Research & Planning - Front Page Analysis of Existing Magazines

NME

The main image is a picture of a group which covers the name of the magazine this immediately tells you that they are the centre attraction in the magazine. The front cover of the magazine has a lure on it which makes the target audience want to know more about the contents of the magazine. The lure says' Blur Reunion? Now Damon Speaks to NME'this shows that they are trying to get more readers to read the magazine because they are giving the idea that they will be fulfilled by reading it. The masthead is in block letter with the colour red in it , this is to make it stand out; the black background behind the masthead gives it a bold effect so it is easier to read. The band at the front of the magazine immediately tells the target audience what kind of music the magazine immediately tells the target audience what kind of music the magazine will contain. The look of the cover would suggest that the magazine is sold every two weeks. The front cover follows a standard magazine layout with the main image in the middle , with the title at the top ; it also has the 'bitesized' chunks of texts on the front cover. The camera shot of the main image is a medium shot because we can see a normal view of the image. The camera angle of the picture is an eye level shot. Going back to the red in the title we can see that it suggests what type of music it will contain in the magazine it suggest rock , loud , hard music rather than if it was green/yellow it would suggest calm , subtle music. The intended target audience for this magazine by looking at the front cover would be teenagers that are into rock music. The price of the magazine is £1.99 ; this is a manageable weekly purchase for the finances of a teenager. The colours used in the front cover are dark colours like black , red. The primarily youth readership is also illustrated with many editions offering inside of festivals and gossip with bands. The layout offers snippets of information and pictures which make the teenage target audience want to 'dip into the latest information'. The style of NME is also dictated by genre iconography.

Smash Hits

The main image of the magazine which is a picture of Michael Jackson is a medium close up because we can see his face and the rest of his body. The title 'SMASH HITS' positioned at the top of the page and its in red block letters, with each word separated from each other. The magazine has a strapline on top of the masterhead which writes ‘We’re back’ this suggest that the magazine has been away for a while and its back with bigger and better things. The front cover also has a lure which says ‘Micheal Jackson 52- Page special tribute issue' which makes the intended target audience of that magazine want to buy it because MJ was a pop icon that people would want to know more about. The look of the magazine gives you an inside of what type of target audience the magazine is aimed at. The layout of the magazine would suggest that the magazine is sold every week because it has that standard look to it doesn’t look like its very expensive and by looking at the money that would be spent on the magazine you can tell that the intended target audience is teenagers that are interested in pop music. The front cover follows a standard magazine layout with the use of colours, ‘bitesized’ chunks; however the front cover of this magazine would be seen as plain and kind of simple because there is not much going on. The intended target audience (teenagers) will be more intrigued to read the magazine because they are offering free posters, songwords and other things that teenagers are into. The colours used in the front cover are a mixture of dark & light colours e.g. yellow, red, and white.

Comparison between 'NME & SMASH HITS'
NME & SMASH HITS are two very different magazines with to different target audiences. 'NME’ is aimed at the teenage audience that are interested in rock and ‘SMASH HITS’ is aimed at teenagers that are interested in pop. Both magazines have the same target audience but different types of music. Both magazines have a standard layout which consists of text, pictures, lure and strapline. NME’s front cover looks more expensive than ‘SMASH HITS’this could connate that the teenagers buying each magazine have different spending brackets. Also the colours that each magazine has, suggest different things for what the magazine contains. For example NME ‘s front cover has dark colours like red , black this suggest that the magazine is about rock or loud music but on the other hand the magazine ‘SMASH HITS’ has blue , white , red , yellow on their front cover this also suggest what type of music the magazine will contain. Also the sub-heading which is written in the middle of ‘NME’ stands out more than the sub heading written in the middle of ‘SMASH HITS’, this is because the colour of the sub heading on ‘NME’ is white with a black background which makes it more appealing. On the other hand the colour of the sub heading on ‘SMASH HITS’ is red with a dark blue background which doesn’t contribute to well with the idea of standing out.

Research & Planning - Questionnaire & Analysis

Below is my Questionnaire and results for my blog , to let me know what my target audience wants from my magazine.

The questionnaire was done so I can see what my target audience would like in my magazine. When I got the results back I saw that the majority of my target audience did prefer to listen to hip/hop music which gave me an inclination of what genre i should base my magazine around. Also it was by luck that the chosen genre was that I was most familiar with. I usually buy hip-hop/ pop magazine and listen to this music genre , this helped me to familiarise myself with what my target audience wants.
I gave out my questionnaire to 25 teenagers between the ages of 15-19 and they filled it in according to what the question asked , I gave it out to that particular age group because that is my specific target audience. Also i gave it out to a range of 15-19 year old e.g. ethnicity , class , and occupation (if they worked at that age).

Choosing My Front Cover Picture

These are a selection of photos from the shot that I had with my model Hannah. I made Hannah
wear bright colours so it can stand out perfectly against the black background of my magazine also it represents the kind of singer she is (Pop/Hip-Hop).
After evaluated all my pictures I decided to use the last picture as my main image. I chose this picture because I think the pose of her looking away from the camera is a good shot because most magazine have their main artist looking directly at the camera , and I wanted to go against that 'norm' and I wanted to create a new image and representation of my artist.
When I use this picture I will have it under the font of the title. The colours the model is wearing is perfect , because it is so bright and vibrant it can go with any font colour or background colour.

Cover and Main Article

For the main image for my magazine front cover and what will be my double page spreads main focus, I will use a solo artist and not a band. I have decide this as from looking at the magazines 'Blender and 'Black Beat' where they use just the solo singer I think it helps stylistically by keeping the cover clear and clean. I also want the picture on the main from page to be striking and coming out from the page which will be easier with a solo artist. Also it will be easier to organise using just one person to photograph.
When using my model I will experiment with different looks from different eras to see which photos come out the best and would work the best on my magazine. When I take the photos I will as well as taking photos for my main cover, I will take extra photos in the shoot to use on my double page spread.

Preliminary Task

The reason I have two Preliminary tasks on here is because I wanted to show you the hand drawn one to my actual Photoshop production. However the evaulation below is the evaulation of my hand drawn Preliminary task.

Evaluation of School Magazine

The intention for my front cover of my school magazine was to make it bright and vibrant to stand out to the school audience. On my front cover I decided to draw a film strip coming from the Masterhead. I did this because I thought it would represent what kind of school the magazine was for and it would get people to read it more because it would contain information about the arts of the school e.g. music performances , art displays and exhibitions. The front cover consists of a Masterhead, date of issue, a lure and a mode of address.

The Masterhead is in ‘bubble’ letters to connate the theme of the school magazine suggesting that it’ll be young, youthful. Also I used colourful colours to make it more noticeable on the front cover , the colours I used doesn’t have a significant meaning to it but however it is there to connate what the magazine will contain. The date of issue which is positioned on the top right hand corner of the magazine is there to let people know what date the magazine came out and when it will next come out, by looking at it and seeing that it says ‘October ‘09’ suggest that it will therefore come out the following month so it will be a monthly issue. On the front cover of the magazine there is many lure’s to make you want to read further into the magazine. The lure ‘How to Relieve Pre- Exam Stress!!’ is there to make the students read it and what to know more about it, so for this reason that would be the strongest lure on the front cover. Another eye-catching lure would be ‘Win £50 worth of Revision Books!’ this lure would make the students want to read more simply because of the word ‘ Win’ , that will interest them to want to see how you could win. The mode of address used for my magazine is indeed cover friendly, because it is aimed at students , parents which means anyone that is related to school things can read it. It has the look to it that will make you want to want to read the inside by the use of colours, lures and layout. The front cover speaks to the audience by the layout and how the layout is not over packed with too much words or pictures. It is easy to read and is simple and understandable. I decided not to do a ‘heavy’ background on my front cover because most typical magazine contains a full pictured background and I wanted to do the opposite. My background I light shaded with red colour pencil, I chose red because red is the colour of ‘Acland Burghley’ school logo, so I thought it would blend well with that.

The intention for my contents page for my magazine was to make it bright like my front page. I wanted to carry on the bright theme throughout the whole magazine so I intentionally started from the front page through to the contents page. My contents page consist of a film strip which has the word ‘Contents’ written in it, also it contains page number with what each page contains beside it. At the side of my contents page there is a big key which connotes the name of my magazine which is ‘Inside Burghley’, the key signifies that you are finally inside the Burghley magazine. The background style I used for my contents page was a simply choice of background for my front page; I wanted to keep the same theme throughout the whole magazine but with a different choice of colours. The mode of address for the contents page is the same as the front page (cover friendly).

Extended Magazine Research - Blender & Black Beat

I've started my research by looking at Blender & Black Beat magazine. Firstly I'm going to be analysing Blender magazine. Blender magazine is a American magazine that labelled itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". The magazine has been published monthly since 1994.I have chosen to start with this magazine as it is on that is aimed at the audience I plan to aim my magazine towards which is a
pop/hip-hop audience.
On the typical front cover the magazine keeps the same layout that it uses every month apart from one thing that might change which may be the colour of the masthead.
It doesn't use many different colours on the front page which I like because it bring the cover together by keeping it co-ordinated. I think Blender's style works well for a music magazine as it is mirrors what will be inside the actual magazine by just looking at the front cover. The spaced out style works well for Blender as the majority target audience are females and they are a group that will prefer a sophisticated , simple clear front cover but with all the elements a magazine front cover should have which this cover clearly portrays. I also like the way the cover only has one picture on it which works well because it draws the eye to that one picture and also to the rest of the text.
This cover manages to be very simplistic and stylish whilst still making people want to read what is going on inside this is done by making the picture of the artist very big and letting the text fall around it.

Then I started to look at 'Black Beat' which is a hip - hop magazine. The layout of the front page of the magazine is very typical to what they do every month. The front cover does use a lot of colours which I find to be very unique and colourful , because it is not something you would normally see. The style of Black Beat complements the style of blender , both magazines work very well together , that is one of the reason why chose to study both magazines. The front cover is not simplistic but it is very eye catching because your eyes still draw towards the main image and text.

Target Audience - Who is my magazine aimed at?

My magazine is going to be a pop/hip hop magazine but it will have more of the pop genre in it. I have decided to make this as it is the style of magazines that I read and am familiar with, I also think that it will appeal to a large, young audience of both genders. The magazine that I will mainly base my research on is 'Black Beat' die to the fact it is a hip-hop magazine & 'Blender' because it is a pop magazine.I have chosen these two magazines to focus my research towards as it is magazines that I feel has the style that I would like to portray in my own .These magazines focus on the age group I will be aiming my magazine at. I want my magazine to appeal to the age group of 15 - 19 , as I feel that it is the age group that are mainly interested in of pop/hip-hop magazines. They are generally the typical reader of music magazines, however they may not want to spend their money on buying magazine but that age group always tends to want to find out about exicting new artist coming out or new albums being released , its their way of escapism. Blender has a 80% female audience and 60% of their audience are between the ages of 15-19 which will give me greater understanding of what my magazine should include for it to reach my intended target audience. However 'Black Beat' has a 65% male audience and their audience are between the ages of 14-17 which will also give me a greater understanding of what males want so I can include it in my magazine, so neither boys ot girls feel that they needs are not being met.

My peer group also have more inclination than older people to go to see band and read music magazines , that is why I have decided to aim my magazine towards them. My intended target audience are mostly students which means they will have a smaller spending bracket than older people , and want to find things that appeal to them at reasonable cost. However because I understand the student spending bracket I can appeal to their needs to give them what they want for a price that will suit them. By choosing this as my age group it will reflect the interview that will be on my double page , and the pictures in the magazine will have to be youthful and vibrant that will refer to my target audience. This will mean having a singer that will have the style of music that is in the charts at the moment, as it is this age group that is affected highly rated music in the charts.

Magazine Masthead

As I have now decided on a name for my magazine, BREAK OUT!, I have also decided decide what font and style I want it to be written in. However below are the choices I had before I made my final decison.

The first masthead design I wanted to pick was

My intial idea for my masthead was to have it very close together a with little cracks in each word but the I decided to with with a more 'out there' font with something that will catch my target audience's eye. So I decided to go with this font style:

I found after looking at this font , although it is funky and youthful , It wasnt connected for my genre of my magazine it was pushing towards more of a rock target audience. So finally after looking at different fonts and design for my masthead I found one that has all the elements to make my magazine my intended magazine. The font design below is my chosen masthead for my magazine.

The reason why I picked this design for my masthead was because it had elements of pop in the design. Even though it may look like a rock masthead it has signifant features in it that will be well suited for my magazine the certain swirls in the letters breaks the barrier from it being a rock masthead. Also in the letter 'O' in the word 'OUT' you can see that there is a 'B' placed inside it which also connates with the name 'BREAK OUT' , and also it is a musical note which represent that it is a music magazine.

Naming My Magazine

To be able to have chosen the name 'BREAK OUT!' I decided to look at other masthead and what they wanted to get across to their target audience , in terms of meaning and style. After looking at music magazines I have found that they have predominately short and catchy names. Magazines that I have come across this in are 'NME', 'Q' and 'BLENDER'. These names work well as there short, catchy and memorably to a youth audience.

I then had an idea to call my magazine 'BREAK OUT!' because I knew the meaning was polysemic , so people would have different ideas of what they wanted it to mean - still referring to music , it is a short and punchy name that youths can relate to as it relates to the sense of anarchy that youth like to feel that they are a part of, and will hopefully look twice at if seen on a magazine rack. I analysed many magazine masthead to give me an idea of what I should call my magazine , I had to take time to think about what i would call it so it would refer to my target audience. I did my own research into different names i had chosen and then i gave them out to my selected target audience for them to decide what one would be best to represent my magazine.
So then I decided to go with the name 'BREAK OUT!' which was to give the meaning that you can break it from different genre of music and also it could mean breaking out through the speakers e.g. the loudness of the music.
Below are the meaning behind the name ' BREAK OUT!'

Introduction

Welcome to BREAK OUT! magazine. BREAK OUT! is a monthly pop & hip-hop music magazine
which will give readers an insight on what the music industry is up to , and all the latest artist which include interview , posters and reviews. it is a good way for people that want to know about the music industry through the use of exclusive knowledge.

During my work through my research and planning in class , I had to research many masthead and magazine which will reflect upon my targeted magazine genre. also I did a target audience profile which reflected on the genre of my magazine which gave me an idea of the target audience I wanted to aim my magazine at. I then decided to research information on magazine such as 'Black Beat' , 'Blender' and 'Top of the Pops'. These magazine helped me get an idea of what my target audience liked to read or what they found interesting in magazines. whilst doing this I started to look at specific artist such as - 'Lily Allen , V.V Brown , Pixie Lott' etc. My reason for picking to look at these types of artist where that they fashion sense and type of music reflex extremely on what I wanted my main artist to represent , which was a different, unique vibe to the music industry. I also took photos to signify my chosen genre and what the magazine is trying to get out. Overall to get to this point I had to do a comparison between two magazine so I could get an idea of what magazine consists of e.g. masthead, strap line , lure etc. This helped me to get ideas for what makes a good magazine.