Analysis of double page spreads

Total Guitar magazine

The double page spread uses a colour scheme of yellow, black and white.  This gives the page a modern and bold feel.  The font on the image page is messy and looks like it is dripping, making it feel care free.  The model used for the image is female and holding a guitar.  Usually men are associated more with playing guitar so this shows the magazine is aiming at a more modern audience where women are also into rock music.  The layout of the writing is in columns which gives it the feel of a less formal newspaper article, suggesting that it is designed to inform the audience.  The language used is also fairly formal, but sounds quite chatty as a lot of it is made up of quotes.  This tells the audience that the information they are receiving isn't just plucked from the internet but has come straight from the source.  This allows the reader to feel closer to the featured artists.  Overall the intended audience appears to be well educated but cover a large age range, hitting the niche market of guitar enthusiasts because of its professionalism.

Q Magazine



The colour scheme of red and black used for the font of the article reflect the house style of Q magazine and make it look professional, similar to a newspaper.  This is good because Q is aimed at a more sophisticated and well educated audience.  The image of the muppets is bright and cheerful.  Along with these facts and it's size it is able to draw the audience into the article and instantly recognise what it is about.  The overall layout of the text makes the page look formal and well written, making the people who write it look like they are experts.  This assures the audience that they are getting quality for their money.  Keeping the pages simple ensures that the information is put across without confusing or distracting the audience.

Analysis of contents pages

Total Guitar Magazine

The contents page uses a large amount of images arranges in a montage style, with each image related to one of the articles.  This lets you know a bit more about some of the articles and makes them look more interesting to entice the audience.  The main body of articles are arranged in columns making them look professional and clearly their white background clearly distinguishes them from the images.  The colours of red and black are dominant on the page and reflect the rebellious nature of rock guitarist which is the niche market that the magazine aims at.  Some of the articles are written in a handwriting style font, making them stand out from the others and appear to be linked.  The mode of address is fairly informal using lots of elision and there is also a lot of technical terms related to guitars.  This shows the target audience that effort has been made to make the magazine accessible for them and to tailor it to their needs.  Overall the page is laid out fairly formally but also uses less formality in the language used.

Mixmag Magazine

The contents pages are white text on black background creating a strong contrast so that the text stands out.  The images are both of relatively young people to relate to a teenage audience.  They are wearing stylish clothes to show that the magazine is for modern teens who like to be part of the latest fashion trends.  The simplistic layout makes the magazine look sophisticated and professional to let the audience feel grown up.  The look of the pages gives you the feel of being in a night club, the dark backgrounds with the bright lights, telling the reader exactly what kind of magazine they are looking at.  All the features are relate to dance music for a youth audience, letting the reader know exactly what they are buying.

Analysis of magazine front covers

Q magazine is published by Bauer Media and has been in production since 1986.

The cover model is a popular female artist who will appeal to a broad audience.  She is being represented as powerful by her confident body language and the fact that she is towering over well known monuments such as the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.  This will appeal to a modern thinking audience because the female having power is a very modern ideology.  The colour scheme is red, white and black which is very modern and sophisticated.  It connotes elegance and passion which makes the audience feel like the producers of the magazine are professionals who know a lot about their magazines content.  The choice of font for the masthead and cover lines is fairly basic and unemphasised in order to keep the attention on the cover picture, and to seem sophisticated and professional.  There is also not much text on the cover in order to keep the design simple.  The puff in the bottom left corner is placed in order to let you know you are getting value for money.  The magazine is £3.50 suggesting it is aimed at a more wealthy demographic, a fact backed up by the sophisticated look of the magazine.  The magazine has an overall house style that says style, elegance and formality, but it appeals to a wide audience because modern young people are often after a magazine which makes them look good and this magazine definitely fulfills this criteria.

Rolling Stone magazine is published by Wenner Media and has been published since 1967.

The cover model is a popular male artist who will appeal to the wide target audience.  He is dressed in smart clothing suggesting sophistication and money.  This makes him seem powerful and his eye contact with the audience draws them in.  The simple colour scheme of red, black and white gives the magazine an air of professionalism and doesn't distract from the cover mode.  The masthead reminds you of the band and therefore shows a clear relation to music. The cover lines are positioned mainly on the left hand side of the cover in a column style layout which is similar to newspapers and therefore suggests formality.  The font is also formal and varies in size to add visual interest to the cover and to highlight the words that are most important for drawing in the desired audience. The price is about £3.80 which is a reasonable price for a magazine and caters for a large demographic.  The overall house style connotes professionalism, elegance and formality, appealing to wide wide modern audience.

Kerrang magazine is published by Bauer media and has been published since 1981.

The cover models are 3 men who are from a rock band that is well known amongst the rock genre.  They are being represented as rebellious and confident, which is the target audience the magazine is aimed at.  The font used for the masthead looks like graffiti, targeting a young male audience.  The colour scheme of red, black and white adds to the rebellious and and individual nature of the magazine, attracting the male audience.  There aren't many cover lines and they are all positioned near the bottom of the magazine, giving the main article linked to the cover model a central positioning because it will draw in the desired audience.  The price is £2.10 which is cheap for this type of magazine suggesting it is aimed at people with a lower income such as students and low level careers.  The overall house style connotes youth, rebellion and individualism that draws in an audience who want to stretch limits and don't like to conform to rules.

Music magazine montage

A montage showing the range of music magazines on the market.  It shows that they target both the mass market mainstream audience as well as some of the more niche markets using their own house styles and brand identity.

Research into a media institution

Bauer media produces music magazines Kerrang, Q and Mojo.  It also produces a range of other magazines on various genres such as Heat, FHM and Empire.  It manages to target a wide audience due to the variety of its media products.  It is also involved in work for television, radio and online viewing.

Introduction to main task

I have now completed the preliminary task and I am moving on to the main task.  The main task is to produce the front cover, contents page and double page feature for a music magazine.

Action Plan:

16 January
- Compare magazines and research the magazine market place
- Research similar products: 3x front covers, 2 x contents pages, 2 x double page spread

24 January
- Initial ideas
- Audience research
- Writing a treatment plan

30 January
- Layout / masthead ideas
- Plan photo shoot and take photos
- Drafting of pages
- Audience feedback

6-27 February
- Drafting of pages
- Audience feedback

5 March
- Evaluation

9 March
- Final deadline

Evaluation

1.  In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Looking at examples of student magazine I was able to recognise that they had many common features.  They usually consisted of a colour scheme of about 3 colours and had a student on the cover.  They had a balance between informality and professionalism which I considered to be important for developing my own magazine.  I used a general colour scheme of red, white and black, colours that connote well to a rebellious youth, yet still have an air of sophistication.  I also used a student as the model for my medium closeup cover image.  My articles were based around themes that commonly occured in student magazines such as college events, reviews and student work, whilst adding in the theme of christmas to go with the time of year.

2.  How does your media product represent different social groups?


My magazine is aimed at students my age so I made sure my magazine was designed in a way that appealed to me.  I used a colour scheme involving red to appeal to my audience as it connotes life and rebelliousness, and because it went well with black and white.  My images were all of people who were all students to keep the magazine focused on a youth demographic, ensuring it would be easy for students to relate to the contents of the magazine.  My cover image was of someone smiling, connoting happiness to encourage people to read the magazine so that they can feel happy too, and I made the image monotone so that the cover lines would stand out over the top of it.  The font for the text was simple and slightly more formal to make the magazine look more professional and help the students to feel that they are more grown up, closer to adulthood.  I made sure that the puff with 'free' on it was bold and stood out well because I wanted to ensure that the students would know straight away that the magazine was affordable for people who may not have a job yet.

3.  What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?


I think my magazine would work well for my college, because it is ideal for people aged 16-19.  This is because students at this age are still teenagers but they are wanting to be treated more like adults.  My magazine caters for this because it mixes its fun and youthful contents and images, with a professional and more grown up feel brought on by the font used and the choice of a monochrome image for the cover.  Also the professionalism will appeal to the college staff and encourage them to take the magazine seriously.

4.  Who would be the audience for your media product?


My audience is 16-19 year old college students who want to find out about what is going on in their local area and who enjoy reading other magazines that are aimed at their demographic.

5.  How did you attract/address your audience?


I attracted my audience by using a bold and strongly contrasting cover that was designed to draw you into the magazine.  The colours were simple black and white mixed with the red to make the writing on the cover stand out against the background, whilst keeping the look quite sophisticated and professional.  I didn't use lots of bright colours because I didn't want it to look busy and chaotic.  For the contents page I kept the same colour scheme and simply inverted it so that I kept up a house style for my magazine whilst creating a slightly different look for the page.  It allowed the two pages to create a striking contrast.  For the masthead of my magazine I made the word 'zone' larger than 'student' to make it striking and to create effect.

6.  What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?


During the production of my magazine I used Photoshop and InDesign.  I could already use Photoshop but InDesign was new to me.  I am used to using Microsoft Publisher for this kind of thing but found that InDesign can be a good alternative.  It was fairly easy to use but a few things such as changing the size of images and moving them was more complicated than I thought was necessary.  My photographs were taken on a digital camera which was good because it was portable and produced images of a reasonable quality.  I didn't learn anything new from this but was able to practice coming up with ideas for photo-shoots.

Completed front cover and contents page