First ideas to be used within my magazine.

Here are some images that I have taken as a practice to become more comfortable with the camera use, with different lighting effects and camera angles. Throughout this trial I have learnt that the lighting backs a big difference, if the picture is too bright it can show up minor details that make the image look like it is unprofessional. I learnt to find the right balance between the camera angle and lighting to produce the perfect image. I understand that the images at the moment are not ready to be put straight into a magazine but I will use my skills that I had acquired previously in the year to edit the image using Photoshop. One other technique that I found was to create a natural fun look on the person used, having a fan to the side of the shoot to blow the hair to generate a natural look works really well and adds to the fun look within the image. I will possibly use this technique in my own magazine once I have collected the majority of my final images. 

Publication Plan

Name of magazine: UPDATE!

Font of name: Mister Sirloin

Positioning statement: Central

Frequency of publication: Monthly

Price: £1.99

Distribution: Newsagents across the country, Airports and Supermarkets.

Rationale: (what is the thinking behind the magazine - have you identified a gap in the market?) – The thinking behind the magazine is to grab the audiences attention with an eye catching front cover, consisting of many images and competitions to encourage readers to purchase.
Audience: Young female/male interested in pop music and R'n'B

Style: Fun with a professional tone/look

Regular content: Full of interesting articles, images and competitions. Advertising a variety interviews with different size fonts.

House style: Formal but not boring, set colour scheme. 

Analysing two page spreads..

The two magazines that we are analysing are ‘We love pop’ and ‘Q’ magazine. The first clear difference is the target audiences, the pop magazine focuses on female pop viewers. Where as the 'Q' magazine is targeted at those who enjoy rock music. The specific audiences are easily identified by the certain characteristics that the pages include, i.e the images used, the colour scheme and the topics that are advertise for within the magazine.

One use of colour is consistent in both magazines is the way in which during an interview the questions and responses are clearly indicated by the use of two different colours. The questions are highlighted in red (pop) and black (Q) and then the artists response is in red (Q) and highlighted in yellow within pop. In Q there house style colour scheme is very basic, quite formal with its dim yet effective use of grey. In contrast the modern pop themed magazine uses an array of different vibrant  colours to attract and advertise the certain aspects of the article that you are reading. With blues, whites, yellows, pinks and reds flying about everywhere it is impossible not to find out what is happening with one quick glance, this is very effective for sales as the target audience will be immediately attracted into the goings on within this particular article. 

Both articles have decided to manage the articles by using the artist that the article is focused on and have used a full page image of that artist. Tulisa and Biffy Clyro are all published in natural images to portray a positive aspect of those characters, again used to advertise the fact that the magazine has to opportunity to interview these famous stars. We love pop has used a variety of different images of their main star with other celebrities to possibly widen the audience that will read the article, with Tulisa in photos with modern day celebrities Gary Barlow, JLS stars and Rita Ora. In contrast in Q magazine, the main article is focused on the context. One large full size image of the music band on the second side to graphically show the audience of who is involved in this issue.

One other technique that was familiar in both magazines, that I will include within my own music magazine is quotations. They have been enlarged to give the reader a small inside into what has been said within the interview/article, both magazine have used this. The layout of we love pop is very busy, there is an awful lot going on the page. From images to quotes and sub titles there is a lot to take in, where as in Q magazine there is a basic lay out with there being a set place for everything with allow the reader to comfortably read through the article. I will take this into account when creating my own magazine to make sure that the audience are able to take in a lot of separate details but without bombarding them with useless information. 

Analysis of Contents

The contents page that I have analysed in that of 'We love Pop'. The genre of the magazine is music pop, this is the first technique used to have the name of the magazine relating too the genre to ensure that the target audience can easily see what the magazine is going to include. I will use this within my own music magazine to allow the immediate attention of the reader to be comfortable and sure about what the magazine is focusing on. One major thing that stands out is the amount of images used, there are a total of 18 images used on the contents. This is to regain the balance between text and graphics to continue the attention span of the audience, its obvious but if there was no images used within the contents and all the reader could see is a long boring list of articles then the chances of them continuing with the purchase would be minimal. Again this will be a feature that I will prioritise within my own version of the magazine, I will use graphics and imagery of use of text to attract and maintain the attention of my target audience. The images used directly relate with the articles from within the article, this allows the reader to not only read about what is included but also to glance at the provided images. This will be a clear indication as to what the specific articles are about and also as to what other features such as posters will be inside the magazine.

The second most striking feature of this contents is the array of colours used. Not just any colours have been thrown in, the use of bright electric colours such as yellows reds and blues are used to generate a mood from within the magazine. Pop relates well with up-beat fun music, this is portrayed through the different colours chosen. The main image is of a pop star wearing red and black, this colour scheme is continued from within the text of the contents and a bordering scheme. This adds focus on the main image more so as it relates directly to the whole house style of the contents, therefore adding importance to the article for the reader. The caption below the contents main image is a quote from the following article, again this is used to add extra information that will grab the attention of the reader. Giving an insight into what the article is about will all add to the chances of a customer purchasing the magazine. If you notice the articles that are highlighted through size and image are all of major stars within pop, with the huge amount of following that individually the stars get it appeals well to the audience. This is because if they see there favourite stars then they are more likely to be interested is what the following article will contain.

In contrast to the vibrant colour scheme in 'We love Pop' colours are minimal in the contents of 'Mixmag'. However this does not have to be seen as a negative as I feel that mix mags contents looks more organised and formal although its target audience is not strictly formal. With the basic colour scheme of black and white it offers stability and ensurance of what is going to follow in the mag. On the other hand this colour scheme is countered by the main image, which fills 75% of the contents. The stand out pink jumper that the main character is wearing, along with her bright blue make-up enables her and the following article to jump out of the page to the audience, and subsequently onto the till for purchase. Although there is such a difference in the amount of images provided between both magazine, I believe that 'mix mags' are more effective. As there is only 3 but the sizes are very intentional, the main article relates directly to the large scale image on the contents of the lady, followed by two sub articles with images below. All images continuing the house style of the colour scheme in the corner with the page number in either white or black.

From the two contents that I have analysed, I have learnt that the importance of imagery and colour as well as the important of relevant articles is extremely high. Target audiences would sub-consciously judge the formality and context from within the magazine by the colours used and the style in which the images are presented. I have evaluated the different features from professional contents and there are certain things that I understand are critical to include within a contents page, I will use those features to enable the best possible outcome of what I produce for my music magazine. 

Examples of a range of professional contents pages.

Analysis of Results & Graphs

Summary 

These three graphs are evidence of my results that I collected from my survey that included opinions from 20 separate people. They show the results from the age ranges found, the favoured type of music and the time scale in which they would purchase the magazine. The age range varied from 13-16 to 22-26, this will be the age range that I will be targeting within my music magazine.  The most popular genre of music was pop, this has persuaded my to use this genre for my own magazine. Using images and articles relating to pop charts and artists from within pop. 

What Can I Gain From Graph No.1?

The most conclusive piece I have been able to gain from this graph is the clear favour towards Pop music. This is very helpful towards the planning of my own magazine, relating this data to the age ranges allows me to ensure that I have a specific target audience who my magazine relates to. Before this questionnaire I was unsure what genre of music I should target as I had a rough idea of what age range I wanted to target. However having analysed the results of my survey it is now clear that there are clear links between age range and genre, which has concluded that I will appeal to those interested in pop music.

What Can I Gain From Graph No.2?

The results from Graph 2 were slightly more varied. This had led to me feel that in my own magazine I must spread my target range to appeal to more readers. This is in contrast to limiting my followers to for example 15-17. This can be a positive as it can lead to more variety of articles to offer interest for a wider range target audience. However with these results I have decided to target my magazine for an age range of 17-23. This must mean that there is a balance of fun entertaining articles and then a level of articles that will appeal more to those of the later age. 

What Can I Gain From Graph No.3?

Results from my final graph analysis are clear, the dominant choice was to produce and distribute my magazine on a monthly basis. This has a direct effect on the time scale in which articles can relate to (E.g News from early in the month can still be touched upon). This also effects the amount of articles I must advertise on my contents page, readers will not purchase a monthly magazine if it only advertises 20 pages. It will simply not be appropriate to expect a consumer to purchase a magazine for £1.99 (what I intend to charge) to view 10 articles a month! I have noted this and will ensure that my contents will be suitable for a monthly subscription.

Survey Questionnaire

This is a questionnaire that I have created to gain some further knowledge on what the my perfect target audience would be, including data such as age ranges, favoured genre of music and the distribution timings (daily, weekly etc).I handed out a questionnaire to 20 different people in order to gain some added information on what it is that I should make sure that I have included within my magazine. The main thing in which I am hoping to gain from distributing this questionnaire is to gain a variety of different opinions on what various people want. I could have just made up an age range and genre but I felt it would benefit me in the long term to gain an understanding of what different age ranging what genre wise. Also to gain the link between the answers collected. 

Summary - What I want to gain from this Survey:

• Appropriate Music Genre
• Suitable Age Range
• Preferred Distribution Time Scale (Weekly, Monthly)
• What Attracts Readers
• Whether Content or Images Are More Important