3. My Stereotypical Reader
Tom is 20 years old. He spends his week sat at an office waiting for the
weekend. Tom's interests include festivals, gigs and the latest music.
Tom likes to spend time with his friends and is often found at pubs
listening to local bands whilst having a few drinks. He likes to have a
good time but appreciates he has a job and commitments, therefore he
is sensible yet humorous. Tom listens to mostly rock music with bands
such as Oasis, Courteeners and the Libertines but will quite happily sit
and listen to a recent mixtape from artists such as Kendrick Lamar or a
catchy dance tune from Avicii.
4. I aimed my magazine at…
16-25 year
olds
Educated or
interested in
learning
Have good
social lives
Interested in
extending
knowledge on
music
Who spend
money on…
5. The gap in the market
I believe I have found a gap in the market and I am trying to take
advantage of this gap by creating a, hopefully, unique magazine which
will be appealing. The reason my target age is 16-25 is because the
magazine is not gossip. My magazine is supposed to be intellectual
with aspects of humour therefore I felt that this age in which people
follow the most recent music seriously would be an ideal age. I did not
go below 16 as the maturity of the magazine or the content may not be
appealing to youngers as they crave pure entertainment. I did not go
above 25 as I thought that this is the age in which people begin to start
reliving songs from their childhood as oppose to following new music
seriously.
6. Questionnaire
The questionnaire I made includes questions that would help me with the
content and design of my magazine. I also made sure that the people who fill in
my questionnaire are within my target audience, for example 80% were above
the age of 16 and under the age of 25. My results are like this:
80% agreed that this was a genuine gap in the market
70% said this would be a product that interested them
Just 25% said that they would pay less that £3 for the magazine
60% wanted a mature professional look as oppose to an “ad crazy” magazine
9. Age – My target age is between 16-25 years old. A wide range yet
appropriate.
My research showed that people who are above 30 years old tend to stop
really listening out for new upcoming music and tend to cling on to music
from their childhood or teen days. I found that younger people were more
interested in learning about new music and this is why my target audiences’
age is relatively young.
Gender – I have tried to ensure that the magazine content is appealing
for both men and women but the cover and design may be towards the
male side. The dark colours with a male cover star, who isn’t necessarily
eye candy like Zac Efron which also suits the idea of my magazine being
intellectual as oppose to pure entertainment, could be seen as leaning more
towards a male audience and but the content is mixed with whoever finds it
interesting. Despite this I get the feeling that this particular magazine is
more male orientated.
Genre – My genre is whatever is whatever the main talking point within
music is at the time, supporting my idea that I am creating a magazine
which fills a gap in the market. In this particular episode it follows a band
converting from the pop scene to the competitive area of underground rock.
For this particular magazine I have gone with a dark underground look to
support the new look of my fictionary band “The Schemers.”
10. The masthead is a vivid red
which contrasts with the black
background. The date and price
are deliberately in very small
white text so that it is readable
but without being to
overpowering on the screen as I
wanted to keep the professional
look and also intellectual look
and I thought that a large price in
bright colours would not suit my
style of magazine
Once again I have used the same colour for the
main cover story as the masthead. The thinking
behind this is that it shows fluidity which I believe
is important in my magazine. Whatever the main
topic of the magazine is I have based the whole
magazine on, creating fluidity. The red and black
is commonly associated with hell and the devil,
linking to UNDERGROUND rock. This also links
to me deliberately using the wording of
“undercover,” once again linking to this
comparison to the devil and hell
(UNDERground.) Similarly the size of the text is
almost as large as my masthead, showing just
how important and unmissable this particular
article is.
I have stuck again purely to the
professional look. Everything is evenly
spaced out with a consistent and fluid
colour scheme on the front cover. The
white text contrasts with the black and
I decided that three colours was
enough for a front cover. I want my
cover to be eye catching without being
immature and overpowering, looking
as though it’s a childish magazine.
11. • I have cropped my model out on
Photoshop so that he is separate from
the background. I have put him in front
of the text as the audience would rather
see a photo than read something. The
word is still easily readable yet it makes
the page much more attractive.
• Evenly spaced out creating an
aesthetically pleasing contents page.
• The colour code of mainly black and
whites amongst the page is consistent
creating an attractive page which should
attract readers.
• A white background. Imagine
turning the page from the dark front
page into the light. The idea of
opening the bible and light shooting
out was my thinking behind this.
The sheer emptiness of the
contents page is deliberate. As I
said for my front cover, why
would I put anything in my
magazine that is not relevant? A
contents page should say where
everything is and should look
professional. My magazine is
intended to be this way, almost
like the contents page of an
intellectual book.
12. The red colour way is the same as
the one on my main cover story, as
it’s THAT article. I also have used
the same font to show it’s the THAT
article. It is bright, professional and
aesthetically pleasing.
Two pictures on one page. I have
done this because the previous two
pictures feature one model taking
up the whole page. I felt that
despite the fact I want my
magazine to be unique I do no
want it to be boring, or repetitive.
Drop Caps is common in old books,
often used by monks. Yet again it
displays the intellectual side of my
magazine as it is common in
books.
I have made everything black and
white bar the polo shirts and
jumpers. This is purely to make the
page a little different and show
diversity. It is also quite
aesthetically pleasing.
13. Audience Research – Online and Personal
Fred Perry is important in Mod Culture, I
therefore saw it fitting to use this brand of
clothing for my models. I did online research
to help with my understanding of mod
culture.
To further my knowledge I paid £20 to watch
a band named the “Courteeners” at Bristol
O2 Academy, the band is heavily linked with
the Mod scene. At the gig I observed the
clothing of the audience. Fred Perry, Pretty
Green and Adidas Original trainers were
everywhere. This helped with my magazine.
14. How does your star represent particular social
groups?
15. Little details
My model is an example of intertextuality as the audience recognise the
style of magazine by reading the titles or looking in depth at the clothing
and style of my cover star. They gain knowledge subconsciously from
simply looking at the front cover.
16. In all of my photographs I have young (20-22) male models which represents my target audience. The mise en scene
of the stars represent a “mod” look. Every model wears ‘Fred Perry’ clothing and on the contents page Adidas
Original trainers are shown. Brands worn by stars such as Liam Gallagher and Pete Doherty helps to attract a whole
new category. The models are dressed casually.
17. Sexuality and Ethnicity
The models used on my front cover is a white
British heterosexual male. This, however, does
not include any major factors of representation
or meaning within my magazine as I believe
they are irrelevant to music.
18. Regional Identity
My magazine is relevant in all regions and therefore I
do no think that regional identity is really significant
as I cannot pick out a few areas I am aiming my
magazine at. All photos are taken indoors so I cannot
even analyse the setting or background of images.
19. Disability
Yet another subculture that has no real
representation in my magazine as I believe it has
nothing to do with music magazines.
20. Subcultures:
My model is a white British male. This
representation suits the story as Matt and his band
are branching into British Rock music, which has an
extremely strong link with white working class
British males.
21. Character association
The link between my “celebrities” and real life
celebrities aims to attract a social group to my
magazine. Anyone who is familiar with bands
such as the Libertines or Courteeners will
recognise the logo and make assumptions on the
type of music and type of person my cover star
represents.
A subtle item of clothing on my cover star
hopefully opens a door to a whole new audience
to my magazine helping to boost sales.
The look: The laid back and “cool” look which
readers will idolise and want to be like. My age
group reflects this style as well by being younger
and more open with clothing and style.
22. In what way does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
23. The masthead is vertical down the side of the page. It brings
diversity to the magazine. Magazines are usually so predictable
with multiple magazines having a masthead with the model
covering it, this magazine goes against the normal functions
and the “ideology” of what a magazine should be like. This level
of diversity I found would suit my magazine perfectly as I was
trying to find a gap in the market for my magazine.
Iggy Azalea is the main star of this particular issue of “Billboard”
magazine and is made large on the page and hardly obstructed
by anything by the masthead. This shows her significance.
The small text on the page I found intriguing. Surely you would
have large text to attract readers? I created my own
philosophical theory about this. If you have smaller text then it
shows almost a cockiness that you do not need to go above and
beyond to attract your audience. I decided to pass this into my
magazine but not to the same extent. I was not a fan of the big
paragraph of small text though, I preferred summarising the
content of the magazine in one sentence.
24. Normal magazines, what I wanted to avoid.
All these magazines are popular but represent everything I wanted to avoid. The typical model
covering the masthead on the cover is almost a given on every magazine, but not mine. Mine is
different, its unique.
25. My magazine has a masthead vertical down
the side. This is unique, like my magazine is.
It’s different and shows immediately that this
magazine is not your usual music magazine.
My cover star is down the centre of the page
with a photo taken in medium close up. This
shows how important he is.
The content down the right hand side of my
magazine is in small text but with contrasting
colours and capital letters it is still easily
readable.
26. I copied the idea of a quote on my double page
spread. It gives an immediate taster of what the
article is about which is why I thought it would be
a good addition to my magazine.
27. What kind of media institutions might distribute
your product?
28. I did my research and found a company called “Prometheus Global
Media.” It refers to itself as a ‘diversified company with leading
assets in the media.’ The word “diversified” is what really shone for
me and my magazine. My magazine aims to epitomise diverseness
and to find a distributor with similar goals. A distributor can help to
boost sales so I thought it was important to make sure my magazine
is being distributed by an appropriate company and I thought that
this distributor would help to boost sales to an audience which will
be interested in my magazine and hopefully purchase it again.
29. Price
My magazine would cost £3, which I found
was approximately the average price of a
monthly magazine. I do not believe that £3
a month is very expensive and should be
affordable for all readers. The main funds
for my magazine/business would come
from advertisements within the magazine
as appose to actually selling copies
though.
30. Problems in Print Media
In modern times, with the rise of the internet and television, printed media is
facing a rapid decline. People tend to prefer to simply research topics that
interest them via the internet as oppose to reading aimlessly from a magazine
in hope that each page is interesting to them. However, despite the decline in
paper copies of magazines being bought, digital copies being sold are
soaring high. The magazines cost the same price online on mobile phones or
tablets as they do for a paper copy so money is still being cashed into
magazine companies. I believe that my magazine is unique, and that is why it
will not fail. To recreate a magazine would be pointless, why would you buy a
newly established magazine when you could buy a mainstream magazine
from a big company? You wouldn’t. There are no mainstream magazine for
my genre or bracket of magazine, it is truly unique. Whether digital copies are
sold or paper copies are sold my magazine has a promising future as an
independent magazine.
31. The Website
SUBSCRIBE ADVERTISE CAREERS
CONTACT
Sneak peak at our next issue…
Title
Relevant
images,
persuadin
g viewers
to click on
links.
Online sales. More
ways to make
money.
NEXT MAGAZINE: PREVIEW
Read our interview with The Schemers
We were honoured to be able to get an interview with the stars of the moment, The
Schemers. Be sure to pick up the new magazine this February to get a glimpse of their
plans for the future.
What is the most popular genre of music?
We sent the Barline team out to survey you, the public, to find out what really gets your toes
tapping. Will it be a funky house beat or a headbanging rock tune? Found out.
Is pop music superficial?
Sneakpea
ks
32. Merchandise
Apps
.
Pens
.
T-
Shirts
Signature black and red flip flops
Headphones.
All of these are effective ways
of not only making money for
my company but also,
debatably more importantly
advertising my magazine and
helping to get it universally
known.
33. Merchandise
Pens are cheap to make and
cheap to sell. It will be an
absolutely tiny percentage of
our income but it will also cost a
tiny amount to make. The pens
suit my audience as it is aimed
at people who are trying to
study or are interested in
education. I believe this could
add a snippet of money to the
company.
Pens.
34. Merchandise
Headphones is fairly obvious.
For a music magazine to sell
headphones suits the target
audience instantly, as why would
you buy a music magazine if you
were not fond of music? They
would not be expensive to make
and could be sold for an easy
profit. I believe this could make
my company money.Headphones.
35. Merchandise
T-Shirts are cheap to make,
can be sold for around £20
each creating a big profit if
sold. It also advertises the
brand as when people are
wearing it out and about
people can see it easily and
may research it. It is a way to
make money and also
advertise. A win/win.
T-Shirts
36. Merchandise
Flip-flops may not be the most
common form of merchandise but I
put deep thought into this. I figured
that between the ages 16-25 is the
predominant age for summer
holidays with friends. A holiday
essential is ofcourse, flip flops.
Wearing “barline” flip flops can
promote the company and are also
cheap to make. I did research and
found that flip flops can be made at
around £2 per pair and can be sold
for around £10. £8 profit per pair
sold.
Signature black and red flip
flops
37. What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing this product?
38. My front cover: How I made it.
I started by simply creating a black
background using the rectangle tool with
a black fill. I then created a text box and
typed “barline” in. It was easy to rotate
the text box and change the colour to my
desired red. I had already planned the
font, I used ‘Ahorani.’ To get the text
closer together I used the text spacing
tool and set it to -90.
I used the quick selection tool to remove
the background rapidly and to change
the my cover star to black and white was
easy. I simply clicked the black and white
tool which did all the work for me. It took
a matter of minutes to edit my photo
completely ready for my front cover
The rest of my front cover was simple
text boxes which I would just trial and
error the positioning until I believed I had
found a professional layout.
39. Contents: How I made it.
I got the original photo on photoshop and
cropped Max away from the background. I
then pasted the original photo onto my
InDesign document and put the Contents text
on with a small stroke in position. I then
pasted my cropped version of Max onto my
InDesign document and placed him exactly
on top of where the unedited photo is so that
it covers the contents text giving the illusion of
the text being sandwiched between the model
and the background. I then simple added the numbers by
copying and pasting each text box and
changing the numbers. I had to change the
number and text for each which wasn’t
very hard.
To make sure the white text was easily
visible against the white background I had
to make sure that I used a stroke with a
black outline to solidify the text and make it
easily visible. I did this by selecting the
stroke option and using a slightly higher
weight due to the size of the text.
40. How I cropped Max
I used photoshop to crop Max out. It was relatively straight forward although I had to use many
tools. Firstly, I simply created a text box and typed in “CONTENTS.” I then positioned it so that it
was overlapping Max’s head. Thirdly, I opened photoshop and used the quick selection tool to
quickly remove the plain white background by highlighting it all and pressing the “Delete” key on
the keyboard. I saved this as a separate pdf. file. I then pasted this newly cropped Max and
scaled him perfectly on top of the original photo creating the effect that I have peeled Max’s head
back, slotted the text behind then glued him back on top. I believe this is subtle yet effective.
41. Double page spread: How I made it.
The main body of the text was simply
copied and pasted from a word
document I had done earlier in the
year. I literally used just text boxes and
changed the colour and font using
visual skills I had learnt throughout the
course.
I used the quick selection tool to select
all the clothing and used the black and
white tool to make everything in the
background black and white. I did this
effect purely to make the page look
different. I used my developed
photoshop skills to make the photo
look slightly different in order for it to
not be seen as boring and simple.
The double page spread required
technical skills which I did not require
at the start of the course. Simple
things such as the big bold letter T at
the start of the sentence required
skills that I did not previously have. To
take my photos I needed technical
skills to ensure that the settings were
right for the type of photo I wanted. I
42. Looking back at your preliminary task (School
Magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the
process?
43. School vs. Music
The main difference between the two
magazine is how “professional” they look I
think. My school magazine im using basic
techniques on photoshop and I have not
placed my text very well. I probably have
more text on my school magazine yet it
looks to be much more empty space on the
front cover.
The colour scheme on my first front cover
seems so random and messy. Blue, white
black and green? The consistency and
contrast between colours is not their
creating a very amateur looking front cover.
On my music magazine I have a fluent
colour scheme with even my cover model
being edited to fit into it.
44. My contents page has not changed too
drastically. I liked the simplicity of my first
contents page and really tried to carry that
onto my music magazine. I had learnt
camera techniques and the photos for my
school magazine are nowhere near the
same quality as my contents page. I used
my new photoshop skills to be able to crop
max’s head into a separate layer to the
background in order to have it overlapping
the “contents” text. I have quite simply
learnt new computing skills throughout the
course with the thanks of fellow pupils and
my teacher and tried to apply them to my
second magazine.
45. I was most pleased with my double page
spread. I noticed that my skills in simple
things such as the positioning of text and
photos had developed dramatically through
the course. My double page spread did not
require to much computer skills but more
using my brain to figure out where
everything should be positioned in order to
make it look as “professional” as possible. I
needed to think about what colour text
should be and why. I felt as though my
decisions were much more effective and
created what I believe is a very convincing
and proficient double page spread.
