Organisation: Effects

I am quite fond of blurred lights so I have researched them a lot and these three images were my ultimate favourite. I adore the effect that the images below have as it's very neat, unique and pretty. I have learnt that the proper name for this effect is Bokeh and it's the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light. I am overall, certain that I want Bokeh (this effect) to be used on at least one of my images, probably the double page spread as it would fit nicely and is similar to this image from a double page spread in Q magazine. I feel that by using this effect I could make it look like there is a reflection or a reflection of light on my artist's face and this would look very pretty and unique.

Organisation: Response to Blog Feedback

I am starting to be consistent with all of my blog posts and I make sure that I create a post about the areas that I am low in numbers on and this has helped boost my marks which I am happy about.
To Improve I just need to focus more on target audience so that I can get at least 11 posts about it done. I also need to put my complete focus on to organisation and drafting and planning as they are the most important things I need to do and they are the biggest steps I have to complete until I reach the stage of creating my final pieces for my magazine. 
Leading up to this blog response feedback, I have created more target audience posts, here and here which look in depth at the target audience of Q magazine which is my main inspiration for my magazine. By looking at the information in these two posts I can clearly see that my target audience is similar and I have learnt that my target audience should be 14 -29.

Organisation: Effects

I have been considering more effects for the image on my double page spread. I am fond of this one of Lana Del Rey as it's absolutely gorgeous in the way that on the left hand side there are blurred lights and I would love to have this effect on my image on my double page spread as it looks sophisticated, beautiful and unique. I love how in in this image the lights reflect of Lana Del Rey's face giving a brighter tone to the image and it almost looks like she is basking in the light. The lights reflecting on her face also make her look more angelic. I feel that if I had an image like the one below I could make the house style of my magazine similar to the image so that the house style is consistent throughout my front page, contents and double page spread. I am going to keep this image in mind as I research and learn how to do this effect on images.
On this previous post I discussed how for my magazine front cover I would like to use natural lighting with a black and white effect but leave the lips of my cover star their original colour (red). I still like this idea and plan on practicing with paint.net to attempt both the effects in this image for my magazine front cover and the image below for my double page spread.

Target Audience: Q Magazine

After creating this post I found out more information about Q's target audience.
I discovered that Q is actually read more by males than females and although more males read Q I hope to create a magazine that both genders would read equally.
The age range is also varied but the highest age range is 15-24 which is what I want my target audience to be. This information has been a big help to me and I now know that I definitely want my target audience to be between 15-24 as it seems that more people this age are attracted to a magazine like Q, which is an inspiration for my magazine. 

Target Audience: Q Magazine

Q is an alternative magazine which has a range of target audiences. Q is sometimes aimed at the older generation like ages such as 30-40 but sometimes it is targeted at teenagers to young adults between the ages of 15-29. Q is sometimes targeted at the older generation and attracts their attention as is it much more sophisticated than most magazines. Q allows readers to find out information quickly rather than what colour pants someone is wearing (which Kerrang would mention).
The first magazine cover of Q I looked at featured Matt Bellamy from Muse. This magazine cover would attract a younger audience who are interesting in rock music. Whilst attracting a younger audience, this cover also attracts an older one by featuring The Beatles on the bottom right corner. By featuring a more recent and an older band, Q has managed to widen it's target audience and attract different ages. The colour scheme for Q magazine is also quite simple with reds, blacks, greys and whites. The use of such simple colours like this and not pinks and blues shows that Q magazine is a gender neutral magazine (whilst also showing that this cover is more of a rock music cover) and it doesn't focus on one gender, it's for all.
The cover below that featuring Daft Punk would attract a much younger audience who like Pop and Electronic music. This is a contrast to the Muse cover but it shows that Q has a wide target audience and is willing to experiment with different genres of music to attract different audiences. The Daft Punk cover would attract ages from 14 - 25 as it is clearly aimed at younger people who are into that kind of music. The Daft Punk cover has the colour blue on it quite a lot which may signal that males often listen to Daft Punk more than females (but it may also just be the colour scheme chosen and have nothing to do with males).
Overall, I prefer the Muse cover and from it I take that I should probably keep a gender neutral colour scheme so that my magazine isn't aimed at one gender. I also learnt from Q that having a wider age range for my magazine would be useful (if I featured recent bands and old bands). 

Organisation: Props

For my photo shoot I don't really want that many props involved. I think I may keep it simple so that props don't detract from the cover star and so that the main image isn't too busy as I want to keep it as simple as possible. I think I may include a guitar as a prop as my artist's genre is Indie/Rock but with some acoustic so I think I will use an acoustic guitar and have my cover star play a few chords for an action shot. I like the idea of using a guitar because a guitar is a typical instrument on the cover of a magazine whether it's a live photo or not and a guitar will not make the main image look too busy it will fit in perfectly. 

Target Audience: Rolling Stone Magazine

I have been researching Rolling Stone Magazine amongst others as it is a big inspiration of mine. Although Rolling Stone is full of a wide range of content, e.g. music and television I think I can just focus on the more musical side of the magazine rather than the television side. I have looked closely at Rolling Stone magazine and it's target audience. The target audience of Rolling Stone magazine is young and mainstream usually aiming at people between 15-24 with the magazine content being largely popular culture often focusing on actors, television and pop music. I looked at these two covers with contrasting artists who would both attract different target audiences. The first cover featuring Lana Del Rey would attract a younger audience who is familiar with her and she may attract more girls as she is more popular with females whereas the second cover featuring Thom Yorke would attract an audience from 1997 and up, so audience ages from 15-25. 
By looking at Rolling Stone I decided to slightly incorporate this into my thinking whilst coming to do my music magazine. I will use the idea of a music/film magazine but only slightly, as I will focus mainly on the music and a tiny bit on the film side (such as including a film page). My artist is similar to Lana Del Rey and therefore I will look back on this cover for reference when I take photos of my cover star and think of how to style her. 

Organisation: When, Where & Blocking

I have been looking at different female artists for inspiration on different poses for my cover star(s). I am particularly fond of these female artists so I researched images of them in black and white and colour. I'm not sure yet if I want two cover stars or one but if I have one I aim to have them posing like on of these four photos. I am particularly fond of the last one of Lana Del Rey as it's simple and elegant and her facial expression is also simple and this would be a typical facial expression featured on NME. I am planning to do my photo shoot either indoors on a plain white wall (like the first image of Demi Lovato and the third of Lights) or either outside on a plain brick wall or near the woods (like the second image, with perhaps everything else blurred). I plan to do my photo shoot throughout the next few months whilst the leaves are still changing colours to orange and browns or maybe whilst snow is falling. I prefer the idea of it being Autumn so that if my photo shoot is outside there is a lot of different coloured leaves around to fit in with the ethos of my magazine.

Organisation: Response to Blog Feedback

I am still consistent with my research and planning: Similar Products posts and my drafting posts. I have started to post more about organisation which was one of my focus for improvements. Since last time I have posted 3 more posts about organisation which I am quite pleased with.

To improve I need to focus more on target audience rather than Similar Products so that I can bring my total target audience posts up. To do this I will make sure that I move my focus towards target audience and create further blog posts about different magazines and their target audiences so that I get a wider knowledge of the different target audiences. I will learn more about audiences, especially ones that fit my music magazine.
I will write more about who my final target audience is and look further into magazines with the same or a similar target audience to my music magazine so that I can analyse those magazines and understand why their target audience is what it is. I will make sure that I get the correct target audience that appeals to my magazine otherwise my magazine would be a music magazine that features new artists that a target audience of 30 and above would not want to read about. 

Research into Similar Products

I have been looking more into music magazine front covers, especially ones that feature Lana Del Rey. I love the poses that Lana Del Rey is doing on her music magazine front covers. Lana Del Rey also inspires me to think more about my artist's style and overall she is a big help to when it comes down to facial expressions and clothing for my artist.
I particularly like the magazine covers below because they are simple. Lana Del Rey on the first one is smiling which I love as I had the idea of my artist smiling but I would have to think about changing my cover stars expression to fit an NME title magazine or I could change the style of my magazine so that I am able to use a more light expression. If I was to change the style I would follow Rolling Stone magazine as I love the way it is set out and the house style is great. The colour of the clothing Lana is wearing on the Rolling Stone cover is very simple but also effective as it helps to attract to her face rather than her clothes and I love this idea. On the front of the Spin magazine cover an extreme close up is used of Lana with her eyes closed and her hand on her face, her facial expression simple as her lips for an 'o' shape. I like this cover and the idea of a close up because of it's simplicity and Lana inspires me to be more simple or more experimental with facial expressions for my artist.

Target Audience: Questionnaire

I conducted a survey on survey monkey which included six questions to help me decide my target audience for my music magazine.
The first question I asked was 'Which age range are you?'. My classmates completed my survey for me so all of my responses are from people age 0-16. I originally wanted my magazine to be age ranged from 14 and up and I'm happy that this age range has been selected by everyone as they are within three ranges that I want to be included as my magazine target audience. 

I also asked the simple question of 'Are you male or female?'. The highest response was female which makes me think my magazine should be more female friendly but I do not want it to be. I would prefer my magazine to be aimed at everyone.

I continued my survey by asking 'Which magazine do you prefer? Which has the best layout and style?' A number of my responses prefer the NME styled magazine which I put alongside the question. I am happy that this is the top answer because my magazine is going to be based off of NME with maybe a little bit of Q mixed in.

I then asked why they preferred that magazine. Many said the layout and the colour (house style) is why they like it. I feel that I should make the layout and the colour scheme a bigger focus so that I spend more time on it and make it look like a professional magazine.

I asked what price people would be comfortable spending on a magazine. The top answers were £2.99 - £3 which I approve of as I would spend this much myself. I feel that this price is reasonable for a magazine such as NME and Q as it is packed full of information and images. 

Finally, I asked 'Which music genre do you prefer?'. The most popular answer was Indie Rock which I am happy about because NME is full of Indie Rock artists and I want my main artist to look like they are from an Indie Rock band so I am happy with my results.

Drafting & Planning: Re-Make Re-Model Further Task - Draft Contents Page & Double Page Spread

I have started to draft my contents page and my double page spread for my music magazine. 

I have set out my contents page with help of looking at resources such as real music magazine contents pages, e.g NME and Q. I have set it out like this because this is how I imagine my own contents page to look like with maybe a few alterations. This contents page is simple but effective as it holds all the information a reader would need to know about the magazine. As much as I like this simple idea I may change it to make it look less formal and change it so that there are more images and text darted around the page in a neat, readable way.

For my draft double page spread I have used one whole side for the main image as I think this helps set a house style for the magazine yet also shows the importance of the cover star/artist. I like the idea of the article going over to columns so it looks neat and structured rather than across pages and all over the place. I put a quote in the right hand corner of the main image because this will stand out alongside the artist and make it look more neat rather than the quote being in the middle of the text. I included a headline and small introduction to the article because these are necessary to a double page spread and a small introduction will include who the artist is or what they've been doing and what will be featured in this article which I think is important. I have looked at many double page spreads and have concluded that the way I have set out my draft is similar to others. For inspiration I looked back on my old blog post of this double page spread.

Organisation: Response to Blog Feedback

I am consistent with my research and planning: Similar Products posts and I am slowly improving on my drafting. Since my last feedback I have done 2 organisation posts which is more than I had before.

To improve I need to post more about and discuss target audience and who my magazine is aimed at. To help me with my target audience I will create posts involving a questionnaire which will ask questions such as, "Which magazine layout do you prefer?" as then I can get people to answer this and from the answers I can round up the information and I can learn what I will need to include in my magazine so that it is similar to ones that I have looked at (NME, Q). From it, I guarantee that I will look back on the answers from he questionnaire to construct my magazine.
I also need to post more about organisation and talk about when I want to do a photo shoot for my final magazine and where I want it. To do this, I will create posts about when and where I will take photographs. I plan to do posts about effects and props, which will discuss if I will have any props and why and I will discuss what effect I am going to use for images in my music magazine. To help me do these two things I can look at the blog suggestions list.

This blog tracker will help me consistently when I look back at it. By looking back to this I will learn from my mistakes and know what I need to do to get more marks and blog posts. 

Re-Make Re-Model: Peer Assessment Feedback

I was peer assessed on my Re-Make Re-Model magazine cover. My assessor said that the facial expression and pose of my cover star entices an audience. She also said that the way the cover lines frame the image looks neat and the colours of my cover lines harmonizes with masthead. They also liked that my cover star looks like they could be in a folk rock band.

To improve, my assessor said that I should investigate further into facial expressions used on magazines such as NME so that the facial expression of my cover star matches the ethos/philosophy of the magazine. I will further look at more NME magazine covers and focus more on the facial expressions of the artist(s) rather than colour schemes. My assessor also said that I should re size my cover star to make her bigger so that the cover lines frame around her face more neatly so that there isn't so much space.

Organisation: Effects

For my music magazine I am going to natural lighting, preferably high key lighting with a black and white filter to make my photos stand out and to look quite bright.

I like the effect of a black and white filter because it is simple yet professional.I like the idea of having the entire image in black and white except for my cover stars lips (like the image of Lana Del Rey below) which I would like to be either a dark red or bright red. I think having the red lips the only coloured bit of my main image will make it stand out and the colours will compliment each other throughout the cover as my text will most likely be in the colours of reds, whites and blacks. All of this is extremely simple but I feel like some aspects of my magazine will make it stand out and make it look amazing.

 

Drafting & Planning: ReMake-ReModel

This is my draft music magazine cover which is inspired by NME. I chose NME because it is full of good content and there is always a variet of different artists and genres featured in the magazine. 

I used the masthead as almost a guide for my colour scheme/house style and decided to match it with some of the red coloured text on the front cover which creates consistency throughout the cover and all of the colours then compliment each other. I have used a main cover line which also features anchorage text (a quote from the article) which is bigger than the rest of the text to show that it is the main story in the magazine. The bigger, coloured text of the name "Katelyn" also shows that this is the main artist in the magazine.

The main cover star is using direct address to draw the audience in whilst simultaneously, almost building a relationship with them.

I have also used a pug on the right hand side including free posts which would entice an audience and pull them in more. I have also included cover lines as it is important to make sure that a reader knows there is other things besides the main story in the magazine and I included quite a few cover lines to show that this magazine is packed with features.

I put in a barcode, dateline and price as these are vital to any magazine which has a price on it so that people know how much it costs. I included the cover stars credit by putting her name, "Katelyn" on the front cover.

The main image is quite dark which generally fits with the type of magazine that NME is as it is quite edgy and darker than some other magazines. I mainly used a bigger, bold font rather than a small one because the bigger fonts stand out more and fit with the type of magazine that NME is.

Research into Similar Products: Genres

In my previous post I looked at DIY music magazine for inspiration for my own music magazine. I decided to look at other editions of the magazine and this one stood out the most to me. It is very simple but clear and like I said in my previous post I decided that I wanted my layout to be similar to this.
The reason I have posted another edition of this magazine is because this edition features the artist St. Vincent who's genre is alternative/art rock which is completely opposite to the magazine cover featuring Gerard Way. In contrast to St.Vincent, Gerard Way is a pop punk/rock/alternative rock artist and although these genres are not far apart they are still different genres. I think this is quite interesting because it's the same magazine expressing it's style through two different artist's genres. With using two different artists, DIY magazine manages to attract different readers (whether the magazine is free or not, readers will pick up a free magazine if they are attracted to it) and the two different artists give a wider target audience for the magazine which will make it more successful.

Research into Similar Products

I have continued looking at music magazine front covers and I came across DIY magazine. On the cover DIY says it is free (although my music magazine will have a price and bar code on) but on the website for DIY it costs £3, which is a reasonable price for a music magazine. I think they have done prices on the website because the magazine costs for different countries but in the country it originates from it is free. I love this magazine cover, partly because it features Gerard Way, but mainly because of the layout. The masthead is big, bold and easily readable. The date, issue number and link to the website is directly underneath the masthead and I think this looks neat and sophisticated. I love the background of the main image because it features quotes from Gerard Way's interview with the magazine. The quotes stand out to me just as well as the main image/cover star but the quotes do not detract from the cover star, which I like because they are then both equally as important. The cover stars name being in the center looks great and stands out and really lets people know who the cover star is. I also like the red circle featuring the reading & leeds festival special because it lets people know that this magazine has more to it than just one interview from Gerard Way.

There is an online version of the magazine which I have skimmed through. The magazine is full of reviews and features of other artists - it is literally packed with other information other than just Gerard Way, but to the magazine, Gerard Way seems to be the most important aspect. I like the cover for DIY but I wish that it included cover lines to show that the magazine has other things in it other than just what's on the front. From this magazine cover I have discovered a clear, simple yet effective layout that I adore and my music magazine may have a similar layout to this one.

Drafting & Planning: Magazine Name

Finding a magazine name for my music magazine is something I find quite difficult as I can't seem to settle on anything even if I like it. I haven't chosen a name for my music magazine yet but I have been using a Visual Thesaurus to search words that I like.

I like these three words that I have searched and originally I was thinking of using the word 'evoke' but it is already taken. I still need to think about a music magazine name that I really love and I will keep researching names until I find the one.

Drafting & Planning: Colour Schemes

I have thought a lot about potential colour schemes for my music magazine because there are many different colours that I like that would look nice. I looked at NME magazine for inspiration.
I love this NME magazine cover because of the colours used. I adore the main image being black and white and think it adds something unique to the magazine. The use of the colours red, white and black are also one of my favourite things about this cover because they are subtle yet they stand out. In my opinion, these three colours are much better than using pinks or bright blues because blues and pinks are too bright for a music magazine like NME, (which is what I want my music magazine to be similar too), they are more likely to be used in a pop magazine or a kids/teen music magazine such as Top of The Pops.
I will most likely end up using a black and white image because it really attracts me and I just think it is beautiful for a magazine cover to have something different, even if it is simple.