Photo Planning (Front Cover)

Today, I have arranged to take my pictures for my front cover. I have aready sorted out the models, props and locations, which I have descibed below:

Models: Ben, Ryan, Lee
Props: None as such
Locations: It will be done virtually anywhere, as I will be editing out the background
Costumes: Casual Clothes and christmas hats, which i have arranged prior to today

Mood Board 1

This is what I believe people who read my magazine may be into.

Possible Stories/ Features

On the Front Cover,I will have a number of stories with the appropiate pictures, so I need to think of features and stories to actually put on there, since the entire thing is going to be made up. In addition, i need story headlines and features for the contents page. Finally, i need a full story or feature to put on the double page spread. This will have to be given some thought before I start to create the actual magazine.


Ideas
Most pre ordered album in UK Chart History
Review on a album(s)
Interview with a main artist (Q&A)
Contenders for the Christmas Number 1
Competitions
Story about a big musicians birthday party
An American Famous artist doing a tour of the UK.
A famous artists 5 favourite songs, ever!

Logo Designing

Now that I have thought of an appropriate name fore my Magazine, i started to draft out some logo's. Here's what I came up with

I have chosen the above design to base my logo on because the portable music player is very relevant to today's younger music fans. Most teenagers/young adults don't go out and buy CD's. Instead, they choose the MP3 format and use itunes to buy online.

My Magazine - Brief Profile

Magazine Name - TCM - The Chart Magazine

Ideology of Magazine - to talk provide information about what's going on in the charts at the moment. It will include information, interviews and gossip on artists currently in the Top 40, ensuring each magazine is relevant to the time it is published. It will also include reviews on upcoming albums and singles, making it a must buy magazine for chart followers all over the country!

Target Audience - It will be aimed at Teenagers and Young Adults, of both genders, mainly because of the diverse number of artists it will feature.

Initial Planning

This was the first spider diagram I did, and I got some good info down on paper, particularly regarding my target audience. The target audience is by far the most important because if I know who I'm creating the magazine for, then I can design almost everything else around the target audience.

(Click to Enlarge)

Planning

Now that I have done sufficient research into a variety of different music magazines, I am now ready to start planning my own music magazine. 

Firstly, this will involve a lot of work on the layout and so I will need to do a lot of drafting on paper. 

Secondly, I will need to plan exactly what I'm going to put in the magazine, whether it will be reviews or 'exclusive' interviews with musicians which I will feature.

Thirdly, I will also need to plan my photographs, which will involve prior thought into who I'm going to use as model(s), where I'm going to take them, whether I'm going to use any props and what they're going to wear.

Fourthly, I will be doing some work on mood boards to show more about the intended target audience.

Finally, I will be doing many spider diagrams, working on names, slogans and catchlines for my magazine.

Contents Page Analysis 3

The media Language of this magazine is largely positive. The text is split up into two sections, which are features and Regulars. This makes it easier to navigate around the page. The whole of the page maintains a colour scheme of Red and Black, which Represents rock music, as black has a connotation of gothic images and red has a connotation of blood and Gore.

As there is no mention of the actual institution, it is hard to call upon who is behind the magazine. Also there are no advertisements, offers or anything to tell who is behind it. However, as i know from researching other magazines, it is almost certainly going to be a commercial magazine, as large institutions tent to target working class audiences commercially.

The ideology of this magazine is to promote rock music, and everything associated. The pictures connote that idea of sex, drugs, rock and roll which the magazine represents.

The audience for this magazine would be a working/middle class audience who like rock music. It would be predominantly male, mostly adults, but some older teenagers. The reason it would mostly appeal to older adults is because of the age of the models conveyed on this page.

The representation of this magazine is to represent rock music in a positive way. The main image represents an average hardcore rocker, perhaps the type of person that reads this sort of magazine looks up to.

Q Magazine Contents Page - Analysis 2

This is a contents page from Q Magazine, and it follows similar conventions to the NME one.

Firstly, I'm going to talk about the Media Language. There is a main image of the Courteeners which takes up the majority of the page. It is the main 'vocal' point if you like. To the left hand side are the contents of the page, with the appropiate page numbers. It is also split up in to two sections, 'features' and 'every month'. Towards the bottom, you've got more contents of the magazine, this time focussed on reviews, and again, the appropiate page numbers are produced. Also, the date can clearly be seen.

The institution of this magazine is Q, which also has a radio station and a website, so it's a pretty big company. It is a commercial magazine intending to make a profit, so a significant proportion of the magazine will be taken up by advertisers. Although no adverts appear on the contents page, thy will appear further throughout the magazine.

The ideology of this magazine is to promote music, and make it seem

Layout of a Contents Page (NME)

Contents Page Analysis 1 - NME

In terms of Media language, you have the logo, which is NME. Although this is a contents page, the editor has chosen to put 'this week' as the main title, which is a bit more informal. To the right hand side, you've got the actual contents of the magazine, with the page numbers specific content is on. It is layed out into appropiate sections (news, radar, reviews, live, features) with the related content underneath. It also has part of a story, with a small article, and two main images, both of oasis. It also has an advert at the bottom of the page relating to the suscribtion of this magazine.

The Institution is NME, which is a commercial magazine with a purpose to make a profit. It relies heavily on advertisers to put adverts in the magazine and so pay money to the institution. The contents page includes an advert at the bottom, however, this advert is not from an external advertiser, but from internal ones who want people to buy their magazine more often.

The Ideology of NME is to promote music, and make it out to be the only good thing. It is for 'proper' music lovers. The ideology is that these music lovers should know the latest, so they are provided with a number of reviews, features and news about their favourite bands and artists, as well as info about the next 'big' thing. All of this can be seen on the contents page.

The Audience for this magazine is people who genuinely love music, and this is shown on the magazine contents page, as everything on it is about music and gigs and reviews.

The contents page represents music to be easy going and relaxed, in a positive way.This is due to the layout, and the choices that have been made. Firstly, everything has been well layed out, and there's as little text as possible. In addition, different bits of text are split up, so the whole thing is easier to read. Secondly, the main images on the front also represent music to be quite relaxed, because the two artists look like they're having a good time.

Analysis 2 - Double Page Spread (MOJO)

This is an another example of a double page spread of a music magazine, this time, MOJO. Again, it follows the same conventions what other magazines I have looked at do.


In terms of Media language, it has a main image of "the Go-Betweens", which takes up most of the left hand page. Additionally, you have the title, which is the name of the artist in this case. However, there is one distinct difference between this one and the last Kerrang Magazine which I analyzed. This one has much more to read than the Kerrang double page. However, a good magazine should have pages which are mainly pictures, and then pages which have long articles. A good mix of the two.         


The Institution is a commercial institution, MOJO, which also has a radio station and a website. Therefore, the expectation would be high of the audience for some good material in the magazine, as MOJO is an established institution. It would rely heavily, however, on commercial revenue.    


The ideology behind this page is to promote the band, "the go-betweens". Therefore, it has a large picture of them, a bold title that stands out; the idea been that the audience will instantly recognize it as that particular group.


The Audience for this page would be people that like the go-betweens, or who have perhaps heard about it. However, it could also be people who haven't heard about them so it has to appeal to newcomers, with the text broken down and images scattered around. In other words, it has a good graphological style.




                            

Analysis 1 - Double Page Spread (Kerrang)

This is an example of a double page spread from Kerrang Music Magazine.

The Media Language on here instantly tells us that this page is based on rock. Firstly, this is because of all the images, which all have connotations of rock (I will explain about this in more detail later). Secondly, we know it's based on rock because it say's, 'kerrang week of rock' in the top right hand corner.

The institution of Kerrang is that it is a commercial music magazine, which makes it's money out of advertising. This page, I acknowledge, doesn't have any advertising on it, but other pages will. Kerrang also has a radio station and even a TV music channel so it's a pretty big institution.

The Audience for this particular page is of course rock lovers; people who like that genre of music.It will be predominantly males, as you don't get many female rockers. But also, you can tell that this is for males because it's only used images of males on it.

The main image has many connotations with rock, and he has being represented as a rock artist. The picture has being taken from a low angle, which introduces superiority to the images meaning. These are just a very few of the conscious decisions that the photographer makes when taking the image.

The ideology behind these two pages is to promote rock music.

Layout of a double page spread

This is an example of the layout of a double page spread of a magazine.You can see that it has a basic layout, with lots of pictures, well organised text in columns, and headings and subheadings. Not only that, but it looks like something you would want to read or scan through. This is because of the variety of fonts and colours this page has. In other words, it's not just good to read, but it's good to look at. Purposely, I chose a double page spread which can't be read (because of the size), however, it's still instantly recognisable as magazine layout.

Basically, all magazine spreads follow a similar layout design. There is a particular way to go about creating a magazine spread and that is what I will need to consider when creating my own music magazine.

Analysis 3- MOJO

The audience for this magazine is prodominantly males, who like rock music. It is people that find rock music interesting and want to know all the latest about it. You can easily tell that this is a rock magazine by looking at the main image and title, which is clearly a rock band.

The institution for this magazine is Mojo, which is the sister magazine of Q. Q radio is aimed at people who read mojo and people who read q. It's a mix of both!
Again, like most music magazine's, it's commercial which means it gets it's money from advertising revenue. This is instantly recognizable because of the barcode.

The ideology of this magazine is to tell the readers about rock music, and the whole sort of 'rock and roll' genre.

The language for the front cover  has a lot of rock related words and obviously the names of rock bands and stars. You've also got the phrase "they rock out, they have fun" which furthens the whole rock and roll idea.

Finally, this magazine represents rock music in a positive way. Specifically on the front cover, Led Zeppelin are represented as confident musicians serious about music. Also the fact that they are looking down at you  makes it seem slightly intimidating on the audience, and makes them seem much higher class and very successful.

Analysis 2 - Q Magazine

Firstly, the language for this magazine is positive about music. Like all magazines, it has a main heading and a main image as well as a number of other subheadings and images which communicate to the audience that this is a music magazine intended for people who like music.

The Institution is Q, which also has a website, as well as a radio station. Therefore, it's already a pretty wide institution. You can instantly recognise that this is a commercial magazine because of the fact that it has a barcode. The barcode tells us that people pay for this magazine and so it is sold in shops. Therefore, the institution is there to make a profit. It also makes a profit from advertising revenue in the magazine.

The ideology behind this magazine front cover is to tell the you about the latest music, providing extensive reviews on the latest albums and singles. It also has interviews with the latest music based 'celebs'. The magazine is going to make out music to be a good thing as it is aimed at music fans, however, as a magazine, it has the right to to make any criticism's it wishes to make.

The Audience for this magazine is people who like to be very up to date with the latest music, as well as all the latest gossip that comes with it. People who buy the magazine will also be very likely to listen to the radio station that the institution provides too. Because this magazine has Madonna on the front, it would suggested that the magazine is aimed at women, as very little men actually listen to Madonna's music. Therefore, the artist(s) on the front are very important as they suggest who should read the magazine.

Finally, the magazine represents music in a positive way. Specifically on this front cover, Madonna is represented to look all glamorous, and at the same time, very focussed and confident, which could be associated with her latest single. If she was dressed in bright clothes, jumping on a trampoline or something, you'd get a completely different idea about her. Also, she stands out more because she's the main image and she has been placed over the logo

Analysis 1 - NME

On the Cover, the language is pretty straight forward, as it would be on a front cover. You have a heading and then a sub heading. The language is also quite positive, and makes out indie music in particular to be a good thing. It also uses the names of artists on the front, as these are the main features which will attract the audience in.

The ideology is that it needs to inform people about the latest bands. Just by looking at this front cover, you can see the names of numerous artists, which are what will attract the readers in. However, the NME is quite different to most magazines. The NME is a "indie" style magazine looking for the next big thing. In other words, it considers itself serious about music. Although it features well known and established artists, it also features 'new' artists who aren't very popular, don't have chart topping hits and are not considered commercially successful.

The Institution is NME, which makes the magazine. This particular magazine, like many others of it's type, is commercial. This means that it will make a lot of its money from advertising revenue. The more adverts which are in the magazine, the cheaper it will be for the buyer

The audience for this magazine is people that genuinenly love music. However, the NME is specifically aimed at people who like artists that are not exactly in the spotlight yet. The specific target audience for this magazine is men aged 15 -24. In addition, 80% of these readers believe that music is an important part of their lifes. These statistics show that the NME know their target audience inside out, and so they can produce a magazine relevant to their target audience.

Finally, the magazine represents music, specifically indie music. The bands and artists that the NME often features are not very well known, and the NME represents these artists in a positive way, claiming that they could well be the next 'big' thing.

Front Cover Layout - What have I learnt?

These are examples of just two magazines I have looked at, even thought I have looked at an array of others. I have found out they all follow the same conventions. 

1) They have an image that really stands out from the page. They make it stand out further by putting it against a light background and cutting it out and placing it partially over text or the logo of the magazine. This is especially true with the Kerrang magazine. The main picture is covering up half of the logo, yet you still recognize that it is Kerrang. This is because it is a well established institution which people have heard of, so as long as you can see part of the logo, people will know it is that magazine.

2) Both of the magazines, as well as many others I have looked at have at least one banner running across the top or the bottom. The banner gives the reader extra information about what is inside the magazine such as posters, reviews and competitions. It also may have a slogan on it.

3) Both of the magazines have similar positioning of the logo. They are both at the top of the magazine front cover, and usually on the left hand side. This is a typical convention of a magazine front cover mainly because it is easier to find the magazine in a shop if they are stacked in the usual way.

4) The magazine covers have a main title, which is always related to the main image. This is usually short and brief, and gives you a good indication to what the rest of that particular magazine article is about. With the title, there is nearly always a subtitle, which basically gives you extra information about that story.

5) There are also a number of other stories 'scattered' around the page, along with relevant pictures and subtitles.

6) Also, I have noticed that all of these magazines have a particular colour scheme, which helps the magazine look better visually.

Layout of a Music Magazine

Below are 2 examples of music magazines. I have annotated them to show how they have both been put together and to show the conventional elements that they include.

LIIAR - The KEY concepts of ANY media product!

LIIAR covers the key concepts of media, and is useful for analyzing, creating and evaluating media products. The Letters stand for language, ideology, institution, audience and representation, all of which I have explained about below.

Language - The Language is the particular terminology used in a media product. It has to be relevant to the audience that the product is intended for. For example, a music magazine will include specific music terms relevant to readers of music magazine. A car magazine will include specific terminology aimed at people interested in cars. So not only is the language relevant to the audience, but it has to fit in with the genre of the magazine.

Ideology - This is basically the ideas, beliefs and values behind a Media product. The ideas behind a car magazine is to inform the audience about new cars, and any other information about transport. The idea behind a music magazine is to tell the audience about new bands, new albums, recent gigs and gossip to name a few. You could say it's a sort of theme.


Institution -  The institution is who controls the production process, who who makes money out of the magazine. In short, it is any company or organization associated with the media product. After all, one of the key things about the media is to make money. This is true in commercial magazine, where you will find that a significant proportion of the magazine is taken up by adverts, which are aimed specifically at the readers of the magazine. In return, the advertisers pay the magazine institution a lot of money for showing their advert.


Audience - The audience (or target audience) is simply who the media product (magazine) is aimed at. For example, a music magazine is aimed at people that genuinely love music. It is vital that the producers of a media product know their target audience inside out. This is because they need to know what the audience wants from a magazine, so they can design it appropriately to their need's, and include specific content and language related to the audience.

Representation - This is predominantly what the magazine represents, and more importantly, how it represents this. For example, a music magazine will want to represent music in a positive way, and make it sound like it is the talking point of the moment. A car magazine is aimed at people who like cars, so it's not going to represent them in a negative way. It's going to talk about the positives.



I will be using LIIAR throughout my coursework to demonstrate my understanding of these concepts. I will use it in all of my analysis, and apply it to my planning. I will also talk about it in my final evaluation.

The Main Task

The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.
All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.

Magazine Evaluation

In order to do this project, I had to undertake a lot of research, particularly into the conventions of a magazine cover. I had to analyze a number of existing magazine covers and see how they were related in terms of language, ideology, institution, audience and representation. I also carried out research into which programs I could possibly use for my project and what the advantages and disadvantages were.

After the research, I had to plan my project accordingly, and I referred back to my research in the planning stages of my magazine. I produced a mind map which was were most of the ideas for my magazine came from. On here, I planned my magazine using LIIAR. Once I had a clear idea of what I wanted my cover to look like and what was going to be on it, I did a layout draft, before drawing out a mock up of my final design. Finally, I had to go out and take the pictures which I would need for my final design. These included a medium close up of a student. Once I was happy that I had a good idea, I moved onto actually designing the cover.

For my college magazine cover, I decided to use Adobe Photoshop CS4. The advantage of this was that it allowed me to arrange all of my work into layers. For this particular project, I had about twenty layers, all of which were either text, pictures or shapes. In addition, Photoshop allowed me to produce a cover which looked professional, and I would not have achieved this if I had used Photoshop I had a main image of a student in medium close up, which I cut out. The advantage of cutting it out was that I could place him over the title of the magazine, and other various items on the page. This made him stand out from the page. This was something I picked up from doing the research, as I noticed that most magazines do this. I then had three other images which I took myself, of places around the college, or that were associated with the stories in my magazine.

Overall, I think the final outcome was successful. This is for a number of reasons. Firstly, everything stands out on the page. This is especially true for the picture of the student. Secondly, it has all the features of a typical magazine cover, including a main title, main picture, appropriate headlines and a barcode. The layout of it is also quite similar to some of the ones I analyzed whilst doing my research, so therefore, it shows my research was effective. Finally, in terms of representation, it actually looks like a college magazine.

There are a number of different things I could do to improve my college magazine cover. Firstly, I could add a banner to the top of the magazine, as this is a feature a lot of magazines have. Secondly, I could do something more creative with the other images, such as add a border, or make them into different shapes. I could also space them out throughout the page. However, as this is my first attempt at creating a magazine cover, I think I’ve created something that looks quite professional.

Final Design

Layout of a Magazine (final)

Layout of Magazine (draft)

What will the magazine involve?

Planning (using LIIAR)

Analyzing Another Magazine

What's on TV Magazine     

Layout - the main layout of this magazine follows a very common structure. Firstly, the Logo is located in the top left of the cover. As I explained in a previous post, this is all to do with racking it in a shop, and for the customer to be able to find it easily. Secondly, there is one main picture, with a title. Thirdly, there is a number of smaller pictures, all with related titles. In addition, the price is clearly visible. Unusually, although this magazine does have a barcode, it is located in the middle right of the page.


Language and Titles - The language on this cover is very basic, and words have been kept to a minimum. The only text on there is headlines. There is one big title which says 'Stacy's Pregnant'. This headline, like most other magazineS, draws people in, particularly people who watch Eastenders. But there is other headlines which catch your attention. Finally, it has a couple of little banners at the top, something which is very common throughout all types of magazines.

Imagery - There is a wide range of images on the page. Again, similar to the 'OK' magazine I described earlier, there is one main image. In this case, its a picture of Stacy from Eastenders. This matches the main title, as it does with OK magazine. Then in exactly the same way as OK magazine, they are a number of smaller pictures around the page, with their associated titles. Most of the images have been digitally manipulated or cut out and placed on to the
magazine so you've got the effect of one image overlapping another.

Audience - The audience of this magazine is people who like to watch the 'telly'. Therefore, the design of the front cover and everything on it has to appeal to them. In the logo for example, the word TV couldn't be any bigger. It tells you straight away that this is a magazine for people who enjoy watching TV. Also, the picture is important as it has to be recognizable. In this case, it is taken from a popular show that a lot of people watch. By looking at this picture, people instantly know what sort of magazine it is, without even reading any of the text.

Representation - This particular magazine represents TV, and it has to do so in a positive way. The magazine front cover has to persuade you that this magazine is worth a read. Therefore, the front cover has to be attractive.

Useful terminology - LIIAR

LIIAR covers the key concepts of media, and is useful for analyzing and creating media products. It is particularly useful when planning out initial ideas.

Language - particular terminology used in the Media product
                  - how should it be written

Ideology - ideas behind a media product
                - attitudes, beliefs and values within a Media product.
                - assumptions about what the viewer thinks or feels

Institution - who controls the production process?
                 - how does this effect the final product?

Audience - who is the media product aimed at?
                  - what do you need to do to meet the requirements of that audience?

Representation - who does it represent?
                          - which groups, individuals, issues appear in it?
                          - how are these portrayed?
  

Target Audience

The magazine I will be producing will be aimed at College Staff, Students and anyone else associated with the college such as parents and governors. Therefore, the magazine cover will have to be appropriate for these people, and the headlines must appear interesting to them. Also, it will need some good pictures which will draw the right audience in too.

Typical Features and Conventions of a Magazine cover

By looking at a number of different magazine covers, I can clearly see that they all have a number of things in common. As an example, I am going to do an analysis of 'OK' magazine.

Firstly, you can see that it has a logo which stands out from the page. The logo is located in the top left hand corner. One reason why most magazines do this is because when they are put on a rack in a shop, sometimes only this part of the page is showing. They want their magazine logo to be clearly visible and to stand out from the rest.

Secondly, there is a main picture, in this case Britney Spears. this is what usually takes up the majority of the page. Also, on a lot of front covers, the picture is usually cut out and put over something, such as the logo. As you can see in the example, it's as though the logo has been positioned behind Britney. This effect can easily be achieved in photoshop.

Thirdly, there is a main headline which is made to stand out. The main headline is always associated with the main picture.

In addition, they are a number of smaller pictures (in this case three) and a number of smaller headlines (three again).

Finally, there is a barcode at the bottom right of the magazine. Next to the barcode is the price and the website. Sometimes, the price may be at the top instead, along with an issue number and date. However, this magazine doesn't.

What programs can I use for my magazine cover?

Adobe Photoshop

Pro's

Will be able to get really professional results out of this program. Most professional magazine companies use Photoshop in some way. With photoshop, you can blur the background of an image, cut out images, apply various effects and join many different elements together, as layers.

Con's

However, this program is quite a handful, and can be complicated at times. On the other hand, I already know the basics of photoshop, so that wouldn't exactly be much of a problem to me.

Microsoft Publisher

Pro's

This program is very easy to use, and can quickly create a reasonably good magazine cover. It also has a number of preset designs, making the whole process even more simple.

Con's

Because the program is very simple, the result you get out of it is usually very simple. In addition, if I were choose from one of the many preset designs, then my magazine cover wouldn't be original

Basics of Photoshop

Below is a Video that shows the basics of Adobe Photoshop, which is an option I will consider when creating my magazine cover. This is because this program has a lot of features which will make my final design look really professional. Also, using this software, I will be able create something original

Conventions of a contents page

• Smaller Pictures
• page number
• headings for each page
• A short summary of what is on each page/section of the magazine
• clear
• Info about the magazine, (contact)

Conventions of a magazine cover

• One main picture
• Smaller pictures
• Big Bold Title
• Subheadings
• Date
• Website
• Issue Number
• Banner with info

The Brief

Presentation of your work
The Presentation of the research, planning and evaluation may take the form of any one, or combination of two or more, of the following:

• a presentation using slideshow software such as powerpoint;
• a blog
• a podcast;