2. THE MASTHEAD
When creating my roundel for my magazine masthead, I was aiming to
use a logo in which would relate to the modernist subculture. I believed
this would be the eye catcher of my front spread, attracting my chosen
specific audience. The title ‘The modern world’ was named & inspired
by the mod revival band on the late 70’s/early 80’s, The Jam. I used this
name as I knew many would know of the song and how it relates to the
same beliefs as my magazine. The song is a very patriotic, heart strong
tune and I wanted to give the impression to viewers of only the front
spread, this is what my magazine is about.
3. THE CHOICE OF IMAGES
With my theme and topics in mind. I used old images and some
new, to attract and interest my audience. Here are three examples
of different images I have used;
1.
2.
3.
This image of my eyes is used on my contents page, which I took
specifically to conflict with my masthead. I edited the image to add a
more classic effect with a black and white filter and a grain effect on
Adobe Photoshop CS6. The edited also made the image fit in with the
colours included in my content page’s colour scheme. The reasoning
behind the image is to replicate Twiggy’s iconic 60’s eye makeup.
With my colour scheme and contents, I wanted to make sure males
and females felt a relation with the magazine and not that it
appeared to be just for one gender.
The second image shows a Vespa scooter, amongst other Vespa’s and
Lambretta’s. I took this a while ago at a vintage fair and like to think it
is a very powerful photograph, this is why I used it as my main image
of my contents page. The love for scooters amongst the modernist
subculture is regularly shown and by using this, the audience could
associate and appreciate the importance of the image. The
positioning of the scooter and it’s surrounding of competitive scooter
brands could represent independence and the likelihood of following
a crowd of some sort but bringing your own interpretations of it,
which is the main aim of modernists.
The last image of a shop on Carnaby street called ‘The face’ was
taken by myself when visiting the street a few years’ ago. By using
this image, I am introducing maybe new & unvisited places in which
are famous within the subculture, but if not, somewhere people have
been and recognise. The shop is known for selling the best of the
best for modernists and fits perfectly with my main masthead’s
colour scheme.
4. TOPICS
When deciding on which topics I would use to complete my front spread and
contents page, I researched and used my own knowledge into some subjects in
which would interest the readers/audience of the modernist subcultures. I
began with music, one of the most important factors of the subculture. I looked
into some upcoming bands to the scene and other iconic artist’s who had made
the scene what they are today, including The jam, The who, The Sonik Seeds
and many more, in which the audience would be in knowledge of. Secondly, I
looked into places in which sell clothing and attire for people who followed the
subculture, however could not find what they need on the high street. This
brought me to using Carnaby Street, London into my media product. Being so
widely known, not just in the UK but all over the world, using the street
seemed like a great idea as it could inform virgins of the street to the history
and importance of it, yet, be enjoyable to regular visitors of the street. Lastly,
upcoming celebrations of the subculture. I found many different types of events
for the subculture such as scooter rallies/weekends, northern soul do’s, but
the biggest upcoming events seemed to be ‘Modfest’, a festival held in London
in 2014 to celebrate 50 years of the subculture which will last over 4 days in
April. This was the perfect topic to use in my magazine as it is a fresh,
upcoming event and hugely relates to the audience of my magazine and informs
at the same time. Many of my other topics relate to music, dress, possessions
and loves the modernist subculture in some way.
5. VIEWS & ATTITUDES
When preparing my interview for my double page spread and writer’s editorial, I had to think
into what kind of attitude’s and views I should be portraying to this specific audience. After
researching opinions on other existing magazines, I picked up that many music related
magazines display very strong opinions on upcoming and older albums & gigs, causing a lot of
controversy, especially with the likes of NME and their bold judging of character’s and album
ratings. I wanted my media product to be controversial but not within my chosen audience. I
created it in a way that it would score up against any other subculture magazine, but not split
my audience into two different beliefs. With the persona I created, Polly Cooper, I tried to give
off the personality of a confident, knowledgeable female who strongly adored music, fashion,
and all of the loves of the regular modernist. The few examples of expletive language display a
careless, unafraid attitude which I wanted to create as a sense of freedom and independence.
Back when ‘mod’ first became a thing, life was less sheltered in comparison to now for teens
who were part of the subculture. Using Polly Cooper, I hope to show that it is possible to be a
polite and general do-gooder in a such an outgoing, strong minded subculture.
For my editorial, I wanted to keep it plain and simple as the rest of my magazine seemed quite
bold and very valiant, however, wanted to keep the same attitudes and themes as the rest of the
magazine. I looked into other editorials from previous music magazines and many just informed
the readers of the work gone into the issue and what is to come next issue. As we began the
piece before Christmas, I aimed for this to be the main subject but added the term ‘Keep the
faith’ to my editorial speech to keep up the moral of my readers and so a bond of relation is
formed.
