General Plan of What I Want My Magazine To Look Like

I have designed this magazine cover to show the main ideas i have for what i want my magazine to look like. I have used the band 'You Me At Six' in the plan as they are a stereotypical portrayal of what in indie/alternative band may look like. Due to my target audience alsobeing mostly males- using this band on the conver may act as inspiration to my audience and therefore persuade them into wanting to purchase the magazine. The title of my magazine is 'Pulse' and is displayed in a bright blood like red colour to suggest that buying this magazine is vital to your health. On my magazine I want to include offers such as 'The £1 Issue' to attract more people into looking at what they will personaly gain from purchasing the magazine and i also believe giving sneak previews of what else is in the magazine placed at the bottom of the cover is imporant as it can help make people decide if they like what is coming up in the issue or not.

Plan of What I Want In My Magazine

Pricing of My Magazine

Looking at the different socio economic groups it is clear to me that my magazine will be targeted mostly at people within sections D and E. This makes it clear that my audience will not have much money and therefore will have to be wise with how the spend it. Due to this I have decided to price my magazine at £2.00 per issue, and there will be issues brought out monthly on the first date of that month. My magazine will be compared to others such as 'Q' and 'NME' which are priced at an average of around £3.00 therefore charging a lower rate for my magazine will attract their audience and also a new audience of people looking for something cheap to read. I will publish my magazine on the first of every month as this is an easy date to remember, also if the students who this magazine is targeted at have jobs then this date will be directly after their payday therefore they will have money to spend on leisure and recreational things.

UK Population Specifics...

Demographic Reasearch...

Target Audience Of My Magazine.

The main audience that I will be targeting my magazine at is mainly people within the age range of 16-25. I believe my magazine will mostly appeal to men due to the fact it is based on underground and alternative sort of music. By using the age range of peoplefrom 16-25 it will appeal to students and people who are begining to gain an interest in going out to gigs and cheap concerts which involve the sort of music that my magazine will contain. My magazine willl have a secondary audience of females, this may be if they have friends who buy this magazine or just if they are generally interested in it themselfes. Demography of England shows that 10.92% of all English citizens are between the ages of 16-24, in total this is around 5,361,556 people therefore i believe this is a good age range and social group to target my magazine at.

Ideas and Inspiration for my magazaine: (MOJO)

Ideas and Inspiration for my magazaine 2: (NME)

LIIAR analysis of brief;

Language:
My product (music magazine front cover) needs to contain things such as a short and bold masthead in order to be eye catching and memorable. The mast should be the first thing the eye is drawn to so the audience can establish what the product is straight away. The main image of the front cover must be a medium close up- which will involve just from the shoulders and above being shown. This ensures that the magazine cover looks more personal as it is close and therefore you can see everything about the person in the image. Another way to make the image more personal is to use eye contact. This targets people into buying the magazine as they feel as though they are a part of the image due to direct contact from the person within the magazine. I will use a bright colour scheme on my music magazine however I believe it's important to only stick to a 3 colour theme in order to keep the audience interested in what is placed in front of them. Using bright colours will make the magazine more interesting and draw in the audiences eye, using smaller thumbnail images on the cover will also draw in an audience as it is giving them a sneak preview of what is coming up in the magazine and therefore will give them the feeling they want to continue reading to know what is going to happen. Magazines such as NME also use techniques such as anchorage as shown on the ‘Lily Allen’ issue. As you can see- much like magazine, the masthead is at the very top of the page and is in a bold red font. This automatically attracts the eye to this area of the page and therefore the first thing the audience establish is who the institution of the magazine is. Another thing that these 2 magazines have in common is the fact that the next thing your eye is drawn to is the main image on the front cover. This is of the artist however both layouts and images are different from each other. Anchorage is used so that the audiences eyes are drawn to certain sections of the page at certain times in order to ensure that the institution of the magazine is promoting and trying to sell as many issues as possible through the art of persuasion and creating an eye catching front cover. Displaying the barcode and price is an important aspect of having a magazine cover. Usually if there is a special off or introductory price of the magazine then this is displayed bolder and eye catching then if the price is a regular rate. The barcode however is dull and boring therefore is usually placed in the bottom corner of the magazine so that it doesn’t draw any attention away from the information and images that are placed on the front cover to grab an audience’s attention.

Institution;
To be able to sell and produce my magazine successfuly I need to find a suitable institution such as IPC or Bauer Media. Both of these institutions have UK and global succcess and therefore i believe that i need to look into how the genre of my magazine would fit in with either of these institutors.

Ideology;
Due to the genre of my magazine being easy to establish, there is a specific niche audience that i need to represent things in specific ways to. This can be done through use of model and the props and costumes within images, colour themes and house styles and also the content within the magazine.

Audience;
In order to create a successful magazine it is important to have you're ideas set on a target audience. This is so that you can use conventions in order to appeal to different social groups or age ranges. In order to establish what kind of audience you want to target demographic and socio economic group research can help with this.

Representation;
Representation links to who and what is addressed within the magazine. This includes gender, orientation, age and interests and can be portrayed through aspects such as images and models used in the magazine, headlines and interviews and also the costumes of which the models wear- including hair, make up and the setting of the images.

Music Magazine Brief

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style).

LIIAR Evaluation of College Magazine.

The magazine that I have designed for the college sticks to the same type of conventions that those of other institutions also do. It is important to engage key concepts on the cover of the magazine otherwise it may not be appealing to audiences and therefore it will not make a profit or be beneficial to anybody.
Using technology such as Photoshop to manipulate and edit images helped me to gain the effects I wanted; this is an important programme or skill to be able to do in order so create images that are relevant to the media text that is involved. It is also important to be able to edit and customise image so they fit into the text in a technical way.
I used the technique of anchorage on the front cover of my magazine, readers will view the magazine from left to right, then diagonally right to left before reading across the bottom left to right again (In a Z shape) therefore its important to provide the information in this format so that it is simple and easy for audiences to take it. The first thing the audience will see is that the magazine is ‘ONLY £1.50’ and the last thing they will see is that if they buy the magazine they will have the chance to win a cinema ticket. By making sure that the first and last thing the audience sees is that they are getting offers and things that benefit them in the magazine- they will believe that it is important that they buy it. Another technique i used on the magazine cover is using an easily identifiable house-style. The house style of this magazine is green, grey and purple, which matches the colours of the Wyke College logo. This is effective as the students at Wyke will automatically associate these colours with Wyke and therefore know that this magazine is aimed at them. This will work well for my magazine as it won’t even have to be read for my audience to know that it is something they should be looking at.
The institution of the magazine could either be Wyke itself, if only a few copies needed to be printed or they could hire companies such as ‘Issuu’ ‘The PPA’ and ‘UK Magz’ to help publish this magazine. If the magazine was produced and printed solely by the college itself then there will be printing costs and quality to focus on. There is also the worry that the magazine may be over printed or under printed. However if other institutions are brought in to help publish the magazine then there is the cost of getting this help and also the cost of printing the magazine. Usually the institution is given a percentage of the profit that the magazine makes however this varies depending on what companies you go to. I have decided that my magazine will be produced in-house, this therefore means that Wyke will do all of the designing, promoting and printing of the magazine without help from outside businesses. I want to do this to show to the public and students of Wyke how capable Wyke is at achieving goals and therefore if they come here they cal strive to be successful and independent also.
The main image of my magazine front cover is a girl age 16- which is the audience that its targeted at. This automatically attracts people of a similar age range in due to the fact they feel like they can relate to the person on the front because there isn’t much of an age gap between them. The image shows a typical looking college student looking happy and carrying a folder. This suggests that being at Wyke is a lot of commitment to work however it is a very pleasant and happy place to study. Teenagers are represented on the front of the magazine, and from this image it gives off the impression that all students at Wyke enjoy their education there and want to succeed and doing well. Because the focus of the min image is looking direct at the camera this makes it appear as though it is looking at the person who has picked up the magazine, this will give off the sense that everyone is involved in this magazine and it is something that everyone can be part of.
The target audience of my magazine is students who attend Wyke. This is mainly males and females between ages 16-18 therefore i need to make my magazine look mature but still fun and eye catching in a way that will appeal to people of both sexes in this age range. This could be difficult to achieve because of niche audiences which is males and females. The colour purple which is displayed on the front of the magazine and also the image of a girl could be considered very feminine therefore may not attract many boys. However the green and the gray and also the bulletin advertising ‘new sports column inside’ is very masculine. Using 2 different representations helps to balance out who the audience may be and therefore encourages more people to buy the magazine. The target audience is people between ages 16-18 because majority of people that attend wyke are these ages. It is important that the magazine caters to the needs of these peoples ages which is why i have used maturity on the cover by showing a student who is busy working and organising work. This shows students that its important to always be focused on education and work however i have balanced out the seriousness of the magazine by using vibrant colours and displaying that there are quizzes and games inside of the magazine. This gives off the impression that there is a healthy balance between fun and education and therefore this is why it is important for teenagers to buy this magazine. This also relates to value of lifestyles. Students need to be focused and prepared however they need to be sociable and active at the same time- the magazine boasts that these are all things that it can help promote and achieve.
The representation of this magazine cover as discussed before is a 16 year old girl. The denotation of this image is that she is holding a folder and is looking happy. The image shows the girl smiling and looking directly at the camera and also she is dressed in casual everyday clothing, holding a bag. The connotation of this image however could be that due to the fact the subject in this photo is looking at the camera and smiling, Wyke is a happy and sociable place. This is also shown by the extravert stance of the subject, by her having her shoulders relaxed back it looks as though she is comfortable and settled in at Wyke and as though she is welcoming in new people (or people to read the magazine). This image also connotates that by holding a bag and a folder Wyke expects students to be prepared and ready however because the folder displayed in the image looks organised- teachers will offer help with this therefore it is easy for students to succeed. A final connotation of this image is that students at Wyke are stereotypically casually dressed as though prepared for every day activities. This could suggest however that not much happens at Wyke but on the other hand, it als shows that students are prepared for anything. The subject in this image is wearing a baggy jumper which is a very versatile piece of clothing. It suggests that at Wyke students must always be waiting for the next thing to happen. The final representation of this image is that college students are all confident and sociable. This is a good thing as it will attract more of an audience as the image looks as though the subject is approachable and happy which therefore gives off the impression that everyone at Wyke is as cheery and happy as this. It is usually stereotypical that teenage girls are moody and argumentatitive, so it is important to express on the front of the magazine by using this image that by coming to Wyke this stereotype can be defeated and people become more mature and change into kinder and more generous people.

How I Would Promote My Magazine:

There are many ways to promote my magazine, these could be things such as posters around the college or information about the magazine on the wyke site (www.wyke.ac.uk) to the left is an example of how an advertisement for the magazine would look on the wyke home page. This is a site of which both students and parents can visit and can be accessed anywhere therefore will gain a lot of viewers a day. This is important as it is also placed in an area that my target audience (16-19 year olds) will visit regularly. The advert is bold and eye cathching due to the right green which is why i think this is a simple and effective way to advertise. It is also free as it is an in house magazine and therefore we are providing it ourselves.

FINAL front cover

This is my final front cover with the reccomended changes given to be as feedback by the people i asked that were of the age range that i'm targeting my magazine at.

contents COMPLETED.

This is my FINAL contents page idea. I am changing my front cover however the feedbac for this was good because it dooesnt contain lines telling you the information of what is on each page- the structure is in a zig-zag and therefore is more appealing and eye cathching. This page is also good as it sticks to the same colour theme as the front cover.

first full design of cover

This was originally how i wanted my magazine to look. The simple purple and green colour theme sticks to the logo of the college therefore it is easy for students (the target audience) to establish that this magazine is giving information of the college. I was given feed back that this magazine cover may not be suitable as the main image doesnt display anything to do with education and therefore just looks like a random person. I was also given feedback from people within my target audience to say that i need to try and give some sort of offer displayed on the front of the magazine to attract people into looking at the magazine and buying it. I will make these alterations and post the new magazine cover.