2. Media Conventions Throughout the course we have been told how each magazine has certain conventions, e.gThe Gutenberg Diagram and the left third etc. However depending on the genre of your magazine you can change these conventions and challenge the usual media forms. For my front cover I chose to follow some of these forms as it would make my work more successful, I know this because most popular magazines use these forms and sell well with using them.
3. My Media Conventions 1. Strap line, causes the audience to associate ‘Signed’ and the worlds number one magazine. 8. Masthead, main title, name of magazine. 2.Tag, extra to balance the red from other side. 7. Offers, causes people to buy magazine in order to get offers or posters etc. 3.Coverlines, introduce the titles of the inside stories. 6. Main image, most powerful image, first thing eye catches. 5. Main cover line, introduction to main star (main image) and feature article. 4. Barcode, date and price, common conventions that most magazine need.
4. 7. Principle of thirds, I divided the page so that the article was in the typical convention of being in columns. 8. Introductory paragraph, introduces the artist and article. 1. Main image, acts as an introduction and allows audience to recognise who the article is about. 6. Background, I used a dark background so the pictures would stand out. 2. Gutenberg diagram, I challenged this as my title is at the bottom. 5.Pull Quote, these catch the audience’s eye and influence them to read the article. 3. Headline, I used a pun as the headline as it is a play on words with the name ‘Pixie’ 4. Article, I wrote a catchy article about ‘Pixie’s’ past in order to attract the audience.
5. 7.Background, I have used the background from the actual image and simply blended it with a house colour. 1. Title, typical contents title so the audience are familiar it. 2. Sub-titles, allows the audience to get a general idea of articles. 6. Smaller image, gives the readers an insight into who the article is about. 3. House style, follows the colours from the front page to give a more professional look. 5. Page numbers, these are easy to find so the reader can find each article easily. 4. Main image, I used a strong image with eye contact to create a powerful, eye-catching image.
6. My Social Group The social group I am targeting is young females as they are the ones most interested in the artist I have used and they are most likely to read magazines on Pixie Lott.
7. Institution Mainstream magazine with a wide audience Created by Emap Covers wide range of music Huge fan base Covered Morrissey and U2 ICP Media is its distributor Associated with punk rock Widely advertised.
18. What I Have Learnt In my preliminary task I used bright but quite pale colours, which overall didn’t make the product eye catching, this made to realise that bold colours are more easy on the eye and attractive. Also with the Preliminary project I rushed through it and didn’t pay attention to detail, I also realised with my main project that the littlest detail can make a big difference. With my final piece I made sure I was more careful when cutting images and text out as smooth edges make a magazine look more professional. I found this out by looking at my preliminary project and the images on the pictures weren’t very neat. This made it look messy and rushed. However when creating my preliminary task I learnt how to used the functions on Photoshop well, it made me feel comfortable with what I was doing and made it quicker for me to use. It help me become more familiar with the programme and how it works.
Editor's Notes
Here is an example of a Rolling Stones front cover. Although the Gutenberg diagram is not clear, it is still there. The Masthead is at the top and the writing ends in the bottom right. The left third is also clear as there is more writing on the left hand side. As the Rolling Stones magazine is very popular I knew following their style would make mine look more professional. They use a powerful image and contrasting colours in order to catch the readers eye. Lady Gaga is a popular artist at this moment in time therefore they have used iconography as people all over the world will recognise her and want to read about her.`
1. Here is my strap line, strap lines are made so they stick in the audiences head, ‘the worlds number one music magazine’ shows that the magazine popular world wide showing it must be good. Again this is a typical magazine convention.2. Here again I have added a little tag to the Masthead, it makes the writing stand out as it is red and it reads ‘all of 2009’s best music inside’ this attracts all the big music fans as they want to know what the best music was.3. These cover lines are ones I made up in order to catch the readers attention, I used very famous celebrities to engage star appeal. I made the more eye-catching words different bolder colours in order again to catch the audiences eye. I used these in the left third so when the magazine is on the shelf these cover lines can be seen and read easily. This is a magazine conventions which I've followed.4. Barcode, Date and Price. These are something every magazine has. I chose a reasonable price that my audience research proved was acceptable and I used the date that I finished the magazine.5. The main cover line is simply the artists name ‘Pixie Lott’ i used this name as Pixie is an up and coming star that some people my not know a lot about and my want to find out about. I chose black with a white outline as it stands out again on the background and the dress. Additionally it fits the house style of the magazine.6. I feel that the main image is a powerful image and would instantly engage the audience and cause them to want to find out more, the image denotes a girl with a knife but connotes danger, fear and suicide. Again the image is holding eye contact with the audience like most main images on magazine covers and her outfit matches the house style.7. Here are some offers, words like ‘free’ attract the readers attention as they know they’re getting more for their money. Many magazines use this technique in order to sell their magazines. I made the word ‘free’ bigger and in a different colour in order to make it stand out.8. The name of my magazine is ‘Signed’ implying being ‘signed’ as a band or an artist, I thought this would represent that in this magazine is all good music as all the artists in it are ‘signed’ artists.I used bold black writing as it went well with the dress in my main image and it suited the house style. Plus, black stands out as it is bold and can catch the readers attention. Usually on magazine, Mastheads are at the top of the magazine in bold writing, again I have followed this convention.
1. The main image is of the same girl on the front but a more emotional image as she looks quite down, however again she is holding eye contact, engaging the audience. With this image I tried to follow the principle of thirds, this makes the image/composition more interesting. Most magazines and photographers use the principle of thirds in order to make their images different to everyone else's.2. Here I have challenged the Gutenberg diagram and chosen to put the artists name at the bottom of the left hand page and slightly to the right. I used a light grey with a black outline to soften the image as the picture behind the writing is more soft then the one on the cover, grey also goes well with the background of the image as there is grey flowers. Sticking to a ‘house style’ on the page.3. Here I have used the same headline that is on the front cover, this allows the audience to know which article they are reading and makes it easier for them to find it after seeing it on the front. It also gives the reader an idea of what they are about to read, however it doesn’t give them that much of an idea that they already know the story. I used a smaller different font compared to the artists name so that the audience can tell the difference between the two texts.4. I wrote the article according to what a lot of celebrities have problems with but never actually talk about themselves, we usually just hear the rumours. I chose to write about a celebs problem as it make the audience feel better, the audience the realise that everyone has problems and that the people you see in the media everyday are not perfect. I also thought that it would be interesting for the audience to see what a certain celebrities past is like. 5. I used some pull quotes in the article to help catch the readers attention, i used some of the more interesting sections of the article and made them bolder, most magazines do this to catch the audiences eye and make them want to read more. It also breaks the article up making it look easier to read for the audience. This is another convention I used.6. I used a dark background on the right hand side in order to balance the double page with the image on the other side as this image is lighter coloured.7. I used the right hand third for smaller images, this make the page look nicer to the audience and stops them being put off by a lot of writing, it also makes the page more interesting and shows other sides to the artists personality.8. The introductory paragraph is a short paragraph in which gives brief details into the article, nearly every article has one, I used two thirds of the page for mine.
1. For the contents title I have kept the same font and colour as the front cover, this is so the house style remains throughout and the magazine looks more professional as everything matches.2. I have used bigger text for the title of the pages and then smaller for the details, this allows the audience to scan quickly to see what their looking for without having to read the details if they don’t want too.3.I have stuck with the house style of the magazine for the contents, I have used black reds and greys like I have one the front cover. This makes the magazine look more professional and tidier. 4. For the main image on my contents page I have used the cover star again with eye contact, this catches the audience’s attention and again lures them in. The girl I have used as my artist is pretty and attractive, this again catches peoples attention and lures them in.5. I have used a red background behind the page number in order to catch the readers attention, after all a contents page is meant to tell you page numbers. 6. Here I have used extra images in order to give the audience an idea of what’s going on in the pages mentioned and also to make the page look more interesting.7. I used the pattern from the original background as the background for this page in order to make it look more interesting and less plain.
With my magazine I aimed to attract young females, I used an innocent looking blond girl and changed her into a typical pop star. I used dark clothing and dark eyes to contrast with the background and make her stand out. As she is a beautiful young girl the image allows the audience to relate to her, by doing this I have used iconography as the young girls recognise Pixie Lott as a role model. However, I have juxtaposed the image of a knife in with the image of the girl, this is strange for the audience to see as it is two completely different images, this could appeal to an older audience as they would be interested to know what the story behind the knife is.
IPC Media is one of the biggest music magazine distributors, it is the business behind the likes of NME, I thought this would be the best institution to have behind my magazine. This is because NME is one of music's biggest magazines and has a huge fan base. NME has been around for a long time and has covered the likes of Morrissey and U2, this obviously shows that IPC Media is a wealthy company worthy of having good advertising and looking after their clients.This would benefit my magazine as it would need good advertising in order to become popular. Also NME is similar to my genre of magazine, this would help as the audience that has already been created by NME would think that as it is made by the same company they must be similar and equally as good. It would also widen my audience as NME is associated with punk rock, there is an element of that in my magazine and with it being through the same company NME could advertise my magazine in theirs.However I think Emap would also be a good company to have involved with my magazine as it has 59 magazines of mixed genres, this means the company has a very wide audience and could do a lot of advertising for my magazine in these other magazines. Emap is the institution behind Smash Hits which was one of the biggest music magazines ever, this shows the company are good at advertising and already have a large audience. Smash Hits is similar to my magazine as it deals with music and real life events. This shows that it is popular with the public and could help my magazine.
The audience for my music magazine would mainly be teenagers as the main music listened to is that that is in the charts. I also found out through my audience research that female artist are bigger in the charts today, this is why I used a female on the front, however, less men are likely to buy a magazine with another male on the front then they are a woman. This again widens my audience to more men, because there is a pretty woman on the front attracts more men as well as women. Women aspire to be like her and men want to see more of her so here I am attracting a wider audience. My audience research shown that more people wanted to buy music or music magazines weekly, this made me decide to sell my magazine weekly as it would make more money and attract my audience. It also shown that neutral colours were more attractive, the majority of my audience preferred the front cover with colours like black white and another colour, this is because it made the cover look more bold and attractive.To make my magazine stand out and jump out at the audienceI have made sure I have used bold writing with bright colours, for example the writing is bold and in red, this connotes danger and is instantly catches the readers eye as we are used to looking out for red as danger.The house style is simple which makes it easy on the eye and easy to read. It attracts the audience because it is simple and they want something easy to read and flick through. I have kept images to a minimal on the front so I could fit more cover lines on, this gives an insight to the contents on the magazine and the genre.I kept most writing in the left third, this is so when stacked on a magazine stand the cover lines can be seen and read easily. This again makes it easier for the audience to distinguish what magazine it is and whether or not they would like to read these articles. The image I have used on the front is a young girl pop star, this attracts a female audience as the aspire to be like her, also, the cover line ‘the truth behind the fairytale’ suggest that there is something wrong in her life. This shows that not all celebrities have a perfect life style and the audience can relate the problems. This is key to the thought of people only buying magazines because of the notion of self identity. I have kept the language to a informal simple language as it makes it easier to read and can appeal to a wider audience, the younger audience can then understand it more and again this will help decide if they should buy it or not.
One of the most important skills I learnt about the programs used was how to refine edges on Photoshop, I used this on nearly everyone of my pictures in order to make the page look smoother and more professional. I also added shadows to all the images and texts to again make it look more professional and realistic. In these images I also made them look more professional by changing the contrast and brightness, I thought this skill was very useful as it gave the images a complete new look. I found taking the pictures quite hard as the lighting never seem to be right at first, however after some practice and experimenting with the camera it became easier and I learned that putting the light behind the camera gave a nice effect and made the image clearer. I also made sure my front cover artist had good eye contact, I found that this make the image more powerful. To do the background on my contents I had to find a pattern and cut it out using the magic wand tool, I then had to change the appearance to black and white and then make it more opaque, I did this by going to tools, and changing to black and white and then in the top right had side of Photoshop there is a slide bar which changes the opaqueness, I used this to create and fainter effect.Here I have cut out the white background from around the text, added a border and a shadow, this makes it stand out and look more professional. I did this using Photoshop, the magic wand tool and then changing the FX of the image.
