To begin this preliminary task i wanted to research some of the main music companies. These included; National magazine company, BBC Worldwide, IPC and EMAP. This was so i could get some insight and background about the leading music companies which would help me to form background information about my own magazine. After researching the main music companies i decided that if i could choose one company to which my magazine would be owned by, then it would be the National Magazine company. This is because after researching the magazines that it does own, i can see that most of them are really successful and they are ones in which i buy myself!
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
creating the front cover and contents page of my school magazine
Firstly i decided to sketch out some ideas of what i wanted the front cover of my school magazine to look like
My first task was to create a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. To begin, i researched a few of the school magazine covers that had been produced by my own school called the “Heathsonian”. I made notes about the layout and the house style that the magazine had used, and also the language, colours and images that were used. I noticed that many of the real school magazines that i looked at, all showed off the best and most modern areas of the school such as: the art block or the ICT suite. I also noticed that many of the images used, were of pupils hard at work, or pupils having a fun time yet still in an educational way. An example of this was an edition of the Heathsonion, which had an image on the front of pupils in the laboratory making experiments, which not only showed off the school’s excellent scientific equipment, but it also showed how much fun the pupils were having, yet in an educational way! It also made me realise that our school is one that specialises in Science and Mathmatics, so this image showed off that part that links in with our school.
This was useful because it made me aware of all the different points that i had to think about and take into account when i produced my own school magazine cover. It also gave me ideas about what looked good and what could be improved, so that when it came to producing my own magazine i could include parts and styles which i liked from my research of real school magazines.
Firstly i wanted to think about what my images were going to be of. I made some notes about what type of photographs i was going to take and of what setting and location i was going to use. I decided to focus on the art block and take photographs of talented students work. This was because i felt it was a way off showing off some of the talent that Little Heath School has and also because the art block is reletively new so the background and location would show what a modern and new school we have. I also wanted to take images of this because within my magazine, i was going to have included the GCSE results, so taking photographs of some of the GCSE work i felt would match with the features within my school magazine. I felt that it would be a good idea to sketch four possible designs for my school magazine. I added colour and showed what kind of layout i would adopt when producing my magazine. I also thought about what to call my school magazine, and i jotted down some possibilities such as; ‘Huge Heath Magazine’ and ‘Littlesonian’ but i finally decided on, ‘Mini Heath Mag’.
I decided to take some images of the art work and some images of the pupils. I wanted to take an image of the sixth form pupils as at the time of creating the front cover of the magazine, i had just started at sixth form so wanted to make my magazine an edition that welcomed everybody back to the school for the new year, and also to welcome the new students that had joined our sixth form from other schools. I chose my favourite pieces of art work from the art buildings at my school, both fine art pieces and textile pieces. I took the images from close up, and i took them from a front on angle so that the photographs captured the texture and material that came from the textiles work.
When taking the photographs of myself and my friends to represent the sixth form at Little Heath School, i wanted the location to be outside with the big oak trees in the background, to portray what lovely grounds that the school is situated on. I wanted the image to have all of us with happy facial expressions to show how fantastic and enjoyable little heath sixth form is. This would also encourage parents that Little Heath School has a good sixth form with hard working and friendly students.
Once i had taken my images i uploaded them onto one of the MACS. I opened the file with photoshop and began to edit them. I have never used photoshop or even MACS before this piece of homework so it was difficult to get to grips with how they worked! I found it difficult to understand and then remember what each of the tools did in photoshop, and i also found it hard to remember about all the layers that consisted whenever you added anything to the front cover. For instance i wanted to blur out some of the the rough edges that had occurred when i had tried to cut out some of the background from an image. Yet i managed to blur out too much, so one of the images of a friend had a very odd looking nose! When i tried to delete the mistake, i didnt seem to be able to! So in the end i was forced to delete the whole layer and begin again. Yet i did learn that when using the blur tool, i needed to be very careful and use it subtly otherwise it blended it far too much so the image looked awful!
After playing around with the tools and effects on photoshop i began to get the hang of it. It was good practice for when i created my music magazine, and i learnt about what looked realistic so that it looked like a real school magazine. The main problem that had with photoshop was inserting text boxes and writing within them. It seemed that when i created a text box i then couldn’t move it into the area of the font cover that i wanted. This was annoying because every school magazine that i had seen, they all showed writing on the front cover that portrayed what was going to be inside the magazine. For example within my magazine, i wanted to have an interview with Mr Ramsden because he is the new head-teacher and many parents would want to find out more about him and the changes and improvements he is going to make within our school, yet when it came to inserting a text-box in the right hand side of the page, i couldn’t seem to do it. I did manage to add a title/masthead on the cover, yet i couldn’t seem to drag the text-box to the top of the page like i wanted to. I didn’t have much time left because i needed to then create my contents page and start on my research for my music magazine, so i had to be content with what my school magazine front cover looked like, even though there were lots of changes that i would have liked to have made. However i made sure that i didn’t have difficulties with that again by watching how other people managed to move things around the page. I noticed that if i wanted o move things around the page then i had to select the move tool and then select what i wanted to move.
Next i had to create my school contents page. I jotted some notes down about what features i wanted to include with my school magazine. I then picked my favourite features and included them on my contents page. I chose “GCSE Results” because i felt that as the GCSE Result broke the records in the school this year, having them included in my school magazine would emphasize this even more. Next i included a “Mr Ramsden interview”. This was because as he is the new head-teacher of the school, most parents and even pupils would want to find out a little bit more about what changes and improvements he is going to make in the school, and also just to find out what sort of person he is. My next feature within my school magazine was “Students artwork”. I decided to make this a feature because i wanted to match and connect my contents page to my front cover which showed off some of the fantastic artwork. I also felt that it was a perfect way of showing off some of the talent that Little Heath School has. For the rest of my pages i decided to dedicate pages to each year. So have four pages for Year 7 which would include all the news that is surrounding their year, and trips and special awards etc. I would do this for all the years so that my school magazine included a range of information from all the years to keep both parents and pupils up to date with all the goings on within the school. I wanted to keep my contents page simple, mainly because i didn’t want to waste too much time creating it as i wanted to start getting my music magazine research done. So i went for one large image in the background of brightly coloured balloons to symbolize the school welcoming everybody back for a new term, and also to celebrate the amazing GCSE results and fantastic art work that the school is host to. I also kept the font simple and made it white coloured so it was lear from the background and could be read easily. If i have any spare time at the end and all the important work on my music magazine is complete, i might think about going back to my contents page and my front cover and making soem improvements on the layout and the images.
This was useful because it made me aware of all the different points that i had to think about and take into account when i produced my own school magazine cover. It also gave me ideas about what looked good and what could be improved, so that when it came to producing my own magazine i could include parts and styles which i liked from my research of real school magazines.
Firstly i wanted to think about what my images were going to be of. I made some notes about what type of photographs i was going to take and of what setting and location i was going to use. I decided to focus on the art block and take photographs of talented students work. This was because i felt it was a way off showing off some of the talent that Little Heath School has and also because the art block is reletively new so the background and location would show what a modern and new school we have. I also wanted to take images of this because within my magazine, i was going to have included the GCSE results, so taking photographs of some of the GCSE work i felt would match with the features within my school magazine. I felt that it would be a good idea to sketch four possible designs for my school magazine. I added colour and showed what kind of layout i would adopt when producing my magazine. I also thought about what to call my school magazine, and i jotted down some possibilities such as; ‘Huge Heath Magazine’ and ‘Littlesonian’ but i finally decided on, ‘Mini Heath Mag’.
I decided to take some images of the art work and some images of the pupils. I wanted to take an image of the sixth form pupils as at the time of creating the front cover of the magazine, i had just started at sixth form so wanted to make my magazine an edition that welcomed everybody back to the school for the new year, and also to welcome the new students that had joined our sixth form from other schools. I chose my favourite pieces of art work from the art buildings at my school, both fine art pieces and textile pieces. I took the images from close up, and i took them from a front on angle so that the photographs captured the texture and material that came from the textiles work.
When taking the photographs of myself and my friends to represent the sixth form at Little Heath School, i wanted the location to be outside with the big oak trees in the background, to portray what lovely grounds that the school is situated on. I wanted the image to have all of us with happy facial expressions to show how fantastic and enjoyable little heath sixth form is. This would also encourage parents that Little Heath School has a good sixth form with hard working and friendly students.
Once i had taken my images i uploaded them onto one of the MACS. I opened the file with photoshop and began to edit them. I have never used photoshop or even MACS before this piece of homework so it was difficult to get to grips with how they worked! I found it difficult to understand and then remember what each of the tools did in photoshop, and i also found it hard to remember about all the layers that consisted whenever you added anything to the front cover. For instance i wanted to blur out some of the the rough edges that had occurred when i had tried to cut out some of the background from an image. Yet i managed to blur out too much, so one of the images of a friend had a very odd looking nose! When i tried to delete the mistake, i didnt seem to be able to! So in the end i was forced to delete the whole layer and begin again. Yet i did learn that when using the blur tool, i needed to be very careful and use it subtly otherwise it blended it far too much so the image looked awful!
After playing around with the tools and effects on photoshop i began to get the hang of it. It was good practice for when i created my music magazine, and i learnt about what looked realistic so that it looked like a real school magazine. The main problem that had with photoshop was inserting text boxes and writing within them. It seemed that when i created a text box i then couldn’t move it into the area of the font cover that i wanted. This was annoying because every school magazine that i had seen, they all showed writing on the front cover that portrayed what was going to be inside the magazine. For example within my magazine, i wanted to have an interview with Mr Ramsden because he is the new head-teacher and many parents would want to find out more about him and the changes and improvements he is going to make within our school, yet when it came to inserting a text-box in the right hand side of the page, i couldn’t seem to do it. I did manage to add a title/masthead on the cover, yet i couldn’t seem to drag the text-box to the top of the page like i wanted to. I didn’t have much time left because i needed to then create my contents page and start on my research for my music magazine, so i had to be content with what my school magazine front cover looked like, even though there were lots of changes that i would have liked to have made. However i made sure that i didn’t have difficulties with that again by watching how other people managed to move things around the page. I noticed that if i wanted o move things around the page then i had to select the move tool and then select what i wanted to move.
Next i had to create my school contents page. I jotted some notes down about what features i wanted to include with my school magazine. I then picked my favourite features and included them on my contents page. I chose “GCSE Results” because i felt that as the GCSE Result broke the records in the school this year, having them included in my school magazine would emphasize this even more. Next i included a “Mr Ramsden interview”. This was because as he is the new head-teacher of the school, most parents and even pupils would want to find out a little bit more about what changes and improvements he is going to make in the school, and also just to find out what sort of person he is. My next feature within my school magazine was “Students artwork”. I decided to make this a feature because i wanted to match and connect my contents page to my front cover which showed off some of the fantastic artwork. I also felt that it was a perfect way of showing off some of the talent that Little Heath School has. For the rest of my pages i decided to dedicate pages to each year. So have four pages for Year 7 which would include all the news that is surrounding their year, and trips and special awards etc. I would do this for all the years so that my school magazine included a range of information from all the years to keep both parents and pupils up to date with all the goings on within the school. I wanted to keep my contents page simple, mainly because i didn’t want to waste too much time creating it as i wanted to start getting my music magazine research done. So i went for one large image in the background of brightly coloured balloons to symbolize the school welcoming everybody back for a new term, and also to celebrate the amazing GCSE results and fantastic art work that the school is host to. I also kept the font simple and made it white coloured so it was lear from the background and could be read easily. If i have any spare time at the end and all the important work on my music magazine is complete, i might think about going back to my contents page and my front cover and making soem improvements on the layout and the images.
research into real music magazines
Next i had to research a range of real music magazines. I wanted to research a wide range of music magazines that all had different genres and had different target audiences. I began to print of from the computer real music magazine front covers. I stared with “Top of the Pops” magazine and i began to analyse around the edge. I thought about the target audience for each of the magazines and i highlighted the language and vocabulary that was used. “Top of the Pops” magazine was clearly aimed at young girls aged 9-15. I could see this because of the colours that were used, which were pastel pink, blue and yellow. The features of the magazine included a boy-band called, ‘the jonas brothers’. This pop band are owned by Disney and there is heart shapes decorating the outside of the coverlines, to symbolize how much young girls love them. Thee was also clues as to the target audience for this magazine through the anchorage text which was “24 hours with Zac!” This would appeal to young girls because ”Zac Efron” is a teenage boy who was in the film “high school musical” and is a well known heartthrob for young girls. There was also lots of buzz words and exclamation marks like, ‘exclusive pics!!’ This exaggerates features even more making young girls feel really excited and want to buy the magazine. The genre for this magazine was clearly pop music because all the featured artists on the front cover were that genre of music too. After analyzing this magazine in detail, it made me think about my own music magazine, and i decided that i wouldn’t want to make my own magazine this genre and have the same target audience. This is because i wanted to have a more mature target audience and also to have a magazine that includes a variety of music genres which would therefore appeal to a wider range of target audience, and more people would want to buy the magazine. It was interesting to then look at the front cover of another genre of music magazine such as”NME”. It had a completely different target audience to “Top of the Pops” magazine. I could see this because after analysing around the front cover, i made notes about the colour scheme,mode of address, mise-en-scene, layout, language, features etc so that i could decided what target audience the magazine was designed for. I decided that my own music magazine would be a bit more like an “NME” styled one. This is because i felt that it had a wider range of target audience because it showed lots of genres of music which would appeal to more people.
After researching a number of different music magazine covers and making detailed analysis of them, i came to a conclusion about what target audience each of them had. It made me start to think in depth about my own target audience, and how my magazine should look if i want to attract a certain target audience.
After researching a number of different music magazine covers and making detailed analysis of them, i came to a conclusion about what target audience each of them had. It made me start to think in depth about my own target audience, and how my magazine should look if i want to attract a certain target audience.
research into one real music magazine
After researching lots of different genres of music magazine, i then wanted to research one particular real music magazine that i wanted to base my own music magazine on. I chose “Q” magazine for my research because i felt that it was for a mature target audience and it includes a variety of music genres on the magazine which is something i wanted to include on my magazine. I printed off a number of the “Q” magazine front covers and i began to analyse around the sides. I took note of the layout, colour scheme, mode of address etc so that i could take note about features to include for my own music magazine. There was one particular edition of ‘Q’ magazine which i really liked and it influenced my thoughts and ideas about my own music magazine. This was of ‘Coldplay’ as the central image. The mode of address was direct and the background was just black. There was bright red arrows pointing to impressive straplines such as, ‘FREE CD!’ It influenced me because i decided that i wanted a band as the main central image for my own music magazine front cover. I also wanted to have a simple colour scheme like the edition of ‘Q’ with just white, grey black and then a brighter colour, perhaps red or purple?
research on music magazines double page spreads
I then researched into double page spreads. This was because i wanted to see the layout and the language of them, which would help me when it came to me creating my own double page spread which would include an introduction and an interview.
I looked at a range of double page spreads that were from different genres of music. I took note of the questions that were asked in the interviews, and also the layout of each of them. The five main points that i looked out for was content/purpose, language, font, layout and images. This was so that i could have some kind of idea about what to include in my own double page spread, and what would suit my genre of magazine.
I printed off two double page spreads that were completely different from each other. One came from ‘Kerrang’ magazine and the other was from ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine. They were totally different genres and therefore were really good examples to compare with each other. I noticed that it was the differences in content and language that showed that they had different target audiences. For example, ‘Kerrang’ used sophisticated language which would appeal to a more mature target audience, whilst ‘Top of the Pops’ used language that was very enthusiastic with lots of exclamation marks.
I looked at a range of double page spreads that were from different genres of music. I took note of the questions that were asked in the interviews, and also the layout of each of them. The five main points that i looked out for was content/purpose, language, font, layout and images. This was so that i could have some kind of idea about what to include in my own double page spread, and what would suit my genre of magazine.
I printed off two double page spreads that were completely different from each other. One came from ‘Kerrang’ magazine and the other was from ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine. They were totally different genres and therefore were really good examples to compare with each other. I noticed that it was the differences in content and language that showed that they had different target audiences. For example, ‘Kerrang’ used sophisticated language which would appeal to a more mature target audience, whilst ‘Top of the Pops’ used language that was very enthusiastic with lots of exclamation marks.
Initial ideas for my music magazine
After looking through all my research and analysis, i began to form ideas about my own music magazine.Firstly i decided that my magazine would be very much like ‘Q’ magazine which appeals to a mature audience and features a variety of music. My main theme in terms of layout and images would be Indie/Rock, with a simple colour scheme which would be white, grey and black. I would then use a splash of colour for any straplines and coverlines, to attract attention otherwise i don’t think my magazine would stand out from other magazines. I wanted to design the colours like this because i wanted it to look classy and professional, and i think that if i used too many colours then i would have been in danger of appealing to one gender or making it look unrealistic of a real music magazine. I decided to call my music magazine, “Lyrics” this was because it related to the music idea, and also because i wanted it to symbolise that its the Lyrics which create meaning to songs, so it would show that my magazine is showing the meaning of music as it has all the latest news and information about anything to do with music.
I wanted my band to be a girl band of five called “Red Blush”. I made notes of possible names for my band but finally decided on ‘Red Blush’ because it sounded unusual so therefore would match the theme of my band. Yet instead of them being a typical pop sensation girl band like ‘Girls Aloud’ or ‘The Spice Girls!’, i wanted my band to be the first ever indie/rock girl band who all play their own instruments and came together on their own when they were young instead of being produced like many other bands. My band were going to be completely original and unique which the world have never seen before! I also wanted my band to have been around for a good few years so that they were well known and credited for their talents and music. Another difference between my band and other girl bands is that i wanted my band to just be about their music, instead of about how they look and their style. Whilst i wanted to give them a real indie/vintage look and style so that i could have an idea of how they looked when i created my photographs of them, i wanted the main focus of their image and interview to be focused on their musical talents and their live music gigs. I also wanted to show how highly acclaimed they were in terms of their music by showing in the interview, how they have done duets with some of the best in the industry, from the likes of ‘Mick Jagger’ to ‘Al Green’. I wanted to be this detailed when thinking about my band because i felt that it would help me when i created their interview because i would feel like i really knew them so could answer the questions like i felt they would if they were real.
In a strange way i felt like i really knew my band, and i could even tell people what each of them ate for breakfast! I gave each band member a name and their own personality. There was; Arabella (the lead singer of the band) Francis (the lead guitarist) Lou (the drummer) Sienna (guitarist and singer) and finally Mia (who could play four instruments including the piano, acoustic guitar, saxophone and…flute!) All of the members of the band can sing as well, which creates fantastic harmonies! I also wanted to have a band that had had turbulent times in terms of drug and alcohol problems. This was because lots of bands today have issues like that, and whilst it is sad to hear that they do, it creates talk and gets the band noticed. It also shows that the band have more dark sides to them which people then want to know about. See i told you that i knew them well and had thought this through in detail!!!
Along the way i kept looking back to the ‘Q’ magazine that i had analysed, because that was where i had got lots of my influences from.
I decided to keep my layout simple too, so it kept in co-ordination with the general style of my front cover. I wanted to have just a few anchorage texts so that the magazine cover didn’t look too messy or cluttered like a ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine.
I decided to sketch out designs of how my music magazine front cover could look. I added colour so that i could start to think about colour schemes and whether they would all match and look co-ordinated. I also wanted to think about how my images would be displayed and positioned, and what effects i could use which would make them look more professional and stand out from the background. It was really important for me to make a plan of my music magazine front cover first before i started to make it. This was so that i was well organised and i knew what i was doing and why i was doing it before i began creating my own music magazine.
How did you attract/ address your audience?
I made a detailed mind map about my target audience for my magazine. This was so i could have a real focus for when i created my music magazine. I asked questions such as ‘What music do they listen to?” so that i could make sure that i understood what my choice of genre for my magazine was. I ended up with a stereotypical view of the person which would read my magazine.
This person could be both male and female and they would like a variety of music. They like to hear music that they have never heard of before, and like to keep updated with all the news and information about the latest gigs and tours- anything with live music! They are the kind of person who doesn’t live for music, but they need music to live! (thats a good slogan! May use it for my interview!) They are aged 16+ i have decided to aim it at this age because i wanted to aim my magazine at a more mature audience, yet i still wanted people my age to want to buy it because i feel that if i create my magazine, taking into account that i would like it and buy it, then it would help me to get my target audience clear!
This person could be both male and female and they would like a variety of music. They like to hear music that they have never heard of before, and like to keep updated with all the news and information about the latest gigs and tours- anything with live music! They are the kind of person who doesn’t live for music, but they need music to live! (thats a good slogan! May use it for my interview!) They are aged 16+ i have decided to aim it at this age because i wanted to aim my magazine at a more mature audience, yet i still wanted people my age to want to buy it because i feel that if i create my magazine, taking into account that i would like it and buy it, then it would help me to get my target audience clear!
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