Mock Up of Front Page & Contents

Mind Map

Here is a mind map which I first wrote at the beginning of my research. I used this to think about what type of magazine I was aiming to create, and what the audience would be ect....

Photo Shots Taken

Here are a few pictures taken of Michaela, my model for my music magazine. I used a few of these in my magazine, but not many. I wanted to take many from different angles, mostly meduim long shots and a medium shot for the front cover, which is one of the pictures above. My main focus was Michaela's tattoo and the guitar, which gives off connotations of an independant style and something unique which I wanted Kaela to represent.

Analysis of 3 Double Page Spreads

Here is a double page spread from the mainstream magazine NME. I have annotated the features that are always used on all double page spreads.

MAIN IMAGE: This is usually based on the first page of the spread, and has the interview written on the next page across. The main image is always the person/band who are being featured in the interview.

NAME OF THE BAND: The name of the band has been placed in big white writing on the side of the main image, but this may sometimes be put at the top of the page with the actual writing on the 2nd page of the interview, something which I will be doing on my magazine layout.

CAPTION: A white caption is usually put at the top or bottom of the main images picture on the first page of the spread. This then has small black writing, which matches the font used in the full interview, stating the date, photographer, and maybe a little description to go with the picture. Also, a limerick or joke may be added in this caption to create humour.

INSTITUTION AND PAGE NUMBER: The name of the magazine and the page number are always featured at the bottom of the 2nd page. This helps the reader to find certain articles or interviews they saw on the contents page.

PULL QUOTE: A pull quote is added from the interview, and it is written from a section that has been pulled out and may interest the reader to actually read the article if the subject is intriguing. This quote is big and bold, to catch the readers attention, and is placed between some of the text to break the interview up into pieces, instead of making the article look long and boring.

FIRST LETTER BOLD & BIG: The first letter that starts the paragraph off is always bigger and bolder than the rest. This is a feature of many magazines, not just the genre of a music one. This emphasises the paragraph & shows were it starts.

OVERVIEW PARAGRAPH: A overview paragraph is always written in the double page spread in a music magazine, and this sums up the interview and gets the ball rolling in the sense of giving the reader a taste of what the interviews going to be about, and just a little about the artist featured.

COLOMNED PARAGRAPH LAYOUT: The layout of the double page spreads in music magazines are always straight colomned paragraphs, with the font size of no more than 9-12 to get more text on the page. On this magazine, the paragraphs are quite long, as it's a fully written interview, but in some magazines questions are asked, and the answers are in seperated paragraphs.

Here is a double page spread from the magazine 'Bliss' and this features the Jonas Brothers. This double page spread has the same layout as the one above, with the picture on the first page, and the writing and the pull quote on the 2nd, but this double page spread has more pictures on the 2nd page, which are alligned squarely to make the article look rather random. There's also the captions on each of the picture, but instead of being white, the magazine has decided to use the colours pink, green and white. Pink has the connotations of girls, which indicates that this magazine's target audience is for girls rather than boys. The font used is bold and very block like, and the main masthead 'Brother Love' is written bigger than all the rest to stand out and get the reader starting from that point. The pull quote is big and pink, which again stands out against the white background.


The artist mentioned is Pink, so the target audience therefore are people who want to know more about her and who are interested in what she has to say about her music. The picture on the 2nd page shows her smiling, which gives out connotations of happiness and laughter, indicating this won't be a miserable interview. Informal language is used, and the layout makes it seem like a conversation. “It’s Q’s round. What are you having?” The interview is very conversational. The colours are very simple. It uses blue and white as its main colours. The picture is a bit darker adding in black, and green and white give the impression that this is just a normal conversation, maybe signifying how Pink is just a normal person like the rest of us. The black in the picture is makes Pink stand out more against it. The double page spread doesn't break the conventions. It has the text on the left and the picture on the right, like the double page spreads above. There's also a caption, small overview paragraph, and colomned paragraphs to show it's an interview. The name of the artist is in grey, which indicates that it doesnt need to be big and bold, as the artists picture will alone attract the reader. The reader will look directly at the right hand side first which is the image. The left hand side doesn’t try and drag the reader to read straight away, so the magazine must want the reader to mainly be focused on the image, and who the artist is featured.

Target Audience

My target audience is for a range of audiences, as I have chosen to make a mainstream magazine that would appeal to many different people. I believe my magazine would appeal to male and females in the range of 17 - 25 year olds, as their are many different bands that would attract ranges of people. I decided to not stick to one genre of music to base my magazine around, so it would attract many different audiences instead of just being specific with one.
I could include:
specials section from music tv shows which are popular such as X factor
uk top 40 artists
top 10 downloads chart
upcoming future releases.
music celeb gossip, news on upcoming tours ect....

Analysis of Contents Pages

Here is the Contents page of one magazine, which is NME. There are many different features to a contents pages, and they are sometimes like the cover, muddled and full of pictures/text.

Usually, the name of the magazine is placed at the top of the contents page which is the masthead, like this one on the left hand side. Also, there's the listings of what's going on in the magazine in this issue on the left and the right, and this magazine specifically has captions to cactorgorise each type of story. In this case these are; Studio News, Band Index, and News. These captions are in bold, which makes them stand out and lets the reader know which subject they are dealing with clearly. Also, at the right hand side, under THIS WEEK, which is written in white to stand out, all features of a contents page contain the date or month of the magazin that has been released.

There is also a main image that catches the attention on the contents page, and is usually the image of the main story thats featured that month. The picture is aquare, to make it stand out more, and blends in well with the layout.

The contents page also features promotional adverts, which are placed on the bottom of this specific page. This promotion is usually based around monthly suscriptions for the magazine, and yellow font has been used here to promote the suscription. The yellow font makes the writing bolder and adds a bit more colour to the actual colour scheme, which here seems to be black, red and green. The colour schemes all magazine pages are usually based around 3 colours, and then they have an extra colour to make the page look a little less organised. On this page, green circles have been added in the background, which blends well with the red and black. This also makes the page seem less boring. There is some aspects of red, but not too much, and that is the name of the magazine, and the writing on the band index. The band index on the contents page is added to make a summary of what's going to be featured, and makes it easier for the reader.

This contents page comes from the music magazine that is quite popular, Vibe. This magazine's contents page is a little different to the one from NME, as it has a much more modern colour scheme and theme. On first impressions, you would'nt think that this was a contents page for a magazine, you'd almost think that it was the contents page for a mainstream magazine filled with models because of the pictures on the sides. The pictures are again square, which again make the contents page neater and more organised. The pictures taken are all medium shots of black males, which indicates the ideology of black people in this magazine is more sophisticated then the usual stereotype of black music, which would be associated with rappers and guns ect. Instead of having lots of colours and page listings, this contents page has decided to look very minimal, the name featured again, but instead of being at the top, it is very small and is written at the bottom. The colours are again featuring red, black and tints of others, which does follow up on the seterotypical colours of music magazines. There is no sign of other listings, like competions or NME'S way of advertising, meaning this magazine must have enough money to fund themselves instead of advertising other competitions. The font used here is more sophisticated, almost like Times New Roman, which makes the magazine seem a bit more classy. From first glances, you do not beleive this is a music magazine based around black music, but the audience I think is for the black generation, or for people interested in R & B or Hiphop.

This magazine's contents page is very very diffferent to the ones above. This contents page seems much more comical and pleasing for the eye, instead of being smart and organised. The colour scheme used here is pinks, greens and purples, which all have connotations of the 60's being quite funky and groovy. The name of the magazine, the masthead, is again at the top, 'FUSED' but instead of being bold and standing out, it mingles in with the page, making the contents almost like a maze.

There is page listings, just like on the other two, but these are plainly written on a slant in bold, rather than boringly put down the side. I believe the audience for this contents page is people interested in more funky music, rather than mainstream.

LIIAR

Language - the terminology used to describe the subject. Language is used a lot on magazine covers, examples of these terms are headline and masthead. When doing my magzine, language is important to show I understand what I'm actually saying.

Institution - this is the organisations which produce the media. The institution which produces the media always a reason for producing the media which it does. The reasons are usually to make money or to educate the reader.

Ideology - this is a set of ideas presenting peoples values and stereotypes. For example that the good guys never kill.

Audience - this is the consumers of media. For my music magazine, I must recognise the target audience, and try and make a magazine that will attract that audience.

Representation - the media shows what our morals and values are. Magazines can tell us what we should be doing or enjoying and I need to think carefully about what I include in my magazine.