Front Cover Drafts

I used the same layout and text for all three of my front cover drafts but I changed the main image each time. I did this too see if changing the image made a difference to the overall look of the front cover of my magazine. Out of all three drafts I prefer the second one, I think the image looks better on this one because the person is looking into the camera so it looks better. However I need to work on the text and make sure that it doesn't make the cover look too crowded.

• I tried to stick to a colour scheme throughout the front cover, the colour scheme consisted of the colours pink, black, blue and white and I think that these colours work well together. 
• I made sure the Masthead stood out and I also made it bigger and bolder than the rest of the text.
• I have a main story which is on the right side of the image where as the rest of the articles are on the other side, this draws more attention to the main article which also links to the main image.
• There is a teasing content along the bottom of the magazine, this will draw people in and make them more interested.
• I have included one thumbnail image on the front cover as well as the main image.

Feedback

Draft 1 - "I like this one, I think the image works better with the rest of the magazine, although it would be better if they was looking at the camera as this would then connect with the audience more."

"I like this but I think that the articles need to be more targeted to your audience and this will get more people interested."

Draft 2 - " I think the image on this one is good because the person in it is looking at the camera, however it doesn't work as well with the way the text has been positioned."

"I like this image but it doesn't work as well with the text etc., the text overcrowds the page too much"

Draft 3 - "I don't really think this image works as a lot of the person is covered and it isn't as good an image as the other two."

"This one is ok but it doesn't look as good as the other two."
Draft 4 - "This one is ok but it isn't my it isn't as good as the others. It needs more text and a price."
"I don't really like this one as much as the others, it doesn't look as full as the other three"

Improvements

• I need to change some of the articles so that they suite my target audience better.
• I could reposition some of the text so that the main image is clearer.
• I need to include the date that the magazine is published underneath the masthead.
• I need to make sure that the text stands out more and use more thumbnail images.
• I need a bar code and price on the front cover.

My images

Front Cover Drafts

First Draft

Second draft

Third draft

Draft 4

Contents page Mock ups

Double page spread Mock ups

Layout

For this mock up magazine cover I used a main image ,which is of Chris Brown, and I made sure that this is the main focus  of the front cover. There is a banner wide headline which is the name of the magazine 'Beat' and underneath it says 'Brand new magazine' that lets people know that this is a new magazine.
The magazine also includes a main article which is about the person in the picture, this links them together. On my final magazine front cover I will have more articles on it as well as my main article.
At the bottom of the front cover I have a teasing content which has the word 'Exclusive' in bold and a different colour too make it stand out and this will grab peoples attention as they will be getting something extra when they buy this magazine. There is also thumbnail images that go with the teasing content and they link the articles in there with them.
This front cover is okay, to improve it would need more articles and images adding to it.

Layout

This shows a basic layout using shapes to show roughly were I will place things on my magazine. I have used my research from looking at the existing R&B music magazines and used this to help me to decide on a basic layout for my magazine. When it comes to making my final magazine I could change this around when I am using photoshop to make it look better.

Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas on Prezi

My Target Audience & Price and publishing

My target audience
My target audience is going to be R'n'B fans. Another audience could also be fans of celebritys that are featured in the magazine in differet issues. The age group I am going to aim my magazine at people aged 15 to 24. It is going to be aimed at a female audience and I have decided to aim my magazine at a female audience as I know a lot about this audience and I think females at the age group I have chosen are interested in this type of music, however males will also be interested. My magazine is for anyone interested in R'n'B music and I am going to make sure I include the most recent music from this genre to interest people and make sure they buy my magazine. I am also going to include exclusive information to do with the artists as people in this age group will be interested in getting all the information on the newest music. This will include artist like Jason Derulo, Chris Brown, Usher, Labrinth and many more. I only need to have one or possibly two people (If one was featuring on the other persons song) as the main subject for the magazine as most R'n'B artists are not in a band or group, this will make it relate to the type of music and artists more. I am going to make sure my magazine is very eye catching, has the latest music and information about artists and is different and includes more compared to the already existing music magazines.

Price and publishing
By looking at my target audience and seeing what they can afford to pay for a magazine based on how much money that type of people will earn I have decided on the price i am going to sell my magazine at. I have decided that the price for my magazine is going to be £2.00 because I think that it is an affordable price for my target audience and people will be willing to pay this amount for my magazine.
I have also decided on how often I am going to publish my magazine, I have decided that I want to publish my magazine every two weeks, most other R'n'B magazines publish theirs monthly or weekly and I want to have somethign different from the other magazines so I think publishing it every two weeks will still allow a lot of information to be put into the magazine and it will also be published more often than some magazines.

Magazine Analysis

Complex magazine analysis

Complex magazine Contents page LIIAR analysis

Language:
There is a title at the top right of the page but it isn’t very big or bold, you don’t really notice it that much.
There is a theme in this page, using the colours pink and black all the way through with white background and some white writing.
There is one main image but no thumbnail images to go with other articles in the magazine.
The main article is show at the top so it is the first one you see, however it is not very noticeable.
Some of the writing is different sizes, making the magazine more interesting.

Institution:
This magazine has been created and published by Complex.

Ideology:
This contents page is not like a lot of the front covers I have seen for complex. The front covers are normally quite minimal and quite plain and kind of show the celebrity’s for who they actually are without all the added extra bits. This contents page is quite different to the front covers; it is a lot more fun and filled up with articles.

Audience:
The audience for this magazine is fans of R’n’B music but also the celebrity that is in the image’s fans as they will want to see the parts of the magazine about her. By having different celebrities in magazines it attracts many different audiences and some may like the magazine when they see it and they will have bought the magazine because one of their favourite artists was in there.

Representation:
This contents page is quite different to the front covers; it is a lot more fun and filled up with articles.

Complex magazine Double page spread LIIAR analysis

Language:
This double page spread is very chaotic and you don’t really know where to look as it is filled with lots of different things, again this is very different to the front covers.
The fonts and colours used in this give it a kind of comic book feel, they have used the colours, red, yellow and blue, these colours all complement each other well and this is mixed with black text.
This double page spread has one main image, and no other images apart from illustrations.
There is a heading but it is not very clear as it blends in with everything else.

Institution:
This magazine has been created and published by Complex.

Ideology:
This contents page is not like a lot of the front covers I have seen for complex. The front covers are normally quite minimal and quite plain and kind of show the celebrity’s for who they actually are without all the added extra bits. This double page spread is very full up and chaotic, creating a more fun looking magazine.

Audience:
This double page spread is for R’n’B fans and also Keri Hilson fans.

Representation:
This double page spread is very chaotic and all over the place, this could be to show the personality of Keri Hilson.

Front Cover analysis

LIIAR Magazine Analysis

Language
All of the magazines have a masthead that is a larger font size than the rest of the text and is placed at the top of the front cover. The complex and Billboard mastheads are quite simple and are in colours that aren’t very bold. However the Vibe masthead is a lot brighter and stands out more than the other two. Also all of the mastheads on the front covers are partially covered by the main person in the image, this shows that the magazines are well known and people will know what magazine it is without seeing the full title. They all have a banner headline which goes right across the top of the page.
All but one magazine has a bar code and price on them, this will mean that ‘Complex’ is a free magazine but the other two are not. This could be because complex is aimed at a different age range compared to the other two magazines.
All three of the magazines have one main image that dominates the front cover. And in each one it is a famous well known celebrity that people will recognise straight away, this means that people who are fans of these celebrities will buy the magazine as well as fans of R’n’B.
Vibe and Billboard both have many articles surrounding the main image and then their main article somewhere with them. Complex has a main article like vibe and billboard but then it doesn’t have any other articles.
None of the front covers have thumbnail images, this doesn’t tell you anything about the other articles so people may not buy the magazine as they don’t know much about it. All of the front covers just have one main image.
The main article on each magazine is made to stand out. On the Vibe  and billboard magazine it is at a separate side to all the other articles. In vibe the article has been made to stand out by putting it in a different colour to the rest of the articles. On billboard it is in a bigger and bolder font compared to the rest. The complex magazine doesn’t have any writing other than the main article but they have still tried to make it stand out by putting it in purple, the rest of the magazine is black and white and grey and then the writing is in purple so you notice it more.
Vibe magazine has a teasing content along the top of it, saying the words ‘EXCLUSIVE’ to get people interested. This is useful for telling the audience that they are getting something extra that other magazines don’t have by buying the magazine.
There is a strong colour scheme in each of the front covers. Vibe magazines colour scheme is blue and white and then the more important things like the main articles and teasing content in yellow and black to stand out. Complex magazine is mainly greys, black and white and then colour for the text. Billboard uses the colours white and black with some grey writing for less important parts.
None of the magazines have a competition but Vibe magazine does have a survey, this will interest people and they will want to see what the survey is about and want to fill it in.
All three of the main images on these magazines are of well-known singers and they are made to look important as they are the dominant subject for the magazines. In complex and Billboard magazine the writing is made to be shaped around the celebrity so that it doesn’t draw any attention away from them, whereas in Vibe some of the writing goes over Usher but this doesn’t detract from the picture as it is a medium close up and grabs your attention straight away.
Vibe magazine is a medium close up and you can see that Usher is looking into the camera even though he has sunglasses on. Complex and Billboard are not as close as Vibe and I think that this takes some attention away from the subject.

Institution
Each of the magazines has been published by the companies that have made the magazines.
Vibe magazine is published by Inter Media Partners which is a firm focused on the media sector. They took over the production of the magazines after it was shut down.
Complex magazine is published by Marc Ecko who creates the magazine. It says this name above the masthead of the magazine, making it clear who published it.
Billboard magazine is published by Prometheus Global Media, which is a worldwide brand as Billboard is a very well-known music magazine. They have published many other well-known magazines like Vogue and GQ.

Ideology
For each magazine the main image with the celebrity they are made to look important and dominate the front page.
They are all the only image so they stand out from everything else on the front cover, complex magazine is very minimal, doing the complete opposite of its name, and seems to show the celebrities for who they really are. Whereas the other two magazines show the celebrities just as famous people and what everyone knows them for unlike complex.

Audience
The audience for all three magazines is fans of R’n’B music. You know this as they are R’n’B magazines and someone who didn’t like that type of music wouldn’t buy these magazines.
There is also another audience for fans of the celebrity that gets featured on the front cover each week. For Vibe, Usher fans will be interested in the magazine as he is featured in it. For complex Nicki Minaj fans will be interested and for Billboard, Lady gaga will be interested in the magazine.
By featuring celebrities on the front cover it gets people interested and fans of this celebrity will buy the magazine, so more people will buy the magazine.

Representation
Vibe and Billboard are trying to show the celebrities as very important and is more focused on promoting them and their music, however with complex it is more focused on showing the celebrity for who they are and seems to be more interested in them.

Identify and explain choice of genre that you will use to base your entire magazine on

The genre of music I will be focusing on is R&b. I have chose this type of music because it is the genre of music I am interested in the most out of them all and therefore know a lot about it. R&B music is very popular so I will have to come up with new and interesting ideas to make my R&B magazine different from the others so that people will buy mines instead of the already existing ones. Most R&B magazines are published every month or couple of weeks and usually on average cost £2-3, I could make mine different and charge a cheaper price or publish it at different times so that its out more often and is full of new articles.

I have chosen some songs that are R&B and posted the links before. These are the type of artists I want to include in my magazine as I find it easy to listen to these as this is the type of music I prefer.

LLIAR Analysis

Language – What do my products need to contain?

Front Cover

• Masthead: A short magazine title, shown as a dominant part of the magazine to catch people’s eyes.
• Main Article/Feature: This must go with my main image
• Price/Bar code
• Thumbnail images: these will be for other articles
• A colour scheme with a clear house style of two or three main colours.
• Anchorage
• Teasing content along the bottom of the magazine
• A main image: This must take up the full front cover and be a medium close up (Face and shoulders of the person), the person must be making eye contact so that they are connecting with the audience and it should be a clear image.
• Competitions and free gifts.

Contents page

• A colour scheme with a clear house style of two or three main colours, this should be the same colour scheme carrying on through to the contents page.
• Thumbnail images, to go with articles and page numbers.
•  Mast head ( saying contents page  
•  Page numbers with article titles to show where everything is located in the magazine.

Double page spread

• A main picture that relates to the article
• Mast head
• Thumbnail images that relate to the main image and the article.
• A colour scheme, with a clear house style of two or three main colours.
• Information for the article

Institution

• I can look at other music magazines that are already published and that will be similar to mine and try and develop my magazine by adding extra features and making it more interesting that the existing magazines so that people will want to buy it                                                                                 Ideology
•  I want my magazine to represent the type of music it is about all the way through, to do this I need to think about my target audience and what they would like in a magazine as well as thinking and using the type of music it is about.

Audience: who will I be aiming my magazine at

• I will need to think about the age group I want to aim it at, depending on what type of music I am going to do it about.
• The price and content of my magazine needs to be suitable for my target audience.
• I also need to think about gender, weather I want it to be aimed at both boys and girls or just one of the two.

Representation

• The front cover will give people an impression of what the magazine will look like and what content will be in it on the inside, so it needs to represent the music type and the target audience well.

Music magazine brief

My main task is too create a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a new music magazine that I will come up with. For my research I need to focus on a certain genre of music, as they are many out there a particular type of music will attract a different audiences so I will have to decide an audience but also think about what type of music I am focusing on as well when it comes to making this choice. I will need to research and look at different types of existing music magazine and use lliar analysis to look at what i could include in my magazine and I will be these magazine for ideas and to get a sense of what is usually included in them. I will have to make decisions on how often my magazine is going to be published, the price of it and why I am making these choices about my magazine.

After deciding this information about my magazine I then have to come up with my initial ideas for my magazine and do some digital mock ups so I can try out different layouts, one of the digital mock ups will be a layout draft and the other will be a mock up using images of google to try out different looks that I could give my magazine. I then move onto my final products, which are a front cover, contents page and double page spread. When creating these I must think about the overall look, I need to think about what colour scheme i want, a main image, smaller images, a name, and different articles for the magazine.

I then move onto my evaluation where I will review everything I have done in the project and see how it has gone. I will say what I think went well and how I could improve. I could then do another draft of the products showing what improvements I have made, by using what I said in my evaluation and making my front cover or content page or double page spread better.

LIIAR analysis of my final products

LIIAR Analysis



Language

Front cover

on the front cover of my magazine I have used the colour and font size to make certain parts of it stand out, and be more noticeable, for example, on the front page I have tried to use a house style by using the colours purple, green and black and also stick to only two fonts so that they don’t look like too much that is it. I made sure that my front cover has a masthead, which is WCM (Wyke college magazine), I put this in bold and made it a bigger size compared to the rest of the text, and this stands out at the top of the page. I have also included the college logo; people will identify this and know it is from Wyke College. I have included a few images that are relevant to the articles that they are for like the article and have included a caption underneath too explain about the pictures, about the artwork has pictures of student’s art to go with it and the ict support section has a picture of students on computers. My main image on the picture is a medium close up and the person in it is making eye contact with the audience, they are also wearing a science lab coat which creates a main article that can be featured with the image. I also made sure the text for this article stood out against the others and made it the main thing that people will see when looking at the magazine. I think I could have improved by using a variety of different fonts, rather than just using one font for the whole magazine. I also thing I could have included a teasing content at the bottom of the page, persuading people by writing extra articles that will appeal to them at the bottom of the page.

When making my magazine I had to think about how it would interest people and make them want to read it, this is why I tried to include articles and images that would interest them. For example the main article about the science results will get everyone who does science and maybe some people that don’t but are just interested, reading the magazine. I also added an article about the Wyke parties which a lot of students go too and will be interested in getting the dates for.

Contents page mock upthe contents page is a mock-up of what it could look like. I have made the text different sizes and colours but still stuck to my colour scheme of purple, green and black. I used a main picture again, like the front page, but this time it isn’t a medium close up as it makes it easier to fit writing over the picture so that you can still read it. I didn’t just include text and the main image on my contents page; I also put a picture on and then wrote the page number next to it. I think there are a lot of improvements that I could make on this; I think like the front cover I could have included a range of different fonts to make it more interesting. I also think the page looks a bit empty and could be filled up a bit more.

Institutionthis magazine has been made by me, and I am a student at Wyke. It is better that I go to wyke as i am able to take pictures around the college and I know what it happening around the college so it was easy for me to come up with possible articles to include.

Ideologymy magazine is to show a fun and working side to the students at Wyke. It is too help them through their studies and also give them events that they can have fun at. I think I have kind of achieved this as I have only really put in one article that shows a fun side to college life at wyke which is the wyke parties; however I have no images to go with it so people may not see it straight away and may not be as interested in the magazine.

Audiencemy target audience is students at Wyke college which are usually aged 16-18 or maybe a bit older. This age group will be interested in what is happening around college and want to know about events outside of college as well so this is the best group to aim the magazine at, especially as it is about wyke. Also because of my audience I made my magazine free, as students don’t tend to have as much money as other age groups.

RepresentationI want my magazine to represent the students of wyke in a positive way so that if anyone looks at the magazine that doesn’t come to wyke will get a good impression, and Wyke students would not want to read the magazine if they were shown in a negative way. I wanted them to be shown as hard working but also show a fun side and at the same time still achieving the grades they need for their future.

Promoting the launch of my magazine

When promoting the launch of my magazine I need to make sure that it interests people. I can promote this on the Internet because a lot of people use it and this will mean that it will be seen by a lot more people. My magazine will be shown on the Wyke website as the magazine is for Wyke students and they use the Wyke website a lot in and out of college. Also to raise awareness of the magazine an email could be sent out to all students using the Wyke email, and then most people will find out about it on there.

I would create a separate magazine website and include links on other websites so that people can find it. On the website I will include exclusive articles, which will also be on the printed copy. It could also have a competition every now and again but not as often as the printed copy. I could also have an iPhone app, which will be useful as students can then see the magazine when they are out and about and they could also get recent updates on what is happening and when the next printed copy of the magazine will be available.

I would rather college students had a printed copy of the magazine as it is better, however it would cost the college more money to print off a lot of the magazines, so it is best that not all students want a printed copy and some just view it on the Internet.When it comes too trying to get students to pick up the printed copy of my magazine rather than just looking at it on the Internet I could include certain articles in the printed copy that are not in the online version. This will make students want the print copy. I could also put competitions in the magazine, but not on the online one, to interest people.

Feedback for my final products

Front Cover
"I really like this front cover over all of the other drafts. I think you have used the text and pictures well to show what is going to be featured in the magazine. I like the colours, green purple and black, I think they go really well together, although to improve you could add more of the purple and green and less black. I also like the main pictures article headline at the bottom, it is a lot bigger than the rest of the text and really stands out."

Contents page
"I really like this contents page, all the writing is easy to read and i like the use of colour in it. I also like that you have make some of the writing bigger than other bits, making them stand out more to people and grab their attention. The page numbers are clear and the overall look of the contents page is good and interesting"

I think the feedback from my products is quite good and I am happy with it. I could improve on a few things on my magazines front cover, but I am still happy with it. I think that from the feedback that it will interest people and grab their attention which is good.

My Contents page Mock up

This is a mock up of what my contents page could look like. I have included pictures and the different articles in different sizes and colour to make certain ones stand out over others. I have also included page numbers, quite big, so that it is clear and so people can find their way around the magazine easily. I could improve this further by changing fonts and adding more picture etc to fill the space up as it looks a bit empty.

Final Magazine front cover

This is my final front cover for my college magazine.

Draft 4

I like the use of the white background behind the main picture as then the overall look of the magazine in not too busy. The writing that is in green is not easy too read but the rest of the writing is ok.

Feedback "I like this but i think you should make sure the main picture has an article to go with it. I think that your magazine has a mixture of fun and work related articles which it good"

Draft 3

I think that this one is quite similar to My first one but everything is on the right hand side instead of the left. I think i prefer it when the writing etc is on the left side. I have to use black boxes behind my writing because the wyke colour scheme that i have chosen makes the writing in green and purple hard to read, however with the boxes it make the writing stand out more.

Feedback: "I like this one a lot better, The writing is a lot easier to read, but the boxes make the magazine cover focused on the text and not the pictures as well."





Draft 2

This is another draft, I don't like this one as much as my other as I think it is a bit plain and empty, i don't think that they are enough articles on it. I don't think the writing stands out enough and a lot of it isn't easy to read.

I asked a friend for feedback on this draft and they said: "I like the layout on this one as well but I don't think it has enough on it. Also the main picture doesn't have an article to go with it so it doesn't fit in. Think more about including more of an obvious colour scheme."

Draft 1

This is my first draft of a possible design for my magazine cover. I have used a colour scheme of purple and black with some green added in parts. I like this design as you can still see the feature image over the rest of the images on the front cover and it stands out. However the image needs to be zoomed in more so that it is a medium close up. I like having some of the smaller image going diagonal across the page and the writing with a background as it stands out compared to the main image at the back.I also like having the wyke logo in the corner of the page as it shows where the magazine is from and makes it clear. I think the featured articles on the front need to be more interesting and appealing to the audience, i can do this by adding more fun headlines of things to do with work and social life.

Feedback from a friend:

"I like the overall layout and look of the magazine cover but I think that you need to add stories that will be more interesting for students. All of the stories are about work, try adding something fun, like the Wyke party's, to interest people more and grab their attention."

My images

I have decided not to use this image on my front cover or contents page mock up for my magazine. I could still use it somewhere in my magazine as the image is still useful

I am not going to use this in my magazine, but this is still a good image that could be used.

I haven't used this image in my magazine front cover or contents mock up, however I could use this in a different part of the magazine.

I am not going to use this image in my magazine because there isn't anything that I can link it to.

I could use this image in my magazine but I don't have anything to link it too.

I am going to use this image on my contents page as I can have the image taking up the full page and the have the writing surrounding the person.

I am not going to use this image because it doesnt have any relevence to the stories I am putting into my magazine.

I am not going to use this in magazine because I don't think the framing of the image is very good, if it was zoomed in more then it would look a lot better.

I have decided not to use this in my magazine because it is just an image of the college and doesn't have any people in it.

I have decided not to use this, I am going to use a different image of the same place as it has been captured better.

I have decided to use this image on my front cover but i am going to crop it.

I have decided not to use this image, I have another image that is similar and i prefer that one so I don't need two images of the same place.

I am not using this image in magazine as it has no relevence to any of the cover lines I have included in my magazine.

I have decided not to use this image in my magazine.

I am not using this image is my magazine because I don't have anything to relate it to.

I am going to include this on my front cover. I am going to crop it and have it as a thumbnail image.

I am not using this image in my magazine.

I am not using this image as I already have an image of the same person that I prefer to this one.

I am not using this image in my magazine.

I am using this image as my main image on the front cover. I have chosen this image because it clearly shows the person and they are looking at the camera so this will look best on the front cover.

I took images for my magazine around the college, some of them turned out right but others are not going to be used in my final magazine cover. I made sure I had a medium close up shot of someone to feature on the front cover and I also made sure I had other various images that I can use for other parts of the front cover and contents page.