Preliminary and Main Task

Preliminary task:

Front cover:

Contents page:

Main task:

Front cover:

Contents page:

Double page spread:

Evaluation 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to it from the full product?




(continuation of final slide): I've actually had greater control over text-based content on Photoshop so I'll be using InDesign to a lesser extent, depending on what type of content I may have to produce in the future.
Overall, I feel that I've come a very long way in the one month that I've had to produce my magazine, technologically speaking.
(for some reason it won't upload the final bit of text onto the presentation)

Evaluation 6

What have you learnt about technologies in the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

I am able to attract the reader's attention with the big and noticeable font which is a constant throughout the entire cover.
With regards to my target audience, I tried to use the contrasting colours of black and white to bring a lot of attention and a sense of importance to 'My Chemical Romance', which is an extremely well known rock band that has now disbanded. Any news about the inactive band is sure to grab the audience's attention, and I felt that it was the most important piece of news which is why I placed more focus on it.
I also made a cover line about another band, 'Three Days Grace'. I was able to have some fun with the band's name, and made a rhyme with it, so it should be catchy and make the reader interested.
At the bottom I have placed 'steal her look' which is a reference to a  recent meme that is commonly seen on social networking sites such as Tumblr and Twitter, the former having a heavy number of teenage users, which helps to appeal to my target audience which are in the teenage/young adult age range.
The free posters notification in the top left also attracts the audience, even people outside of my target audience since it's just human nature to want to have things.
The masthead has the word 'vex' which is a term used to define some negative emotions, and I felt that it would be a good word to use as my masthead since my target audience are stereotypically represented in the media to be quite negative and pessimistic overall (e.g. goths, emos). 'Nation' refers to how there is an extremely large rock music fanbase, and how the music has become influential enough to create its own subcultures globally.
The model himself is looking into the camera/reader, which directly addresses the reader and makes the audience feel more involved with the magazine.
Using information from my survey results, I decided the price of my magazine to be £2.99 because the average price that the respondents said they would pay for a magazine was £2-£2.99, and a few more respondents saying that they're willing to pay £3 and more, which is why I made the prices close to £3.

The contents page can capture attention with how the paper is black. In the other version of my contents page where I tried it with white paper, it looked to me like there was less content than there actually was, so using black paper should make it look like there's more content and keep the reader interested. Once again, I'm using colours to reach out to my audience where they enjoy the colour black. The use of wob (white on black) makes it easier for the text to be seen and therefore makes easier to be read.
From my survey results, I found that blue was the most favoured colour among the respondents, so I had to incorporate the colour blue into my contents page, but since my contents page is pretty plain, there wasn't much opportunity to do so. I used the semicircle for aesthetic purposes but also as an opportunity to incorporate the colour blue.

I think that I did a good job of producing content for my double page spread. I tried to use a variety of colours to make the double page spread eye-catching and very easy to read. I have also got an even distribution of colours on each side of the double page spread which should help out. The pattern-like layout of the far right questions gives it a solid look and the yellow helps it to further stand out from the rest of the double page spread.
I also added drop caps to indicate where the text starts, and it follows the norms and conventions of double page spreads.
I think the picture will grab a lot of attention with the model's position and how he is holding a weapon. This also fits in with the stereotype of rock-based social groups being delinquents and being dangerous, as he is holding a dangerous weapon that can be seen on members of the represented social groups within the media.

In terms of language, I originally thought that I would have to be informal, but social media sites have shown me that a lot of teenagers/young adults (target audience age range for the magazine) and not actually as ignorant as the mass media portrays. Their age range's stereotypes of illiteracy stems from how the introduction of social media sites have introduced an online exclusive language where words are shortened (e.g. your/you're = ur, what you up to = wuu2), but this type of text is sometimes forced. For example, Twitter has a 140 character limit per tweet, which may mean that the person is forced to shorten their words to fit their statement into the 140 character limit. Nevertheless, people within this age range have shown on numerous occasions that they are actually intelligent, especially when making a rant or expressing negative emotions, and these negative emotions are also usually associated with the social groups being represented by my magazine.

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?



I tried to use models with the same sense of fashion as my target audience, which I think I succeeded in. My target audience place an emphasis on the colour black, which I also placed an emphasis in when making my magazine. The types of clothing I showed off could represent different age groups, as the front cover model wears a trenchcoat which is usually worn by older people, while my double page spread model is wearing much more casual clothes which is worn by younger people. My contents page model wears a leather jacket which is a common piece of clothing among the rock-based communities.

One of the main things about Kerrang is that they try to spread government messages which fits in with the ideology about being aware of social issues and social change. I tried to do this to an extent, and tried to give a message although to a lesser extent to Kerrang. It is especially important for younger people to be aware of social issues since they are basically society's future, and they need to know how to make things right.

Evaluation 3

What kind of media institutions might distribute your product and why?

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think that I've done somewhat well in trying to represent the social group/audience of my magazine. My magazine is a rock music genre magazine and my questionnaire has shown that the majority of teenagers/young adults enjoy rock music over any other music genre. 

It was easy for me to appeal to my audience due to the large stereotypes attached to rock fans within the media, and most of these stereotypes are true. For example, they wear all black and some are eccentric or considered strange in society.

I feel that my main front cover model is an excellent representation of rock fans. A lot of male rock stars have long hair, just like he does. They also obviously wear black a lot, just like he's wearing completely all black except for his claws, but the claws can also represent his eccentricity. Knowing this person personally, I can say that he's definitely received from strange looks from random members of the public for the way he dresses (trenchcoat) and his claws also attract a lot of attention. 

On a deeper level, his claws represents the power that the magazine's social groups receive from all the negative representation they get. The social groups associated with rock (e.g. punks, goths) are all considered delinquent for the way they dress and act, and this causes society to fear them. The negative beliefs that we should fear these "delinquents" is taken advantage of in this picture as the model stands so confidently and unshaken by society's views. 

He also wears accessories that is seen usually on the represented social groups. Punks especially wear spiked bracelets and chains just as well as goths do.

My double page spread model also represents my magazine's representative social groups as well. He dresses very casually like most rock fans do, in contrast to the previous model who wore a trenchcoat, perhaps appealing to the older audiences as a few rock icons are aged and tend to dress the same way as him. This model represents the younger audiences instead with his casual dress sense. His hairstyle is one of the very stereotypical hairstyles of rockers, fitting in without how the majority of them if not all of them have long hair. 

This can link to a more sociological perspective in that he's going against society's views of masculine and feminine. Typically, boys are "supposed" to have short hair and girls are "supposed" to have long hair. In a rock-based society, almost everyone has long hair, which suggests that this is a more equal society. This is also supported by how the media shows different types of rockers who can appear different from each other, but the great thing is that they all still share the same beliefs. 

Looking at the setting for the double page spread picture, there are a few pieces of art which links to how a lot of people in the representative social groups are artistic in a sense other than musical.
Once again, the model is holding a weapon which represents power, which I explained the importance of power earlier.

In my contents page, there is a feature talking about empowerment and I did this intentionally because while rockers are portrayed to be delinquents and dangers to society, they are also frequently represented to be very philosophical. With regards to my survey results, teenagers/young adults are the majority in the rock music fandom and with the many social media sites on the internet today, we are able to see that a lot of them are actually quite educated in social issues and have been shown to have a desire for social change and equality. This section of the contents page was focused on specifically on the feminist sociological perspective as even today, certain topics about women are still considered taboo. This is also still appropriate given that there are more girls in the rock fandom than boys, and this is also supported by how there were more females than males in my survey results. There are also more female social justice warriors than males, and this is evident on social media sites, specifically Tumblr and Twitter. The media also represents more females than males as punks, goths, or any other rock-based social group. 

Evaluation 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Making the Double Page Spread

This is one of my other models which will be used for my double page spread. Unfortunately, I wanted to use two models for my double page spread, the other being the same one featured on the front cover, but just like I had feared, our schedules clashed and I was unable to arrange a time for the both of them to join for the picture. This could have been achieved if the deadline was extended a bit longer or I had planned out my double page spread earlier whilst I was working on my contents page or front cover, so that I would already have an idea of what I wanted.
In the absence of my other model, I had to just take a second picture of an arm (pretending to be the original model) and try to use Photoshop to edit it into the first picture. Of course, this way, the image will not look as nice or complete, but I'm trying to make the best of what I have.

This is the product of my editing. Unfortunately, it is very obvious that the arm was edited into the larger picture, and this may make it visually unappealing. I may do a bit of editing on the brightness or colours to try and make it more appealing to the eye.
With regards to the mise-en-scène, I tried to bring out the rock-ish aspects of the model. For example, he's wearing black which the most commonly associated colour with rock stars and rockers. Along with that, given the context of the picture (an argument between the two rock stars), I wanted him to have a bowgun which brings out the violent nature of rock musicians. Linking to the musician lifestyle, a lot of them are seen to be quite artistic people, or people who appreciate art, which is another reason as to why I liked the setting I used, as there are multiple paintings in this setting. Unfortunately, I only saw as I began to edit the pictures that there was a really nice wolf painting that I could have used in the final picture for more symbolism of power or whatever, as wolves are usually nocturnal creatures and rock stars can be nocturnal too, as they have the colour scheme for it and are usually shown to have night-time party lives. The horse painting could represent freedom, and the disbanding of the band in this magazine could represent their own individual freedom from each other.
For the missing model, I just tried to incorporate an arm in there that we can pretend is his, holding a drumstick. Drums are used to great extent in rock music, so drumsticks would be appropriate to use.

I quickly used iPiccy which is a photo editing site to make the picture black and white, and personally I like the picture better this way, but I will experiment with which colours work best for the double page spread on InDesign. Using black and white may be more appropriate simply because of the colour symbolism and the fact that black (and sometimes grey) are colours commonly associated with the audience of the magazine.

I've used rulers to make a rough outline of the layout of my double page spread. I'm trying to go for a similar layout to the ones seen in the double page spreads I analyzed a while ago for the Classic Pop and Kerrang magazines.
It might just be my imagination but the arm/drumstick image is starting to look less edited, which may be due to the size of the image being smaller and also due to the black and white effect being added onto the image. I'm already really liking the black and white effect on the image.
By making the picture spread out onto the two pages, I am creating a bleed effect which is a code and convention used in every music magazine.

It's starting to fill up. On the left, I made a rectangle and changed the colour to the same shade of blue that was used for the semicircle in the contents page and this was mostly done to keep the colour scheme going as blue was the most commonly favoured colour in the results of my survey. Along with that, I have the brand name within that rectangle as well just to refresh the reader's memory of the magazine they're reading, and it also acts as filler. Underneath that, I have the name of the made up band (Son & Heir) to show the reader which band the article is about. I wanted to make the background colour for the band name blue as well as it is a royal colour, but I had already used that colour for the main rectangle background. I couldn't just leave the text by itself or it would not stand out, even with the large font.
In the corners of the pages, I have the page numbers which is a code and convention used in every single book, but is also important for navigation through the pages.

This is my finished double page spread. I am overall quite pleased with it but I still have some slight issues with the colours. As you can see, I gladly changed the colours on the far left side of the screen as one of my peers criticised the colour scheme for it and I agreed with them. I changed it to a grey colour and this allowed me to give "Son & Heir" a royal blue background to fit in with the theme of the band name. The colours on the far right can be unappealing to some people. Personally, my only issue is that yellow wasn't a favoured colour but I have to use it a lot because it fits so well with grey/black backgrounds. 

With the article text, I went for the white background and black/red text colour scheme again because it looks really good and fits in with a lot of things, especially here where grey a dominant colour. I used a drop cap to make the start of the page's text stand out and so that viewers can see where to start reading. It also follows the code and convention where every magazine utilises drop caps. Overall with the text, I tried to link it to music as much as I could, but I ended up giving it a political tone. It's alright though as rock music and politics are rarely ever got along with each other. 

I was originally going to include Benhart a lot more in my double page spread, but unfortunately, the model wasn't available for the picture so it wouldn't make sense to make a page about his character when he isn't even in the picture. However, I put some text indicating that Benhart does get his own double page spread in the next page (which I will never create).

The text started to get a little political about conservative views and social justice warriors, but I did this intentionally to fit in with one of the ideologies of rock musicians to stand out and create social change. 

Complete Content Page(s)

These are my final versions of the contents page. The reason I have two versions up is because I wanted to show that I was experimenting with colours to see which colour scheme would make the page more visually pleasing, since I felt that the page itself is underwhelming. Along with this, I saw in my research that a lot of music magazines have content pages following the white background and red/black text colour scheme, so that is what I tried to achieve in my second version. Overall, I prefer the black version better just because I feel that the black background makes the page itself look more filled up than it actually is. With the font of the text, I finally changed it up because it was almost impossible to read the 'Impact' font at such a small size. Along with this, I saw that a similar font to the one used in my contents page was used many times in other music magazines where they used a white/black/red colour scheme.
Unsurprisingly, the layout turned out to be much more different from what I had planned, which is the same thing that happened with my front cover. The reason for this is that the crotch shot picture I had planned to use from the very start turned out to take up more space than I thought it would. I could have cropped it, but I wanted the audience to see the full picture. I was aiming for a 'party life' kind of picture as that is the kind of life that most rock stars and other music celebrities have, so I waited until night to take the picture. I tried to be resourceful with my props and I felt that the picture turned out well in the end. I tried to give the model items associated with rockers such as a leather jacket and a bass guitar. I also tried to go down a sociological approach with this, as to try and follow the ideologies of rock music which is to stand out in society, making social change. With her, I used her empowerment for the feminist perspective (aims for equal rights for men and women), to try and say that females should not be ashamed of their bodies.
The placement of the date may seem odd, and is also not where it was in the original layout. I decided to put it in the blue semicircle because I found that there was a lot of space in there, so I could place the date in there and save a bit of space for my list of contents. This also does follow the convention with some magazines as there are some who have done a similar thing with regards to the placement of their edition date.
In the contents list, there are some true events (e.g. Three Days Grace's album 'Human' coming out) and some events made up (e.g. My Chemical Romance reuniting, Nirvana releasing a new album called 'Blowing Out). With Nirvana, there is a pun that probably no one will get, but Nirvana literally means 'blown out' in one of the Indian languages, which is why I used it, but also because I felt I could attract attention with foreshadowing of the well known band breaking up.
At the bottom, I tried to include reader interaction but could not due to the limited amount of space I had, but I also included the fashion segment from the front cover like I wanted to. Unfortunately, I couldn't get more model pictures in, but I'm somewhat pleased with this result. I have noticed that a lot of music magazines have another picture of the front cover model inside the contents page, but not all magazines do this, and that is why I decided to choose the picture crotch shot picture rather than using another picture of Benhart.
In the contents list, there is a piece on 'Son and Heir' which is my made up band. I hope that I will be able to make my double page spread piece based on this "band" but it may not be possible to do soon due to them usually being busy, so they have tight schedules and there may not be an appropriate time to take the pictures that I can choose to use for my main double page spread image.

Making the Contents Page

As I have finished the front cover, I am moving onto the contents page next and I will be using much more for this than I have used for the front cover.
Firstly, this image is not actually what the page will look like, I have just done it like this to show clearly how I have tried to recreate the layout that I sketched and shown in a earlier post.
I decided straight away to make the semicircle and get the masthead inside there. This design idea was taken from the contents page of Kerrang. I was drawn to the way it stood out and the colour scheme for it as well, but I wanted to use a colour such as blue so that the masthead stands out better. Along with that, I also chose that colour taking into consideration how the majority of my survey's respondents selected blue as their most liked colour of the options given, so I have tried to include blue in the colour scheme.
The background paper is black simply because I think it will look better that way but I'm also making this design choice because of the colour symbolism and the link to the representative genre.

Making the Front Cover

I have started making the layout of the magazine using Photoshop. Firstly I just simply opened up the edited image of my main front cover model. Before doing anything else, I wanted to get my masthead onto the picture.
Through my research of codes and conventions, I have found that some magazines have their model front cover model overlapping the masthead, and this convention usually only occurs when the model doesn't take up much of the masthead anyway. Thankfully, I already had this in mind when I uploaded the image and moved the model lower down to make more space for the masthead. This also meant that there was enough space in the end for my masthead to be overlapped, and in the end will give my front cover a more professional look I think. I was able to make them overlap by using the quick-select tool to select the model and copy him onto a separate layer, meaning that he has a separate from the background. Afterwards, I was able to make my masthead on their own layers and place those layers in between the background layer and model layer, which meant that the masthead would end up in between the background and the model, making them overlap.
I think that the use of only rectangles may make it look less professional but I'm afraid that if I try any other shape (such as a semicircle in my layout sketch), it will clutter the main image.
In my layout sketch, I had the fashion model in the left corner, but I had to move her to the right side because the main model takes up more space on the left side due to his pose and positioning, but I am not complaining about this as I think that it makes the image more effective and I know it would look less appealing if he was turned the other way. This also means that the barcode will have to go on the bottom left corner as opposed to nearly every magazine where the barcode is typically on the bottom right corner.
On the top are a pink/red and yellow rectangle. In the pink/red one, I'm going to write the notification for free posters, following the conventions with rock magazines offering free posters for their readers. It also follows another code and convention by being placed in the top left corner, as most magazines have that notification placed in the same area. The yellow rectangle will have the text for the price inside of it. I gave the price it's own rectangle so that it can still stand out from the image and the price can be easily seen by viewers.

Now I'm starting the add text to the front cover. As you can see, the I mainly used black and white as the colour of the text to make it easily noticeable, and it works because of the coloured rectangles placed behind the text, so I've been using wob to make it stand out for the reader. I also used a barcode generator to make my own barcode and placed it in the bottom left corner.
I also typed up 'steal her look' in reference to the meme that I've seen on social media sites such as Tumblr and Twitter, where users would often have a picture of a person (usually a celebrity or internet sensation) and then write 'steal ___ look' and begin to list down their items of clothing and prices. I typed up 'beginner's' guide because of how the model was dressed simply, and wanting the reader to learn from the basics. Although personally I don't like the amount of makeup that is stereotypically represented on rockers, and that's part of the reason why I decided to go for a simple, black look. I also linked the fashion segment with rock by typing up "rocking out in style" which links both rock music and fashion together.

Now that I have finished what I think is the base of the front cover, I have uploaded the image onto InDesign and will use that program to add the main text onto my front cover. It might just be me, but I think that the image quality on InDesign is slightly worse than the quality on Photoshop.
I have used the rulers to try and figure where to place my text and decide on the length and width of my headlines etc. Overall, it still looks pretty even.

Above the masthead is a skyline which is also exaggerated by saying that this magazine is the most reliable (in the world?), but it is a convention used in many magazines as I have seen during my research.
One thing I fear is that my cover may appear to be more of a gossip magazine rather than a music magazine, but I tried my best to relate all the headlines/coverlines to rock music.
With Anasztázia (made up artist), I tried to make the link between rock artists and the party life (drugs, parties, alcohol etc). I also exaggerated her status within in the rock world (again, still made up) by giving her the title of Queen of Rock. I plan on taking pictures of one of my friends who will act as Anasztázia and use the image as a picture boost for my contents page, filling up more space in that page in the process.
Underneath that, I have information about the rock band 'My Chemical Romance', which are extremely well known. I made up a headline about the disbanded members reuniting, which I know would attract a lot of rock fans. I also gave the headline background colours and different text colours to make it stand out even further. I also point out an interview between the lead vocalist and bassist of the band, meaning that the readers will be able to read the thoughts of some of the band members.
On the right, I made headlines about another rock band, 'Three Days Grace'. I also tried to play around with words and make it rhyme or catchy. I also notified the readers about their new album.
One thing that bothered me at first when I made this cover is that I used the same font throughout. However, I found it extremely difficult to make the page look nice with any other font, and I even asked some of my peers and friends for their opinions, and they all agreed that the magazine looked better with this one font. I used mainly red as my text colour because it was the most eye catching colour to me. I experimented with different colours but found that red stood out the most and was the easiest colour to see, so I used it to make it easy to read. I also think it's somewhat appropriate because of the colour symbolism. Red usually connates death or danger, and rock music is represented to have a violent nature.

Front cover done in INDESIGN

Front cover done in PHOTOSHOP

This is a comparison of the front cover done on the two programs. The reason I did this was because to me, it looked like the quality was reduced when the image was put onto InDesign, and from this comparison, I can see that I was right. The Photoshop version of the front cover is superior in everyway, as InDesign has washed out some of the colour. Personally, I found InDesign more time consuming to use and it was definitely not as fun for me to use. Another small detail I liked about the Photoshop version is that the background coloured rectangles for My Chemical Romance and "Reunite!" were much nicer and easier to make due to Photoshop giving fixed lengths and widths unlike InDesign, and it makes the black rectangle behind "Reunite!" blend in much better than the one on the InDesign version.

After looking back at my front cover, I noticed that there wasn't any headlines relating to the main front cover model, and unfortunately for me, this is a convention used in every music magazine. I had to go back and change the headline about Anasztázia to fit with the male model, but I know that I will definitely be using her for my contents page.
I also had to move down the headlines about My Chemical Romance a bit lower to just to make more space for the new model headline. I further noticed that the bottom of the magazine looks quite empty, and did not the take the rule of thirds into account when making my front cover. To try and fix this, I tried moving the area of My Chemical Romance even lower, but I didn't the model's claws to be hidden due to the symbolism I have with it. Another reason why I did not move it down further is because that it was difficult to read the part about the interview with Gerard and Mikey Way, so I had to keep it high enough to be able to be read. I also did not want to change the colour of that specific text because, just I explained earlier, none of the other colours really went well with the background.

Front Cover Images

This is the main image I will be using for the front cover of my magazine. I used this person as my model because I felt that his long hair and facial hair would fit well with the genre, as the stereotypical representations of rockers are that they have long hair by male standards. Along with this, he is wearing a long black trenchcoat which fits in with the mood of the genre being represented in my magazine, as rockers and rock music in general has been stigmatised in the past, so I thought that the colour black would be a good colour to use to represent the stigma attached to rock music. He also has claws on his right hand which represents power but this also induces some fear into readers.

After some editing around with the image on Photoshop, I managed to make this. I am leaning towards going for a black and white front cover due to my idea of the stigmatisation of rock being present on the cover through colour symbolism. I made some cuts to him by removing stray hairs and his shadow too which would have otherwise made future editing troublesome. However, the problem with this is that it is quite difficult to make a monochrome image stand out, and I also fear that the model himself will not stand out, so for these reasons I will not be using a monochrome front cover image.

After more editing around, I managed to create this, and have decided that this will be the edit that I will be using as my front cover image. I really like this one because the model stands out really well against the background and overall just looks intimidating, and a good representation of rock. One may also notice that the bottom of the original picture was cropped out and that the model is lower than in the original picture. This is because after I took my image and uploaded it, I immediately realized that the model's head was too high for my masthead to go anywhere, so I decided to crop the bottom out and move the model lower to make space for things I plan on placing at the top, such as the masthead, promotional item notification, price, etc.

This is a picture I took of one of my friends who acts as another model for my magazine. I will be using her on the front cover like I did in my first magazine by making her transparent (where the background is removed) and placing her on one of the lower corners of the page which will notify the readers of the fashion segment of the magazine. I wanted her to dress simple, which contrasts the heavy nature of rock music, but even on most rock magazines, you will see that a lot of the models are dressed very casually, and that is why I wanted her to dress simple too. Her colour scheme of black also fits in with the magazine genre too.

This is the finished result of me attempting to make her transparent for the magazine front cover. I am aware that there are some parts that a look a bit off and that is due to my shaky hands, but I am overall very pleased with this image. Next I need to change the size of it so it can fit in the corner of the front cover.

Making My Masthead

The title of my magazine has not been confirmed yet, but right now I am leaning towards Vex Nation. These are some of the practice designs I've made using Photoshop. Looking at all the other magazines, the masthead was usually only one or two colours, so I tried to stick to only using two colours, but on the bottom two, I used three colours. I really like the designs of the bottom two because the rectangle makes it flashier and more eye catching.
In the bottom, I incorporate the masthead colour scheme of Kerrang, which was black and white. Along with this, I made the V and X red because it links with the red background of the Kerrang front cover. When I was making my masthead, a few of colleagues were able to see developing it and at first I was using multiple colours even though I was fully aware that most mastheads only had one or two colours. The excessive use of colours were criticised and in the end led me to coming up with these simple but effective designs.

Title, Logo, and Layouts

I am soon going to start constructing and developing my magazine, but before I do that, I need to consider a number of things that I could not do with the questionnaires. For example, the magazine logo. I could not use the questionnaire for this because then it would be as if the audience has complete control over the magazine, which while most magazines do need information from the audience so that they are controlling content to an extent, they cannot make the important decisions or decide the brand of the magazine.

Firstly, I should decide the name of the magazine and then start designing its appearance using Photoshop. Currently I am not sure what I want to name my magazine, but I do know that I want it to be strong and stand out to fit in with the nature of rock genre. 

Catatonic: I like this title because it's short and simple, which contradicts my previous statement about wanting my masthead to be strong and to stand out... It links well with the rock genre due to catatonia being a disorder where a person is hyperactive, and the genre of rock is one of the most hyper of them all. However, using this title may be insensitive towards certain people due to it being an abnormality. Although, Kerrang's ideologies seem to be that teenagers should stand out, and in society, just being eccentric is considered an abnormality but not necessarily a psychological one, rather just a societal one. Another problem with using this title is that I feel that it would be more appropriate for a genre such as dance music or electronic music, rather than rock music, but I wanted this to be an option because I really like the simplicity of this name.

Red Flow: This title incorporates colour symbolism, using the colour red to connate danger, which links with the violent and chaotic nature of rock music. One of the meanings behind the title that can be interpreted by the audience is that they can link 'red' to the female menstrual cycle, which is an extreme comparison but 'reds' is a slang term for it these days. 'Flow' is also a word for it. This can affect the audience, making it have a larger female audience compared to male, but this could be the end result regardless of the masthead due to fashion model I plan on having on the front cover. It's very likely that I will not be using this as my masthead due to it being a sort of taboo topic in society, but one of the ideologies behind Kerrang and other rock magazines is to make yourself heard and to rebel against society. The audience age range for my magazines, which is teenagers to young adults, are usually rebellious and also commonly portrayed in the media as rebellious. Another problem with this is that there is a colour in the name, which may mean I have to make more colour associations due to the title. This is not necessarily bad due to the colour red being favoured by a number of people, and how it's commonly used in a lot of music magazines. 

Vex Nation: Or alternatively 'Vexation'. I like this almost as much as I like Catatonic. This also has a black magic/witchcraft sort of mood behind it. This was done in reference to the front cover of the Kerrang magazine I analyzed. where there was a pentagram or some sort of ritualistic pattern often seen in summoning demons or performing other sorts of black magic. I also think that it has some sort of powerful feeling because of 'nation'. The word 'vex' is also used colloquially to state distress or some negative form of emotion, which also links to the genre since rock is portrayed negatively. The audience especially is represented negatively in the media, as teenagers being portrayed as rebellious (although this is a valid stereotype). Overall, I prefer Catatonic over Vex Nation but I feel Vex Nation would be more appropriate just because Catatonic sounds more appropriate for a dance/electronic genre. I also associate the words 'vex' and 'hex' with the colours purple and dark blue, so I can try and incorporate those colour schemes with the title perhaps? On the other hand, I'd still need my masthead to be visible and eye catching to grab attention.

This is just a crude possible logo for Vex Nation that I quickly made up on the Snapchat app should I ever need to make a separate logo to represent the magazine. In it I tried to make join the V and X in 'vex' to make the logo. I personally like the idea of this as a logo, especially because I think it's so simple, but of course it doesn't look very good here. I also think that this logo would be more appropriate if the title of the magazine was Vexation, as if I used Vex Nation it might more sense to incorporate the N of 'nation' in the logo somehow.

Right now I am not sure how I want my masthead to appear. Most magazines have it simple, and I feel like I should make mine simple too, but this also makes it less likely to be seen and won't stand out. I could be making a mistake by designing the masthead in association to its representative genre.

We had to make sketches of our front covers, content pages, and double page spreads. This is the sketch I made for the front cover. I tried to make it look like most magazines with the layout, but in the sketch I also think it looks a bit too organised which contrasts the nature of rock music, so in the end product I will most likely make it look a more disorganised. I'm also keeping with some codes and conventions with the cover with how I have the free consumable on the top left. The masthead and barcode are also there and follow the conventions, but these are present in every magazine and not just music magazines.

This is a draft for my contents page. Most of the layout is based off the contents page for the Kerrang magazine, for example, the semi-circle in the top right corner. Also in the Kerrang magazine, I noticed that the contents page was organised in contrast to the rest of the magazine and goes against the nature of the magazine's specialist genre. That's why I've also chosen the layout to be organised. I also want to add small medium shots in the middle of the page to use to break apart the contents, and this also shows off more use of modelling. At the bottom I may also include a notification of a competition or something else, mostly filler space because I don't want the page to be overwhelmed with just contents. 

Audience Identification

Criteria of Research

I have started to make a summary of sorts of my research. It will let me decide which conventions I will and may be using. So far I have only been focusing on the front cover of the magazine rather than the contents page and double page spread that I will be doing.

Surveys - Finding Out My Target Audience

I'm going to use SurveyMonkey again like I did in my first task, but this time my questionnaire should be of a better standard.

I've made an introduction to the questionnaire to give some context behind it, and I figured that this would make respondents take the questionnaire more seriously.
I first ask for the respondent's age and gender, as this will immediately help me decide which age and gender I'm going to cater for and already gives me a clear idea of what type of content to put in my magazine.

Unfortunately, I am still not really sure about what type of genre I want to base my magazine on. The reason why I only have these few genres as options is because these are the only genres that I am willing to do. However, given that I've done more research into rock and pop magazines, I feel like I would be more comfortable with doing either of those two genres. I am aware that this places some imposition on the respondent, as they may favour a genre that is not even an option in this questionnaire. They will just have to choose their favourite from the list.

My reasoning for these types of questions are mostly explained in the questions themselves. I decided to include reader interaction just because it will mostly act as filler space for the magazine.

Audience and Language Analysis of Magazines

Magazine 1: Mixmag
The average age of the Mixmag audience is 24, which shows that this type of music is aimed towards young adults who are most likely to go out clubbing. This is appropriate given that Mixmag focuses on clubbing, electronic music and dance music. 72% of the audience is male and the remaining 28% if female. Most of its audience is also in the ABC1 social demographic. This could be considered strange as clubbing is associated more with the working class rather than the middle class, but Mixmag is a specialist magazine and the majority of its audience are devoted to the magazine as 80% said they do not read any other magazine. In terms of fashion sense, they tend to be dressed casually as clubs don't have a formal dress code. In some editions of Mixmag, the fashion styles are rather retro, but are in sync with some type of band or artist. Some females are shown to expose some skin, but this is typical for when they go to clubs.



Magazine 2: Classic Pop
The average age of the audience for Classic Pop is 45, and are mostly male. This shows that Classic Pop is a retro magazine, and is aimed for the older generation who were around at the time of the music that Classic Pop reviews. The magazine is released bi-monthly which makes it rarer than the other magazines, and therefore it should be more expensive. The majority of Classic Pop's is in the ABC1 social demographic. Their fashion style ranges from casual to formal, which is not unexpected from their age group. Their preferred genres of music is pop music and rock music to a lesser extent.

Magazine 3: Kerrang
The average age of Kerrang's audience is 22, which is young, especially in comparison with other magazines. 52% of the audience is within the ABC1 social demographic, and the middle class makes up the majority of the audience again, just like with the other magazines. This audience is also shown to be extremely loyal to their representative magazine as they are the heaviest music consumers. This also makes sense for today's young generation who are more aware about societal problems, and fits in with Kerrang's ideology of making your voice heard. They are rebelling against the older generation by making their voice heard and not comforming. Their fashion sense is a lot more extreme than the other magazine audiences, as to fit in with the genres of focus for Kerrang, which is mostly rock and metal music. These are loud and 'chaotic' genres of music. The audience also places some emphasis on makeup and having certain hairstyles which makes them appear punk rock, and all of this continues to fit in with Kerrang's ideology of making your voice heard by standing out.

Brand Eyes

Brand Eye Analysis

Magazine 1: Mixmag
The magazine makes the reader feel quite young as this magazine focuses on dance/electronic music which is very upbeat. The type of music that would be played at nightclubs and raves. This is especially good for the target readers who are adults around the age of 20-30, and would still have an active nightlife but not as good as the ones associated and represented by rebellious teenagers in the media. What the magazine says about the reader is that they are still young and are able to have some fun, and that they do not have to be so formal all the time as adult 'parties' are represented to be boring and pretentious in the mainstream media, and this also represents the rebellion against society and middle class values. The reader perceives bright colours associated with nightclubs and raves, reinforcing the magazine's genre of music, and the brand personality also makes the evident as just by looking at the covers we can get a sense of energy in the magazine. This also benefits the reader as they are able to keep informed of the upcoming and latest electronic music and reviews, and possibly know where the local hotspots are, referring to nightclubs. The brand personality is an upbeat one, just like how the reader feels when reading it. The core proposition is to let readers know that it's never too late to go out to parties and have fun, and that they should relive their past experiences with clubbing, to be a teenager again.

Magazine 2: Classic Pop
The magazine makes the reader feel quite nostalgic as the magazine is retro, but this only applies to the older audience. They perceive quite plain colours which could refer back to how a lot of things in the media was black and white, so the target audience must be quite old for this magazine. The black and white colour scheme, along with the blue and red is a limited colour scheme, so they are trying to just stick to dark as and bright as possible. Given the old target audience, what the magazine could say is that you want to hold onto the memories of the 80s and keep that feeling of nostalgia, and that you enjoy the history of music. Therefore, this could be saying that your music taste is more refined than today's type of music which seems to be dominated by the pop and rap industry. There are also benefits for the younger audiences though as they can see where today's type of music stems from, and learn about the recent history of music. Although, not proper history such as Beethoven and Mozart, which is aimed towards more classical musicians, and this magazine only focuses on retro music rather than just classical music.

Magazine 3: Kerrang
This magazine is not necessarily chaotic and destructive, but with the edition of Kerrang that I've reviewed in my other post, the model band had a very rebellious and frightening appearance, along with the pentagram usually associated with demons, it inverts the norms and values of society, so the reader of Kerrang must be rebellious towards society. However, the way the magazine hands out free posters instead of CDs to their audience could suggest that they're even closer attached to their audience than other genre artists would be. This could show that Kerrang readers are actually more caring than readers of other magazines, and more dedicated to their representative magazine. Benefits that come with reading Kerrang is that readers can get more in-depth backstage information about the lives of the bands members, which is something that fans would want greatly due to the stronger emotional connection to the bands. What we perceive are bright colours which create a sense of excitement and energy, rather active emotions, and this is also appropriate given that the genre of focus for this magazine is a loud and active type of music. The target readers are teenagers and young adults, as they are still in that stage of life where they are able to be more active before they have to conform to responsibilities and other adult concepts.

Magazine 4: Mojo
This magazine is also somewhat retro, similar to Classic Pop. The title itself is also retro, as "mojo" is rarely said anymore, if at all. I feel the magazine is kind of relaxing as I find the mood to be quite slow. This could be due to the colour scheme which places more emphasis on monochromatic colours than the other magazines. Overall the magazine is similar to Classic Pop in many aspects, and I get the same feelings as such.

Conventions of Magazines pt.3

The contents page is very organised and all fit into one page, where as usually content pages would be made in a double page spread. The list of contents is split into two neat columns, and are interrupted by pictures which can serve as fillers, but they are there for aesthetic purposes rather than just filling blank space, and this overall greatly compliments the overall layout of the page. The lack of a margin should be a threat to the organised layout of the page, but there is content on the bottom and the top which still makes it look organised, and this is done with the picture and the black semicircle with the title 'content'. This is more visually appealing simply because there is more colour and content in this page. The black semicircle with the white text in the top right corner is an example of a wob.

This is different from other magazine content pages, where the contents are either spread out on a double page spread or just all in one column. This is a large contrast with the front cover of the magazine (Kerrang) and this could show that the contents page is like a safe haven or just simply preparation for the madness to come. 

Here we can see an example of the double page spread and single column versions. In the uppermost double page spread above, we can also see the name of the magazine on the top right of the right page, and this helps the name to stick into the reader's head, making it more memorable. A similar thing is done in the Classic Pop magazine, but the name is in the top left instead. This is much better since the audience are English speakers, and they read from left to right. This means that if the name of the magazine was placed on the top left, they would see the name first, as opposed to the Mixmag magazine where the name is not only on the top right, but it also actually small and difficult to see. There is a lot of wob in the Mixmag content pages as all the text is white. Another good thing they did was use models for the cover stories and also placed numbers on them, referring to the page on which they could be found. This is a way to use up more space with less content and will make the contents list appear to be bigger than it actually is. The one the right uses a single model on the page which happens to be one of the models on the front cover. There only being one picture prevents saturation but the way it is goes beyond the pages and to the end of the page makes it look like it's contributing more to the content than it actually is. Like the previous contents page, it also combines model pictures with their cover story page number to conserve space on the list but also making it look more plentiful in content. 

This double page spread is text heavy but it is made to seem to have less emphasis on text with the large picture that even bleeds into the left page. When making these double page spread, a grid must have been used because of the perfect alignment and distance of columns from each other. A drop cap is visible in this double page spread and this grabs the reader's attention and adds more style to the text which makes it seem more desirable to read.

This one is also has an emphasis on text, but once again is made to appear less text heavy with the multiple pictures. A grid has also been used here but not everything is completely straight. There are smaller pictures on top of bigger pictures which are tilted. These tilts, along with the party pictures, gives a less formal mood. Combined with the lighting, the viewers will feel pumped looking at these. 

This one is definitely has the most content out of the three double page spreads. It has a much brighter colour scheme and a great use of pictures, using more shapes than just sharp-edged shapes but also making them look more modern, especially with the speech bubble faces at the bottom left. The bright colour scheme and use of wob distracts the audience from the amount of text in the content and is overall visual appealing. This one was the most picture heavy. It seems to make pages successful, a bright colour scheme is needed as it is eye catching and makes the reader want to take in the design and content.

These two double page spreads have a similar layout design between them. These two pages have separated a large portion of the pictures and text to make it even easier to read and less overwhelming on the eyes compared to the other magazines. The bleed technique is also used so the picture covers both pages and takes up as much space as possible.

This one also uses wob on the right side of the page allows more content to be placed in the page and it matches the colours of the pictures which are black and white. This is appropriate considering the retro theme of Classic Pop.

This one is the most unique double page spread we've seen so far. It has a portrait layout rather than landscape, but this is also dependent on the type of content. In this case, this is not an article unlike every other double page spread we've seen so far.
This page also makes use of Classic Pop's masthead which gives it brand value and continues to stick reader's head. This page has more colour than most of the other Classic Pop pages we've seen so far but the colours are still somewhat retro, they are close to neon colours which are bright (blue, yellow, red etc).