Research that I used for my magazine.

2. As shown by these two magazines, a lot of magazines use bright colours to be
able to attract the audience towards their cover – to then eventually buy their
magazine.A lot of white and green is used in both of these magazines and the
other ones I included in the collage; these colours are used as they are bright
and work with most foreground images – and they are also seen as gender
neutral. Yet, colours can also help choose what age your audience is; as too
many bright colours could bring in younger audiences. In magazines, there are
usually bubbles of bullet points with subtitles of what will be inside of the
magazine; whilst picking the best story to put on the front that the producer will
think bring in the most costumers. However, a lot more well-known magazines
use less convections – as they already have a lot of regular buyers; compared to
others that are trying to gain a regular audience. Another technique that is used
in magazines would be free gifts along with the issue; such as posters. However,
this technique is useful, as it could be a product people would want so they buy
the issue just for that – and regular consumers will be given something for
buying every time. Another technique that magazines use would be to include
some well know people that are associated with the genre and magazine, such
as: Bands, Singers, Athletes etc. The reason magazines include these people is
to draw people into the magazine, who may like one or more people that are
mentioned inside the magazine – this will then entice them to buy the magazine
and be interested, if they are – they could buy the magazine again. The stories
and cover have to combine to draw people in.

3. Magazine Cover Analysis
• This poster includes many conventions that are used in popular
magazines, and also conventions that are used in the video game
magazine genre. One of these are buzz words, that are used a lot
all over the magazine cover. These are important as they make
small details within the actual magazine stick out; such as the lines:
“Hotline Miami 2” and “Star Citizen”. These are put on the cover, so
that if the main foreground draws people in, maybe other things
inside will make them want to buy the magazine even more. Another
convention that helps draw in an audience is the colour that is used
on the magazine cover, the bright shades of green, red and blue
help the words that the headings standout from the rest of the
magazine – making features important to the reader. The
background image overlaps the title of the magazine, this is used so
that the image is noticeable, and stands out more to everything else.
This could also be used as “PC GAMER” is a well known magazine
to the games genre. A small feature that also makes the magazine
cover is the small subtitle above “DRAGON AGE”. By titling it as a
“SPECIAL”, it can entice new people from the target audience as
they will be intrigued as it is a “One off occasion”.

5. Genre Conventions
• All of the covers have a shot for the key image that includes
more than just a close up and usually involves a shot of
below the shoulders. Also, these covers are modern, using
bold colours and contrasts to bring out the titles and puff on
the front of the magazine that appeals to mostly men aged
16 and over. The magazines are priced between £4-£8.
The reason why these are more expensive is because the
publishers are well-known and are bought extensively.

6. Masthead to show
the publisher of the
magazine. Like
famous magazines;
the key image
covers the logo
Anchorage
Key Image sticks
out and fits to
the anchorage
text
Puff
Header
Sell Line
Offers the reader
something in
return for
attention. And also
goes the opposite
way from the
original header to
seem ‘all in your
face’ and brings
attention to the
reader.
Buzz Word
Subtitle is used in this
way once again to show
a side of rebellion and ‘in
your face’ by the band
claiming they have taken
over the magazine for
this issue.
Bright yellow enables to
bring in the attention of
the audience due to it
being a bright colour, to
highlight the main focus
of the page. The bright
yellow draws the
attention of the reader to
the centre of the page.
Readers that are fans of
“You Me At Six” would
especially be drawn to
the magazine as they
support the band.

7. Big key image to
show
a big part of the
magazine, that will
attract more people
to read forward and
seek out more
information from
the magazine. It
also shows the lead
singer as he is the
most recognisable.
Smaller version of
the news section
within the
magazine. This
includes key stories
and also the pages
to them, allowing
people to find the
latest music news
they want to hear.
Features within the
magazine, with the
key features printed
in bold, that the
writer thinks is the
most useful to the
reader.
The latest concerts
that you can buy
tickets to.
Reviews of the
latest bands and
albums. This is so
people can find
albums they are
curious about.
Free posters (puffs)
within the issue.
Smaller image of a band that has
just released a new album, and are
included as posters.

8. Bigger key image for the main tagline in the
news. This is so people that recognise them
know who the main news is about.
Small section from social media from a famous
artist. This is a section similar to tabloids.
Smaller sections of bands that may not be as
popular as others. This is so people interested in
the band can read their news, and casual
readers may miss out.
Section for rumours, these are smaller as they
are not official announcements.
A new band
that has a
debut
album as a
larger title
than the
rest of the
articles, but
is still
smaller than
the initial
key image
title.
Rebellious
looking
borders.
Strap line
Direct
mode of
address
throughout
the
magazine

10. Target Audience:
By using the website “UK Tribes” created by Channel 4
To group people of youth into sections so that they can
Locate groups as target audiences based on the choices
That user picks throughout the quiz.
The way this will help me is that I will be able to find what
my target audience for my magazine is, based on my
research on magazines in the past.
From my research on UK Tribes, the target audience that I need to appeal to would be
casual festival goers and gig attenders; especially people who enjoy to listen to genres
such as Punk, rock, indie and other sub-forms of these genres.
Another feature that I would need to appeal to in my target audience would be to
understand how my audience lives; keeping in mind hobbies, clothing and attitude.
The reason why I need to take this into account is to connect with the reader, so that
they can relate to my magazine and nearly everything inside of it. I also made a survey
so that I can understand the audience I want to appeal to.

11. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XW6CTLY

12. The main demographic for my
magazine will be towards boys, but; I
should still keep the female audience in
mind when creating a layout and cover
for my magazine. These results will also
help me to determine what needs to be
inside of my magazine as well. I also
asked the question about age, and all
the answers were 15 – so I will have to
aim my magazine a teenagers for it to
appeal.
SURVEY ANALYSATION
From looking at these results, I can see
that a lot of the audience enjoy: Indie,
Pop Punk & Rap. I know that I wanted
to make my magazine directed towards
Pop Punk music, so knowing that there
is an equal demographic in other areas
mean that I will have to take these into
mind when creating my magazine; but
not to change my idea halfway through
my magazine.

13. By using the information provided to me
by the participants of my quiz, I can tell
what most people would want to do
when they’re out. The main answer I got
was that people eat out / drink out. By
using the age o demographic and this
data, I can work out what people that
age find fun to do – meaning I should
involve adverts or articles on the data
collected from this question.
This information shows me what people
usually wear, meaning that I could take
a guess on what the person dresses
like as a whole – but also where they
shop; giving me a more detailed
demographic. Although my results and
question were slightly vague, it still
helps me slightly to know what the
people are like that I want to aim my
magazine towards. This is the only
question where I think I would need to
improve.

14. My main audience is Europe, which
means I will target my magazine
towards them, which is the same culture
I am from. Mostly the UK where my
magazine will be available.
I will also have to make my magazine
aimed towards people who aren’t
frequent readers of magazines; So I will
aim top make it have a simpler design
and include things into the magazine
and the cover that will draw the average
person towards it – keeping in mind the
people who I want to buy it. Hopefully,
by using my survey to my advantage, I
can appeal my magazine directly to my
audience through the answers that I
received – So that it is successful and
attracts people towards it like the most
popular magazines do. This will need to
also involve the conventions that I learnt
when analysing my double-page
spread.

15. First I made my first draft of my magazine; this took me around 2 lessons to complete, using my magazine analysation from the week before to be
able to obtain conventions and use that knowledge to be carried into my draft which would then influence further pieces of work. I started off
making a ‘step one’ and ‘step two’ sheet – so I could review what was change and what was added to my first draft. The ‘step one’ is very bare,
holding a logo/masthead, key image and Title with a sell line. All of these held my idea for the creation of my magazine draft, as I started picking
and designing my colour pallet and also my key image that I wanted to design it around. I then moved onto ‘step two’ which was a huge
improvement upon ‘step one’; as it included many more magazine conventions that were influenced by ‘Kerrang Magazine’, such as a contrast in
background and foreground, puffs, a header, graphic images and multiple sell lines. After completing my first draft, I carried over many of the
conventions that I used in my first draft and carried them over to my flat plan – so that I had an idea of how I was going to layout my magazine
and the kind of conventions I want to include so that I can shape my magazine around it. I started by doing a rough outline of my ‘step one’ idea
from my draft and used those in my flat plan, as I wanted to keep the base idea for the magazine the same. So after that, I decided to have a look
at ‘step two’ and see what conventions I wanted to carry along. I took across most of the ideas; annotating them with where I got my ideas from
and how everything will seek out my target audience by using familiar conventions. The idea of my flat plan is to help me have a template for
when I have to create my magazine; as it will help me with what kind of key image I want on my cover and also give me an idea of what to
include inside by taking design ideas from my flat plan – to make it a basis for my actual magazine.

16. I wanted to use myself for the key image, as I have a better understanding for myself of what I would want my image to look like – and I
think it would make the process easier. I also think for my front cover image, I will use a white backdrop, so that I can change the
background of the image to fit the design of front cover. However, it think on the double-page spread and the contents page, I might want
to include a bricked background or something similar; so that the image looks more natural and add more colour to the interior of the
magazine. But on the front cover, I do not want the background to be more apparent that the foreground image of me. With this idea, I
want my image to include everything from the top of my head to just below my shoulders to be similar to the image I used in my draft.
However, looking back on my magazine, I think it would be better to use the same image from my draft, as it already works with the
conventions of my magazine and I do not think that it needs to be improved. Additionally, I was able to improve my magazine features by
doing a flat plan; this involved me drawing out a template for each section of my magazine, which made it a lot easier when putting it all
together in Photoshop. Another thing that the flat plan allowed me to do was to look at magazines that appeal to my target audience,
and then take conventions from those magazines and include them into my template so that when I was actually making the
cover/contents/double page spread, I wouldn’t have to waste time thinking of little thing to include on my magazine.

17. After completing all of my drafts, I then improved them all made them look a lot neater so that they would look more professional, and in term,
appeal to my audience more specifically. This included adding more effects to text boxes, aligning headings and matching colours so that they
would be more pleasant and more appealing to the eye. The further I went into the development of creating my magazine, I realised that I was
taking in the ideas from my survey, and applying them to my magazine; which is probably why the conventions of my magazine fit so well, and
work as a whole. Using my flat plans and drafts allowed me to add extra details from other magazines that help to make it look neater as a
whole, such as adding small banners and in-text images to make it feel more informational. I also went through my magazines and decided to
change the contrast and brightness of some of the images so that they matched each other better, but also looked better against the yellow
theme that I carried out though my magazine, so that the colours from the images did not conflict with the colour scheme I wanted to portray.
As I stated before, I wanted a white background throughout my magazine, but when I went through my magazine looking at it in detail, having
a plain background didn’t seem to match what the magazine’s use towards my target audience; so I decided to add some small details to each
of the pages to give the effect that they have a sort of texture that will not look bland or too plain. Moreover, I simply made my magazine look
better by completing the pages and making it look finished, this included adding sections from my flat plan that I wasn’t able to improve in my
draft, or that I completely missed out of idea for my magazine. Overall, I believe that by improving and building upon my magazine, I have been
able to complete a magazine idea that is to the best standard I can make. The only thing I would change about my magazine would be the key
image on my double page spread, as it doesn’t include all the members of the band and was cut-out quite badly in my opinion; although the key
image still looks okay, and still works and applies to the structure of my magazine.