Brief

To design a front cover, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, a minimum of four images must be used.

Polls

How old are you?

15 and under

15 - 24

24 - 35

35 - 55

55

Create your own poll

What is your music taste?

Metal/Hardcore

Pop

Ambient/Jazz

Rap/Hip-Hop

Rock

Electronic

Alternative

Ska/Reggae

Create your own poll

What is your occupation?

Technical/IT

Management

Proffessional

Administrative

Sales/Support

Production/Manufacturing

Other Employment

Unemployment

Student

Retired

Create your own poll

What is your favourite music magazine?

Q

Uncut

Metal Hammer

Kerrang

Vibe

Rolling Stone

Raw Roots

NME

Create your own poll

How much would you pay for a music magazine?

> £2

£2 - £3

£3 - £4

£4 - £5

£5 <

Create your own poll

Which shop would be your first option?

HMV

The Internet

Topshop/Topman

Designer Outlet

Krispy Kreme

Game

Waterstones

Create your own poll

Magazine Evaluation

  In this topic, I was meant to create a college magazine using the conventions of existing models which are available for other students. I began the project with research which was based on the film magazine Empire, and the music magazine Q. By this, I annotated their work by stating the standard conventions of any other magazine front cover. Mainly, I learned that the primary information is held in the left third side of the page so that it is faster to read for the consumer.

  I then went on to annotate a contents page, and in addition, the same concepts were used in editing. Most images are shown on the right side of the page. Annotating the contents page was a useful procedure as there is this page in any magazine in the market. Contents pages help the reader navigate their way to certain features which are inside the content itself. Furthermore, I performed a LLIAR analysis to the front page of Empire magazine to understand the basic features.

  Finally, I began creating my main piece which is the front cover. All of the images that I have used are taken by me except the barcode used at the bottom right. I took a photograph of a student outside of the Oak area of college whilst holding books and folders to make the concept of the magazine clear to a possible consumer. I used a medium shot so that the facial expression and work is the clearest feature in the cover. I believe this is a very good image to use as a cover because it is relevant to the genre. I titled the magazine as ‘W’ as it is straightforward, easy to remember and has relevance to the name of the college. I made small headings to reel the consumer into the idea of purchasing a college magazine with articles. In addition, I placed the idea of ‘free posters’ and ‘50% off subscriptions’ as a selling technique which would  make the idea of buying more appealing to the reader, as this is a realistic method that magazine companies would use.

  Through my research with surveys which I gave to my peers, I discovered that people are not willing to pay a large amount for a magazine of this nature. They suggested that it were to be available free of charge, however speaking realistically with my knowledge of business, it would be unlikely that this would be funded by the government if it were to be created. I set the price as £1.99 as it is not a lot to ask and students would be likely to pick this up for a small price. I believe that I carried out this project successfully and my concluding product would appeal to many of my peers.

Final Magazine Cover

Conventions of a Contents page

  Here are the conventions of a regular contents page. Through researching and annotating a contents page, I have discovered that there are certain requirements. Consumers look at the contents page in a magazine if they have purchased the product for specific articles or features. This is why it is placed within the opening five pages of a magazine generally. The requirements of a regular contents page is to feature an attractive piece of information which is useful to look back on for the whole magazine. This is done by posting the features' headings on the left third side of the page for easier reading. On the right side of the page, editors often place the main features with bigger pictures to eliminate the point of searching through the left hand side. As with most pages in a magazine, there is a main picture, page number and title. These are the main conventions of the contents page.

Mood Board

Survey

 In my survey, I asked five specific questions to try and get the most accurate readings to project onto my final idea. By doing this survey, I can get realistic opinions of my peers on what to base my magazine on.

  The results which I got came up with these results:

● 100% of people had come back with results claiming that they are interested in reading about music.

● In addition to the first question, 70% said that they would like to read about films, 20% said they would like to read about games and 10% said that they would like to read about sports.

● I asked for the gender of those who took my survey, so that I got an understanding on who would be the target audiences and who would be most likely to read a college magazine. The results came up with a standard 50% of males and females. However, males were those who were more interested in reading about films and games and only one female asked to write about sports in the magazine.

● The third question in my survey was generally asking how often those questioned are to purchase a magazine. 90% came back with results claiming that they only buy magazines once a month and only one person questioned said that they buy magazines once every few months. This gave me a concept on how often my target audience is to purchase magazines and that it would be ideal to only create one which is released once every month.

● The penultimate question was if those questioned would actually buy a college magazine if one was to be released. 60% claimed that they would be interested in buying one, however 40% said that they would not be interested. This is simply not enough demand to carry on and release one as a lot of survey answers are not reliable sources.

● Finally, I asked if the people involved in the essay would rather be seeing images or columns in their magazines. This was asked as it is good background research for the content of my final product. 70% said that they’d rather see images, 10% claimed that they would rather read columns and 20% went out of the chosen categories and said that they would rather have a mixture.

The Properties of a Standard Magazine

These are the conventions of a standard magazine cover.

LLIAR Analysis

Basic Structure of a Magazine

  This is the first annotation I created of the main properties in the front cover of a magazine. This highlights the features which are used in the majority of magazines which are available in shops and how they use certain features to draw in the consumers attention and make their product seem more appealing.

  Firstly, and primarily, there is a masthead which is featured in every magazine almost always at the top of the page being the most bold area in sight. This is always the title of the feature which is usually made to be under three words so that it is memorable. Followed by the masthead, there are subheadings, or selling lines and the dateline underneath with a smaller size as they are not as big of a selling point as the title itself.

  In addition, the second most outstanding element of the front cover of a magazine is the cover line. This tells the consumer what is the main story inside the cover. It usually relates to the main image used and gives the main aspects of the magazine summed up in a few words. Editors often use a relevant and recent topic as their front cover image and main cover line so that it has more appeal. In more depth, there are usually additional cover lines to tell the consumer what is also contained inside the magazine, these are found in the left third (the majority of the time) or at the bottom to fill the cover page up with information.