Music Magazine: Research (View Full Screen)

What I have learnt from my research, is that to have a successful magazine, you need a clear grid structure on you cover page and a strict colour scheme through out your entire magazine. The layout and representation is almost as important as the content; therefore, it is important that all aspects of your magazine are meeting your standards.
I have also learnt that it is a key technique to involve the audience individually as much as possible, and have picked up on a few unique way on achieving this subtly in my research. The contents page has to be inviting, otherwise the audience could neglect it, failing to observe some contents they may intrigue them further on in the magazine. This is vital if the audience is uninterested in the beginning few pages.
I have established a layout of a contents page I feel confident I can reproduce to the best of my ability, as one lay out in particular was reoccurring and I found the most effective.
I discovered that the content of an article is greatly important and there are some techniques I can use to intrigue the audience. For example, pull quotes, controversy statement or direct quotes from the music icon.
 I have chosen the genre of Rock music, as I found it the easiest to research and it had a very clear colour scheme, and presented itself as extremely professional. I feel it's best to replicate this genre's target audience as it is obviously well experienced on who would best like to read their magazines, as they tend to aim more specifically to this demographic; males from approximately sixteen to twenty-five (16-25).

School Magazine Front Cover: Analysis and Evaluation

When reflecting over the masthead in general, I felt that it appealed to my target audience perfectly; the colours were bright yet grasping that certain formality of a magazine, however, still colours primary school children would find inviting to be interested in the product. Also, I felt that actual name used for the magazine was inspiring to my target audience and really captured what the aim of the magazine  was (in relation to what the target audience find most pressing at this age) and it's originality in comparison to other magazine of a similar target audience.
In greater detail, I felt that the connotations of the magazine were simplistic but effective. The actual text was purposely placed to exceed the box, suggesting that of the cleshe to "think outside the box", inferring the primary school children to be creative in what they hope to achieve with their life (text's embodiment of a shooting star); a positive message, and, in essence, what the magazine is centred around. The text's size, I felt, was adequate for drawing attention to itself, without overwhelming the page. The text's font was chosen on the withholding of a certain formality of text any even slightly renowned magazine is structured by and the relation to a child's handwriting at this stage of their life. This helps the audience to relate to their own lives, as well as appealing to a large demographic of my target audience as the font of a primary school child's handwriting is so generic at this stage of their learning.

I chose the image to relate to my target audience; ensuring that they did not feel the magazine was aimed for a higher authority such as parental figures, but to them themselves; building a sense of trust with the brand. I felt that the main image was an appropriate size as it fitted well when collaged with other aspects of the front cover. It entails a child looking befuddled; portraying confusion at the life ahead and what she hopes to achieve. Conveying a thought process many children experience at this stage, when they are becoming more of an individual and creatively seeking out any talents they may obtain. This is why I chose this image as my main; it portrays what my magazine aims to aid children with; helping them to develop their creativity and feel important in this very significant part of their lives. I composed this image with the clothing as uniform purposely, this helps to keep the magazine focused on the idea of school also, and not lose its initial target audience, and helps the children to relate and connect this creativity into talents with education; hopefully increasing their interest in such.

When considering the use of subsidiary images, I thought them vital in relation to who I was aiming this magazine at. Primary school children would not, in general, be interested in a cover page weighed down with a mountain of text and unimaginative colours like black and white. This is why I used four subsidiary images to convey many of the messages on the cover page. Using some to display advertising, to help generate a cycle of income for the company and the advertiser's. The subsidiary images have been purposely placed smaller that the main image to render them as less important than the main image. On reflection however, the size of the three bottom subsidiary images I still feel are slightly too large for the page, even though they do symmetrically fit and are key to present the grid structure, a long with the sell lines, pugs and masthead. The contents of the subsidiary images are a clear indication of what the target audience finds appealing and also, appeal to a wider demographic of parental figures who might be interested into purchasing these products; further generating a cycle of profit.

On the subject of language, I used three sell lines with an addition visual representation of one, a splash and banner/footer lines. The strap lines are purposely extremely inviting into the magazine which is what I aimed them to do "MORE INSIDE" as this is the aim of the cover page. One question the reader as if in a conversation "Do You", this makes the audience feel individualised and important; further creating a sense of trust in the relationship between the brand and target audience. The sell lines also used red font colour and the banner/footer lines; white and yellow (singling out key words to attract the audiences attention; a contrasting coloured (yellow against the white) "YOU") to distance the magazine from the viewed as 'boring' with black text, and create originality without jeopardising the magazine's reputation on formality; as it is a colour which maintains within the group of five colours in the colour scheme I have chosen to represent the formal approach of a magazine (red, yellow, white, black), yet still aiming for a young target audience (blue).

The splash uses font of a bubble like presentation as it would appeal to the target audience far greater than a uncreative black and white phrase. To further interest the audience I used a pun, as I felt this age group would appreciate a play on words as it would their brains would be flowing through a creative thought, something children seem to thrive off at this stage of their lives. The pun used was "BACK TO S'COOL"; playing on the word 'school' to create the word 'cool'; connecting the two and fuelling the relationship between the two that the magazine is portraying; that you can aspire into greatness with a good education and developing your talents. This idea of a pun was not initially thought of in my planning or earlier drafts, but I felt it was needed as I was developing the cover page as it embodies creativity, to the best of my ability. During my drafts, I spent time re-reading any texts as an essential key task in the progression, therefore, in my understanding there is no spelling or punctuation flaws on the cover page; any that have been found have been removed or changed to render them non-existent. As previously stated, three fonts have been used appropriately to their purpose, one on the splash to create a creative visual effect; a curvy, almost bubble text, one within the masthead, as previously fore mentioned to create the relation to the target audience, and one when using the sell lines and the banner and footer lines to create a more formal representation of the magazine, aided with the appeal of colour.

The layout of the front page has, I feel, a clear and well organised grid structure bad around the main image, yet highlighting the masthead, as intended. It uses the specific colour scheme previously said in my analysis and evaluation. This helps the magazine to connect its aspects (eg. banner line, sell line, splash, etc) to one another to present a certain uniformity and representation of a trustworthy product from its professionalism.
I feel that I have though out each detail of my cover, and referred it back to my aim and my target audience which is key to generate interest and make a magazine a success, a part of this is to ensure the focus is school based; this I have made clear through the connection between your life's achievements and education, boosted by using the model for the main page as a relation to the target audience as a school child in specific. This, I consider to be a successful aspect of my magazine.

Another positive would be that it shows diversity in comparison to other brands and signifying the importance in allowing children to find individuality, as society wouldn't progress if humanity were identical and generic in every aspect of their lives.
Thirdly, I would suggest that if made a reality, this brand could progress and cover a different target audience. Perhaps the fifteen to nineteen who are face with the life altering decision of a career path and qualifications, rather than seven to eleven range.

If I were to suggest three targets to improve, the first would be the aforementioned slightly smaller subsidiary images. Perhaps to display a slightly more filled grid structure, which would have been more available to do with a larger time schedule. Finally, for my target audience of my music magazine, I would pick a genre which allows me to keep a closer defined colour scheme, so as to present a profession presentation further; for example, rock or indie.

InDesign Final Draft

This is my final draft of my school magazine for my preliminary task.
At this point in the progression, I was at the stage of final tweaks to perfect my design. One of these tweaks was grammatical errors "PriZes". Another, that I found that the right-hand side looked slightly bare and yet, in contrast, the left-hand side looked almost over-filled. From this, I decided to relocate my sell line to the opposite side of my cover page. By happy coincidence, I additionally found that the red colour of my text stood out far better upon a white background and the movement had rectified the problem of a clustered to desolate ratio.

To compliment this, I spaced out my sell lines to give them individuality, yet still keeping them close enough to each other to be both identified as sell lines that are part of a grid structure (now mirrored from the initial planning). Also, I displayed one of the sell lines around a visual aid; "?" used to immediately convey the audience that their is some level of creativity involved in this magazine, or shall be in the near future issues; creativity being a keen interest in the majority of young children (target audience) and, therefore, will help to draw them in.

This is my mock contents page for my school magazine. It is only a basic design as I only wanted a digital draft, and did not need to carry it further in my coursework. I also attempted to incorporate aspects of the front cover, to keep the theme. However, I don't consider this design as a favourite, and I will be attempting to use a different approach in my music magazine, for example, a higher aged target audience and a diferent colour scheme.

InDesign Draft: 4

When further constructing my magazine cover, I considered to introduce a subsidiary image to accompany my advertising pug. I thought this as a more believable form of advertising for this target audience, as children are far more attracted to colours and images, than text.

I also introduced an extra pug onto the cover. This was not displayed in my planning, however, I did specify a quarter of a pug edging in from the top right-hand corner. Unfortunately, I was unable to present this, due to time restriction and the technical difficulty; wouldn't of been able to have been created using this software, or not to my understanding. Therefore, I used another circle-shaped pug to convey the price. The reason I choose this shape again, was not through ignorance or a lack of creativity. I felt it compliment the curved look of the splash and the other pug, whilst drawing attention to the contrasting sharp edges of the masthead; which is one of the features the issues wants to be the most memorable.

In reference to the masthead, I noticed that in previous drafts, the actual text wasn't displaying the effect I had intended. I had thought to portray the text overlapping out on the blue background box (as presented in my planning) to convey how the irregularity of this shooting star effect represented reaching out of your comfort zone and breaking free of boring formality. This, in itself, is the essence of which my magazine is attempting to portray.

Moving on to the splash, I decided to remain with the concept of blue curved text. Although, the content of the splash is what I decided it would of been far more effective to change.  Initially, I thought to use "Back to Cool"; as previously conveyed in my planning. However, I felt the connection between the play on the word 'school', to 'cool', was a little to weary, distant and not very memorable. That is why I decided to amend my splash to "BACK TO S'COOL"; I felt it was a play on words far easier to connect and would draw the target audience in far better.

After I had completed all of these features, I then attended to the construction of the sell lines. I needed the content to be basic, as, if it too complicated, it won't interest the audience to read into the entire magazine. This is why I used direct language addressing the audience "You", so that the audience already feels involved and possibly make a trusted bond with the brand and its contents; illusion of a relationship; friendship in which they might feel inclined read more issues in the future.

Finally, I felt that the features needed more definition to separate them from each other. This is why I thickened the outlines; this helped to create a more dramatic and professional perception of the cover page and subconsciously create a professional impression of the content in which it holds and the brand itself.

InDesign Draft: 3

I considered the colour scheme for the boxes behind the subsidiary images. Initially I planned to not have any colour at all, but to just have the images themselves. However, the skills of how to accomplish this were complex in contrast to my own computer skills. Also, I felt the cover had quite a bland look with just the white. This all led to backing the images up with the same blue as behind the masthead; helping to give a more age appropriate feel to the cover; more appealing, and give the cover an almost horizontal symmetry; unconsciously allowing the audience to perceive it as attractive.

Even with this symmetrical design, I felt that the text in the banner and footer lines were too a like and didn't show the diversity of their text needed. I choose white, as so you were perceiving the contract of the opposing texts colour, whilst the contrast of the colour it was displayed upon (red). In addition, it was still in keeping with the specific colour scheme laid out at the beginning.

The box surrounding the masthead gave a certain unprepared look, as though careless and amateur. This is why I removed it; helping to give the magazine a respectful and professional appeal.

InDesign Draft: 2

This is the next progression of my InDesign cover of my school magazine. Straying from my original planning and my previous draft, I changed my banner line colour to a red, to match the footer. I felt this gave the magazine more of a clear structure; the different and almost contrasting, colours made the magazine look more amateur and had a sense of disregard.

I gave my masthead a blue background box, so that it would be more contrasting and stand out more visually to the audience. This was a main concern, as I considered this one of the priority aims to accomplish in this cover page; attract the audience to the masthead; make the brand's name memorable.

I initially thought to place my pug in the top right-hand corner on impulse that it filled the magazine far more effectively. However, after consideration and comparison with my planning, I decided to move the placement to below the mast head; to give a more clear grid structure.

The main image has been was placed with good accuracy, I thought. The concern was that it would overpower the magazine with it's size to fit. Although, I believe it's boldness is capturing to the appeal of my target audience (primary school children). It immediately summarises the bases of what the magazine is about, just in itself; body language, age, clothing etc. This is what I felt strongly about personifying in my main image.

Initial Production of Front Cover

Currently, I have been working to produce a suitable front cover for a school magazine, using the technology of Adobe InDesign.

This is my progress so far. I have decided to keep the background white, as it will be clearer to see the sell line text when it is added.

The pug was created, and initially, I had a thought to change it's position on the page. However, after consideration and a fresh look later on, I came to the understanding that I feel it would disfigure the grid structure too much. Therefore, I will rearrange the pug's position in further production.

The banner and footer lines have almost contrasting colours to each other, to stand out to the target audience. Internally, the text upon these lines are also contrasting to their backing colours; so that the audience is drawn to the text. However, I am not sure at the moment, whether to keep the black text upon the blue, black, because I don't feel it stands out visually enough, against the blue.

The colour scheme is based on the general format colour scheme almost all magazines seem to apply to; black, yellow, white and red. These colours create a certain professional style to the magazine, and are also contrasting so much, that that complement each other in reading style. Although, as I made my target audience young, I decided not to comply with that quartet of colours, as I felt they were too mature and bland for children. I decided to include blue into my colour scheme; this I found was linked to many children products through research.

Main Image for my School Magazine

My main image was initially thought to be an astronaut; based on the idea of child aspirations for their future. The colourful cartoon that would generate a child's interest into whatever they would like to do with their lives. This idea for an astronaut, was constructed during my planning as it was a unisex figure which could involve gender, stereotypical child occupation icons, but have the academic side; it might link with any school work connected to astronomy, and that you have to persist to achieve this as your profession.

However, when further developing my idea into practicality, I realised that using my own photography to capture my idea was an impossibility. Therefore, I re-thought my concept for a main image and produced the concept from a slightly different, and more relatable, angle; this was a medium close up of a child in puzzled thought over what to become. This help the audience (children) relate more the concept behind the issue from a more realistic view point, as it creates empathy as to the situation.

 



 This is my image for my school magazine cover. The clothing is school uniform, to re-enforce the genre and to specify and relate to the target audience (school children). The expression is a mixture of puzzlement and almost depression, at how she can not grasp an idea or an icon she can aspire to. This situation can often be an experience filled with the sense of loneliness and isolation, as it is one of the biggest decision children seem to be constantly on their minds at this age. This is why it is a child posing, not a young adult or an authority figure; so that the target audience feel connected to the something that understands, and build up trust with the magazine. I have used no other models in the photograph to capture this concept of loneliness further.

 

Unfortunately, I found that the background of the photograph gave a certain amateur feel to the picture and did not fit with the message that I was trying to convey. From this, I made the decision to remove it using the editing of pain to remove anything unwanted. However, this feel to fault, as the tools of paint made constructing a smooth outline of my specific shape almost an impossibility and was quite strenuous and time consuming. This is why I decided to use Adobe Photoshop to isolate my back ground and clear it away with ease. The overall result, I felt, look more professional and clean cut.

Subsidiary Images

 

These photographs are my subsidiary images I have taken myself, without any editing at this point; I have not yet removed the backgrounds. The purpose of these advertising images, was to perhaps to appeal to a wider audience; stretching on to the parents, as well as the children.

 

 

These are my photographs for my advertising of note pads, I choose child-like designs and layered them according to how I have researched is appropriate for magazine layout. The angle I prefer is the bottom left photograph, because you can clearly see all features of both note pads.

 

 

 

I decided to use a pencil case as part of my advertisements, because a pencil case is one of the few things children can bring then individualizes them and shows creativity in school. Some consider it the starting point in a child's fashion sense and there perseverance to creatively show their individuality openly to others. 

 

 

 

The idea of these photographs were to further appeal to the individualising, children seem to crave. However, I decided, that this type of product, even though realistic to sell, was not strong enough to be displayed using the actual product I had in hand at that time. Therefore, I don't think I will use this photograph in my design.





 

When considering the content of my subsidiary images, I did not at first consider shoes, as I used the concept of shoe advertising in my pug. However, I compromised and decided to use a picture as a visual aid in my pug. I was torn between a PE (Sports) education style shoe; trainer, or a traditional uniform shoe. Ultimately, I decided on a traditional school shoe, as it is more focused on the genre of the magazine; it applies the best.

 

 

 

I definitely wanted to advertise school clothing, as I felt it had to biggest attraction, parental market-wise. Although, I was torn between whether to use a model wearing the clothing, or actually advertise the merchandise itself; matching the other advertisements. However, matching could not necessarily be for the better, perhaps the cover needs diversity? I have pondered the possibility of including all three, but I am swaying away from the attraction of the idea as I do not want to over crowd the magazine with photographs, and I was to keep the format of the cover clear.

Priliminary Task Planning

 

 

 

 

This is my first draft of my school magazine cover. I have aimed my target market as primary school children. After research of other magazine covers, I observed that they ran the regular colour schemes of red, yellow, black and white. This is why my magazine cover in general uses the basic format colours I previously stated, but also additional colours like blue (and possibly green in further production). This was to attempt to enforce a creative feel to the magazine, so that primary school children would still find it attractive to read, without loosing the general format of a respected magazine.

 

 

I choose the masthead's colour of yellow to maintain the image of a shooting star (a wish); inspirational magazine for school children, but also, because it is in keep with the colour scheme of a professional magazine (yellow, red, black and white). Also, the irregular tilt helps to break up the magazine; presenting a less formal style as it is aimed for a young target market.



 

 

I decided to base the main image on a well known suggestion of what some children would like to aspire to. I selected the idea of an astronaut because I wanted to refrain from deterring children from reading the magazine based on whether it gave a gender favouritism (footballer/ballerina). Therefore, resulting on the least stereotypical gender aspiration I thought most popular and ending with the concept of an astronaut.


                    However, when realising the preliminary task involved my own photography, I decided to adopt another idea for an image. The new image is of a schoolchild in thought; this helps to allow the target reader to connect with the magazine, as they themselves are of a similar age. Also, it allows the reader to subtly acknowledge the genre of the magazine.

 

 



 

I used the concept of a pug for advertisement, on that perhaps parents might have come across the magazine and be intrigued by the offer, which will generate a fairly equal reciprocal cycle of profit for both the magazine and Clarks.

 

I used a question for the banner line to allow the reader to almost entice themselves to read on. Perhaps this question was unfamiliar to them? This would possibly prompt them to read more into this newly found thought. Perhaps they had already considered the concept and either had an idea or were stuck as to what occupation they wanted in the future. All of this would be inside; able to be directed to through the contents page.

The footer line uses advertisement which generates profit as many will read the magazine if just purely to win. The actually item available to be won is something of which was researched as a recent craze and so many children would be excited by this; creating a vast amount of interest and also trust into the magazine's content and if they will like it.

 

The sell lines I have created are meant to have a certain ambiguity. This allows the reader to interpret how they could contribute to the magazine and connect with others of the same target market because of the thought that other children could see their work and experience the pride of competition. As I progress through to further drafts using Adobe InDesign, I will add more sell lines to give the grid structure more definition. These possibilities of addition at present are, recycling, horoscopes and the results of a multi-school event.

 





When it came to designing the splash, I decided to use a more appropriate colour for the younger target audience; blue. This gives it more of a relaxed interpretation, along with the font. The concept behind the splash was simplistic, "Cool" being a play on school, because the target market would not be able to understand an overly intricate splash. A basic concept would be far more attractive to the school children because it would give them that sense of accomplishment; they are on an equal level to the magazine and feel like they could manage to read it and understand the content.

Underneath the splash, I placed further advertisements. This helps to generate profit and strengthen the grid structure. The items themselves are school themed; parents may be subjected to observing this, in addition to children asking for the items, based on the reliability and trust that was gained through the connections ("MOSHI MONSTER") placed to give the target audience and the magazine a sense of unity and familiarity. The variety of style to the items is so they add to give the magazine a sense of unisex. The aim of the magazine is not to focus the target market to a gender, but to present itself as something all children can enjoy.

 



The concept of placing the scan on the cover page was to give authenticity to the task. I gave an issue date as to contribute to this also.
                        However, I consider the possibility of a partial pug at the top right-hand corner of the cover page, to enable the reader to know that they do not have to pay for the magazine. Therefore, I discard any doubts about reading the magazine arisen from the initial thought of price, as the funds would be through the advertisements. Although, the issues surrounding the funding are not yet clarified and so the possibility of a price is still existent, and may change in further drafts.