My Music press Front cover and Contents Page

This is my music magazine's front cover and my contents page. In order to create the final outcome there were many design processes to get different effects for my first cover. Firstly as my target audience ranges from 17-23 I had to ensure that the design will forfil their needs and attract them to buy my magazine.  While I was creating the front cover I also had to consider the:

• Colour
• Layout
• Information text used on the front cover to give the audience and insight to what is inside the magazine.
• Language

To create the cover, I had to take many photos that I would be using. I wanted the front cover image to be at a mid shot angle. Once all my photos were taken, I then began to edit the photos slightly to make the photos stand out because of the effect. Once all the photos were taken, I then had to decide the background colour and the masthead. I decided to have a black background colour as I do not want the background colour to over-power the masthead and the images. I also think that black is quite a bold colour therefore it still attracts the audience. I then had to decide the font colour which I would be using. I had to choose from a paint panel as these were the colours that were available to me. I chose  the colour pink as I feel that pink is a fun colour, and the shade of pink that I decided to use is very femine and girly.

Once the background colour was decided, I then had to create the font for my masthead. I wanted the font to be unique and eye catching and a BOLD font. Therefore I went www.da-font.com to get my font as they have thousands of different styles of font. Once I found the perfect font, I then edited it on photoshop. I changed the background colour to black, and changed the font colour to white.  I felt that this makes the font bolder and unique and still manages to appeal to the target audience.  However I decided that for my masthead I wanted two different fonts so that it appeals to more women because they should either like one font or the other font.  I also felt that by having two different fonts that make up the masthead, makes the magazine have a different appeal because it feels that is attracts a variety of women.  I wanted the second font to be very soft and gentle which stereotypes women because women are seen to be the gentle and more sensitive then men and are seen to be the more caring gender.  Therefore I want a font to represent and support this stereotype. The font I chose is very feminine because its very soft and tender and this holds the right emotion.


Once, the Fonts and Main image were decided and inputed onto photoshop to create my font cover, I then had to add all the information onto my front cover. The additional Information that I had to add where the Bar-code, the date, the issue number it was and other features which was Inside this weeks issue. Here is the process of how I made My font cover.

To gain extra knowledge on previous magazines covers, I based my front cover on KERRANG magazine, as I feel this cover best appeals to there target audience. There do this is many ways, firstly by the font that they use. The magazine promotes punk and rock music which is seen to be very "loud" and the disfigurement in the text symbolises this. Having big sound represents the big fonts. I like this effect because it attracts its audience and because the font is very different and can be easily regonised by other audiences as they would become familiar with the font. I also like the design layout that KERRANG uses on the front cover, therefore I based my front cover on this issue of KERRANG.

Contents Page:
While creating My contents Page, I researched different Music Magazines to ensure that I was creating and designing my contents Page correctly. While researching, I found a good contents page in the music magazine of KERRANG, therefore I decided to base my music magazine on KERRANG so that I could be inspired by many different ideas just by looking at KERRANG's context page.

As you see, KERRANG contents page has a very good layout which I like. I like how it is very simple to navigate around with a few images and information but it still attracts the audience. It is appealing to the audience because of the colour of text which is used. Yellow and Black are both very bold and appealing colours as they easily stand out against other colours. Therefore this is my contents page (be-low), I needed to use bright colours with many images which portrays the features inside this weeks issue.

Therefore with my contents page, I needed many images that could be used on this page. I wanted to use images of the artist I was promoting as this was the main article inside this weeks issue that is attracting a lot of the audience. Therefore I decided I would Use 3 different images which would go across the bottom on the contents Page. I would also have to add the different features which were inside along with page numbers to give the audience an idea of what page each article and feature was at.

I also wanted to make my contents page more unique then other content pages, therefore I decided to add a "Subscribe" feature where it gives the audience the option to get the magazine delivered to their door weekly. The contents page also gives a clear understanding of what page you can find a feature on, and by having numbered pages makes it easier for the audience. Here is a process of how I made the contents page:

To create my Contents Page was a long process. This was because I had to add more images and more information. My contents page was made when I had to add the "Edgy sound logo". I decided to add the logo to the top of the page so that audience recongises it straight away and it becomes a logo that they become familiar with. I then added the pink boarder to the left side of the contents page as It was on the front cover and I wanted to substain the consistency throughout the magazine, the "subscribe" feature and the features which were inside this weeks issue.  To add the final touch, I then added the pictures. I had a few problems with the pictures as I did not know where to place these images as They couldn't fit onto the page. I didn't know how many images would be be good and how many images would fit. Therefore I decided to add 3 images and tilt them at an angle at the bottom of the contents page to ensure that they would all fit, and luckily they did.

Analysis of Music press Images

Nickies images for media


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How does your Images reprsent particular social groups?

While taking these images I needed to remember who these images where aimed at therefore I felt that I needed to ensure that my Target audience felt included in these image's. In these images I had to represent the older generation of teenage girls and women who are in there mid 20'S. Girls and women at this age are very much into fashion, beauty, family and friends, therefore I felt that is was necessary to ensure that these images caught the interest that the targeted audience can relate to. In Many pictures I wanted to portray  women having fun therefore in most images the artist is smiling and I believe this portrays all women in a positive light. As a social group I believe my images are more for the women social group and this is because my images symbolise the interest and representation of women in all photos.

 As well as portraying women in the images, teenage girls are seen in the "youth social group". With youth having a bad stereotype that is mostly portrayed by the media and the older generation I wanted to ensure that none of the images portrayed youth in a negative way therefore I wanted all my images  to break stereotypes of the youth. I think I portrayed this in many ways. Firstly all my images are of an artist having fun and just being happy with her-self. My photos also break stereotypes because is some images the artist is looking away or closing her eyes. Most of the older generation view the younger generation of being over confident and displaying there views and opinion in a wrong manner, however these images break stereotypes because these images view a young girl who is looking away which portrays her as shy and this shows her innocence. This breaks stereotypes because it shows that not all young teens are over confident because some are shy to display who they really are. Therefore I feel that my images do portray women in a positive light while breaking the stereotypes of the young youth of today's society.


I think it is important to break stereotypes as it is unfair to judge every different social group in the same image. By fitting the younger and older generation into each different social group gives away everyone's individuality as every generation is seen as the "same" type of person. By the media oftenly referring to the younger generation as "a joke to society" I think they forgot that there the generation that raised this generation.  I do believe that my images break stereotypes and allows individuals to be who they really are and I believe that this creates a new positive light which represents the younger generation of today's society.  

Images For My Music Press magazine

For my music press Magazine, I had to take different photos that I would use in my magazine. I took a range of different shot angle and changed the effects on most photos to add a different feel and appeal to each photo to make each photo stand out individually and make its own statement. Here where the images I took:

Organisational of Photoshoot: 

I took my images of a Friend, therefore we had to organise many things about the photoshoot:

Time

Place

What they would wear

Make up that would be used

Therefore to ensure that the photoshoot went to plan we had to organise it well to ensure that we get as many shots as possible that would be used in my magazine.  I told my Friend to come to my house at 12.00 on a Saturday, as we were taking the photos in different locations in my house. The locations which were being used in my house were against different walls as I liked the colour of the wall therefore it could be used a background.  To make the photo shoot run more smoothly, before my Friend came, I organised the cloths which I wanted her to wear, I had also set up the make-up I would be using. When my Friend came, she was late as she arrived at my house at 2.00pm. This made us lose time as I wanted to be finished by 4.00pm. But when she came she went straight into hair and make-up and then she got changed. We then took many images against different coloured walls in my house. When I took about 2o images I then loaded them onto my computer, were we looked at them and decided which ones I wanted to use. When we choose the ones I wanted to use, I then went on to edit them. I liked the photo's I chose as they represent the artist and my magazine clearly.

Flat Plan of Front cover and Contents Page

To create am over-view of what I want my magazine to look like, I have designed 2 different flat plans for both the front cover and Contents page. I create both flat plans on white paper, then scanned them though to the computer to uploaded the flat plans onto my blog.


My front cover flat plan has a variety of different design techniques that I used. I firstly designed a masthead which is suited at the top of my magazine. This font is bold and attracts the audience to the magazine. The bold font makes the magazine stand out more from other music magazines as the font is very individual.  The font also had a slight pink colouring so that it attracts the target audience as most women like PINK as it is their favourite colour. The additional features around the main image make the magazine look interesting because alot of gossip is inside the magazine.


flat plan:

Ideas For masthead of Music Press Magazine

Creating a masthead for my magazine was difficult, as I wanted to ensure that I had the correct font for my magazine. I wanted a unique font that had a different appeal to it so that my magazine was not like other existing music magazines. Therefore I font 3 amazing fonts That I could use for my magazine. However, to ensure that I made the correct decision I analyze each font on how would it appeal to my Target audience. Once I analysed all 3 fonts, I came to my final decision on font number 3. I liked font number 3 for a variety of different reasons as It is very bold with the use of 2 different fonts, and I liked the fact that both fonts and kept in boxes and I found that this type of designed really worked. I feel that I picked the best font for the magazine, and attracts my target audience of teens and young women and this has lead me to believe that I have chosen a successful font.  

Mood Board for My Target Audience

As my Target Audience for my magazine is Older teens and young adults from the age of 17-23, I research what kind of things that age group would like and what would appeal to them. From researching different things I created a Mood board to show what their interests, hobbies and activities are. I carried this out based on my own knowledge and of those close to me with opinions. Ages do vary to make it a fair result. Here is my mood board:

After creating my mood board, I gathered a better understanding on what my target audience likes and whats their interest's are. From my research, I can see that my target audience are into gadgets and new technologies.I know this because a lot of older teens and young adults use there phones and computers to regularly keep in contact. A increase in social network websites such as facebook and twitter are growing in demand. This is because it is an easy and a free way to communicate with people all over the world. I can also see that my target audience are very keen in fashion and make-up as they regularly going shopping to see what the latest fashion trends are. My Target audience are also influence by different kinds of music culture such as Pop and rock as music plays a role in the target audience life and relates to their life styles.  

Over-all this mood board sums up the interests and hobbies of a teenager and young adults, as these are the gadgets and hobbies they love, therefore what type of music they listen to, and what is displayed on social network sites does influence them as they take notice of what there interest and hobbies are advertising. 

Planning for Publication

This is a brief Planning for publication on who my magazine is targeted at, and what fonts and colours that can be used in my magazine.

Front Cover Analysis Slide

My school mag power point.

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After creating my pre-lin task of creating a school magazine front cover and contents,  I had to analyze why I created my magazine to look like the final outcome and why did I use the fonts therefore I made this slide.

Analysis of Prelin Task

Front Cover and Contents Page of Pre-lin Task:

Overall I think the pre-lin task gave me a better understanding of the final outcome that I have to complete of the music magazine. I have found out that it is very important that I have a magazine that is relatable and appeals to to my target audience. I have to create a magazine that entertains and forfills there needs when they read a music magazine.

As a Pre-lin task I had to create a school Magazine which will be read by Teachers, Pupils and their parents.  It was a long process because I have to make many decisions of what will attract Readers to the magazine. I firstly created my font which I made on Photoshop.  I chose a font that stood out and this font was very fun and unique and it have an edger appeal to the Magazine. I then changed the effect of the Writing by adding an outer glow, with a darker bolder line around the font. I then added the color Blue, as Blue is a versatile color as it appeals both Boys and Girls.  While creating the font, there was servail layers of the font, as I was continuously changing the Bold-ness and outer flow of the Font until I found the perfect Balance of Boldness and outer Glow. 

I then had to go around Acland Burghley School to take servial pictures that could be featured in my school Magazine.  I wanted to get images of pupils in their normal school environment; therefore I took pictures of Pupils in Class rooms doing work. Then I wanted to get pictures of the school to show where lessons and other fun activities are taken place and this is why I took photographs of the School Hall and the Football pitch. While taking pictures I also had to get a range of different shots such as Long shots and mid shots to give more of an effect to each of the pictures by taking a range of different shots. 

Once all my photos had been taken, I then uploaded all the photos onto Iphoto, this allowed me to view and inspect the photos I took to determine the best ones to use on my blog.  On Iphoto I got the chance to edit the photos. On some photos I cropped the background of the image as it was not needed. On other photos I edited the photo by lightening the photo or darking the photo to give the photo a better image. 

Once my photos were uploading I then had to make my front cover. To do this I had to add my font which I had already chosen and make this my Masterhead. Then I had to add one of the images as my main image. I chosen my mid shot image because this type of image is better as it gives the audience a closer look to the image.  I then added the strapline to the top of the magazine which additional information such as the school website. Once All the edits had been made my font cover was completed.

Once my font cover was completed, I then had to create my contents page. To do so I had to add the same master head to show consistency to the magazine. This also adds a professional feel. I then labelled the pages with the numbers, this is so it is easier for the audience to navigate around the magazine and to find specific pages they want. If the audience cannot find pages that they want because it doesnt have a clear structure of heading and numbered pages it will cause annoyance tothe audience. This may result in the audience not buying the magazine again. Once this was complete I then added images to give the magazine a lighter feel so that it wasnt all text based, this part of the process appeals more to the pupils.

Orginal Phots of Primlin task

For this Task, we had to go around Acland Burghley School to take pictures for our Prelin Task which is creating the Front cover and Contents page for a school magazine. We took photos in different locations around the school so that the target audience of the magazine which are teachers, students and parents can see images which are relatable and be identified to the school.

While taking different photos there where many things that I had to take into consideration in order to get a shot that represents and gives an image of the school. These things were:

• Lighting: In order for my picture to be of a good quality the light balance had to be clear in order for the focus of the photo to be seen.  Also, if I wanted a photo to have a specific effect I had to create it. For example, if I wanted a shadow in my picture I would have to get an angle of the shot that represents a shadow being inside the photo.
• Angle: While taking these photos I wanted to get each photo at different angle shots to make each shot look different and for each shot to give of different view points. To help me do this I used Close up, Mid-shots and Long shots to create a different feeling for each photo. By having a long Shot it allowed more of the shot to be in my picture giving the audience more in the picture by showing surrounding. I have used a close up shot of the Acland Burghley sign because I wanted to get the specific details on the board so that the audience can see it and also because Acland Burghley is the main focus of my task, I have to get an apropiate shot of the school name and sign as this is relevant. Also I took photos from different angles such as straight on angle and at side angles.

In some of the photos I found that the lighting came out a little dark, therefore in some of the shots were lightened in order to make the images have a better quality of light in them. As having a dark effect on the photo's gives of a different feel. I wanted the pictures of Acland Burghley to represent the school postively and having dark photos gives a dark negative feel.

During this task, I came over many challenges as children would not behave while taking the shot as they would do funny faces which depurpose the use of the photo as we wanted to catch children in there natural working environment. Therefore we had to take less photos with children in as many children did misbehave which was very disppointing as We wanted childen in most of our shots however over-all I believe we took good images of the school as my images shows a variety of different places in school giving the audience of the magazine a better pictures of what the school has to offer them.

Masterhead Research

This is my masthead researched. As there are many popular music magazines, I wanted to researched the different ones and how the typography that is used for the masthead resembles what is inside the magazine. Each masthead is used from different typography as each magazine appeals to a different type of audience. Also if all magazine's used the same typography all magazines will be the same as none will have a unique sense of style to them.  From the mastheads I researched, there are many different designs that make each one of the mastheads unique and this includes:

• Fonts- The font is usually based on who the magazine is targeted too. This is because if the magazine is aimed at women, the font will be very feminine and soft. However if the magazine was aimed at men the font would be very masculine and very over-powering to the feminine text. If the text is very childlike with many twirls, the font represents that the magazine is based at a younger audience.
• Colour- The colour of the  font can also represent who the magazine is targeted to as and this is due to the type of colour being used. If a music magazine font is pink it is most likely that the magazine is based at girls as pink is seen to be a "girly" colour, and if the font is a darker colour such as blue it is seen to be targeted at men as blue is seen to be a "masculine" colour.

Uses and Gratifications

Content Analysis of NME and Top of the Pops

As part of the Content Analysis, I had to research what was inside the magazines to see how they were advertising products for the target audience of the magazine. In order for the advertising to be successful, the magazine must advertise and market the correct products so that the target market is attracted. This is important because if it is a product that not many people in the target audience is attracted to then it will not sell. This will show that the advertising has been unsuccessful due the lack of demand for the product. For example, selling sports wear in 'Top Of the Pops' magazine is a product that doesnt appeal to younger girls who have interests in Justin Bieber and makeup. Sport wears beign advertised can be deemed unnapropiate for the target audience the magazine appeals to.

Top of the Pops: 

As the genre for Tops of the pops is young teens, the advertisement price of products is considerably low due to the target audience not having a lot of money as they are still in education. Therefore the products that are advertised must be within the price range so the target audience are able to buy.  “Always” period pads is the leading advertisement and this is because young girls need this product. I believe this is a good product to advertise because it is apropriate product that relates to young girls, it also isnt very expensive.

Comparison Of NME and Tops of the Pops front covers

I want to find existing music magazines to see how they have designed there front cover  to appeal to there target audience. This is so I can get ideas and inspirations for my front cover. There are many ways in which music magazines can appeal to there targeted audience and this can be by the use of images that are used, typography and colours. Therefore by researching a existing music magazine, I will gain a better understand on how they attracted there target audience.

I researched the popular music magazines called NME and Top of the Pops. Both are very popular magazines which attract a different type ofaudience to each magazine. NME promotes Rock and Punk music while Top of the Pops mostly promotes Pop music to the younger generation. I have created a table for the similarities and differences for both contents and Front cover page.

Differences and Similarities on The front cover:

Similarities	Differences
Both Magazines have quite a plain background colour to not over-power the Main image and main Headline. White is a balanced colour, and is very simple and gives off clean cut images of both magazines. White is not a bias colour, and can work with any type of image which is on the front colour of the Magazine.	Colours: Tops of the Pops uses a variety of bright and colorful colours to attract there audience who is young teenage girls. The colours are symbolic to the target audience because most teenage girls likes the colours pink and purple, and this attracts them to read the magazine However NME uses Bold appeal to symbolizes the range of different artists which are shown in the magazine. Red, black and white are contrast colours which attract the readers to read the headlines which are on the Magazine. Red is used as it is a bold colour which indicates maturity to its readers and this corresponds to the magazines target audience who are of an older audience.  Black and white fonts are use to  the magazine so that font is easy readable so this makes there target audience buy the Magazine.
Both magazines uses Main images to attract there readers into buying the magazine. Tops of the pops has a large image of Teen pop sensation Justin Bieber. I think that having Justin on the front of the cover attracts the audience but his fan base is mainly of teenage girls, therefore the image will attract teenage girls reading this specific magazine. NME uses a main image of 2 people from the Group Oasis. Oasis is an older generation band whose main audience is off the older generation, therefore NME know that there target audience are more likely to read this magazine, and not Pick top of the Pops due to there audience not relating to a new generation of newer pop stars. I think both magazines uses images of a different generation pop stars because they have different audiences, and there audience will like who the Magazine is interviewing. I think that both pop stars relates to the Magazines audience because both there target audience are at ages of the Pop stars and they find the stars relatable.	Both magazines uses one main image, however Top of the Pops has a variety of different Artists pictures around the magazine. These images are a lot smaller then the main image, as these images are slotted around the magazine.  This is used so that there target audience can look at the pictures and know that there is an article about that Artist inside the magazine. However NME only has the main image on the front, and this is because the older generation of the magazines likes to read articles, however the younger generation prefers to look at pictures with a small amount of text.  Both magazines cater’s to the audience by doing this, and this keeps there audience enjoying what is inside both magazines.