Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Conventions of a music magazine


A music magazine has many of the same conventions of any other type of magazine, although there are some differences in all aspects of the LIIAR. But all music magazines still have a masthead, coverlines, a main coverline etc. The language in a music magazine will depend on its target audience, for example as I am looking at NME magazine, the cover of this magazine suggests that it is more aimed at men aged around 17+, I get this impression from looking at this magazine cover because the main image is of the Arctic Monkeys, who are all young men themselves, also the colour scheme and the background seem to be more aimed towards males. Although there will definatly be some females who are interested in this type of music, and may want to read this magazine as they are attracted to the front cover, this magazine cover has mainly been constructed to appeal to men.
The ideology is a very important aspect of a music magazine, the company that produce this magazine will need to carefully consider what is important within the magazine, and portray the style of music towards the potential target audience. The style of music which the magazine includes will need to be clearly shown on the front cover so that the buyer will immediatly recognise if this is a style of music that they are interested in. The ideology on this magazine cover is shown from the main image, we can tell from the image that the style of music is rock/indie. Some aspects that put across this image is the colour scheme, the style of clothes the band are wearing, and the background of the photograph. Not only does the main image tell us about the style of music, but like any other type of magazine, the main image is possibly the most important part of a magazine, because if the front cover is appealing, the more likely the target audience will buy it.
From just looking at the front cover of a music magazine, we can usually recognise the potential target audience, from looking at the style of the front cover and main image, we can usually tell the age, gender, backgrounds and interests of the target audience. From the cover of this NME magazine, I think that the magazine is aimed towards males, an age of 17+, and I think that the interests of the target audience would be indie/rock music, and maybe fashion, as many young people seem to follow trends of famous artists etc. From looking at the main image of this magazine cover I don't think you could really tell the background of the target audience, I think that there may be a wide range of backgrounds as it doesn't look like a very top class magazine, this is because of the background of the main image, as it just looks like a normal urban environment.
The representation of a music magazine is probably one of the most important parts, the representation is the way that the artists/groups appear in the magazine. So the way that the individual/grounp look in the magazine, will show the audience what type of music is included within the magazine. On the cover of this magazine, the band members look quite relaxed, the way that they are all looking straight at the camera could be implying that they are confident, so this may attract some readers to this magazine.

Thursday, 12 November 2009

Conventions of a Magazine


Here is one front cover of More magazine, the main image is of a very famous artist, Lady Gaga. Meaning that this magazine will appeal to a certain type of music audience, this would be people who are interested in pop/dance music. The masthead for more magazine is recognisable to regular readers, it is clearly shown at the top of each cover so it can be easily seen on the magazine stand. To make this magazine more appealing to the reader, the price is clearly stated in the top right hand corner, highlighted in yellow so it stands out. Also just above the masthead there is an offer for every reader, this may appeal to certain members of the public, persuading them to buy this issue. This is stated right near the masthead so it is easy for the buyer to see, but not distracting them too much from the masthead and main image. There are not many coverlines used on this front cover, there seems to be one main coverline which is: Lady Gaga: 'Finally... Men think I'm sexy' In my opinion this coverline is quite intriguing, this seems to me like the artist is giving us a hint to their past, and any big fans of this artist would enjoy reading about this. So as this is such an interesting main coverline, other ones may not be needed. Also I think that this front cover is very attractive, the use of bright colours will make it stand out on the news stand, so I don't think that many coverlines will be needed, as readers will not want to know everything before they even open the magazine. The main image on this cover is a medium close up of Lady Gaga, this image will attract her fans, and possibly people who like her style on this cover.






LIIAR



  • Language: The type of language which is used in certain magazines, e.g. the type of language used towards artists in music magazines.




  • Institution: All institutions have a commercial purpose. This is the company that controls the production process of the magazine.





  • Ideology: What is important within the magazine (what I need to consider) for example for a music magazine - the style of music.





  • Audience: The group of people that the magazine is aimed at, this is usually determined by gender, age, background, and interests of the target audience.





  • Representation: This is the individuals/ groups that appear in the magazine, and how they are presented in it.

Main Task Brief

The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.

Thursday, 22 October 2009

Possible main images for my magazine cover























I have now taken a number of images for my magazine cover, I will choose just one of these to use. After making my moodboard, I chose to use a football theme as my main image on my magazine cover because I thought that this would appeal to a wider audience then dance would. I took a number of photographs from different distances and angles so I could choose the most appropriate one at the end. I chose the location of a field because I thought that this would make the person in the photograph stand out more, and it would make the person make a bigger impact, rather then taking the photograph in a crowded place, also if the background of the image is not too crowded, this gives me more space for the masthead, coverlines and selling line.





Moodboard


Here I have made a moodboard showing my possible ideas for my magazine cover, I have narrowed down my ideas from my brain storm, and decided to use either dance or football as the main image on my cover.

I have also looked at a few different colours and fonts which I think I might use on my magazine cover, I have chosen these colours and fonts as I think all of them would fit in with either dance or football as a main image.

Layout of magazine cover



Here is the layout that I am going to use for my magazine cover, I have chosen to use this layout because I think that the masthead being at the top will make the magazine clearly recognisable to the reader. I have then put the dateline underneath so that it is easy to find. I have put the main image in the middle of the cover, and I have made sure it is quite big, so that this is the main focus of the magazine, I have then put the coverlines around the outside of the main image, so that they can be clearly seen, but then the main image will still be the main focus of the cover, and it will not distract the reader from the image too much. I have put the barcode at the bottom of the cover so that it is easy for the retailer to find and use.

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Analysis of a magazine cover


The masthead is clearly displayed at the top of the front cover of the magazine so that it is clearly recognised by the reader. The masthead is also done is a unique typeface, so it is easily recognised, the unique typeface for Vogue magazine is that it is always in the same font, and always in capital letters, but the colour of the font is usually changed to go with the colour scheme of the cover of each issue.

The dateline is not displayed very clearly on the cover, it is displayed in a quite small, white font, to the left of the masthead.

The main image of this cover is used in a classic way, it is a large single image of a person, who is making full eye contact with the camera, the reason for this is so that the magazine cover makes an impact on the news stand. As the main image is of a celebrity, and she is quite fashionable and girly, this will appeal to young women and people interested in fashion.

Vogue uses a lot of coverlines, these are distributed around the main image, but they make sure that the coverlines do not distract the reader from the main image too much, by not making the coverlines too big, and also by using a colour scheme throughout the cover, so that the coverlines blend in with the main image.

There is no barcode on the front of this magazine cover, so it will be displayed on the back of the magazine for retailers to use.

Thursday, 15 October 2009

Key Ingredients of a Magazine Cover

Masthead: the name of the magazine, usually displayed at the top of the cover. This is the visual branding of the title, and is usually made in a unique typeface to be recognised by the reader.

Dateline: The month and year in which the magazine was published, often with the price. (A monthly magazine is usually displayed on the news-stands the month before the cover date)

Main image: An image displayed on the cover of the magazine to create an impact to catch the readers eye from the news-stand.

Coverlines: Headlines which are distributed around the main image.

Barcode: A standard barcode which is used by retailers

Selling line: A short, sharp description of the title's main marketing point

Analysis of a College Magazine

The masthead is displayed at the top of the front cover so the magazine can be clearly recognised by the reader straight away. It is also part of the colour scheme of the cover of this issue, which is red and green. The dateline is also stated clearly under the masthead.

The main image on this magazine cover shows an image of a student, she also looks quite sporty, which will make the magazine appeal to sports students. The girl is making full eye contact with the camera, also she is smiling in the picture, which would represent the college as a good and happy place to go. Because the girl is young, this magazine would appeal more to students at a college rather then the teachers, the audience of the magazine looks like it should be aimed at people approximatly aged 17+. The image suggests that the magazine is situated in somewhere like America or Australia, this is because of the colour scheme on the cover, and also because of the clothes the girl is wearing, because in some countries clothes like that would not be acceptable to wear for college.

The magazine uses quite a lot of coverlines which are situated around the main image, even though there are many coverlines they will not distract the reader from the main image because of the bright colours used. There is no main coverline on the cover, this may be so that the coverline does not distract the reader from the main image and the other smaller coverlines around the image.

Wednesday, 7 October 2009

Conventions of contents page of a college magazine

  • Basic headline
  • Pictures which relate to articles in the magazine
  • A list of special features and regular features in numbered order
  • Contact details
  • A brief description about the magazine

Conventions of college magazine front cover

  • Title - the title on the front cover should be bright and bold to catch the readers attention.
  • Picture - the picture should be eye catching and interesting to make the reader want to look at the magazine.
  • Headlines - show what the main features in the magazine are.
  • Date - to let the readers know how recent the information is.
  • Target audience - students and teachers

Brief

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the full page of a new schol/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents [age to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.

Main Task:the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.

Presentation of your Work:The presentation of the research, planning and evaluation may ake the form of any one, or combination or more, of the following:

a presentation using slideshow software such as PowerPoint;

a blog

a podcast;