The document discusses the representation of women in magazines focused on house, garage, and dubstep music, highlighting the sexualization prevalent in the industry, as seen in publications like 'Mixmag.' The author aims to create a gender-neutral magazine using synergy marketing, appealing to millennials through digital distribution, and providing a sophisticated alternative to traditional portrayals. The design elements and layout conventions of the magazine, including the use of color, fonts, and imagery, are also detailed to attract the target audience effectively.

1. Charlie Whitmore

2.  Magazines that explore the genres of House,Garage and
Dubstep tend to sexualise women in the magazines as the
genres are dominated by a more male audience in the Cross
cultural Consumer characterization model of Young and
Rubicam the main characterizations of those that listen to the
genres is the explorer and the Reformer as they both value
there own opinion. Magazines such as mine would base
themselves largely around synergy marketing whereby they
would offer free albums with every magazine or sponsor
festivals or gigs. Digital online distribution is also a large
factor within the genres of the underground as the age group
that follow the genre are those that are characterised into the
group of millennial’s and born around the time of a large
upraise in digital content and web 2.0. Due to them being
born around this time they thrive on the prospect of free
content which is why synergy marketing, digital online
distribution and web 2.0 are a large part in the genres
marketing in and outside of the magazine.

3.  Due to the dominance of men within the genre
women are sexualised in magazines and other
medias that represents the genre. This is
highlighted in the magazine “mixmag” as they
show women in a sexualised manor particularly
on their contents pages. My magazine has
gone against this sexualisation of women as I
wanted to produce a gender neutral magazine
to give it a more sophisticated look on the
underground genre and to widen my audience.

4.  The purpose of a front page of a magazine is to attract. The
magazine should entice your target audience and make them
want to buy the magazine. It should highlight the main
contents and other selling points of the magazine. In order to
give it a unique selling point.
 Throughout my research I have found that it is conventional to
have a main cover line and the front page image to relate to
each other. There is usually colour coordination throughout
different texts and images and a large amount of text around
the page promoting other aspects of the magazine.
 The main image should show a man or women who is well
known within the genre or popular with the target audience
and should relate to some sort of article or page in the
magazine.
 The barcode will usually be presented amongst the price of
the magazine and the issue number.
 Different magazines have different layouts and designs to
attract a certain audience. For an underground magazine that
means a lot of text around the image promoting the contents
and other information that is in the magazine.
 A prominent house style is established on the front cover and
usually kept throughout the magazine.
 Different aspects of the front cover such as the Masthead and
Cover lines are filled with bright colours to make sure that they
stand out on the cover and that the magazine stands out
amongst other magazines.

5.  The underground front cover
 The masthead – I have tied to stick with a conventional underground magazine
masthead. It takes up little room on the page and I have applied a bright colour
to the masthead that also matches with parts of the graffiti wall in the
background of the main image. A colourful masthead is conventional for an
underground magazine as it represents the partying nature that the music is
heavily associated with.
 I have stuck to the convention of placing it in the bottom 3rd and having price
and issue information such as issue number or the month of the issue close to
it.
 House style – The convention of a house style is to establish it on the front
cover. Whether this is through choice of font or shapes. For me I have utilised
my house style of the arrows by placing them under the descriptions of one of
my cover lines to make the cover lines more readable. By doing this I have
therefore established my house style which I will then carry throughout the
magazine.
 I have added a quote from the main double page spread next to Alex. This is
conventional as it makes the reader want to find out more and gives a small
insight into the main double page
 My main image was selected carefully, I used a Nottingham based music
partnership as my artists to feature within my magazine. I chose Congi as they
are something that the target audience would have a particular interest to as
they are a part of the underground scene and are the same age as the target
audience.

6.  The Underground front cover
 The conventional place for your main cover line is to have
it in the bottom third of the magazine so it is below your
main image. I have gone against conventions by placing
my main cover line in the bottom half of the top section I
have done this as I wanted it to be central to the page
without disturbing the image and by placing it further up
the page I felt as though it would give the cover line the
same stance as the masthead making the selling point that
is the exclusive double page about Congi more noticeable.
 I decided from the beginning of my production that I
wanted to have a limited amount of writing on the page.
The convention for a magazine such as mine is to have a
lot of cover lines surrounding the main image and
promoting the contents of the magazine. I went against this
convention as I was aiming my magazine at the income
bracket of B-E and by giving my magazine a more
simplistic design it would appeal more to the income
bracket of B

7.  The conventions of a contents page is a simple
list of page numbers and next to that a
description of what is on the that page. Next to
the list is pictures that relate to some of the
pages. Above the title is the date of the issue
eg. January 2014
Mixmag

8.  I have followed through with my house style of arrows
and established that my house colour is a deep red. I
have chosen deep red as it is a rich colour that
promotes sophistication to once again reach out to my
audience within the income bracket of B. By adding
images at the bottom of the page I have still
maintained the normal convention of placing images
on the contents page and have managed to stick with
the trend of geometrical shapes I found within
magazines related to house, garage and dubstep
music by placing images into triangular shapes.

9.  I have tried to edge away from the Conventional
style of the a contents page to give my magazine a
more of an independent style. I have done this by
making the numbers larger and more grouped
together. This goes against the normal conventions
of a contents page but still gives the information that
is needed.
 I have placed the title contents at the top of the page
and below that the month of the issue.

10.  The idea of a double page spread is to
give the reader information on the subject.
Double page spreads are normally in the
style of an interview, story or Q&A. These
will take up a good proportion of the page
and to accompany the writing will be a pull
out quote a picture or pictures that relate
to the double page.

11.  I have stayed with the convention of a pull out
quote within my double page to promote the
inside story of Congi. The Pull out quote acts as
an eye catcher as it is one of the largest
elements on the page and the white writing
stands out behind the black background. I
have once again maintained the house style of
the arrow inmy title and page number but this
time placing part of the graffiti wall inside of the
arrow of the title.

12.  The only way I went against the normal
convention of a double page spread is
through the large image of Congi as I
once again placed the image into a
triangle to represent the on going beats of
the genre. This gave the page a personal
twist and fitted with the whole magazine
design.

13.  When planning my double page spread I wanted the
page to look professional. I wanted to focus more
about the story of Congi as I thought that it would be
more fitting as they where an upcoming artist in the
genre and people would be more interested about
there story. I wanted the page to highlight the imagery
of the genre. I did this by giving the page a black
background to connote the time of day that the music
is usually played eg. In clubs. I made sure that i used
an image of Congi that promoted the run down street
scene that in often associated with underground
music. This is why i chose to photograph Congi next
to a graffiti wall as the imagery that is associated with
underground music is street scenes. I feel as though
this has worked well with the page and given made
the two more recognisable with the genre.