and the stories within the magazine appeal to their tastes and interests about a specific artist. In order to make my magazine appeal to my target audience I had to use my own initiative and gather images of the artist that was going to be mentioned in my magazine.

My brother has been playing the guitar for some time now and plays different types of music so as soon as I found out our task was to create a music magazine I immediately thought of my brother as the image to go on the cover. He also has a son that is going on two years old so it was then that I also thought of one of my cover lines, "will son follow in father's firststeps." I thought that this would interest my target audience as whenever a celebrity becomes a parents it is big news.

Before I could put the images i had to take them so when me and my family were together I asked my brother if he would mind being the focus of my magazine and it was then that I managed to take the necessary photos.

To begin with this wasn't the image I was going to use for my magazine cover (left) i was going to use the image below where his arms were crossed as some of the images I have come across when researching existing magazines were images like this (below right).

When it came to putting the image onto the cover however I realised that in the image (right) you could see something in the jacket pocket and I couldn't cut it out as if the image was like this it would look like the body was floating in the air and you weren't able to do this. This problem is shown below.

The black arrow in this image shows where the image has been edited also showing that the image does seem to be floating. As this was the case I had to come up with an alternative so this wouldn't happen so I started looking through all of the photos I had taken in order to find an image where this problem could be rectified and that is where I came across the image where his hands are in his pockets (above left). Even after editing it allowed most of the body to be included therefore I was able to use this image and make the front cover look like a front cover.

Although the problems with the images had been resolved I began to think that the cover of this magazine didn't look like one. When researching existing magzines i came across numerous different ones some of which surrounded the genre my magazine was going to be about but as I thought and looked back none of the magazine covers I had seen had a cover like this but I understood that doing a magazine cover like this, the way i wanted it would make it unique. Therefore I decided to keep my cover the way it was and see how things went and if the cover became a further problem then i would fix it when it happened.

Follow this page to 'The Photos' as this is the page containing all of the images I may have used in my magazine.

Creating a Logo

Many things nowadays have a logo that differentiates them from other businesses or products, it is something that makes them unique and this is something I wanted to do for my music magazine. I wanted to make it one of a kind to give the reader a new experience when delving into the world of celebrities.

Step 1: Over my years as a student I have become familiar with all of the computer programmes we use regularly and notice that isn’t as easy to improve image in Microsoft word as it is in either Microsoft Publisher or PowerPoint therefore I decided to use Microsoft Publisher when putting my logo together using a second page on the same document when putting my logo together. The first thing I needed to decide on was what shape would go around my logo as a circle and square were common shapes and it took me a while to decide.

Step 2: I was unsure what the main feature of my logo would be. I had already decided on the surrounding image but I didn’t have any idea what I was going to include inside. I started to think that the whole of the magazine would be about music and what items were associated with it, it was then that I had the idea to have a music note as my logo.

To begin with I was pleased with this but as I did a little more research I began to think it was a little plain, instead I started to think of different instruments used in the genre of music I have chosen which is Rock and R&B and immediately thought of a guitar, as it is rock i thought an electric guitar would be more likely than an acoustic as it would emphasise the music and give the loud sounds associated with rock therefore I started looking for images and found the following.
I believe it was simply look that led me to this image as it is the same colours as the colour scheme chosen for my magazine.

Step 3: After settling on a centre image I began to wonder if the image needed a surrounding shape.




I thought that the style of the image looking unusual with the diamond around it and therefore decided not to use it and just use the image of the guitar.

This resulted in a front cover with a very noticeable and unique logo which is something I was aiming and for and something I have succeeded in getting.





Front Cover with Logo

Introduction to Music Central

The main task for this portion of the unit is to create a cover page, contents page and a double page spread of a music magazine, our magazine was allowed to feature any story as long as it was associated with the music industry.


Before we could even begin to draft it there were a number of things we had to do first. We had to do research on existing magazines and get feedback from our target audience about what they would like to be included in the magazine.


I acquired this feedback through questionnaires, the title, colour scheme and genre of my magazine were all chosen by my target audience which shows that market research does successfully help people to make decisions, other features within the magazine were also picked by the target audience and others I included myself.

I am really proud of my magazine and have enjoyed creating it, I hope you like it as much as I do.

Research

Before I began planning my magazine I had to research existing texts to give me an idea of what my magazine should look like. I had to do research for all of the pages I was going to create. For all of my research i made sure i was looking at things that were close to my genre which is R&B and Rock as these are the types of music I'm interested in so i thought that I would enjoy the project more if i were to do it on something that appeals to my own tastes, they were also the two most popular genres on my questionnaire which meant that I would have been doing this genre anyway.

I managed to find four front covers close to my genre which were of Chris Brown, The Jonas Brothers, R.Keely and Amy Winehouse out of them all I would have to say that Chris Brown is the artist closest to my genre as his music is mostly R&B whereas The Jonas Brothers have a slighty Pop sense to theirs.

The Jonas Brothers - Rock/Pop

The cover consists of an image of the Jonas Brothers, they are the newest band and its three members just happen to be brothers themselves (hence the band’s name), they have appealed to fans of all ages although in my opinion the age may be varied but the band would appeal to girls more than boys. There is one large image of the brothers and numerous smaller images which suggest that this magazine is all or mostly about this new band as if it were about any other topic then there would be images or cover lines giving this information.

The magazine is titled “people” which implies that this magazine is aimed at everyone contradicting what I said about the band appealing more to girls as a magazine for everyone is just as likely to be purchased by a male as a female.

This magazine cover is very colourful, it is all light blue with part of the band’s name, “Jonas”, covered in yellow, this colour could be trying to attract the females as yellow is a nice bright and girly colour, the fact that the second part of the name “Brothers” is in white suggests the magazine is trying to appeal to males as well as white is a nice neutral colour, the publisher would have done this to try and complement both genders and therefore open the magazine to everyone.

The font used on the cover of the magazine doesn’t have any unique qualities although the band’s name has been enlarged which would catch people’s attention easier than if the writing was smaller. I believe this was done so that the name stood out and therefore would be easily noticed by passers-by and retail customers as the enlarged name would immediately tell them the topic of the magazine which would help them decide whether they should or shouldn’t buy it.

The cover lines of this magazine reveal that the magazine is solely based on this band. It also tells us that this is a collector’s edition which would bring in vigorous collectors. However, the cover lines reveal little about the content of information as they only mention that the magazine consists of many images of the band, this suggests that this magazine may be aimed at females as they would be more likely to purchase the magazine for the images whereas boys don’t tend to do this. It also suggests that the magazine is aimed at younger fans as young girls are more likely to have posters and pictures on the walls of their rooms as when you get older the features of your room change with your maturity and personality.

From the image above it is slightly difficult to see the price although I believe it is in the top right hand corner but I can’t see it completely. The date and price of this magazine could determine when people buy it as if it comes out during the week then younger children won’t be able to purchase it until they get home from school and the price is always something that people are concerned with as if it were expensive then it may not sell as many copies as the publisher was hoping for.

Chris Brown - R&B

The image on this cover is of Chris Brown, the cover of this magazine will appeal more to teenage girls with regards to the image but the style of the magazine suggests that it is something that is perhaps intentionally aimed at boys. The image of this magazine would make it appeal to anyone who is a fan of Chris Brown as although it is only the image on the cover and many not necessarily contain anything to do with him it is always the image and the cover that first catches a person’s attention.

The magazine is called “Vibe” but it is half hidden by the image of Chris Brown which suggests that the publisher is trying to exploit the image more and that the image matters more than the title. This is partly true as a person won’t buy a magazine based solely on its name it is more likely the image or the cover lines which catches the buyer’s attention and persuades the purchase.

This magazine cover is rather dull when it comes to colour which makes me wonder why this was done as dull colour are eye-catching and don’t catch people’s attention easily. I believe that the cover is a dark colour as the image is brighter. Chris Brown is wearing a bright red t-shirt on the cover of this magazine and the darker background might have been done to try and make it stand out even more which could again suggest that the publisher is trying to exploit the image as the t-shirts colour would draw people’s attention to the image and who the image is of.

Similarly this magazine’s font isn’t unique either although the title is larger and in white making it stand out against the dark background. Also, a question, “is that Chris Brown?” is larger than any of the other cover lines which makes me wonder if Chris Brown has only been included on this cover as a means of selling it. Another reason could be that as Brown’s on the cover they have increased the size of the cover line to show that there is information on this artist in this magazine which could attract fans to buy it.

As said above the cover line containing information on Chris Brown is larger which I believe was only done because he was on the cover. There are numerous other cover lines on this magazine which instantly tells me that this magazine include articles and information on other artists which will help this magazine appeal to more people as it will attract not only Chris Brown fans but also fans of the artists the articles mention.

From the image I have managed to find that this magazine if from October 2008 which is exactly 1 year ago as it is now October 2008, the fact that this magazine is a year old suggests that the peak sale would have passed a while ago and, no doubt, the magazine will no longer be on the shelves. Magazines a funny items as they are normally only on sale for a week once they have been published as the next week a newer version comes out. In my opinion this will be because news is always changing and updating especially in the world of celebrities therefore publishers will want to keep feeding fans new information which will keep them hooked on the magazine making them buy each new edition.

R.Kelley - R&B

The cover contains a large image fo R Kelly on the cover of the magazine. In my opinion this magazine, from the cover, will appeal more to boys as the colours are duller and the image seems more serious which (for some reason) I have decided would appeal more to boys, perhaps teenagers.

From the coverlines I have noticed that most of the stories are focused around male artists which could again appeal the magazine more to boys but this could also be what appeals it to girls too as some male artists appeal to both genders and this could be the first thing that turns the target audience around.

The name of this magazine is 'Vibe' which is a powerful word as it is an instinct and many people rely heavily on their instincts to make decisions. The fact that the magazine is named this suggests that it is emphasising how important it is to do what you think is right as at the bottom of the page there is a coverline which reads "The genius king of R&B has yet to go to trial. Is he Inncoent? Guilty? or guilty of rich, black and famous" which suggests a crime of some sort whether as sarcasm or the truth isn't known until the magazine is opened, and as many crimes are committed by opportunity and not premeditated the presence of instincts and good or bad 'vibes' is what tells us when something is wrong.

The colour scheme for this magazine emphasises that the magazine is for both grils and boys and the grey background and red writing shows the boyish side of things and the yellow adss more colour to the magazine and, in my opinion, it is more likely that a girl will like the yellow and the boy would like the red and the grey. However, the fact the cover contains more grey and red suggests that the target audience for this magazine was initially boys.

Amy Winehoue - Rock/Pop

The cover of this magazine is different to the others above as it contains more of a neutral colour scheme. I believe this is because of the image of Amy Winehouse used on the cover as the music she does doesn't apply to one paticular gender it is mixed and can appeal to both.

From the image alone you can see that she has numerous tattoos visible on her arms and the way she is posing is partly intimidating as the tattoos could represent trouble or violence as, sterotypically, certain tattoos can show that someone has been in trouble or is dangerous therefore it could give someone the idea that the magazine contains stories on crime or victims of crime.

The colours used, red and blue, are rather neutral colours as both genders like these colours therefore the magazine could, potentially, appeal to both gendres which is something publishers aim for, they try to make their magazines appeal to as many people as possible in order to see as many copies as possible.

The barcode for this magazine is very small and hidden away in the bottom left hand corner. I believe this was done in order ot be able to include as much informationas possible on the cover to make it more visible and eye-catching as with the neutral colours it may not be noticed as easily. From the image above I am unable to dtermin the price of this magazine although there is some writing in the top right hand corner as well which is where the price may have been palced so the customer knows it instantly and therefore knows instantly if they will be able to purchase the magazine, it may also contain the issue and date which magazines do so customers know which version of the magazine they are thinking of purchasing, it also tells customers it an issue is a new one or older one.

Contents Pages

John Lennon - Classic Rock

Although the genre of John Lennon's music is 'classic' rock it was a contents page closetst to my genre I could find.

From my first glance I instantly say that this page is very dull and dark because of the chosen colour scheme. The black background is very dark and the wiritng has been colourd white in for the audience to be able to read it. To the right hand side of this page some images have been included, these images are in colour and some contain bright colours such as yellow which slightly balances the dark and light senses of this page.

In my opinion the image on this page have been added randomly and may not have any significant meaning to the acutal page as there is a picture of a bum which, in my opinion, holds no repsentation to the music industry.

A line has been drawn down the centre of the page, on the left there are the main stories within the magazine and to the right, next to the images are smaller stories. I believe this was done in order to separate the more important stories from the less important ones as not only have they been separated but the stories to the right have also had the size decreased emphasisng the fact that they aren't as important.

Also, on the left hand side of this line, the main 'catchy' stories are in larger writing and beneath each one is a smaller sized sentence summarising the stories contents. This is conventiaonl to a magazine as every amagzien I have seen had included a small summary beneath the stories title. I have done this in my magazine as I believe it would make my magazine more conventional to a real one.

Unknown

Unfortunately this contents page is from an unkown magazine which makes it slightly harder to say if it is suited to my genre as I don't know if the magazine it is from is suited to my genre. As this is the case I am going to make a judgement on what I can see instead of what magazine it came from.

This contents page is similar to the John Lennon one above through the dark colour scheme as both of these contents pages contain black backgrounds. Also, another similarity between these two pages are that both have white writing except this contents page also has writing in different colours. The story names and page numbers are in white but the stories are split into differetn sections such as jazz and classic which suggests that this page comes from a magazine which doesn't focus on one genre but has adapted itself to discuss many different genres. This, in a way, makes this magazine suited to my genre as it discusses a variety of them meaning it may also discuss R&B and Rock.

The sections the stories are split into have been given a coloured sub-heading doing this will allow the reader to knwo which stories focus around which music genre so they can easily find the genre they wish to read about.

Once thing I am determined to change on my contents page is the background colour as I want mine to be lighter so I plan to colour the background white, the opposite to the contents above as this was one of the suggestions made in some feedback I was given as I was told it would make the magazine more conventional to a real magazine.

Austin Independent - Approx Rock

This contents page is unusual as it has been created using a variety of colours not just sticking to certain ones.

The main image to this page is on the left hand side and is of guitars. The image seems to have been given a cioloured effect in order to make it stand out more which I believe it has done. The use of so many colours has made it eye-catching and easy to see.

The title of this page is 'contents' although the title of the magazine has also been included and is in larger, more visisble writing. The magazine's name is written in pink and on a black background it is the first thing you notice. Below this title is the image mentioned above. This fits in as I believe this image is the image used on the magazine's front cover or it is similar as the way the title has been positioned suggests that it wasn't made specifically for the contents page but already existed.

The actual information included on the contents page has been palced separately on the right hand side of the page, on this section of the page the background colour has changed and is now white which empahsises the fact that the information is completely separate to the image. The fact that this has been done makes me think that the publisher was trying to show that the information on this page does not relate to the image.

Also, alhough the image is small I believe that on the whte section of the contents page in the top left hand corner is an image of a face. This seems to have been changed slightly in colour context as the image seems almost green. My own opinion is that this image could be the magazine editer or publisher as some magazines include this in their magzazines along with a message to the audience which is something I tried to do but as you can see from the image below this did no seem to work and resulted in the removal of this section and a final contents page (right) which seemed to closer to a real magazine.

Drummer - Rock

This contents page is unique in it's own way. Unlike the page above there are four colours the magazine has used which suggests that this is the magazine's house style. These colours are red, white, black and grey.

The main image on this page has been kept smaller than in magazine's I have seen, this could be because beside the image is where the information has been positioned. Also there is more information placed at the bottom fo this page in a red box which is labelled regulars showng that these are the stories included in most issues whereas the information above is all about this week or months new and esclusive stories.

Although there is one medium sized image there are also two smaller images beneath it, next to the regulars information, in my opinion this is too music to hav on one page as everything seems too close together as if as much as possible has been squeezed onto one page. This feeling is also given at the top of the page as there are further images and i believe that a magazine can ruin its appeal if there is too much on one page as it can be overwhelming.

At the top of the page is the magazines title ' Drummer' and the medium image suits this as it is of a man on the drums showing that this image may be part of the house style as it is suited to the magazines title and genre which is rock. As there is a large image of a man on the drums there is also a smaller image of drums next to the title which again suggests that the image is related to the house style of the magazine.

In the top left hand corner of the page is another red box which contains the words '01/07 contents' which shows the reader that this is the contents page but also the date of which this issue of the magazine was issued. Many, if not most, magazines do this in order to alert the audience to the date of the magazine so that they know whether they are buying the latest version or older one, this date could potentially make or break a purchase as many people want the newer versions of items which is why the date is an important item.

Double Page Spread

Kaiser Chiefs

This double page spread is unique in it's own right as it is the first article I have seen that has positioned and image across the two pages and placed the article over the top. I have to admit that this idea has worked really well for this article, it may be because the band the article is focused on has five members which has allowed at least two members to be on each page which meant that the image did not look as though it had been squeezed into the space given.

The article is also a lot smaller than I would have thought double page spread articles to be. the way it is spread out seems this way but if you look at the writing and think if it had all been on one page it would have filled the page. I believe that it is the layout of the article that makes the amount of writing appear deceptive to the naked eye.

I have also noticed that the article only contains one large quotation which is on the right hand page and also a sub-heading on the left hand page which is also larger giving the reader and idea of what the article is about before they begin to read. The large quotation is a convention all magazines have in at least one story of the magazine and it gives the audience an idea of what the stories focus is like i.e. an insight into their personality.

As the image takes up two pages the name of the band has also been positioned across the two pages. I believe this was done in an attempt to make sure that all of the readers knew that all five people in the image were in fact part of the band as there are a larger number of people and as this is the case some of the members have had to walk behind the others which could suggest that they are a member of the public or random stranger and not part of the band but with this large and easily noticeable name, 'Kaiser Chiefs' across the middle of the image makes it just as easy to know who is a member of the band.

Guitar - Rock

When researchign eisintg texts I tried to find as many as possible that followed the specification i.e. a doubl epage spread and this one seemed to be right although it isn't about a specific artist it is about instruments which is still on the music side of things meaning that this double page spread still followed the criteria for the texts we had to research.

This double page spread is very simple, it has the title across the top, one large image and a box which may contain a larger quote on one side of the page. The only thing i can really say about this article is that it talks in depth as the story covers both sides of the page whereas my article only covered one side of A4 and a large image covered the other side.

it was the large image that told me immediately that this article was about music which is a good qulaity tot have in a story as it grabs your eye.

My impressions from this magazine article is that the magazine itself not just the article is very plain as if this wasn't the case th article woul match the actual magazine, this is called house style and can give someone an idea from the whole magazine from looking at one section of it.

Overall the details of this article are simple and in my opinion extremely boring as people want to read an article that is different and unique and from my first impressions of this article the magazine if very boring and anything but unique.

Questionnaires

I also had to use primary research in order to learn the kinds of things my target adience wanted included in the magazine as people are only going to read a magazine that appeals to their tastes. I acquired this information using questionnaires (example below, it is the questionnaire i used to calculate the results) and asking people from my target audience to fill in these questionnaires so that I can get their opinions. By doing these questionnaires it helped me select my magazines title, colour scheme and genre which are three of the main things to consider when creating something like a magazine as you have to make sure your design is going to appeal to the right target audience.

From the questionnaires I also found out whether i was doing my magazine would be about a band or a solo artist and I am personally glad that more of my respondents preferred solo artists as I already had an idea in mind of who I was going to put on the front cover. I also asked different people from different age categories so I can have a rough idea of the favourite music genres in each age group in order to try and make my magazine appeal to as many people as possible, although I am aiming my magazine paticularly at teenagers.