For my preliminary magazine, the Mise-ene-scene was basic and dysfunctional to any techniques used to attract a target audience. Following this, from looking at this magazine, their is no specific target audience, genre or motif for the magazine. The image used has been edited to a satisfactory standard but doesn't convey a stereotype or create any appeal for itself and it incompetent for the magazine. The technology used to edit the magazine together was minimal and was easily identified through the layout of my magazine. From feedback of other pupils in my college an example of some of the negatives that where brought back was that the fonts of my writing are very boring and dis-proportional. Also that there wasn’t enough information on the page for it to look attractive and worth-buying. Some of the feedback that i have got will lead me to creating a better magazine front cover and look at existing magazines of the genre i pick and look at the generic codes and conventions that they follow in order to achieve the same effects and appeal for my target audience.

My preliminary contents speaks for itself, not a lot of thought put into each aspects of the design. Following from what i knew, most magazines have their information on the left of the page mainly because its easier to read from left-to-right. The fonts used are basic and un-appealing to the target audience with not enough text to create the high info-count and implementing a sense of quality for the target audience’s money. With the layout, their is a lot of wasted space which if you look at a successful magazine, all the space is exploited to an intended level. Everything on a successful magazine is positioned with purpose and importance, which is not demonstrates on my preliminary work. When making my own magazine i will study the codes and conventions of layout and sizes in order to attain aesthetically professional magazine image.

I am designing an original magazine issue specifically aimed for a music genre magazine. During this I will produce a front cover of the magazine and one content page.

·Consumer audience

·Style

·Originality

·Representation and ideology for consumer audience

·Design specification/layout

·Font representation

·Colour scheme

·Useful content to suit consumer audience.

·Analysing existing magazine products that appeal to my consumer audience.

·Questionnaire and consumer audience feedback of the suitability of aspects of my magazine.

·Using Pre-lim work to transform my final piece into a better, professional looking.

·Research on how most magazines are layed-out.

·Research little aspects like font size, picture size and type of shot ECT.

With the collection of magazine front covers I have gathered, it has not only inspired me with some aspects with the layout design features, but also helped me to discover a niche market for my consumer audience that any magazine has based an idea around.

From the collection I have here, I have found that:

The main image fills the majority of the front cover space.

Most shots are within either medium or close-up shot.

All the stars are looking at the camera in a direct mode of address.

The majority work in a geometrical fashion, tending to work with straight lines and boxes.

They all work with around 3 fonts in the writing.

No correlation to the background being a solid colour or environment.

Magazine name all appear at the top of the magazine.

Plenty of sub-pictures demonstrated on the more popular magazines.

The representation of Q magazine has a vague and widespread target audience. From the aesthetic look and style of the magazine, it isn’t at all clear what stereotype, demographic, social class or age range. This is why Q is recognised as “The UK’s Biggest Music Magazine” as advertised on the top banner. Its always more personal to a target audience if you appeal exactly to their every needs, but a magazine like Q appeals to just about everyone in some way. The Q logo is placed in the top-left corner out of the way as it is not the main feature for drawing in the target audience. It is cleverly placed next to the eye line of Lady Gaga as a secondary place in where the consumer looks.The main image it centred in the middle of the magazine front cover as the main emphasis of the magazine issue. The image of Lady Gaga is a long/medium shot in direct audience address. The full body shot conveys L.G’s gesture and image in the way she is standing and we get a sense of her persona as an artist. Her informal register of slightly slouching, combined with the direct audience address makes it more relaxed and creates a more personal connection to the reader, it also adds to L.G’s image of rebellious personality makes the image of the magazine look different to the ‘norm’ and offers ideology to the target audience to helps them escape away from their daily life; this relates to the uses and gratifications theory. The Mis En Scene of L.G portrays her in a revealing shot- half naked- then juxtaposed with extravagant, unusual attire, the style of L.G also has intertextual image reference to auteur director Tim Burton’s style of quirky dis-proportional features. L.G’s image has extravagant features such as her hair being big and elongated creates a quirky look. This conveys the image of L.G’s individual and unusual persona. The naked torso of L.G conveys that this is her in her most natural, purest form, strip her down to her most simplest form and this is her-still mysterious and unusual-which makes the target audience want to know what more there is to her and excited about what else could be in this magazine if she is the leading representation of the magazine. Additionally to this, the two primary colours of L.G’s image is Black and White, with her natural features: skin, hair, face has connotations again to purity and good-will. Is then juxtaposed with the Black quirky clothing which have connotations to mysterious and sophistication-which contrasts and compliments L.G ‘s image of rebellious and normal persona, making her an idol/icon to the target audience. The metallic grey background conveys sophistication and expensive and creates a sense of a luxury item around the magazine. More importantly the grey is a fairly dull colour and emphasises the main image with the defined colour features.The top banner is placed behind the main image in opposite contrasting colours to the rest of the colour scheme of the magazine. It makes the banner stand out with the black on white colour, black connotates to sophistication and professionalism. The white then contrasts with connotations of naturalism and purity and both combined together convey the seriousness of the title ‘The UK’s Biggest Music Magazine’ and gives the magazine high reputation.The font throughout the magazine differs according to the importance of the feature in the magazine. “Lady Gaga” has been put in a very large elegant font as it is the main feature and gives sophistication to the representation of her as an artist. The Photoshop editing of the positioning of the name behind, and in front is done for entertainment purposes. The added features are all done in text format which indicates that the target audience are more intellectual and have more time to read the magazine.

The Organisation ‘Kerrang!’ has a very defined style to appeal to their target audience, they used very selective colour scheme of dark colour for the background. The font Kerrang! has been distorted and scratched to give this more realistic, messy, rebellious image of the magazine which relates to the feeling of the target audience and makes it easy to recognise the genre of the magazine. In this issue ‘Greenday’ are used to appeal to the typical target audience member that are attracted to this style of magazine. The representation of this band particularly fits the colour scheme of the magazine suggesting punk/rock theme with the greys and black which connotates to this rebellion persona of most teenagers-target audience. The main image is used in direct audience address to draw the target consumer to the magazine as its more inviting and personal the band looking at them. The Mis ene-scene of the band are dressed in black suit shirts which has connotations to sophistications and again, the representation of a punk/rock theme which is their style of music. The facial expression of each band member in the photo represents an individual persona to appeal to the target audience in having a favourite member which they can relate to what is going to be in the magazine. The two background band members have been placed behind the title ‘KERRANG!’ for emphasis on the main bend member, the symbolic leader of Greenday, Billie Joe Armstrong, who is placed in front of the title to make him the main focus for the target audience to draw them into the magazine. The band name is positioned in the middle of the page emphasised in a bold green writing, the use of colour makes it stand out on the de-saturated colour scheme of the magazine. Green has connotations of natural things of sorts and is symbolic of the natural ability of the band to entertain and also indications that the this image represents the band members how they are naturally and offers more character to the band and makes it more interesting for the audience. The sub heading is presented underneath, overlapping the band name and is a quote of the band which makes the magazine seem more personal and exclusive for the target audience. The style as if it’s been cut out and placed onto the page which creates again this sense of personal diary in which the target audience is invited to read and uncover more inside.The lower half of the front cover is saturated in the more informational substance. With colour and font variation to make certain words (noticing how all fonts are blocked, pointed to convey the rebellion hard-style persona that reflects the target audience) and phrases stand out, with which words all relate to the theme of the magazine and to suite the target audience (Sex!, Skeleton!, Satan!). All the important words have been placed in a different colour to stand out, each word has colour connotations; red is connotations to dangers, and stop

Representation of NME is of the contemporary music for the demographic of mature teenagers aged 15-23 of working-class social status. The block capital sharp letters that make NME are used to compliment the representation of the magazine to be sophisticated and luxurious, which reflects what the target audience are looking for to feel more mature and getting the most for their money. The logo of NME has the colour scheme with the rule of 3 (Red, Black, White). Red has been chosen as the primary colour as has connotations of danger and ‘stop’ which makes it more eye catching the passing target audience. White and black have been also chosen outlining the red to make it stand out even more with the binary opposites working together. Pete Doherty, the main image is a rebellious vintage icon for offering ideology to the target audience. The Mise-en-scene of Pete Doherty also conveys sophistication with the suit but also edges the casual independent aesthetics with the scarf and necklace, which the target audience stylistically are aiming to aspire to with the ‘indie’ look. The image is a medium-shot with direct audience address which gives a more personal connection with every target consumer. Pete Doherty’s neutral facial expression portrays his rebellious persona which is the image representation that attracts the target audience to buy the magazine because at that age, the target audience have views towards not conforming to society and expressing themselves independently, which is what this image does.The text that goes with the main image placed centre-left uses the phrase ‘exclusive’ to makes the piece more personal and exciting for them as it is only being able to access this information via this magazine. The target audience will then tend to prefer this magazine because it offers them something other magazines wont be able to access. The size of the font for the other writing has been used to indicate the level of importance in terms of eye-catching information for the target consumer to read first. The word ‘PETE’S’ has been highlighted in red to symbolise the importance of the word and the connotations of mystery and ‘stop’ as in stop and read the information. This builds excitement on the information and makes it more interest for the target consumer.

SpecialityThe magazine has a solid review section, featuring: new releases (music), reissues (music), music compilations, film and live concert reviews, as well as radio and television reviews. It uses a star rating system from one to five stars; indeed, the rating an album receives in Q is often added to print and television advertising.

Logo AnalysisThe simplistic name ‘Q’ is easy for the target audience to remember and more likely to stick in their head. As it’s only one letter, it doesn't relate to any specific stereotype, therefore the target audience is wide-ranged. The letter ‘Q’ isn’t one of the most used letter of the alphabet and is quirky and different which is something everyone in the target audience are intrigued by the individuality of the magazine. Q has subliminal links to the Queen and the connotations of royalty and sophistication to the name. The font also reiterates this luxurious idea with the slick style which is dressed in a white coat which has connotations to purity and naturalistic. The links between converge to the Magazine name being naturally sophisticated and makes the image of the magazine seem sophisticated and mature. The target audience aspire to be like this and would want to read this to boost self esteem of their reputation and social status in relation to Maslow's theory of needs. The background of Q logo is a solid red colour connotates to mysterious and again luxurious, the red on white colour compliment each other.

SpecialityNME.COM is Europe's biggest and most viewed music website. It has earned worldwide respect for its rock music news and features, which are updated around the clock. With 1.3 million unique users generating over 13 million page impressions nme.com is the U.K.'s premier music content website. It offers unparalleled access to an affluent young audience and a unique opportunity to communicate with them in an environment that they relate to and return to frequently - 63% visit the site weekly or more frequently*. The nme.com audience is made up of key demographic groups that can be difficult to target through other media: NME users are also interested in films, DVDs', concerts, technology and lead exceedingly active social lives.

65% Male* 50% 16-24* 23% 25-34* 79% ABC1*

Logo analysisThe name is short and easy to remember for the target audience, as well as being shortened for attraction purposes. The use of initials conveys the laziness of writing the whole name, which conforms to how most people in the demographic would do, so the magazine and audience have a mutual connection so making it more inviting. The name has credible linguistic features which are easy to say as the last sound follows the next, which is more comfortable for the target consumer and makes it more friendly. The font scheme is also basic and has three primary colours, the same as the amount of initials.-the use of ‘the power three’ is effective for remembrance and simplicity, which makes the rest of the magazine stand out. the main colour red has subliminal connotations of love which the reader can share with the magazine. The use of binary opposites of black-and-white outlining the red emphasises it and draws the readers attention towards it when passing by. The style of the letters being block, sharp signifies the representation of the organisation NME to be sophisticated and high reputational which is attractive to the reader as it makes them feel as if they are apart of the high reputation.

Logo analysisAlthough the name of the magazine has no direct connection to the magazine genre, it is still a suitable name for the representation of the target audience. Its easy to remember and out of the norm which is suitable for their target audience of teenagers between 13-20 who are attracted by the punk/rock music genre.

Medium-shot Close-up Long-shot

47%

27%

27%

Type of shot used for main image

Medium-shot Long-shot Close-up

Clearly as we can see the majority of shots used by the leading magazines are Medium-shots. This is because it’s perfectly balanced with enough gesture and persona of an artist that gives the reader this image through body language, and close up contact face-to-face with the artist to draw their attention. I can use this information when doing my photo shoots. The type of image shot also depends on the star/celebrity that is on the front of it, the very eccentric stars that are known world wide don’t really need more of an image to them, they are recognised already for who they are and are an attraction to everyone for the magazine.The question is, do i want to follow the conventional pattern and go for what's already liked and used? Or, should i be more original and use something different altogether for originality?

The target audience I have speculated from this collected images board could be said to be vague and inaccurate to a specific stereotype of today's cultures. However this is all purposely done, i am not trying to appeal to a specific group. Instead i am gathering images together to create an mutual interest between stereotypes. I from my own knowledge of the stereotypes of the modern era, averagely each stereotype have 2-4 things on this collected images page that appeal to them. The main demographic i am aiming at are the multi-gender working class young adults aged between 16-26. The social class will effect the pricing of the magazine to be rarely cheap as the disposable income of this demographic isn't financially always rich. The style of the magazine will have an informal register and use lots of colloquial, ‘slang’ lexical features both of the front page and in my contents. Following trends of tabloid newspapers, there will feature a lot of visual substance like images and sign-posting instead o f lots of worded articles because the target audience are easy-readers and haven't got the time in the day to sit and spend reading the magazine with education and jobs.The collected images I have placed on the mood board convey the similar majority interests that my typical target audience stereotype. One thing I have noticed is that lots of the shapes follow a geometrical trend (for instance the indicates shapes) this can influence the layout of my magazine and the shapes in which i order things. In contrast to things there are a few circular shapes in ratio to the geometrical ones, possibly a few circular shapes could compliment and go well with the layout and may be a feature i could use.The main focus of colour seems to be dark tones; mostly black. The striking colours that at first glance pop into my perspective are the reds and blues dotted around in contrast to the blacks. Linking to Magazine Analysis, reds are effective for connotations to ‘stop’ and read. This could proof helpful in my magazine as a feature to make the target audience want to read my magazine.The cigarettes that are geometrically horizontal with the divide in colour could be good for the caption layout to separate caption title from substance. The use in a different colour helps the reader clearly separate the writing without having to underline or put a bold sign-posting.The style of the collected images has a contrast of individual, quirky items such as the military jacket , the converse heels and the bow tie. But then juxtaposed with a very nationally targeted items with technology such as the Blackberry phone and the IPod touch. With this it shows me what things i address in my magazine have to specifically chosen accurately to suit my target audience’s needs of self esteem, being accepted and high reputational according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.Looking at my collected images, the festival ticket inspires me in my promotional ideas to do a some link to a particular festival that my target audience could be interested in and advertise official news and offers in a connection to the festival. By drawing a connection with what the target audience already like, it makes the target audience recognise that the magazine will also be appealing to them.

I carefully devised a questionnaire with relevant questions to what i need to know more about my target audience. I randomly asked 10 people that through my premature perception who looked to be between the ages of 16-26-5 boys, 5 girls-and belonged to no particular stereotype through aesthetic dress image. Through this I was to retrieve some anonymous information and try and merge ideas together to find some relevant results that can influence the choices I make in the production of my magazine.The results i retrieved was very helpful and worthwhile, the main aspects that i found influential for the rest of my work i have projected and made more visually clear in the significance of the information.

20%

40%10%

30%

What's your favourite music genre?

RockPopMetalIndie

0-1.50

1.51-2.50

2.51-3.50

3.51+

15

31

How much are you willing to pay for a fort-night magazine? (£)

Number of respondents agree

80%

20%

Would you agree the concept of discovering new bands before your friends is something that you like?

Yes No

The square bar-chart displays the amount that the target audience are willing to spend on the magazine. I asked each person ‘about’ how much they are willing to spend on a magazine that issued every fort-night-bearing in mind the demographic of the target audience is working-class, young adults-aged between 16-26 primarily- I hypothesised that the majority of people would be willing to spend between £2-3 maximum. From my results I gathered my results where fairly accurate. This I possibly due to the low dispensable income of the target audience, and the majority of that income from parents or jobs/benefits would be spent on necessities, the magazine are a luxury and would be what's left with the disposable income. I need to be able to make it as reasonable as I can, whilst making a profit and also make the magazine have a high reputation, and give it a ‘luxury label’.

The 3-D pie chart portrays the percentage of the 10 candidate and their ‘favourite’ music genre that they would be most interested reading about. As we can see there is a clear winner visually on the chart, Pop A.K.A. Popular music is liked nationwide and internationally. Most genre of modern music is merged multi-genre to market a vast consumer audience. My idea is to use these results positively split the ratio of the genres to influence the magazine substance. The most popular and successful music magazines like NME and Q from their layout and colour scheme haven't necessarily got a clear stereotype image. I also want this neutral image to convey in my style and influence the target audience that belong to different stereotypes to think that in someway the magazine appeals to them.

The pie chart represents the idea I created and base the concept of my magazine on that discovering the ‘new trend’ of music will be an exclusive, high reputational feature of discovering new band before your friends do. According to Maslow’s theory of self esteem, keeping a high reputation and social status helps boost the individual self esteem. My results convey that the high majority of people agreed with the question. This certainly indicates that including this feature will entertain a niche market feature i am yet to find in research of music magazines prolifically.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101516171819202122

How old are you?

Respondent candidate

Age

of re

spon

dent

Yes No012345678

Would you be intrigued if there was a magazine that provided you with all the

new hits/bands?

The Scatter graph represents the average age of the people who i randomly selected for the questionnaire I deemed suitable as the target audience for my magazine. The trend line represents the average age of the respondents and what primary age that are going the buy the magazine. Obviously on such a short scale of people that I have asked, it leaves me at a correlated estimate, and is inaccurate to the exact. From my results the average age is 19. 19year olds are mostly in work and university education and don’t have a lot of free time on their hands, this will effect how easy reading my magazine will be, and the price of the magazine being cheap as this age group don’t have a lot of disposable income for this type of luxury. The register of the magazine will still be appealing the maturity of the target audience, but have the colloquial illusion of a friendly ideological substance.

The 3-D bar chart represents the key feature I devised for my magazine style, as such magazines like Q have reviews of albums when they come out, my magazine exclusively reviews and recommends albums/artists and links bands together. E.g. (LastFM) if you like this band, your certain to like this one, on pre-release or signing. Fundamentally out of this question i wanted to see if people would respond well to this sort of feature and if it is what the target audience want. Without any doubt, the results positively show that the large majority of people I asked agree and are excited about this feature.The results are of an approximate due to the small amount of random people I asked doesn't necessarily portray the exact percentage, never the less the outcome of a positive trend is inevitable in these circumstances.

Insert page on magazine name

QTitle- 8.7x 8.8cmButton/puff-3.9cmStar name-10.9 x 5.2cmFeature-3.8 x 9.8cm

NMETitle- 11.2 x 4.1cmButton-5.1cmStar name-7.9 x 4.6cmFeature- 5.6 x 4.8cm

KerrangTitle-21 x 4.2cmStar name-14.6 x 3cmFeature- 4.3x 19.6 cm

Marketing & Promotion •Facebook•Audio mag website•Vfestival•Popular artists•Online Subscription delivered

My magazine representation is aimed at a consumer audience of around 16-26. Through research on http://www.clickymedia.co.uk/2010/08/uk-facebook-statistics-for-august-2010/ i can gather liable information that approximately 19million people aged 13-29 have active Facebook accounts. Taking into consideration that my main target audience is between 16-26, there will be people up and below the boundaries and will increase the amount of people I could attract by using Facebook as a promotion area. Such thing as an ‘Audio mag’ page which could advertise the magazine, marketing features and partnership. Viral advertisement is a cheap way to market globally and would be an essential part of promotion. Another valuable part of promotion lies within high search engine marketing which makes my product feature higher when they search relevant words like ‘music’, ‘magazine’ ect.