Front Cover...
Next up I decided to analyse a different magazine with a similar target audience to see if they do similar codes and conventions so I picked Q as they aim for a young adults edition although it isn't always the popular recent music it still aims for a young adults genre but more unisex and possibly could stretch an older audience than Billboard.
Brand Name- In the top left of the magazine, always like that in all it's issues and the same colour to so consistency throughout. The banner at the top goes across the name of the magazine to suggest they are a popular magazine and the brand can cover the name as it's an already established audience. Furthermore, they bar code is in the bottom right of the magazine as it's less likely your eyes will go there first as you are taken away by all the colours and the brand name.
Main Image- Is the main focus of the magazine as it's in the centre. Its a mid shot to suggest it's a mixture of personal and musical taste. Takes up around 70% of the magazine to inform to audience of the special artist that is featuring in their front cover this week. When creating my front cover I will enable that I have one main picture on the front cover and that it's around a mid shot.
Hair/Make-up/Costume- Her hair is long and perfect to suggest again that she is the perfect women and everyone will want hair like hers. Her complexion is amazing except this bloody down her face to suggest she is different and has a different side to her. The connotations with the colour red suggest she was in some sort of danger or has done something a bit different. It also uses a pun when the caption next to the photo says "So what's so bloody good?" this matches the blood of her face as it'suggesting that the bloody symbolizes something good has happened and it engages the audience and makes them want to read on as they want to find out what is with this blood on her face as it's not often a site you see everyday. Her outfit is white to suggest she is pure and is a fashion icon it's not over done which makes her likable to the audience as they can realistically look up to her. Furthermore she has a tiara on her head to go against the blood against her face as, the colour white and the tiara go with each other to suggest a princess image and this ideology of the perfect girl with the perfect life all fairy tale like. When creating my magazine I will enable that a good representation is created of the image and that it grabs the audiences attention.
Positioning/Facial Expression- She appears to have her hand on the tiara to possibly suggest she is about to take it off, and maybe convey the message that no-one is perfect and that she isn't what everybody thinks. It suggests something a bit different about her and original and therefore it grabs the audiences attention as they are more likely to by it. Yet, again her facial expression is serious this is definitely a common feature uses in the majority of magazines as it adds to the image of the artist and adding a slightly serious tone to the front cover suggesting that Lana Del Ray will make give us some personal private details about her life and therefore we are more likely to buy, Therefore, when I create mine I will consider these features as they help create an image of the artist and help portray their personality without actually using words, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
Colour- I would say it's stuck to 4 colours- pink,yellow black and white (not including the red that is consistent in all the magazines) The pink helps add to the femininity of Lana Del Ray creating a representation of her personality as her name is written in that colour. They all work in the contrast with each other to help certain things stand out. They yellow helps everything stand out the most as it's a colour not often used in magazines as it's hard to pull off. Therefore when i'm creating my magazine I will have a maximum of 4 colours as it gets to confusing after that and there is not consistency shown.
Font- I believe this one out of the past ones I've studies focuses the most of font and getting the message across as normally magazines tend to stick to just one font however in this one calligraphy has been used as Lana Del Ray is written in a handwritten sort of style to create a personal look to the audience. It makes the audience feel more engaged as they believe it's more realistic and more from a personal point of view. Apart from this everything else appears to be the same font but uses certain tools to make other things stand out such as size. When creating my magazine I shall make sure I stick to one main font unless I want it to more personal and then I use a hand written style as it adds emotion and personal input from the artist or band.
Language- Every word within this front cover conveys a certain target audience in mind. The language suggests that it's aimed at a young audience from around the age of 16-30 as its talking about "festivals" which is generally a younger thing to do. Furthermore this magazine also uses alliteration to grab the audiences attention "Fights! Feuds! Feathers!" as it's a catchy modern thing to do as this triplet engages the audience as they want to find out what is fight is and how the feud began and what feathers have got to do with it. Language is so important when it comes to creating my magazine I will make sure I carefully plan what I am going to say on the front cover of my magazine as it needs to be suitable for my audience and it also needs to grab their attention.
Front Cover...
Today I focused on my third front cover analysis which was yet
again another Billboard one but this time Beyonce edition.
Main Image- Right in the centre of the magazine and takes up around 60% of the magazine and also is across the title of the magazine to enhance the important of Beyonce and show she is a well known women. Its a medium shot of her to show off her full figure and also show that it's about her being an icon and showing off her great talents. When creating my magazine I will more sure my main image dominates the magazine and is centered.
Hair/Make-up/Costume- Her hair is perfect and out of her face to suggest she is a natural beauty and doesn't need to hide behind it. It matches with her make up as her complexion is flawless as the target audience will idolize her and this image conveys the ideologies of the perfect women and the majority of women reading this type of magazine will idolize to look like her. Her dress is well fitted to enhance her shape and that she isn't stick thin and showing off the average curvy women she shows a good message for women and the white of the dress enhances to purity of her and how natural she is. When creating my magazine I will make sure I create an idealistic women for the target audience to read as they don't want to feel threatened or angry at the main artist they want to feel inspired by them. The image needs to set off a message towards the audience.
Positioning/Facial Expression- Allows a very dominant image towards women her arms on her waist suggests she is a dominant powerful women in the music industry and is independent and capable of making it on her own. Her general stance shows her as powerful and superior, creating a positive image for women and therefore more women will buy it as it's creating a good message. Her facial expression is serious and is looking at the camera with a slight tilt in her head to enhance superiority and that she wants to be taken seriously by the music industry. It matches with the sub headline "our woman of the year" as she is shown as a very dominant independent strong willed women. Therefore, when I create my magazine I will consider these two factors as they are important when creating ideologies towards specific genders.
Colour- Its tried to stick to around 3 colours; white, blue and a black/grey. They all work in contrast to show the word Beyonce stand out. It's a mixture of two colours white and blue to suggest her change in time and how she has become to women she is today. The connotation of the colour white suggests she is pure and clear. The colours help set a natural image towards the audience. Colours are key when creating a magazine therefore I will stick to a certain amount and think about the connotations behind them.
Font- All in sans serif style t create a modern look and suggest this is aimed at slightly younger people and also possibly middle class. The font is easy to read and clear, the majority of it is in capitals to show it as clear and important. My font will be in sans serif as I want to create a modern look that is eye catching to young adults.
Language- The most important feature when it comes to relating to a target audience it needs to be specific and something that, the specific age group would want to read. Therefore within this magazine it mentions "Lady Gaga" and "Paramore" which are other bands and artist that are aimed at the younger market and therefore are relatable to this magazine issue. When creating my magazine I will use words associated to my specific target audience as it will interest them the most and they will be more likely to buy it.
Front Cover 2...
This is my second front cover I have analysed. The Taylor Swift edition from the magazine Billboard.
Main Image- This image dominates the front cover of this issue. Its over the brand name of the magazine and features in the centre of the magazine to show who the main artist of this magazine will be. The main image takes up around 80% of the page. When creating my magazine I will consider the positioning of my main image and make it the dominating focus of my front cover.
Hair/Make-up/Costume- Again these play a massive feature within the front cover as the image takes up the majority of the page therefore the picture needs to be presenting the correct image. Her hair is perfect and long to match her flawless complexion. Both these two word together to create the ideologies of the perfect natural women, To the target audience of this magazine Taylor Swift will be a role model and therefore they have to make her image seem perfect as the reader will look up to her. Costume is very important in this image, as she is wearing a t-shirt will a necklace, this is to create the casual look, and to show the target audience that perfection can be achieved without wearing a million pound dress or walking around in high heels. It all looks natural and inspirational. When creating my front cover I will consider all these factor and shall constantly keep reminding myself of the target audience in relation to my image. I need my image to be relatable to my target audience. They need to be natural yet inspirational.
Positioning/Facial Expression- Again, due to the image being so large these factors play a big impact in selling the magazine. Firstly her positioning she appears the have her hand across her chest to possibly suggest that she is very vulnerable and quiet and doesn't like to reveal her feelings.it matches with caption of the image "Grows up in public" it suggests that the article inside will be her revealing stuff about her personal life. The body language implies she likes to keep her feelings hidden and this can be quite relatable to especially girls and therefore they will more likely pick up this magazine and by it. Her facial expression matches her whole image is selling. She is directly looking in to the camera with a serious expression on her face. This shows that it's a personal account and builds up a relationship between her and the audience. Therefore, when I create my front cover I will make sure that the audience will feel personally involved with my magazine and that they don't feel threatened by the image.
Colour- Focuses on 3 main colours; white,yellow and black. These three colours all work in contrast with each to make certain things stand out. The black and white of the image creates a natural calm look and shows Taylor Swift and pure and innocent. The black background allows the main image to be enhanced and makes it more dominating. The yellow is used to make the other articles on the front cover stand out. The titles are in yellow to make them stand out and grab the audiences attention. I will stick to around 3 colours when creating my as it shows professionalism and allows for certain features to stand out.
Font- Tends to stick to just one simple easy read font as it allows the audience easy access to the front cover. Uses capital letters,sizes, bold and highlighters to make certain things stand out for instance the words "Taylor Swift" is in a bigger font size and in bold to show the audience that it's the main focus of the magazine. Font is very important and therefore when creating my magazine I will make sure the audience can read it easily and certain things stand out from each other.
Language- Always important as it shows the main target audience and is the key when selling your magazine as it entices the audience in. It mentions another artists name on the front cover "cee lo" who is a recent current artist just like Taylor Swift. However, what interested to note is that it just says the words "cee lo" not "cee lo green" which implies that the audience will already know his full artist as they listen to his type of music already. Therefore, there is a strong implication that its aimed at a younger audience as they would be the type to use nicknames for artists and to abbreviate, furthermore words such as "windows "iphone" and "apps" are used which conveys a semantic field of words related to technology and therefore we would associate it more will young adults from around the ages of 16.-25 as they are more likely to have iphones and download apps. Language is so important when it comes to selling a magazine and I need to make sure my language matches my audience when creating my magazine.
Front Cover 1...
Today I made the decision on focusing on popular current music magazine front covers. Billboard is the perfect one as the artists that feature on the magazines are ones I am interested in. I started off with the Katy Perry addition.
Magazine Name- Found at the top of the magazine and in the background of the main image. Shows that they had enough faith in the image of Katy Perry to sell magazines. The date is found underneath the brand. When creating my magazine I will place my magazine title at the top of the page.
Colour- Generally focuses on pink, black and a little bit of white and yellow. The pink background matches the image of Katy Perry as it's a very female colour and Katy Perry represents the perfect female. Furthermore she has pink flowers in her hair which match the background. In addition the black and pink work in contrast with each other to enable from them to both stand out. When creating my magazine I will enable I get a certain colour scheme and allow myself no more than 4 dominant colours on my front cover.
Main Image- Takes up around 40% of the magazine it's a medium long shot as you can see a lot of her but still not the end of her feet. It uses the rule of thirds within this photo as she is slightly on the right which suggests that she is the main focus of the magazine and that everything on the front cover is based around her. The main image is also in the foreground of the title of the magazine which suggest the important of Katy Perry to the reader and to enhance her popularity When creating my front cover I will enable there is one main image as the centre of focus using the rule of thirds.
Hair/Make-up/Costume- Key importance when it comes to creating a front cover for this specific audience. Due to the target audience being young adults around the age of 16-25 appearance is a very important thing as the target audience will not only like the artists music but possibly aspire to look like them. In this image Katy Perry is wearing a floral dress and then flowers around her body. The ideology behind the flowers could suggest how pure and perfect she is and furthermore match with the background. It means that all the girls want to be as fragile and delicate as her and the boys are attracted to her. Her hair and make up are perfect, this is to show the "perfect image" to their target audience. She appears feminine and untouchable. When making my magazine I will take into account these things and enable more audience can relate and aspire to be like my picture.
Positioning/Facial Expression- These two features are key when selling your magazine. Firstly, is positioning Katy Perry has her hands across her chest this could suggest how innocent and pure she is. It creates the ideology that she perfect, loving and should be cherished. Her facial expression adds to this as she is directly addressing the audience. This could be to entice the reader and make it feel more personal towards the audience. It creates an informal tone between the reader and Katy Perry. Due to this, I will make sure I create a friendly relationship between the reader and the brand as it appeals more to my target audience.
Language- The language used within this front cover convey the target audience Billboard are trying to attract, They use "pop" Katy Perry" "Taylor Swift" "Facebook""iTunes" all these words suggest a younger target audience as they are the ones who listen to Taylor Swift and use Facebook and are into downloading music via iTunes The language used matches the specific target audience. When creating my magazine I shall ensure that the language I use on my front cover appeals to my target audience.
Font- Billboard have kept to very basic easy read fonts as it allows the audience to clearly understand the information. The information about the articles is in capital letters as the presentation of the magazine looks better and its allows the audience to read it better. The only text that fully stands out within this front cover is the words "Katy Perry" this is to highlight the important of her and to show she is the main feature of the entire magazine. Her name is nearly as big as the magazines name which suggests her feature is taking over the brand as they have enough trust in the words "Katy Perry" to sell the magazine. Therefore, when creating my magazine I will stick to plain simple fonts however certain things will stand out to the audience in order to grab there attention.
Day 1...
Analysing Music Magazine Front Cover
Today I have started to looked at music magazines and looked at the codes of conventions. As I need to work out what genre my music magazine will be and my target audience. . I've noticed that a lot of work have gone into making an magazine, as I tried to draw one from memory and it didn't go very well (image on the left.) I missed out many things and didn't realise the amount of detail that goes into making a music magazine.Even the head sizes of the people was a problem we had to start again 3 times as each time we kept to making a guess and were just randomly drawing stuff. The image on the right is the one we were trying to mind map from memory. I found in incredibly difficult to get it right and from the look of our groups effect it didn't go very well. However it might have been our memory not just our terrible art skills. But hey at least we got the colour scheme slightly right! It's definitely harder than it looks. Trust me.
School Magazine Contents Page Finished...
Contents Page
Well it's been a difficult few weeks. I can truthfully say creating a school magazine is one of the hardest things to do. However between the two I would definitely say the contents page was easier. My style model was Fusion for this and I think i stuck to it very well.
Firstly, I was very aware of spacing and layout when creating my contents page. As compared to front covers, contents pages are my square and rely on everything being in line with each and in order. Everything within a contents page has to be structured and thought out. When it comes to spacing everything needs to be in line and when it comes to layout I made sure that there was a mixture of images and texts to make it look more like style model. The articles were in chronological order and all in the same fonts. Next up was the colour and fonts. When it came to colours I decided to stick to 3 colours- black white and a grey as this is a common convention used in magazines. The 3 photos was contrast each other and all front certain things to stand out like the grey allows the white text to stand out as that is the main point of the contents page. Fonts was another key convention I stuck to when creating my contents. It's all basically the same font just in different colours and sizes. Some of the more important stuff is in bold like the word "contents" and all the page numbers as these are the things the audience will most attracted to. To improve my contents page next time I will try and add more photos and do something more with background as it looks very plain and I feel if I had more time I could have done a lot more the photos. Although they do match the articles I feel I could Photoshop them and do something different with them. Next time I will definitely consider the photos more and the background in which I take the photos in. As in one photo in my contents page the background was white and the main photo and therefore I couldn't Photoshop it the way I wanted too.
Overall, I enjoyed making my magazine it was stressful and time consuming but it will enjoyable. Next time I will definitely do more in depth planning and focus more on layout and colours before I dive right in and take the photos. I will be more organised with my time and more sure I know exactly what I am doing. The style model has helped and inspired me the create this school magazine. I can't wait to start my music magazine, it will certianly be better than this one.
School Magazine Front Cover Finished...
Front Cover
My preliminary task is complete. Then first thing I finished was my front page. It was a lot harder than I expected and I didn't think it was going to this difficult. Many obstacles stood in my way when I was creating my front cover. Even layout and taking the photos. I've added a photo of my completed front cover. I used the codes and conventions of my research the complete this task. Firstly I used a main image like my research task and made it fill the page. However when taking the picture I had some problems. I took them all and then realised that there was a shadow on the background due to the position she was standing in. I then went on Photoshop and being no Photoshop expert I struggled to get rid of the shadow as it just didn't look right. Then later I realised I need to take better care when I take photos and take in to account the positioning of the people as it can create shadows and be very difficult to get rid of. The next inspiration I got off my style model is the fact they use inside stories and pictures. This was a common code in basically all school magazines therefore I used this idea. I probably found this task easier than the rest as i didn't struggle taking the pictures or adding the text to go with it. I slanted the photo and text as this is a common code that magazines use. Next up, my style model used specific colours and fonts. Fonts wasn't a problem for me, I used "da font" website as it had a variety I could use. I used easy readable font as it allows the audience to see it easier. However, when it came to colours I struggled, I could never get a colour to fit and originally I had a pale blue background however it's looked horrible and the photo wasn't well edited therefore I came up with the idea to take a picture of a wall and add it in the background as looked better and also helped cover up the shadow. Next time I will focus on the colour theme as I feel that let my magazine down and to be honest I feel I could have done better with that.
Overall, my front cover was a lot harder than I expected. I didn't realised the amount of time it takes to make a front page, every little thing needs to be considered. Even the photos. I didn't even think getting a medium close up was going to be difficult. The lightening was a big problem for me, and at first I was taking them landscape rather than portrait. Silly I know! Slowly I am improving and I have learnt a lot when creating this front cover next time it will definitely be better. I can't see it's easy.
