Flat plan

My flat plan is based on the October 2012 issue of "Clash' magazine, here is an image of the front cover:

Clash magazine is a music publication that is primarily aimed at older teenagers and young adults. The influence of the target audience is portrayed in many different ways, mainly through the deliberate choice of adverts which are the main give away as to the age of readers that clash are aiming for. For example, there are a few adverts surrounding alcohol which show that the average age would usually be around 18+. Alongside these adverts, there are also quite a few fashion adverts such as Levi's. These adverts back up other prominant articles throughout the magazine that refer to fashion and the way in which fashion and music combine in the world of media.

From this, I have learnt that it is possible to create a successful and effective music/fashion magazine because there is space in the market for this idea as it's quite a new concept and could be viewed as being different which would persuade people to buy into this new concept. I have decided from this that I will make a music and fashion magazine combined together because it's also of more interest to me and therefore I feel that I could use more passion and determination to compose a magazine and fulfill the task to my full potential.

Video of 'Dragon's Den Task' and review of mood board

Notes on the dragon's den presentation.

1)  How did you come up with this idea? (use your research to help you) 

* I came up with my idea for my magazine through the many different methods of research I did into the music magazine industry. 

* I looked into genres of music magazine that I personally like and took note of themes and codes and conventions that  they were composed of.

* One good method of putting my ideas together was via my ‘surveymonkey’ because I got a thorough idea of what different people were looking for in my magazine. 

* Although I knew early on that I wanted to make a magazine with an original/indie rock persuasion, I looked into many different genres anyway so that I could be influenced by aspects from each and therefore hopefully allow mine to reach out to multiple audiences and become accepted in the music industry as a whole.

2)  Is there space in the market for this type of magazine?

* There are a few magazines in the industry that use the same theme and genre as my planned publication but I feel that there would be space for my personal magazine because although I will create an original/indie rock theme, I have taken inspiration from many different types of genre and will attempt to combine influences from each. This will hopefully create a different and effective style of magazine that will attract a lot of readers.

3) Who is going to be the target audience for your magazine? 

* The desired target audience for my magazine is aimed mainly at a youthful, teenage audience. This is because I feel like the genre suits this audience the most. 

* I also wanted to convey the idea of a ‘fresh’ and ‘trendy’ atmosphere and I felt that the best way to do this was through aiming my publication towards a youthful target group.

* Another factor was that  wanted to use my age to my advantage because I personally know what this particular age group is interested in and what appeals to them. This benefits me because through the eyes of someone of the age group that I’m aiming to please, I can hopefully generate a magazine that totally appeals to my audience.

4) Be prepared to speak about an audience so make sure you know who they will be.

5) Have ideas of the double page spread, contents and front page stories.

* I am going to do a double page of a fictional, up-coming artist of an indie rock genre. It’s going to be composed of an interview with the artist themselves about a number of topics such as how they had their ‘rise to fame’ and who they are and what they’re about. 

* I am going to take inspiration from magazines such as NME and Q and the relaxed style in which they are interviewed and presented.

Annotations of music magazines

My next task was to look at a real life example of a music magazine and dismantle essential parts of the publication in order to understand how all of the components work together. For this, I selected the latest issue of NME because I felt that it could be a prime role model and influence for my planned magazine and also, the fact that it's a brand new publication would suggest that it's very up to date according to what their target audience wants. This first photo shows my annotations about what I found effective and interesting on the cover page and contents page. My annotations, as you can see, go into a lot of detail about different codes and conventions.

This image shows the annotations of the contents page in more detail and the start of my annotations surrounding the double page interview with music legend John Lennon.

In this picture, you can see my extended notes and annotations into both sides of the interview. I focused on both pages separately because although they are presented together, they both contain varying factors that allow the two pages not to look the same and be about the same thing. So, they contain different components and compose varying mise-en-scenes yet they both work together as a diverse and varied article.

This is another head on shot of the interview which gives a brief idea of the amount of detail I went into my notes with.

From this exercise, I learnt that I am in fact strongly influenced by NMEs magazines as they embody the theme and styles that I would ideally like to incorporate into my magazine. This factor really helps me as it's almost like having an aspirational piece which I can try and replicate some aspects from. By writing notes alongside the cut outs and being able to pick apart essential elements from NME, it has aided me in seeing what really does make a magazine what it is and how it uses techniques such as persuasion to attract a larger area of audience.

Thinking of a concept for my music magazine

From this task, I have learnt that the basic concepts on which your magazine is based is vital in appealing to your ideal target audience and the way that your music magazine is perceived in the public eye. It has also given me a clearer idea of the routes I would have to go down of selecting the right oligopoly (for example) that would best suit my magazine.

Contents Page Evaluation

From doing this activity using Glogster, I have learnt a lot about the what specific aspects make a contents page. I particularly focused on the layout of the composition so that I could become influenced and use different techniques to compose my own contents page. The idea behind this was finding the balance between having a very simple layout and allowing it to become overcrowded. Overcrowding the contents page with too much information could set up a very unprofessional and cheap feel. This is obviously not the direction in which I'd like to take my publication as I'm aiming for a more established and sophisticated audience.

Representation of music magazines

Costume - She is wearing a very seductive and typically sexy outfit which connotes mystery and therefore creates interest in her as an artist. It could also be a stereotypical reference to the genre of music that she is famous for. The costume a coverstar models is essential in setting the tone of the feature about them, so for my magazine, I will think carefully about the kind of tone I would ideally like to have.

Hair and makeup - Her hair is slightly windswept and tousled which adds interest to her personality and causes her photo to fit into the codes and conventions of the cover. As for her makeup, a base of darker colours have been used which again, hints towards the idea of her being percieved as a mysterious and intriguing figure.

Pose - her casual pose allows her to come accross as being playful and almost entices potential readers to purchase the magazine.

Facial Expression - She is looking directly into the camera lens with an intense facial expression and this engages the readers. I will use techniques like this in my magazine to make readers feel as involved as possible and engaged within the publication.

Framing - A medium long shot (MLS) shot is used to show a large proportion of her body, which shows more of her costume and her stance rather than just focusing on her face.

Font - The font is actually quite a standard almost plain style. Although it works for this particular cover because it results in the image becoming the main focal point of the whole cover. 

Colours - The colour scheme is of a unisex orientation because of the use of typical ‘male’ colours such as blue becoming entwined with glamorous and typically more ‘female’ colours such as gold. I find that this is very effective as it expands the target audience even further.

REPRESENTATION OF THE MAGAZINE - The magazine represents a very modern and informal style of publication simply because of the way that all of the codes and conventions interact with eachother and allow the theme of the publication to flow and complete the desired style of having a magazine that appeals to younger people because of the trendiness aspect of it as a whole.

Costume - Lil Wayne is shown wearing casual clothes and this gives the idea that he has a very laid back personality. Also, it could be interpreted as conveying the idea that fame has not affected him which would then allow the audience to connect with him more and feel like they are infact part of his career. 

Hair - His hair appears to be styled in the same way as it always is so then this gives the impression that he might not be bothered about the whole idea of fame and this feeling would possibly make him out to be more normal like the readers of Vibe which would yet again engage the audience and promote a positive appearance for Lil Wayne.

Pose - His pose is not of a standard issue which immediately promotes originality throughout the publication and promotes a ‘fresh’, new, modern look for Vibe. The crouching position on the ‘throne’ could show a lack of respect for authority and then promotes a ‘badboy’ reputation and backs up the genre of music that Lil Wayne is made famous by.

Facial expression - Again, he is looking straight down the camera lens and engages with the potential buyers looking at the the cover on a magazine stand.

Framing - A medium long shot (MLS) is used to show the whole of his body language.

Fonts - There are lots of variations of the sizes and colours of the same font rather than using lots of different types of font.

Colours - The colours seem to have a ‘summery’ feeling about them simply because of the amount of different bright colours and shades of each.

REPRESENTATION OF THE MAGAZINE - This magazine cover is yet another example of  of a publication that is all about portraying a young and trendy visage for a younger audience. I feel that this is very effective as the target audience is a very affluent and easy to please so this technique of breaking the stereotypical idea of what a teenage magazine ‘should be’ appears to be a very popular choice amongst teenagers.

Hair - His hair represents the band’s personality and the style that they aim to create so the cover has a  continuing theme and ties in with the genre of the arctic monkeys.

Pose - The unconventional pose of not looking down the lens to the readers could usually be interpreted as non-professionalism but if you look deeper into the style and genre of the  band, them you will see why that original idea fits in really well with the theme of the arctic monkeys.

Fonts - The fonts that are used for things such as the titles and the puff words are quite plain and sophisticated, compared with the whole of the background which is composed of a messy handwriting style font. The handwriting is actually used to display some lyrics from a various selection of the bands songs and this give it a very personal feeling, almost as if it’s designed to make the readers feel that they were personally involved in the writing  and designing of their songs. I could use this technique whilst designing my music magazine because I find it to be very effective and also results in music magazines being viewed in a different, unusual way.

REPRESENTATION OF THE MAGAZINE - The way in which the magazine company has opted for such an unusual cover makes the company come accross as being confident in their own ideas and what they do which in turn, makes them look professional and established.

From this I have learnt that although elements such as eye contact are commonly viewed as being essential for a successful magazine, other, more individual and personal ways of presenting cover stars etc can be just as, if not slightly more effective.

Statistics from my 'surveymonkey'

Findings from my 'surveymonkey' on Prezi

As I said before, I found that the survey monkey was a very useful tool in teaching me how to appeal to my target audience and engage with them.

Focus Groups

For this task I asked 3 people from my own teenage age group their opinions on 3 different music magazine covers in order to see how different people respond to different genres and styles.

First up was 'Kerrang!' I asked my friend Grant questions such as 'does the cover appeal to you?', 'Is it effective and if so why is it effective?' and 'what aspects stand out for you personally?' 

These are his answers: 'I love Kerrang! Well, his face stands out and so does the cover as a whole. The band's name is clearly visible and well placed. I also guess the rest of the text is pretty well placed since it's mostly the same font and stays away from blocking the view of the main feature.'

 Next, I asked my friend Yasmin the same questions but referring to a totally different genre of music magazine. 

Here are her answers: 'Evidently all of the standard techniques used by successful magazines are present in this example but by having the main cover star shown as a tall contrast against the cityscape and buildings show her rise to success as a powerful female artist!'

Lastly, I asked my friend Izzy the same questions yet again but on the topic of yet another different style of music magazine.

Here are her answers: 'I like the cover as the big image of the artists face engages with the reader by letting them know straight away the main focus of the magazine issue. The cover is effective as the image of the artist stands out which grabs the audiences attention, and the text also stands out with the use of bold colours such as blue and pink. I think that the magazine cover works as a whole as it is informative, and also very eye catching!'

I learnt how it's not just all of the features that are important (such as the title) but it's also about how they work together and if they compliment each other because if they didn't, the mise-en-scene would not work as a whole and would cause the cover to not be very successful.

Audience research-Rate cards

Before completing this task, I never knew that institutions knew so much about their audiences! I think that it's clever in the way that they have obviously put some research methods in place to find out these details but they have seemingly done this discreetly so that they don't draw readers attention to the adverts and not the content of the magazine. A successful magazine needs a sensible and relatable balance between content and adverts.The stats show that approximately 74% of all readers are male, so advertisement directed towards males  would be very effective as it would attract a lot of attention but then again too much male orientated advertisements could possibly push female readers away. Therefore, I have learnt that the best option for NME would be to have a balanced gender advertisements because it would appeal to all readers that way. 

Survey Monkey

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

From this I learnt that my original ideas of the potential audience I was aiming to appeal to were quite accurate. This shows that I am working in the right direction in order to target a youthful audience of a teenage origin. I could also use different techniques such as selecting adverts intentionally and thinking over my choices critically to ensure that I am attracting just the right desired audience and readers.

Recording An Audience

This interview that I did with two people of a similar age group to me really helped me to learn how to approach factors such as where I would hypothetically be 'selling' my magazine and how to brand it in order to convert it to the focal point of a magazine stand and to draw attention to it without it being viewed as 'over the top' or 'trying to hard'. I realised this when my interviewees mentioned that they would prefer a simpler main headline such as an interview with their favourite band as opposed to one that has only been written with the sole intention of drawing in an audience because that can also sometimes be viewed as being cheap and unprofessional.

Detailed look into music magazines in a shop

I learnt that the importance of the main features such as the title, fonts and codes & conventions on music magazines are obviously the main key in understanding how magazines become successful in the competitive media industry. The way in which they present themselves is essential if they want to secure a promising response. This shows that I have learnt that I shouldn't overlook seemingly small aspects such as use of fonts because they could be the deciding factor that people have when choosing a magazine.

Music magazines-How are they shown in a shop?

This task required me to go into a shop and photograph a stand which was displaying magazines, especially music magazines. Unfortunately there was a lack of music magazines in this particular shop apart from a few issues of 'Kerrang!' which is shown towards the left hand side of the image. I think that this could say even more about the audience for music magazines and the type of person who reads them. The shop I visited is not a usual place where many teenagers visit, so I feel that this outlines in even more detail how dependent the music magazine industry is dependent on young people to buy and read their publications.

Here is another photograph which shows the way in which the magazines are placed on the shelves and  exactly where the section for music magazines has been situated.

From having the experience of actually going into a shop and discovering where the music magazines are presented in a certain situation, I have learnt that (in this particular example) that very few music magazines are displayed and that I would need to make my cover eye catching and attention drawing in order to make it stand out from the rest and really make an impression on people.

Considering that the first shop I visited had a very limited selection of music magazines, I felt that the research didn't really influence me or help at all when it came to using those influences in designing my magazine. Therefore, I decided to visit another shop and get a more of an idea of a broader selection of magazines with alternate genres.

This is just one example of a single section of a music magazine stand in a different shop. This shows how much variation the stock of magazines can have depending on where they are sold and the specific target audience that is predicted to enter the shop.

From this image, we can observe that the more mainstream magazines featuring upcoming artists are situated towards the middle of the stand, on the middle row and therefore leaves the end of the rows free for the less popular publications such as 'Guitar' which specifically focuses on one instrument as opposed to a generic music magazine.

Audience Research

I did some research into the different audiences of many different genres of magazine and found that no matter what age or style each publication is tailored to, there are certain techniques that are used to rope in readers and make them feel like they want to buy the magazine. Probably the most primary example of this is when magazines advertise 'freebies' as a complimentary 'gift' when you buy a certain magazine. From doing this research, I learnt that it would be a good idea to look into ways of initiating interest in my publication by persuading potential readers with promotional offers or such like.

Institutional Video

I found out that the main oligopolies (especially the main 3) in this specific industry actually produce many, many different genres of magzines which can range from a gardening publication to a magazine teaching people to play the piano. This way in which they work in very diverse topics shows their flexibility and how they really do know what they're doing. For my magazine, I would probably aim for using an institution such as Bauer Media because they are responsible for producing 'Kerrang!' and 'Q' and these are two of the main magazines that have influenced me strongly throughout my designing process. Therefore, I feel that an oligopolie such as Bauer Media would seemingly be the best for producing the exact genre I wanted as they would have the most experience in this area.

From this imovie I made, I learnt that institutions of the 3 main oligopolies in the music magazine industry have big reputations in the media world and are expected to produce very high quality publications as standard. This results in them having to think critically about everything that features in their magazines as they have an established reputation to uphold and maintain. This influenced me to think carefully about the kind of magazine I want to make as I want to create an appropriate atmosphere for my target audience.

Target Audience

NME magazine is primarily aimed at teenage readers because of the style of music it contains. This particular cover, however would probably also attract a sample of slightly older readers because of the age of the main cover star for this issue. 

The colour scheme as well as certain aspects such as the selected fonts hints at the fact that it is published as a unisex magazine, and of course, this would significantly broaden the target audience and allow more publications to be sold to a wide variety of readers.

Another factor that represents the style of NME is the formality of it. It seems to have a very informal feeling and this theme engages younger readers even further.

The abstract cover image of Lana Del Ray is almost alarming so it attracts attention towards the cover star and immediately allows the public to see how much of a big star they have featured on their cover. This of course then gives out the impression that Q is a very high end, established publication. This would then attract a more formal audience which is less likely to be of a teenage orientation. From this task, I have learnt that in order to appeal to my ideal target audience then I need to engage ideas that would be appropriate to a younger possibly teenage audience.