Second Draft Of Contents Page

Fourth Draft Of Front Cover

Font Changes To Double Page Spread

As I changed the font for the cover story, I am also changing it on the double page spread to show continuity throughout the magazine.

Font Changes To Front Cover

After looking at my front cover again, I decided to play around with the font for the main cover story "Ano - Making Music My Way". I then decided I preferred the second magazine with the font "Basic Sans Heay SF". 

Second Draft Of Double Page Spread

Feedback Between Two Final Front Cover Designs

Magazine One

 Magazine Two

I have had a hard decision deciding whether to keep the two pugs saying "Tyga" and "Trey Songz" as I wasn't sure if they are necessary and make the page look too overcrowded. However without them I wasn't sure if the page looked too plain, but after analysing a number of R&B magazines, I found simplicity was a trend. 

Therefore I decided to ask for feedback on the two magazine front covers and to see what potential R&B magazine buyers would prefer. The question I proposed to every person was: 

I then sent them a picture of both magazome front covers. The feedback I recieved was:

Jess, aged 17

Chloe, aged 17 

Amber, aged 16 

Caitlin, aged 17 

Myles, aged 16

Frank, aged 16

My feedback has shown that magazine 1 defnitely proves to be the most popular and people don't find the page to be overcrowded. 

Third Draft Of Front Cover

Second Draft Of Front Cover

First Draft Of Double Page Spread

First Draft of Contents Page

This is my first draft of my contents page. I followed the colour scheme of purple, black white and grey from my front cover to show continuity throughout the magazine. However, after comparing this contents page to the front cover, I feel that this page looks bolder and is more eye catching than my front cover - mainly I think due to the masthead. Therefore, I have decided that I am going to swap the two mastheads round, using the bigger bolder one on the front cover to make it stand out more. I have also sectioned the text in to boxes to separate the text and make it easier to read and more appealing to the eye (as I found through my research that this a desire for magazines.)

First Draft of Front Cover

This is my first draft of the front cover. I decided to use a simplistic layout because after analysing a lot of R&B magazines, I found this was a common and popular trend. For my final magazine, I will continue to make the image the main focus on the front cover - taking up a vast majority of the right hand side of the page. I also like the top strip on the top of the magazine as I think it makes it look professional and states the genre of the music, this is another idea I would like to take forward to my final draft. Next draft, I would like to experiment with a different colour scheme so I can decide which one I prefer and think suits the R&B genre best. Next time I will ensure that the whole image is on the page as in this one part of Ano's arm has been slightly cropped off. I will also move the cover line slightly to the right so it is not so on the edge of the page.

Test Shots

This image would be best suited to a double page spread as Taku's facial expression shows her emotion very clearly - she is very happy and smiley. As this image is a mid shot, it allows us to see her body language which is very relaxed due to her hands in her pockets. I think this image would appeal to my target audience of 16-24 year olds as it is not gender specific and push away any potential readers. Also, the use of the mid shot is effective as it shows the image in more detail as it is closer up than a long shot, however it still shows enough of the person to feel as if they were looking at the persons whole body. This is an approximation of how you would see a person in the flesh if you were having a proper conversation as you wouldn't be paying attention to the lower part of their body, so that part of the picture is unnecessary. I also chose a mid shot as it allows room for gestures as shown in my image of Taku's hand in her pocket. 

I think this image would be best suited to a front cover as the subject is looking directly at the camera. The direct contact draws in the audience to want to purchase the magazine as well as clearly identify who the subject is, their pose, body language and facial expression.  The use of the mid shot is effective as it shows the image in more detail as it is closer up than a long shot, however it still shows enough of the person to feel as if they were looking at the persons whole body. This is an approximation of how you would see a person in the flesh if you were having a proper conversation as you wouldn't be paying attention to the lower part of their body, so that part of the picture is unnecessary. I also chose a mid shot as it allows room for gestures as shown in my image of Anos hand's being in front of him.

Layout Designs

Front Cover

This is a simple layout of how I am planing to layout the front cover of my magazine. It shows how I will make the Image the biggest part of the front cover and where I will place everything around in on the page.

Contents Page

This is a simple layout of my contents page as I want the page numbers and listings to be the main focus as it is a contents page. Everything else on the page will be featured around the listings such as upcoming events and editors note. This is not the final layout of my conents page because when I start creating the magazine, I will change things around to follow the style of my front cover.

Double Page Spread

This is a simple layout of my double page spread. After analysising R&B magazines, I felt there was a common theme of simplicity, therefore I tried to show this with my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I chose this layout as I think it is easy to navigate around the text and the pull quotes and image pulls apart the text and makes it easier and more appealing to read. 

Masthead Ideas

Letter Of Acceptance

Letter of Acceptance

I agree to be featured on photographs that shall later be used in AS Level Media coursework for Leah Walton.

  

Signature.......................

Date...............................

I gave this to the models that will be featuring in my music magazine as a form of permission.

Mise En Scene Ideas

Genre and Artist

Genre

Following the results from my survey, the genre for my magazine will be R&B as this was the most popular result and what I based my questions around. I also think R&B is a popular genre of music within my target audience of 16-24 year olds. Also, as R&B is my favourite of genre of music, it will hopefully be easier and more enjoyable for me to create a magazine of this genre of music. 

Artists

The music magazines that I have analysed have focused on both current and popular artists in addition to older artists that are making a comeback. I plan on featuring a male current artist on the front cover of my magazine as I think this will appeal to both sexes of 16-24 year olds - females because they will be attracted to this male and want to know more because of this appeal and males because they will aspire to this male and want to be like him. The type of artist I would like to feature in my magazine would be Trey Songz or Beyoncé because they would appeal to both males and females for the reasons above and as they are well known, successful and populars artists within the R&B industry. 

How will my research inform my planning?

Magazine Analysis

By analysing two magazines it gave me a greater insight of how magazines follow and use codes and conventions effectively in their own way. This was a very useful process as it enabled me to think about what codes and conventions I will follow when creating my own magazine and how to make it successful. In my first analysis of XXL magazine, I realised how important the masthead is as this will form as a logo for your magazine and how people recognise you as a brand. Therefore I am going to ensure my masthead is eye catching and appealing to they eye for my target audience so they will remember and recognise it, therefore promoting and advertising the brand/logo of my magazine. Secondly, from analysing B&S magazine I realised the importance of the images of the artists that feature on the front of the magazine and have the top cover story as this is again what the reader is looking at and if the image does not convey the right look and attitude of an R&B artist then the target audience will simply not be interested and put the magazine down. I also found the importance of organization of text on the contents page and double page spread - large chunks of small text with no sectioning or grouping is not appealing to the eye and simply won't be read. For this reason, I will ensure my magazine has no heavy chunks of small text and I will group/section and colour code text to appeal to the eye and make my magazine enjoyable to read. 

My Survey 

My survey was very valuable to my planning because it gave me a clear idea of what my target audience would like to be included in an R&B magazine. I will use the results I found throughout the planning process in order to come out with a successful result that is going to be popular with my target audience of 16-24 year old R&B fans and will sell. The feedback I received also made me reconsider what I will feature in the double page spread of my magazine as originally I assumed an interview with an artist would be what people prefer to read about most. However, my research showed me that alongside interviews with artists, upcoming music events were equally as popular to read about. Therefore when creating my magazine I am going to try and combine the two to create a magazine that will appeal to my target audience. The first question of my survey was "What is your favourite genre of music?", this meant I could identify how many of the people answering my survey were actually potential customers. R&B came out as the most popular answer receiving 4 out of 11 votes, although this is not a huge number, it is still reasonable in consideration of the small sample size and enabled me to know how relevant the data I had collected actually was.

Product Placement

Product placement showed me how to distribute my genre of magazine correctly and efficiently. Due to R&B music may not being as popular as others, it has a very specific distribution method. Magazines such as Vibe and XXL are mostly available via the internet. It is rare to find a shop specialised to R&B magazines, however they may be found in certain news agents or book stores.Product placement enabled me to identify where all the current R&B magazines on the market were being sold so then I could ensure my magazine stood out against them when being placed on the market. To ensure my magazine stands out I will have an effective, eye catching and memorable: name, colour scheme and cover line with an appropriate and intriguing main image.