Looking At Other Magazines

Magazines exist to make money, and that is the main objective. To make a magazine that will succeed that objective I must look at magazines that already succeed in this very area by being a big magazine that makes money in order to see what makes them popular. In other words, I need to learn what conventions and technical/creative skills and media language to use on my own products...

Cover Common Convention Analysis

This is Zippo a Japanese magazine that is both a fashion magazine and a music magazine.
the main colour scheme is red, pink, yellow and black however the majority of the black is on the model and in smaller text. this pallet in most circumstances may be a bit too bright and would look unusual in most english newsagents, however in japan this is the norm. This is due to Cultural differences and in there konbini (コンビニ) there is a huge verity of magazines and the front cover is even more important and needs to be as bright and visible as possible to be seen over all competition to be picked up by its demographic.
This pallet is very feminine due to its yellows and reds and as a result it is very safe to say this magazine is aimed at the female demographic as it is a feminine colour and used as a common conversion when appealing to females. If I were to change this I would make the colour scheme more centred around the pink rather than the red and yellow. I feel this would make the cover stick out more.
When magazines are being displayed in most konbini in japan  it isn't the left third that is on display but the top fifth or so. this is why at the top is one of the biggest stories about one of the biggest bands from South Korea Big Band. they also have the mast head this makes sure there already existing readers know where the magazine is as well as building a brand for those who don't buy the magazine all ready.
The mast head suggests it is aimed at a younger audience firstly because it has a Katakana version in the very top left for anyone unable to read the English but not only this but it is in an almost lace font in  that is is patterned and flowing. The man clue regarding the mast head is the name of the magazine is very feminine and cute as it is soft due to is lack of any harsh S, K or D sounds, and in japan this is important when it comes to advertising to a specific gender.
The main image is of a woman with black lace bunny ears on her head, this links in to the whole fashion magazine aspect of it. the way the model is with her hands over her ears and lips pouting is a take on Kawaii (かわいい) which in literal terms translates to cute but is different. kawaii is using childish mannerisms and using child like phrases and this is quite popular among teens from 15 to 18 across japan. the way she is acting is contrasted by the black ears as black isn't associated to kawaii and is almost the opposite. this shows it is aimed at teens. I feel that having black on this magazine against the yellow of the back ground and the red and pink of the foreground, it is effective because if something contrasts you are more likely to see it as a consumer of magazines.
the language used is a combination of kana and hiragana which is known even by children, Kanji which is a harder form of hiragana and is taught at high school age and finally some english which is a base lesson taught in lessons at schools across the country. The mash of english and kanji heavily suggests it is aimed at teen and up again reasserting it is aimed at teenagers.
The fonts used are varied but the mains two fonts are quite thick and flowing especially the main tex that is written in katakana which is predominantly very sharp and harsh but the font makes it a lot more flowing and this is designed to appeal to girls. This is done to appeal to there main audience and make there audience pick up the magazine.




This is an older Japanese Rock Magazine. It is called 大人のロツクor to roughly translate is if alone the lines of Adults Rock or Rock of adults. This is typical of a Japanese magazine as they tend to have more simple names.
Straight away without have to look at the design you can see that this is aimed at an older generation of rockers. This is because it is called Adults rock, meaning it is rock for adults. However there are other ways it is obviouse that this is for an adult audience.
Firstly you can see that the colour scheme is black, white, brown/red and yellow. In Japan that shade of brown/red is a very traditional colour and is basically never used in something you want to aim at a younger generation, however yellow is is seen as more of youth colour so this cover does go against the Japanese media convention as far as I can see in my research.
One more way that you can see that it is aimed at an older generation is the language used. It uses a lot of Kanji a complex form of Japanese writing that you don't learn in school until you are older. while learning Japanese I read that "Most people don't learn all the Kanji they will see until they are much latter on in life." This shows clearly that it is aimed at an older and potently more educated audience.
Aslo one noticeable point is that even though ツク(Roku) is English it is still in Katakana and not been put in to Romaji. This has the connotation that it is aimed at an older generation as they have a much lower english literacy rate as modern Japanese schools teach english until they are about 18, compared to the old school teaching where not so much effort put on to people learning english.
The main image keeps to the colour scheme clearly. It is of two older musicians from the previous generation of rock. Another thing that shows it is for an older generation. The two singers have the connotation of the old style of musicians. The way they are posed is very reminiscent of the old rock.
Just like the other Magazine this one puts more effort on the top 1/3 as that is all that is visible in a lot of conbini. It has the vital info in the red and the magazines title on the top, as well as this you can see the artists faces in the top. one noticeable thing is that almost all the text is in the bottom half of the page.


This is the front cover for the rock/metal magazine Kerrang! It uses the colour scheme of red black and white. it very much connotes the rock genre and the rock culture. The colour red is long established with the rock genre. It is connected with blood, anger fire and war, these sort of things that this sub culture wishes to comet themselves to.
The language it uses lends itself to the audience that it wants to attract itself to. It uses and highlights phrases like "Dangerous" and "Very afraid". this sort of language lends itself to the Rock and Metal culture as well as to the youth culture.
The band on the front of the magazine are a metal band and the way they are positioned they are appealing to youth. They look dark and very rock in that they are only wearing black and wearing clothing that is stereotypical of people in rock.
Other images that are on the cover follow a smiler convention of wearing black clothing and having a pose associated with the rock culture.
The left third of the magazine is the part that is most likely to been seen on magazine racks and in this part they have put a few things: The first being the two most recognisable men in the band Rammstein who stand out as being the most "Unique" looking members and a fan would recognise them in a moment. This is also in the left and near the top right below the mast head, the audience is more likely to be drawn to this part of the magazine first after the mast head.
The second thing is the "Mega HIM Comp!" sign. this will draw people in as this is a clear dew to bring more people to buy the Magazine itself.
And the final thing that is clear dew to the magazine that is in this spot is on the bottom where it clearly says "Plus" this is a draw to get a casual viewer to read what is actually inside the magazine above what they have seen.

Content Page Common Convention Analysis


This is the contents page for the magazine kerrang! It's colour scheme is white, black, and yellow.  The colour yellow does not usually have connotations in rock in the west and is seen as a very happy colour however kerrang have built a brand from using this colour and as a result it has begun to have this connotation of rock music.
The main image is of a rock consort and of a man crowd surfing while singing in to a microphone. This plays up to the stereo type of youth as fun and as a result represents youth culture as well as just the culture of rock itself.
The text that is used is simple to read however not to the point of something that is aimed at a child or someone not educated. this suggests that this magazine is aiming itself to a more upperclass market and away from the lower working class and away from young children.
In the left hand side at the top you can see the pages from inside of the magazine. this is to show the reader what to expect inside the magazine. this is done more for the people who have not yet purchased the magazine as this page is almost as a second front page and needs toehold the attention of the reader fi they want to sell.

This contents is from a Japanese pop/rock magazine Junon.

Its primary colour scheme is pink, white, black and purple.  this is a very feminine colour and conveys heavily that it is aimed at a younger female audience. yellow and pink are very feminine. the bright colours contrast each other well as they don't appear to over power the other colours and actually compliment each-other, this has the effect of an easier to read page. this has the connotation that it is not aimed at an older audience and more for the -30 group.

The colours do however make the magazine seem quite chaotic as each line of text seems to have a different colour to the last. event though it is easy to read against the background you feel unsure on where your supposed to look.

The magazine has a plain white background which without would make the magazine look more chaotic but with is it makes it seem more like ordered chaos.

The font used is very bold and for a japanese font it is very curvy this reinforces the idea that it is aimed at a younger audience. the font is also very inconsistent as I can see at least 3 to 4 type faces just in this this adds to the previously stated chaos of the general magazine and at time makes it hard to read, for example they use more complex symbols but use a thick font with a small size, this is bad design.

The language used in this magazine is a mixture of informal and formal this is typical of magazines aimed towards teenagers as apposed to a magazine aimed at an older audience which would use very formal language, this means it a very safe assumption its aimed at a younger group of people.

another thing about the language is the way its written it uses a fair amount of common kanji and very little hiragana and katakana in comparison, this suggests overtly that it is aimed at the older spectrum of teens so probably 15 to 2, this is because a younger reader may find it hard to navigate the symbols and a magazine aimed at them would only use hiragana and katakana with very little use of any kanji.

The language also uses broken English also suggesting teens as in most schools in japan english is a core lesson and mostly compulsory, so younger Japanese people will be a lot more likely to know what it says compered to an older person who didn't have the same education.

all but one image is of one idol looking out at the reader, this is to show an almost closeness between reader and idol. this exploits the large celeb culture that is abundant around the world. this is used to sell more magazines this will be the first page they see after the main cover this page affirms there want for the magazines.

The images are there to promote the people being interviewed as this magazines USP is that it is mostly interviews with there idols, this also reasserts the fact that this is a magazine aimed at younger adults and older teens.

Double Page Spread Common Convention Analysis

This is an article that interviews the old school rock band "Metallica" one of the most influential bands in the circle of heavy rock and metal.
The first thing to point out is the fact that the article itself goes against the stereo type for a rock band. The typical view of a rock band is Sex, Drugs and rock and roll where as this article is all about the band as these older men who live like "Normal" people. they have children and most in relationships. This sort of magazine article would not appeal to a younger reader for a few reasons: Firstly the fact that it is about a band that is from a previous generation of rock (However many people who like heavy rock also have an appreciation for the "Classics"). Secondly because the article is about getting away from the vices that normally cover the pages of magazines aimed at a rebellious youth. the article is more about settling down a topic that is more or less unrelatable for younger people.
The colour scheme for this seems to be black, white, violet and a sort of pastel skin colour. The violet connotes relaxation because it is such a calm colour, it is clear that this was a choice for  this article because of it's calm nature. the skin colour is not just on the main image but also used in almost all the small images and even in the text to highlight it. This is also another calm and relaxed colour and is odd in a rock magazine as rock is plagued with make up such as rice powder to make the artists pail.
The language used in this magazine article is more elaborate than what you normally find in a rock magazine. This is a further piece of evidence that this is not aimed to a younger group of people and more at people who remembered this band and are older.
The main image is of the band without makeup. The pose that they are in is reminiscent of the old band when they were at their most popular. this is meant to herald back to the old days again appealing to the older generation of rockers.

 

This is double page spread from the magazine Q about the female musician lady gaga.
The colour scheme is black, white and red. This is evident in the fact that the main image is in back and white as is the text with a large red L in the background. On colour alone it is impossible to tell who the magazine is aimed at as red is a gender and race neutral colour.
The image of lady gaga is her being mostly nude and shows clearly the article is aimed at a more mature audience, however her breasts are clearly not the center of attention as they are behind chains, hands and half the page. this suggests it isn't designed for men and is more aimed to look more like an empowered woman and as a result aimed at the female audience.
the language used is more complex and uses longer words with more complicated grammar than one would expect from a magazine aimed at people with less of an education excluding both younger audiences and audiences of a lower social economic standing. this is because as a rule people who earn less had less education.
Another thing that adds to this idea is the artistic and high brow style of the article with the only colour being the large L in the back ground of the text this again links to the stereo type of  people of a low social economic status are less educated and would not get the artistic expression of the style. another aspect is actually just the colour of the L the colour red can connotate importance and regal as it is a colour associated with the British royal family and everything they do.
The language used is more complex when compared to most magazines and is clearly aimed at an older audience who would understand the language. you can tell this by its use of long words and more complicated sentence structure. when you look at magazines that are aimed at a lower age and social demographic you tend to see simple sentence structures and they tend to use less formal and simpler to understand words.
This magazines style of writing is contrasting to the style of kerrang as kerrang uses a more informal language this is because of the contrasting audiences they are trying to bring to there magazine.

My Target Audience and Representation

Target Audience

I need to find out who my target audience because as theorists agree, "Any media text is created for a particular audience" (Hall and Holmes 1998) who expect to be represented in certain ways through certain conventions. When working out who my target audience is there a variety of different factors about my audience demographic I will need to consider, such as:

• Class (and earnings)
• Age
• Gender
• Race (ethnicity)
• Sexuality
• Where they live
• Lifestyle/music tastes/fashion choices

My Audience Summary So Far...

Looking at these categories, my first thoughts concerning what my secondary research into existing products and my primary audience research will prove regarding who my audience are is as follows:

Age: the age for my audience is going to be 16+ because the market for a jrock magazine for children is virtually non existent because you develop a better understanding of the world and develop your individual tastes, 16 is roughly the age you develop your niche tastes.

Location and ethnicity: my main location for this magazine is The UK in the bigger cites as thats were i am likely to sell the magazine more there, and it will be aimed at english people but indirectly aimed at japanese tourists and students.

Gender: it will be aimed for both genders but steered more towards the male gender as it is rock and metal and that is more popular among males.

Class: the magazine will be aimed at all classes as it will be affordable in price.I decided this as there really isnt a correlation between you liking Jrock and what class you are.

Finally I decided to make my magazine targeted to a niech audience as there is very little in the way for 

I will also need to work out whether my magazine should target a niche or mass audience to get the most profit and highest circulation figures. 

What is the difference between niche and mass audiences? 

mass audience this is the large audience and covers popular music. a typical magazine that appeles to the mass audience is "Q" and "we ♥ music." Marxists would say people in this group are predominantly working class or lower middle class e.g. social grades E-C1. 

niche audience are generally linked with rock and indie, but it can be linked to any genre that is non mainstream, magazines such as "slayer" and "zippy" are aimed at a the niche market. usually they are seen as quite influential. Niche market magazines may have less readers, however, they can still be profitable if there is consumer demand for the product. 

My product will predominantly fit into the niche category because jrock is not yet fully mainstream. However, my long term business plan will be for my magazine to become mainstream as the genre becomes more and more popular as current trends suggest it will. 

When working out how to represent and attract my target audience it is important that I explore the possibility of using stereotypes because stereotypes are used frequently by the media to sell a product to a certain group by making them see the product will represent them. To learn more about stereotypes that might work with my brand image I am going to refer back to some of the representation theory I was taught for the TV Drama exam. 

Key representational theories that could be relevant to my media language and target audience on my music magazine products:

Class

One identifying feature is the money situation or class of my target audience. the NRS use a model called the social-ecanomic model. and the basis of it is money E.G. AB audiences are assumed to have more money and there for more influential than CDE audiences. It is important to think about what fashion and lifestyle my target audience will have because people from different classes dress in different ways and respond to different styles. To represent my target audience I will make sure my mise-en-scene costumes and make up represent my target audience by shopping for them in places my target would. 

Age

Magazine makers have to consider the age of the readership more the anything else as it is the age that determines the style of writing, colour pallet and even adverts in the magazine. There are many age related theories that will be relevant to my media language because as Osgerby said; “Representations of youth tell us little about the realities of life experiences by young people, yet are revealing about dominant social and political preoccupation…young people serve as a canvas on which debates about more general patterns of social change are elaborated,” (Osgerby, 1998). This tells us that a magazine aimed at youth cutely needs to be based on current trends as much as the reality of young people themselves. In other words, extreme stereotypes will be more appealing that representing the majority of youths who are normal, sensible and hard working because even these individuals want to think of themselves as part of a bigger political youth movement in terms of fashion and attitude even if they themselves are not proactive. There stereotypes best fitting for youth and jrock fans are the ones Hall, Hedbridge and Osgerby wrote about in 1904, 1998 and 1988 respectively. They all agree that young people are represented as trouble and respond to this stereotype but Osgerby and Hedbridge also say duel stereotyping can work, portraying youths as both, "Trouble and fun," as a mixed metaphor. I will research exiting magazines and my target audience further to find out what media language will carry these mixed metaphors my target audience will feel drawn to. 

Gender 

This is another very important area of who you market to especially in eastern cultures as the concept of unisex media is reserved for TV and movies rather than the gender stereo typed magazines. Even in  magazines pitched at women, women are represented as, "sexual objects," according to Mulvey (1975) because women consuming the magazines what to be desirable and identify with role models who disrupt Mulvey's idea of what a feminist should embrace. Males also like sexually objectified women on products because they find them and subsequently the product being sold appealing. However, it is worth also considering that women also have desires and can be attracted to a product is a male is sexualised/attractive. I might follow these ideas or I might disrupt them by using less attractive (by main stream standards) models to show my magazine and the genre are about music not the image but I will decide this later.  

Sexuality
jrock, like other niche markets like indie, is very inclusive and plays on blurred lines of sexuality through mise-en-scene. The stereotype that could link is Andy Medhurst because you could see image of, "Screaming Queens," made to look, "Awful because they are not like us" (the 'us' being conventionally straight people who differ from the bi/queer looking male music artists who wear make up etc). 

To look further into how these stereotypes can be used I am going to link the theories to some existing mainstream covers pitches at a target audience in a similar class and age bracket as my target audience. 

Representation

Youth representation is the first area to look at as my magazine is primarily for youth culture. Firstly you can look at S. halls ideas on youth representation and it can be shortened to three main points. “Youth must have excitement and if this is not at hand in the form of moral intellectual enthusiasms it is more prone to be sought in sex or drink”. This opinion is somewhat contrasting to what theorist osgerby who states “Teenagers are presented as a class in themselves” “whose vibrant, leisure-orientated lifestyle seems to offer a foretaste of the kind of prosperity that could be in everyone’s grasp”.

This cover is designed for youth culture as its main target audience. On the front cover it represents the youth by showing it as fun and the models as crazy but also something of the old school "bad boy" look about them because of the way they are dressed such as the lead man's hair or the man on the very right wearing nothing below his sleeveless workshirt, and the way that they are looking towards the camera with a defiant look on their faces. This corresponds to Dick Hebdige's statement of the duel stereo type  “youth as fun” and “youth as trouble maker.” The bright colours also reinforce the idea of youth as fun because they stand out and contrast against the dark colours that connote youth as trouble the stars are wearing. 

In regards to gender one of the dominant theories is that of Mulvey in that she states that women are seen only "As erotic objects of desire for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic objects of desire for the spectator within the auditorium.” This is something that is heavily quoted in regards to modern films and media as a whole. When you look at this cover of kerrang you can see that she is in a defiant pose and not trying to put on an attractive "model" face for the camera and on top of all this her breasts are clearly hidden and not visible to the reader. this contradicts her statement on how women are shown in the media in some respects through showing her more in a youth stereotype. However, you cannot argue that she is young and attractive and this supports Mulvey's theory in some ways. 

The next aspect I wish to look at is race. according to what Stuart Hall states there are three ways that people are seen in the media. The native, The entertainer and the Social issue. This is endemic of the way that we see people of this ethnicity. either as someone to entertain. a savage from a different place or as someone that is a large part of the social issue. Looking at the magazine Q one could argue that he is falling in to the category of the entertainer and therefor is to a small extent proving the theory of how they are represented seem more true. He is in a suit and seems to be laughing the way that the camera is angled suggests he has a higher social standing or is at least more important than the intended reader of the magazine. The laughter does hint he partly fits Hall's stereotype of the entertainer. 

Now I will move onto looking at sexuality and sexuality representation, this cover clearly links to Medhursts idea of; "Awful because they are not like us," because this close up of the Manson shows him wearing make-up and dressing in a way most straight males would not. This cover would therefore appeal to all sexualities because it gives straight males something to ridicule and gay/bi males something to relate to. 






Advertisers
Almost every magazine makes its money from advertising and only covers printing costs with the price of the magazine. So most magazines also want to appeal to advertisers as well as the readers, this means the advertisers themselves become a secondary audience.
The advertisements that appear in magazines are always dependant on the what the magazine for example in the rock magazine Kerrang it advertises the ALT clothes company Blue Banana because blue banana feel that Kerrangs readership are the sort of people that would actually buy there clothes and this is a key part of appealing to advertisers its appealing to the right advertisers who will also pay more and buy more space. My magazine would need advertising to gross a profit and if I was setting up as a company for real I would approach companies whose products match my target audience before hand with my business plan and advertising rates (like I did in my role of business manager for the College magazine) to get money from adverts in my first addition. 

Magazine Genre

There is a huge variety of music magazine genres and an even bigger variety music in general they have started to go in to decline because of peoples lack of money and the online twitter revaluation. here is a few of the genres of magazines I have seen on the shelves and on line to order.
Rock
  an almost completely organic music style as it only really uses live instruments or synth versions of organic instruments. it generally characterised by its use of heavy guitars, a constant bass line and a heavy but regular drum. it also normally has a singer or guitar as the lead.
in general the magazines of rock appeal to the angst filled teen or the rock loving adult. standard modern rock has a wide verity and actually vary from band to band and go from this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egG7fiE89IU
to this type of look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKk1u5RMTn4
so magazines like kerrang! have to cater to a wide variety of music lovers.
rock is seen as one of the genres of 'youth' culture music and actually when its represented on media i+t tends to stick to common conventions of youth representation.
J-Pop
standing for japanese pop it is happy sounding and almost exclusively uses major chords. the magazines normally are also happy and very colourful.
this is the typical jpop magazine. very colourful and typically japanese pop culture.
J-pop actually is just the term for Japanese Pop music that was first inspired by western music during the 50s and has developed to its own style of music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzC4hFK5P3g
J-Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujEHONbQMWs&feature=youtube_gdata_player
this is a typical japanese rock music an follows the conventions almost 50% rock and 50% jpop and this is an epic style of music. It is listened to by the Goth or Neon Emo croud and has a stigma in japan as being listened to by the "Wrong Crowd"
Rap
Its a spoken style of lyrics and is normally distinct with its heavy and rhythmics beat and "dirty" sound.listened to generaly by the underground people or by chavs is is close to pop as it is widely listened to by the general public. it is looked upon by many as the "Immoral and gangster" music so as a result it doesn't have much in the way of magazines that other mainstream genres have.

My Choice:
After looking at these different genres, I have chosen jrock as my genre as it is a style of music I have a huge interest in. Also I have a large knowledge of Japanese culture and as a result I can appeal to the niche market in the UK who are also (like me) interested in jrock. There is a place in the market for a magazine like this because it is a very popular genre for people my age (15-30 years) and there are not many magazines that represent this group who like this genre meaning I won't have to compete against mainstream conglomerate institution companies as none make a magazine like this.

Evaluation

Evaluation of the preliminary task

“Representations of youth tell us little about the realities of life experiences by young people” (Osgerby, 1998) I wanted to use this as a basis for my magazine so that I appeal to the real life teenager and not the one represented in the media. So this idea heavily influenced the making and the overall deign of my magazines cover and contents.

From my survey I found my main demographic are students 11-19 who don’t read or take much interest in their school magazine they are both male and female and interests are a wide spread and almost even variety.

The main thing is that most of them did not read there college magazine so I had to think about some reasons why and it is probably due to lack of interest and bad design. So I made my design both simple and eye-catching so that it becomes easier to read and makes the average student more likely to pick it up and look at the magazine.

The front cover went very well and is based on the magazine GO. I chose to model it on GO due to its elegance and simplicity. I put the biggest and more interesting to those who don’t read much in the sweet spot as it will immediately make them go and open the magazine. The spacing on the letters is not only consistent throughout the cover but also consistent in professional magazines.

The content page is has a similar feel to the front page and uses the same pallet of red white black and yellow. It has a fair amount less white than the front cover but it goes. It also follows the same conventions as the front page as it is simple and not at all difficult to read.

However the front cover could be improved by having a more average looking model and by having a more interesting story in the sweet spot. The contents page would look better with more photos and less se of the color yellow.

In the main task I will able the cover and content on a more music and mainstream magazine like kerrang, for example.

The contents page is trying to emulate the front cover n its style and basic set up however is was difficult to make them match in terms of style but I tried to match the font almost exactly and it uses the same pallet.
next time I will be more sure and definite on who my audience is.

Overall I have a fair amount of work that needs to be done so I can effectively create a magazine effectively and overall I will create a good cover but i have successfully represented youth accurately in my magazine.

My Contents

I used the same colour scheme as I did on the front cover to keep the look of the bodmin college brand, this helps build up the whole look of the magazine. every good magazine does this as other wise the magazine does not seem themed and disjointed.
the contents is simple and takes the same approach as the cover of less is more and you get a more clean and refreshing feel from the contents itself.
also keeping with the front the font, font spacing and masthead fonts are all the same again this is to create a brand for the magazine and to appeal to the school audience. another reason I did this was because if I just used different fonts the magazine would feel wrong and disjointed, in fact while I was making the contents the letter spacing was different from the front and it just looked odd and as a result I changed the spacing.
simplicity is the reason I only used two picture one that seems to be one with the background and another with this picture frame feel to it. it makes it easier on the readers eyes and also makes it simple for younger students to make out everything within moments.

The Cover

https://vimeo.com/65340286

Analysis Of Magazine Cover and Contents

the masthead is a stereo typical American high school font and very generic and in-fact this magazines mast head could be easily forgotten and looks like a lot of magazines before. it is red and contrasts to the green background making it pop out and be more visible.

the colour pallet is black red and blue and this even goes as far as the model who s Bering those colours these colour don't go well together and because of the green background the blue doesn't look like it belongs belongs there.

in the Centre of the magazine it the woman's breasts that appeals to the idea of the male gaze and as a result makes a mail reader more likely to pick it up.

there is no clear colour pallet for this but uses more oranges and reds, as a result of this mixed up colour scheme it is hard to concentrate on the magazine and because most of the colour are darker it doesn't stand out and makes it incredibly boring to look at.

the masthead is the Bodmin college logo with the word magazine in the corner. all of the mast head is in thin lettering that also blends in to the background and also caries on the idea of it not being at all eye-catching and or interesting.

there is no sub titles showing what is in the magazine and attempts to do it visually but is not doing it well because it is just a miss-mash of pictures and white outlines.

it is set out in a simple way where the left item is text the middle pictures going with the text and the right is a random picture. the colour pallet is simple as it is only black white and pink and as a result is easy to digest as a reader of the magazine even if the pictures are convoluted and put in a confusing manner.

the colour pallet is black, white and brown this is a dull scheme but done to an effect that allows it to look more stylish and fashionable. the overall layout is good and almost oversimple in its design but again making it look elegent and simple as is the overall tone of the contents page.

Audience Research

I created a survey to help me to create my front cover for my magazine. I did this because without it, it would be difficult to even attempt the create a universally liked magazine cover and contents page. the survey is located at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/75RNZRW

this proves my target audience is young and will have less of an attention span.

this shows that it is roughly 50/50 on gender and as a result must be a unisex magazine

10 out of 12 did not read their local magazine the main reason given is that it is either too wordy or too dull and as a result not something they what to read.

it is a mixed audience for college magazines so it needs to cover a wide verity of topics and genres.

the results of the survey have not thrown up many surprises ad the only thing i wouldn't of predicated it that so many people don't read there college magazines.

Preliminary Task

in order to hone my skills and to give me a rough idea on the process of making a magazine (as it is an alien concept to me) I had to complete the preliminary task. it will ensure i am able to get the best grade i can, in the main task of creating a music magazine.

Intro In To My AS Work

for my foundation portfolio i decided to do the magazine brief. i chose it because i prefer to work on my own and i have a huge interest in magazines; also i thought it would be good to hone my photoshop skills and make me more confident in my work. my other reason is because I have a passion for music and am myself in a band.
I also think doing this would be a great way to open my mind and knowledge of other more unfamiliar genre of music and how they create the image it creates.