Task 14

This is my rough sketch of my double page spread.

Task 13

This is the image I chose to use on my front cover.

I took several images for my front cover, contents and double page spread. I decided on a central image where the model was looking at the camera and pretending to 'be' a DJ on the radio decks. The direct mode of address in this picture is one of the codes and conventions of magazines of this genre. Other images that I had taken, I chose to keep incase I wanted to use them on something else such as my contents page or double page spread.

I didn't use this image because the direct mode of address is not the sought I personally would use for a central image. However, this image could be used in the contents page as a smaller image to connote the front cover.

Task 12

These are some websites where I conducted my research to produce my double page spread: http://www.blackeyedpeas.com/home/bio
http://www.blackeyedpeas.com/home/albums

Task 11

This is a rough sketch of my music magazine front cover. This includes a central image, coverlines, other images and regular content and feature articles.


This is a rough sketch of my contents page. This includes the title of the magazine, regular content and feature articles. It also includes other images and page numbers to show where articles are in the magazine.

Task 10

Publication Plan
Title: Upbeat
Positioning Statement: Your life, your entertainment
Price: £2.00
Distribution: Newsagents, local shop and supermarkets
Rationale: The approach of my magazine will be different to other music magazines because it is an r n b magazine. There are not many r n b magazines sold in the supermarkets, and the youth of today are interested in all different types of music. The articles produced in this magazine are going to be what the fans want to read, what the fans what to know about in the r n b world.
Style: The style of the magazine is going to be informal, because that’s how my target audience will like it. If the language is friendly and not too formal, the magazine will attract their target audience.
Regular Content:
· Editors letter
· Reviews
· Fans letters
· Local events in your area
· Monthly column
· Latest music
· Extra – competitions, quiz
· Downloads
· Releases
· The chart

Feature Content:
· Interviews
· Article on how music effects people
· 100 songs of 2009
· Q and A with Beyonce
· Kanye’s world
· Upcoming bands/artists
· How much do you really love r n b
· Helping with our magazine

This is my publication plan of my music magazine. This includes title, contents, price, rationale etc.

Task 9

Pie charts and bar charts for questionnaire

What is your Gender?
Male 3
Female 17



This questionnaire shows that there are more females than males. This shows that my magazine will aim to a more female audience than male audience.


How old are you?
10-15 2
16-21 17
22-27 0
Other 1



I covered a wide range of ages within the target audeince. However, a large amount of people (17) are aged between 16-21. This means that my magazine will be more aimed for 16-21 year olds.

Do you buy music magazines?
Yes 7
No 4
Sometimes 9



This question shows that only 35% would actually buy a music magazine, however, 45% would only buy sometimes. This shows that I need my magazine look good, to attract my audience and to get more people to buy magazines.

How often do you buy music magazines?
Weekly 2
Monthly 11
Yearly 2
Seasonally 1
Never 4


This chart shows that 11 people out of 20 buy a magazine monthly. As this is a large amount, I chose to also publish my magazine monthly, so my audience will buy the magazine, every month.

Who is your favourite artist
Jay Z 1
Arctic Monkeys 1
Kasabian 1
Pink Floyd 1
Taylor Swift 3
Paramore 1
Taio Cruz 1
Beyonce 2
Kings of Leon 1
Ida Maria 1
Go Audio 1
Jonas Brothers 1
Take That 1
Forever the sickest kids 1
Lost Prophets 1
Muse 1
Moby 1
Lil Wayne 1

This question shows that the most popular artists are Taylor Swift and Beyonce. As I couldn't think of any props/connotations of Taylor Swifts songs, I used Beyonce on one of my coverlines.

What three words would you associate with the word ‘pop’?
Bubbly 2
Girly 5
Upbeat 4
Music 5
Bands 2
Fun 5
Entertainment 1
Great 1
Bouncy 2
Cheesy 2
Dance 4
Club 1
Hip hop 1
Bright 2
Colourful 4
Chart 2
T O T P 1
JLS 1
Glitter 1
Singing 3

This shows that the most popular words associated with 'pop' are girly, music and fun.


Green 3
Blue 4
Pink 5
Orange 1
Black 1
Yellow 3
Purple 2
Red 1



This shows that the most favourite colours people like are pink and blue. I thought that pink and blue wouldn't look good together, so I used blue and purple on my production, and was pleased with the outcome.

What do you like about magazines?
Gifts 3
Gossip 5
Fashion 1
Stories 1
Football 1
Funny 1
Music 2
Interviews 3
Up to date 3
Pictures 2
Boldness 2



This shows that most people like gossip in a magazine.

What free gifts would you like in a magazine?
CD’s 9
X-box 1
Vouchers 4
Posters 4
Nail varnish 2
Headphones 1
Stickers 1




How much are you willing to pay for a magazine?
£1.00 - £1.50 1
£1.50 - £2.00 7
£2.00 - £2.50 9
Other 3




Do you visit magazine websites?
Yes 7
No 4
Sometimes 9




Would you subscribe to a magazine?
Yes 9
No 11

Task 8

Tally of Questionnaire results
1. What is your Gender?
Male 3 Female 17
This shows that more females took this questionnaire than males.

2. How old are you?
10-15 2 16-21 17 22-27 0 Other 1
The majority of my participants are aged 16-21, so I will most likely aim my magazine at this age group.

3. Do you buy music magazines?
Yes 7 No 4 Sometimes 9
This shows that people do not buy music magazines much; however they do on the odd occasion.

4. How often do you buy music magazines?
Weekly 2 Monthly 11 Yearly 2 Seasonally 1 Never 4
Most of the people that took this questionnaire, said that they buy music magazines monthly, in addition to this I will most likely publish my magazine monthly.

5. Who is your favourite artist
Jay Z 1
Arctic Monkeys 1
Kasabian 1
Pink Floyd 1
Taylor Swift 3
Paramore 1
Taio Cruz 1
Beyonce 2
Kings of Leon 1
Ida Maria 1
Go Audio 1
Jonas Brothers 1
Take That 1
Forever the sickest kids 1
Lost Prophets 1
Muse 1
Moby 1
Lil Wayne 1
There were a variety of artists when people took this questionnaire, however two of the artists where mentioned more than once, which were Taylor Swift and Beyonce.

6. What three words would you associate with the word ‘hip hop’?
Bubbly 2 Girly 5 Upbeat 4 Music 5 Bands 2 Fun 5 Entertainment 1 Great 1 Bouncy 2 Cheesy 2 Dance 4 Club 1 Hip hop 1 Bright 2 Colourful 4 Chart 2 T O T P 1 JLS 1 Glitter 1 Singing 3 This shows a selection of words that people would associate with pop.
The words that were most popular were fun, music, girly, upbeat, dance and colourful.

7. What is your favourite colour?
Green 3 Blue 4 Pink 5 Orange 1 Black 1 Yellow 3 Purple 2 Red 1
The majority of people that took this questionnaire voted pink as their favourite colour, and other colours that were popular were blue, green and yellow.

8. What do you like about magazines?
Gifts 3 Gossip 5 Fashion 1 Stories 1 Football 1 Funny 1 Music 2 Interviews 3 Up to date 3 Pictures 2 Boldness 2
Participants said they liked all sorts in magazines; moreover the most popular was gossip, interviews, up to date and gifts.

9. What free gifts would you like in a magazine?
CD’s 9 X-box 1 Vouchers 4 Posters 4 Nail varnish 2 Headphones 1 Stickers 1 This shows that people like to receive gifts when they buy a magazine.
The most admired free gift was CD’s, and another two that were also high voted were vouchers and posters.

10. How much are you willing to pay for a magazine?
£1.00 - £1.50 1 £1.50 - £2.00 7 £2.00 - £2.50 9 Other 3 £2.00-£3.00 Up to £4.00 over £3.00
The majority of people that took this questionnaire are willing to pay £2.00-£2.50 for a magazine.

11. Do you visit magazine websites?
Yes 7 No 4 Sometimes 9
Most of the people that took this questionnaire said that they only sometimes visit magazine websites.

12. Would you subscribe to a magazine?
Yes 9 No 11
This shows that people would subscribe to a magazine, but some people wouldn’t subscribe. The answers people had given were very close, so I may include a subscription for my magazine.

Task 7

Questionnaire

What is your gender?
Male □ Female □

How old are you?
10 – 15 □ 16 – 21 □ 22 - 27 □

Do you buy music magazines?
Yes □ No □ Sometimes □

How often do you buy music magazines?
Weekly □ Monthly □ Yearly □ Seasonally □

Who is your favourite artist?
­­ _______________

What three words would you associate with the word ‘hip hop’?
______________________

What is your favourite colour?
_______________

What do you like about a magazine?
________________________________________

What do you dislike about a magazine?
­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________

How much are you willing to pay for a magazine?
£1.00-£1.50 □ £1.50-£2.00 □ £2.00-£2.50 □ Other­­­­_______

Do you visit magazine websites?
Yes □ No □ Sometimes □

Would you subscribe to a magazine?
Yes □ No □

This is my questionnaire. I thought of questions to ask people about music magazines. I asked them about what they liked in a magazine, how old they were, what they like free in a magazine etc.

Task 6

For task 6, we then had to produce codes and conventions of a double page spread for our music magazine. This included information boxes, columns, main image location, pick out quotes etc. This also included more than one image such as smaller images to break up the text.

Task 4 and 5

For task four, I had to produce an analysis of a magazine front cover which were the codes and conventions. These involved what you would find on an everday music magazine, such as big bold title, clear font, subheadings, barcode etc.
Also for task 5, I had to produce an analysis of a contents page which included regular content, feature articles, page numbers etc.

Task 1,2 and 3

This is task one, two and three. These are decisions about my magazine genre and and my target audience. I decided that my genre was going to be r'n'b as I thought it would be different to everyone else's production. However, I started to find some difficulties with my genre and couldn't think of images to connote the genre. So I changed my genre to hip hop and have found it easier to produce than r'n'b. I decided that my target audience would be teenagers aged between 13-19. In task two I conducted research of other exsisting music magazines of their prices, publication, issue size, regular content and feature articles which helped with my production. Task three was my ideas about the price, frequency of publication, issue size, regular content and feature articles.

Main Task

For the main task, we have to conduct research before we produce our magazine.
We have to make decisions about what type of genre you would like your music magazine to be about, and your target audience. We had to make decisions on regular articles, feature articles, prices, issue size and the frequency of publication.
We then had to produce codes and conventions of a front cover, contents page and a double page spread. After that research was done, we produced a questionnaire with a variety of questions to help with our production of the music magazine. We then tally our results, and show conclusions and produced a publication plan on our production. We drew up rough sketches of our front cover, contents and double page spread and conduct research.
For our production, we will be using Adobe Photoshop and Quark Express.

Front cover and contents

this is my contents for my preliminary

this is my front cover for my preliminary.

Evaluation

My school magazine front cover is like a real magazine because I have used a central image, and I have also used headlines. Also included on my front cover, is a price, barcode and date. These are always on a regular magazine. In real magazines, I think the front covers are more filled with headlines, so if I could do this piece again, I would include more headlines. My magazine contents page is also like a real magazine. I have used a selection of images to connote different headlines and content. If I could re-do my contents page, I would include more content and make it look more like a contents page.

For my magazine front cover, I used adobe photoshop to create it. I uploaded pictures I had took previously, and revolved my headlines and other images around my central image. Also for my front cover, I looked at a magazine for guidence. If I could do my front cover again, I would use several magazines to help me along with creating my front cover. For my contents page, I used a program called Quark Express. This was a new program that I had never used before, and my contents page was a challenge to create, however, I found my way. I also used Quark to make my fonts and images more creative, also I enjoyed using a new program, and the fact it was layed out as a contents page. If I re-done my contents page, I would make sure I included more content to make it look more appealing.

The strengths and weaknesses of my magazine are very obvious. I believe my strengths of my magazine front cover and contents, is the fact they do look like a magazine, and I have followed the codes and conventions for it. The weaknesses of my magazine is that my front cover and contents page could include more, for example: more headlines, and more content.

Draft contents

This is my draft of my contents page for my magazine.

Draft front cover

This is my draft of my magazine front cover.

Other images I have used

I have used this image as one of my headlines is about the school's film fesitval.

I have also used this image on my contents page as I decided to have a book review in my magazine.

This image was used to connote health and fitness in our school, and this is shown as the people in this image are doing physical education.

I chose to use this image on the front cover because one of my headlines is about exam stress. This connotes that if you attend revision sessions, you will not be as stressed about exams around the exam period.

Main image

I used this image as my central image because my main headline is about results, and this picture is connoting results

Codes and conventions

These are the codes and conventions of a magazine front cover and contents page:



Front cover

Central image, slogan, barcode, anchoring image, price, date, coverlines, tagline, masthead, issue number, colour scheme, website, headline, supporting images, positioning statement



Contents

Columns, editor's letter, small images, page numbers, contact details, usually double page, subscription, typeface 11, credits

Included on contents

In my contents page, I have included the subheadings:


Regular content

Feature articles

Healthy school





Under regular content, I have included:

Head's letter, dates for your diary, school horoscope, school news, upcoming events, school issues, have your say



The feature articles I have used are:

Visitors, Paris trip, exam stress, results, drawing competition, halloween disco, book review, film festival, international smile day, open evening and quiz night



Being a healthy school, I have included:

Article about water, health and fitness, eating in the dining hall, vending machines, going to the gym, new astroturf and chip friday

My ideas

I have chose to use a central image of someone holding a results paper, as my main headline on my front cover is about results. I also used the colour scheme pink, purple and blue because people associate those colours with Weatherhead. I tried to be imaginative with my front cover ideas, and used coverlines to connote the school.

For my contents, I decided to have one column of content, and used pictures on the other 2 columns.

Preliminary Exercise

For my preliminary exercise, i have designed a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. I have taken original images that i am going to use on my pages. I have took images that connote what my magazine is going to be about. For example, i have took a picture of books, to connote that one of my headings is a book review.

I planned my images on paper before i took them, so i could follow my plan. I also came up with headlines and coverlines for my front cover and contents page for my school magazine.