Masthead colours.

Below I have looked at four possible colours for my masthead. I have decided to go got a pink colour of some description so here I have looked at a few different shades. Out of the four colours below, the one I dislike the most is the orange/coral shade on the second font type. I dislike this because I don't believe it will stand out much as it is quite pale, this as well goes with the third font as again it is more pastel which is not the direction I want for my magazine as I want it to stand out and for it to be vibrant. This is why I'm more inclined to pick one of  the two colours on the first and last font. I like the hot pink colour on the Broadway font more then then aluminous pink on the Bodoni MT black font as I think it looks cheap and in professional. I will use a hot pink similar to the first and add it too my selected masthead font which is Bodoni MT black.

organisation of original photography- model.

Photo one.

Photo two.

Photo three

Photo four.



Above I have shown my first attempt at using my sister as the model for my magazine. I don't really like how these photos came out as they look very im-professional and don't look very celeb like. As they are my first attempt, I have time for room for improvement. Also these photos prove that it is my own original photography as by the amount of them and by the bluryness of the photo three. 

Masthead fonts (Glitz).

 

Here I have picked possible fonts that I could choose from and the ones I preferred most. I like the 1st font which is called 'Broadway', I like this because it signifies a celeb-ish sort of vibe. The second font I looked at was a lot different to the first (script MJ bold) as its more swirly and a bit more formal. I liked this font because I think it appears to be quite girly in keeping with my target audience. The third (tw Cen MT) font I liked at first but as im looking at it im thinking that it is too simple, boring and there is nothing much too it. I will be considering this font. The last font (Bodoni MT black) I like the most, its quite similar to the Broadway but however I like how the letters are more fuller, I believe I could work with this font best.

House style/Colour Scheme.

Above I have gathered six colours which I think will work the best with my magazine. As the genre is pop, i wanted to select bright, statement colours to make my magazine to stand out. Some of the colours are more pastel then they are bold because I also wanted to create a soft look also. I think that the six colours work well together and compliment one another. I believe that colours are a vital part in a magazine, especially a pop centred one. I'm yet to decide on my main house colour as I don't really want to just select one, I hope to incorporate all different colour instead of just one. The colours I have chosen also go with my target audience which are teenage girls, as the colours are both fun and quirky. However, because I have chosen the green and blue allows my magazine to offer itself out to a a larger target audience. Colour connotation is very important in a magazine, I would not use dark colours such as a burgundy red and it would be irrelevant to my theme.

Original photography plan.

LOCATION: For my original photography, I have decided to use the location of my younger sisters bedroom. This is because of the black and white floral wallpaper in the background, I believe that because of my target audience this background can be successful. However, I don't just plan to use this as a background, I also intend on deleting some of the backgrounds of selected photos and importing and changing them from there moving them onto different original photography.

MODEL: I will use my little sister to act as my main celebrity (the one in which I intend to do my double page spread on). I believe she will work best as she is easy to work with to create the look I want, also she is simpler to create different looks and styles with. She is also very tall and slim, which I feel will work.

HAIR: I have decided to go with the hair down look. I feel this will work well as its more dressy and stylish. I also believed it looks more fun creating an image for my magazine. I will try a few styles with the hair up but I don't feel as comfortable with this idea/style.

CLOTHING: I have chosen to do four outfit changes. I think that in making my model change will make the pictures seem more real in the fact its like a paparazzi actually following the 'celebrity' around, as if they were all taken at different times and different days.

MAKE-UP: Like the clothing I have decided to change the make-up on my model a bit my using two different lipsticks. For one, the lipsticks will obviously be to match the outfits and two I will choose bright lipsticks to create a more upbeat, stylish look.

POSES/BODY LANGUAGE: When taking the photos I intend on making my model change poses quite a lot, this is so I can get a wide range of photos, all of which are different. Also, doing a lot of poses will better my magazines as some of the photos may not be as good as others.

Double page spread mock layout (draft)

Here is my final draft piece of my double page spread. I will include two large images of my original photography at the top, then below would be the interview. Again the design is simple because i want to work on my front cover draft to further both the contents and double page spread. This again improving the constancy.

Contents page mock layout (draft)

Here i have showed my draft for my contents page. It is a very simple draft, this is because i want to show consistency through my magazine so that from my front page to my double page spread there is a flow created. I have again made sure to include some of the major conventions of a magazine contents page to my own to ensure that my magazine is more realistic, making it more successful. Of course all the photography like the front cover page will be original, taken by myself in selected areas.

Front cover mock layout (Draft)

Here i have created a quick draft of what i want my front cover layout to look like. I want to make sure i include all the essential aspects of any successful magazine. I also don't want to put my magazine at a disadvantage by not including such conventions. by creating this draft it allows me to conclude exactly how i want my front cover to look, however because its a draft, it allows me to change the design if needed. By showing a draft, allows me to create a starting point in which then i can progress further.

Rita Ora

Here i have used paint.NET to practice on my editing skills. I have come up with my own masthead and added it to a picture of Rita Ora who is currently a popular celeb, this would act as my celebrity endorsement which would make the magazine more appealing and eventually promote sales. Using a celebrity on the front would appeal more to a public audience as they would recognise who was on it. I believe including some form of celebrity on the front of a magazine is crucial in creating a popular magazine. This is why when i start to take and develop my own photos i have to make them as if they were took by a professional photographer in a studio.I have then moved on to add my own coverlines and a barcode to start to resemble a real magazine. When i copied the image into paint.NET i used the photo editing functions to change the lighting on it to make it slightly more negative, making it appear brighter. In doing this, it has helped me improve on my skills which means when it actually comes to my own magazine i will be able to add these different effects to make them look more professional and more asthetically pleasing.

Existing Masthead research.

Although the NME logo is completely unrelated to my magazine gener, the logo for the magazine i like because it is simple. I think when a logo is simple it has more of a chance of being effective and memorable.The colours red and black create a very crisp, contrast look which relates to the indie music genre. The white outer line that goes around the text enables the logo to stand out more. I like this idea becuase it would make the logo pop. I also like how the colours and the rest of the magazine house style go together.

The Top of the pops logo is probably one of the best magazine logos for me to look at as its the same genre as im going for. Looking at this magazine, i would have to look at a few of their front covers as the change the logo colours. The actual font for their logo is very girly as the typography is very curly and informal relating to the target audience. The masthead spreads across the top making it one of the main things on the page. It also makes the frong cover appear busier. With such a big masthead, you can afford to cover it slighty with an image because you will still be able to recognise the logo. I like this idea of covring it, however i need to create a memorable logo.

The Q magazine logo is quite similar to the NME logo. The colours are the same which give it that sharp contrasting look. Again, Q magazine has a completely different target audience, looking at these sorts of logos will help me to make my own different and unique. Also, i will know not to make mine similar to magazines such as NME and Q magazine as they dont relate to mine.

Publication Plan

PUBLICATION PLAN

Your magazine:

For my magazine i have decided to go for the music genre of 'pop'.  I have decided to aim my magazine at the younger generation particularly girls around the age of 15+ but then finishing at the 18 age range. I will ensure to make all the attributes of my magazine, sell able to my target audience.
Frequency of publication;

I will produce my magazine weekly
Price

£2.60

Distribution

I would like my magazine to be in any major convenience shop or book shop such as spar, WHSmith, Water Stones etc. The person whp will actually distribute my magazine will be the major distributer BBC as they distribute a similar magazine to mine 'Top of the pops'.

Rationale:
With my magazine i plan to focus on mainly pop music several different parts of the world, making my magazine sell able in loads of different places. This would allow my magazine to reach out to a wider target audience.
Style

Pop music generates from the term 'popular music', Obviously meaning the music is favoured by the public. I have decided to go for a younger teenage target audience (15+). However, having a target audience for my magazine does not stop me from reaching out to different ages which i can do by incoorparating different ranges of information. Obviously, for my target audience i will have to include topics on relevent chart music such as Rhianna, JLS, Katy Perry etc.

What is the regular content?
As my magazine is published weekly i will have to offer a section which will appear every single week. In providing a weekly feature i am providing the audience with something to look forward to and for the magazine to be familiar to them. I am thinking of including a weekly questionnaire for them to answer in order for them to send off and retrieve some form of prize. The prizes i will put on offer are girly things such a lipglosses, mascaras, perfumes etc. In doing this it would hopefully make the magazine more appealing.

Feature content
In order to make my magazine popular i will have to include something everyweek which sells the magazine,. eg; exclusive interviews, reviews, upcoming artists etc. In featuring aspects like these will increase the sales on my magazine as someone is most likely to buy the magazine if there is an interesting reason to do so. It will attract them and lure them in.
House style
The house style of my magazine will be pretty simliar with the use of colours and fonts. However, if i was to change the colours/font it would be to connect with maybe the colours, clothes, topic of certain images on different pages. I will also have to ensure my house style relates to my target audience so i will have to make sure it looks quite girly. The layout will be busy to show my magazine is full to brim of exciting information.

Contents page

For my double page spread and contents page, i want to make them so that they have similar sorts of fonts and colours so that it makes the magazine consistant. Also, in keying in all the colours it will make it look nice whilst being organised also it will make the magazine look more professional,whereas if there were loads of different colours, it would be very busy and confusing. I do however want to include a lot of cover lines and a lot of images to show my magazine has a lot to offer to make it seem worth the money and worth the time of reading. On my contents page i will make sure to include all the cover lines on the front page, including the exclusive interview with the celebrity and also a few more.

Double page spread

My double page spread will consist of a exclusive interview with a new up and coming celebrity. This celebrity will also be the cover star on my front page to make it consistant and relevent. On the double page spread i intend on having only a few images of the celeb and one larger them the others allowing the reader to see and concentrate on them fully. I will include text being the interview which will sometimes have to go around an image. I will use different font styles and colours to the front page and contents page to make the double page spread unique and different.

Magazine price research.

 I have been looking at a variation of music magazine prices and their frequency of publication. I have done this to help me in ensuing whatever frequency i  choose (weekly, monthly etc) I wont be over charging for it or under charging it meaning my magazine will fail to produce any sort of profit. Instead of looking at target specific magazines which are similar to mine i have just looked at a variation of different magazines, these being;
Q Magazine;
The monthly cost of Q magazine is £3.70 an issue, but they offer a deal were you can buy a years worth for £30 meaning that eventually you will have only spent £2.50 on each issue. I like this idea as offers the audience their favorable magazine for a good price which would hopefully mean better sales. However, i have decided to make my magazine a weekly edition so i dont believe this strategy would be beneficial to my magazine although i could come up with a similar idea to promote some form of discount.
NME Magazine;
NME is a weekly magazine which sells for £2.40 for every issue brought. However, NME have also incorparated an idea to allow subscribers to purchase a yearly supply of the magazine at £74.99 meaning they would be again selling for a discounted price at £1.47. This would again be in order to increase the sales of their magazine and to let the subscriber feel happy that they have had a discount. I do like this idea as it does seem like a good way to improve both sales and profit.
Classic Pop;
For one issue of the classic pop magazine is £5.99 but they offer a deal for three issues for £9.99. i believe this is a bit pricey however, in the magazine it does offer alot for the money you pay so it sort of balances itself out.
VIBE;
VIBES deal is £9.95 for six issues which works out at £1.60 for each issue. I think this works out very cheap for what you are getting. If i was to follow a similar way i would be able to increase my price slightly for individual issues and still have a magazine that would be still worth the money that they paid.
Kerrang;
Kerrang is a weekly magazine which has a deal of buying the magazine monthly cost at £7.50 working at £1.88 an issue. This again works out very cheap for the subscriber which is a possble reason for why the magazine does so well.
We love POP;
We love pop is a monthly music magazine which sells for £2.99 for every issue sold. I dont know of any yearly they do but £2.99 seems like a reasonable price for a monthly magazine as it is not under or over priced. This magazine is closer to my magazine topic then any of the other however mine will be sold weekly so i cant really justify this price range for mine other then not to go above it as it would be too much.

Masthead research

I have been looking on a website called visual thesaurus which allows you to type in a key word such as 'sound' or 'music' and creats a mind map surrounded by word associated with your selected key word.

Say i typed in the word 'POP', to the right a mind map would appear with words such as;

- Popular

- Bulge out

- Pop out

- Burst

- Fire

- Throw

- Split

- Break out

- Collapse

Another word i could pick is 'beat', and the words that would appear would be;

- Drum

- Scramble

- Pulse

- Vibration

- Pace

- Exhaust

- Amaze
- Jam
-Glitz

I liked how this mind map idea gave me loads of words associated with the main word meaning i could have a range to pick from. Or even if i didnt like the words that came up, it would give me some inspiration. I like the name 'Glitz' and think that will be the name for my magazine. I like the way it is completely unrelated to POP but this is what attracts me too it.

Questionnaire Analysis

Here again are the questions i asked 20 people in my sixth form common room as they are around the age range i want to aim my magazine at. I was at an advantage having a large amount of people around the same age to answer my questionnaire.

1.       If you where to go out and buy a magazine, what would be your prefered genre?

· Pop music

· R&B

· Rock/ Heavy metal

· Other

            Please specify   .....................

2. How often would you say you go to buy a music magazine?

· Daily

· Twice a Week

· Weekly

· Monthly

· Rarely

· Never

3.       Whats types of topics would be most likely inclined to want to read?

· Editorials

· Artist Interviews

· Reviews eg; music, music related films etc. 

· Other (please specify) .......................................................................................

4. On average how much would you to expect to spend on a music magazine?

· £1.00-£2.00

· £2.00-£3.00

· £3.00-£4.00

· £4.00 +

5. What colours would you like/expect a pop magazine to follow?

· Bright colours

· Sophisticated colours

· Dark colours

· Light pastels

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Questionnaire Result Analysis.

1.     1.  If you where to go out and buy a magazine, what would be your prefered genre?

· Pop music

· R&B

· Rock/ Heavy metal

· Other

            Please specify   .....................

From question one, four people picked the rock/heavy metal option, six people choose the R&B option and the remaining ten picked the pop music option. I was glad to see that the genre of music magazine i wanted to do, was the one that people most liked. This has gave my me more confidence to go through with my decision of a new pop music magazine and begin to produce my publication plan and start the process of what i want my magazine to look like and the sort of topics i want  to inlcude.

2. How often would you say you go to buy a music magazine?

· Daily

· Twice a Week

· Weekly

· Monthly

· Rarely

· Never

From the results i gathered from question two i could tell that the majority of people went for the same option of buying a music magazine weekly with a result of fourteen people selecting it. Two people answered rarely, one person picked never and the remaining two choosing daily. Again, i can gather that in producing a magazine that comes out weekly rather monthly would possible do and sell better. This gives my magazine a fair chance of being succesful.

3.       Whats types of topics would be most likely inclined to want to read?

· Editorials

· Artist Interviews

· Reviews eg; music, music related films etc. 

· Other (please specify) .........................................................

The results i got from this question was a lot more varied. This was as six people choose artist interviews, another six people choose editorials and the other eight people choose the different types of reviews. Straight away i have learned from this that i want to to include at least two of the three if not all three. Even if two were basic and i concentrated on just one, at least i would be catering for a whole bunch of different people allowing my magazine to reach out to a bigger audience.

4. On average how much would you to expect to spend on a music magazine?

· £1.00-£2.00

· £2.00-£3.00

· £3.00-£4.00

· £4.00 +

For a weekly magazine, the average answer came out at the price of £2.00-£3.00. This was as fifteen of the people i asked selected this answer. Three picked £1.00-£2.00 and the other two picked £4.00+. For my magazine i think that between the £2.00-£3.00 margin is a respectable and cheap amount to ask for. I think that anything higher would be too much for a weekly magazine making people less inclined to want to buy it.

5. What colours would you like/expect a pop magazine to follow?

· Bright colours

· Sophisticated colours

· Dark colours

· Light pastels

Again, the people i concluded answers off choose the option of bright colours with tweleve people picking this option. Four others picked sophisticated colour and the remaining four people picked light colours. I think using bright colours would attract more people to the magazine as it would look better and stand out more on the shelf. However, if i was to use light or sophisticated colours, it would put the magazine at a disadvantage as it would look very boring.



Language analysis

      For a magazine, the language used is very important and crucial. This is as it allows us to conclude who exactly the target audience is. Every single word included has been idividually put there for a specific purpose such as showing how the techniques of puns etc are used on magazines to capture the readers attention. Also, it helps to examine how both image and text go together to product meaning. This all helps to add different effects to the magazine itself. Factors of language are things such as;

      Tone; When writers want to include different tones of writing in their article the normally have to ask themselves these three basic questions to gain purpose of their writing;
- Who am i aiming this at?
- Why am i writing this?
- What will the reader eventually want to learn, understand or think about when they have read the article?
In writing, tone is often shown through what the author feels than what the reader feels to show portray how the author feels about the topic. Tone can be sometimes confused with voice which is where the author shows their personality through their own writing.

      Style; With style, it refers to more of how the language is shown to what is actually written. Different styles would obviously change for different magazines under different genres. This is as they are each appealing to a unique target audience which are all different to one another. For example, a rock magazine such as 'Q' would have completely different language styles to the pop magazine 'Top  of the Pops'.

      Vocab; Vocabulary used in magazines go together with style, this is as they have to differ to different magazines to relate to the specific target audience. Words will have been carefully chosen to link themselves to the magazine which is beneficial to the reader as it makes sense and is not completely irrelevant.

      Forms of address; This is when the language is used to relate and connect with the reader. Connecting with the reader through language using  things such as rhetorical questions, will allow the reader to be apart of the magazine itself. This eventually will involve the reader in the magazines activities and then begin to make them start thinking.

     Register; Using a certain register in language is changed in different social settings. These types of different settings could be teenage slang, informative language, formal/informal langage etc. Changing the register in your magazine will again allow the differentation between different target audiences, making it more relevant and current to the magazine.

Magazine questionnaire.

Here is a questionnaire i have made to gather information to see just exactly what the public would want from the magazine i create. I thought doing such questionnaire would be some what crucial as it would help me gather a clearer understanding of what sort of magazine would be wanted and popular.

1.       If you where to go out and buy a magazine, what would be your prefered genre?

· Pop music

· R&B

· Rock/ Heavy metal

· Other

            Please specify   .....................

2. How often would you say you go to buy a music magazine?

· Daily

· Twice a Week

· Weekly

· Monthly

· Rarely

· Never

3.       Whats types of topics would be most likely inclined to want to read?

· Editorials

· Artist Interviews

· Reviews eg; music, music related films etc. 

· Other (please specify) .......................................................................................

4. On average how much would you to expect to spend on a music magazine?

· £1.00-£2.00

· £2.00-£3.00

· £3.00-£4.00

· £4.00 +

 

5. What colours would you like/expect a pop magazine to follow?

· Bright colours

· Sophisticated colours

· Dark colours

· Light pastels

I want to carry my questionnaire out on 15+
My questionnaire is quite basic as i didnt want to make it too long with unecessary questions. This is because as i aim to base my target audience around teenage/ younger youth, meaning i had to ensure they would be able to answer every possible question. After collecting my data, i will then analyse my questionnaire results on another post.