music magazine - flatplan for front cover

music magazine - chosen picture for cover.

ORIGINAL
i have flipped the picture,
and made it sharper and brighter,
to give a preview of the look,
in which i am trying to achieve.

I have chosen this picture because i feel that it includes all the right features that i am looking for.
This is because it shows off the necklace and fashion well, along with the hair and makeup, matching the tones of the background.
I also like the angle of the stripes in the background, as it attracts your eye along the page, from the main focus of the image, which is Jasmine, over to the cover lines.
The main focus is Jasmine because of the strong eye conact down the lense of the camera, providing me with an eye catching image.
I also feel that the shading has worked very well on this photo, in the way that it is shadowed behind Jasmine, making her the main focus, as most of the light has fallen on her, followed by the light which has bounced off the background on the left, making a perfect backing for the coverlines.
When i edit this photo i am going to remove the red eye, and add an over tone to add to the soft tone effect.

music magazine - a few final pictures

I have chosen these photos, in which one is going to be the main cover, and others as my small images for my contents page and double page spread.
For my images, i have used warm tones, to follow the theme of my style model.
I have stripes in the background to give me some dynamic angles, interest, and tones which match her hair and makeup. her makeup represents the urban music, as it full on, yet natural tones, her hair also follows the same popular fashion, as its big, messy but styled.
I then have tried to match her outfit with her eyes, with a blue denim look top and light blue eyes, so that all colours included compliment each other.
The blue denim look top and hand necklace, ties in with the urban music, and popular fashion right now, to catch the target audience, as they will want to read about the latest trends in music.

 

music magazine - proposal

My magazine is going to be aimed at a male and female audience at an age range of 18+ year olds, so that I can follow the codes and conventions of music magazines, as they like to be filled with a more mature content, that appeal to both sexes. My magazine will be a weekly issue, which will be about the latest music in the charts, artists, concerts, interview, and upcoming music events. I have chosen the magazine to be released on Mondays as I feel that it’s the best time, as music enthusiast would have watched or listened to the UK top 40 released every Sunday,  and also it’s at the beginning of the week, so that they know the latest gossip. I have also chosen to do it in January as I can talk about upcoming concerts and events coming during 2012 that fans would want to know about.
My magazine will be £2.99 as that is the most common price for music magazine, as many will be more likely to pay this price.

My cover lines are going to include such things as:

-Headline
 Jasmine Munro 
'The chart topper sensation'

-Coverlines - 

UK top 40 this week
amazing songs for 2012
Coldplay's incredible concert

lit the night away

Beyonce
'I want to be an icon'

Adele
No1 album in 14 countries,
whats next?

I chose bulletin as my masthead, because my style model is billboard, so I made my masthead bulletin as it has the same meaning, and represents the weekly update of important music news, like what an actual bulletin board is used for.

The masthead will be in black and written in ‘Latha’ bold, I then made the ‘B’, ‘e’ and ‘I’, have 3 primary colours, for a clean and fresh look, so that its bright, and allows the magazine to have a strong identity logo for easy recognition.

My magazine will be A4 portrait in which my chosen image will take up the whole page. I have chosen A4 as it’s the typical size of a music magazine. My chosen picture will be a ‘pretty’ posed, close up of a female, in which I will take the same representation of Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Ke$ha, from Billboard magazine, as they have made the photos with styled hair, pretty makeup, strong poses and a mellow colour scheme and picture effect, which I will try to achieve, as they also represent the urban, and popular music out right now, which i am going to portray. My model is going to be my 22 year old sister, as i feel that having a model a similar age to the target audience attracts the right crowd.
They have then inverted the masthead to make it stand out, and have followed that colour scheme of white throughout, which I will also do, if my title stands out more in white.
For the fonts used, it’s very basic, in the way that they have used the same crisp font, but just in two colours and various sizes for emphasis, and then an individual font representing the singer shown, which I will also include in my front cover, to fit the clear and tidy, grid like structures to music magazines.

The name of my singer will be ‘Jasmine Munro' the chart topper sensation, I have chosen this headline because of the raves about the urban types of genre right now, and when a singer is number one, billboard is always the magazine who has them on the front cover, to seem popular and up-to-date.

On the contents page, my colours and fonts are going to be continued throughout, so it will be clear and tidy, and I’m also going to include images from pages in the magazine to make them want to read on, and know what to expect.
For my double page spread i am going to be interviewing Jasmine Munro, as I've asked many people what they like to read in music magazines and they said they like to read about a well-known singer, in an interview form, as it doesn't look boring to read, and is more entertaining, also billboard loves doing interviews, as it makes their magazine look more 'eclusive', as they have actual talked to the 'chart toppers' themselves.

To clarify my magazine is going to have:

• an urban feel and tone.
• an interview with Jasmine Munro.
• a close up image.
• a bold bulletin masthead.
• be simple and crisp.
• be a popular topic filled magazine.

All following my style model of billboard magazine, and following the poses of ke$ha, Beyonce and Adele.

music magazine - initial ideas

music magazine - inspiration for my front cover

These 5 pages all have the same mellow and neutral tones to their pictures, in which I want to achieve in my magazine. 

I also want to use the style of a close up image of a young adult female, who has the big styled hair, and natural coloured makeup, so that i can achieve a professional look of a main stream magazine that covers all types of music, but giving the feel of the very popular music magazine, which is on the very popular acoustic genre right now.

music magazine - codes and conventions

Music magazines always follow the same codes and conventions, which I am now going to analyse.

The masthead is always at the top of the page as its main job is to draw in the audience’s attention and suggest the genre and target audience, it is normally very short and snappy, and uses a bold and strong font, relating to the genre of the music, which acts as a recognisable logo. Then there is always a main image used, which is of the main band or artist, when it is a band it's usually a long shot, taken with a dynamic angled shot, however when it is a solo artist it is usually a mid-shot or close up. Both techniques use direct address, which consist of the artist(s) looking at the camera in order to connect to the audience, to portray an ‘attitude’ and to represent their music, with their body language and facial expression. Subsidiary images are also used, which may also get you to look at the magazine, especially when well-known images are used, and can be used to give them a little snippet in whether they will like the contents of the magazine to buy it, and so that they include more well-known faces to appeal to a broader audience.

The masthead and picture sets the colour scheme and theme which then creates the style for the headline and cover lines. Most music magazines have a colour theme of two main colours; these colours are usually from a limited range as this makes the magazine stand out more to its audience. The Headline matches this theme and is big and bold to attract attention and make the main image relevant. A tag line is then used to attract attention and give the headline relevant content, adding another colour and size font. For the cover lines, there are always normally around 5 cover lines which relate to the singer, or other big artists, or genre of music covered, and uses as little words as possible so that they make the audience intrigued, without a big section of text. In these cover lines buzz words, promotion or a ‘puff’, are normally used to attract attention for example "plus" and "free” as these get the reader to want to buy that magazine even more. Basic information is also featured on the front cover; which is needed for most magazines in general like a bar code, price and issue date. If the magazine is more expensive then this price tends to be smaller so that it isn't the first thing the audience see and get put off by. On the other hand if the magazine is cheap then the price is usually bigger and bolder, or presented in a badge, in order to quickly draw in the audience’s attention.

There is an organised layout to music magazines, which suggests a more mature and adult audience, as it is formal, which is appropriate to the genre and the target audience, this is achieved by limited ranges of font, grid system for the layout, and simplistic colour scheme and main image. For example Q magazine looks more serious. If you can see the background on the magazine, normally it’s because it’s a band, but there is normally a plain background, making the look more formal, and other features stand out.

music magazine - information of chosen magazine Billboard.

About Billboard

Billboard is based in New York, and has been in the entertainment business since 1894. at the beginning it was a weekly for the billposting and advertising business, Billboard and its popular music charts have evolved and included information on trends and innovation in music, serving music fans, artists, top executives, tour promoters, publishers, radio programmers, lawyers, retailers, digital entrepreneurs and many others.

Billboard.com was launched in 1995 and attracts ten million unique visitors each year due to the popularity of the magazine, which provides the target audience with an array of searchable, playable charts, breaking music news, artist interviews and exclusives, news, video's, and you can even subscribe to their magazine, so its even easier to get hold of their magazine.
Billboard is also an a very well known music chart, that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis. The two most popular charts are the Billboard Hot 100, which ranks the top 100 songs regardless of genre and is based on physical sales, digital sales and radio airplay; and the Billboard 200, the corresponding chart for album sales. 

For billboards covers, they tend to use the singer with the most popularity at that time, so that they are up to date, and modern, they also tend to make it the women look beautiful and the men cool, and have different color schemes and themes to fit in with that music genre and singer. The cover lines normally used is all about the latest gossip, tips, news, and interviews.

music magazine - detailed annotation of chosen magazine.

Main Image –  

·         Taylor Swift – well known pop singer who very recent.

·         Very pretty and made-up hair and make-up giving the look of importance and professionalism.

·         Strong pose – staring at the camera to catch the reader’s  attention

·         All the tones of the background, hair and makeup match a mellow and natural colour of browns greys and blondes, showing the theme of her pop music, and attracting the 16+ female target audiences.

·         A centred image, leaving space for the left third.

Cover lines –

·         ‘credit crisis’, ‘retailer tests’, ‘Wow jones’, ‘chart heat’ – uses exaggerated vocabulary to make the readers want to look inside and buy it.

·         All hot topics that are relevant to the time of release

·         In yellow and white to match the mellow colour scheme, and to make the title stand out, and add interest.

·         Varies in sizes to make the text fun and modern

Masthead – Billboard

·         Quite a simple looking masthead as its black and rounded covering the width of the page, the three main colours are red yellow blue and green, creating a very simple but effective logo/representation of the magazine, which is a fun young music magazine.

Barcode –

Also Includes date website and price

Main cover line –

·         Largest text on the page

·         Bold and white to stand out, and fit in with the colour tones.

·         To emphasise the point that she is a big singer / ‘teen queen’

San serif font –

·         Traditional

·         Clean, clear and crisp

·         Matches font of masthead

music magazine: music magazines general format.

These are just a few of many music magazines, such as;

• V - v magazine has a target audience of 20+ females, this is becuase its a high end magazine which also includes female topics e.g fashion. The music genre usually covered is chart music, and who is the most popular at that specific time, so that they look modern and up to date, tuning into the younger audiences.
• BLENDER - blender are very up to date and cover the pop music genre, the target audience will be most likely females from the age of 15+, as its a more gossip magazine, and singers who have a young audience e.g. Kelly Clarkson.
• SPIN - spin also have an up to date coverage on the genre of hip hop as well as relesing issues on many other genres. They have a wide rande of audience from 20+ males and females, as they include bands like Mumford and Sons and Skrillex.
• VIBE- vibe are a hip hop/urban culture music magazine, which have a male and female target audince or 20+, as its more of an adult based content, and language.
• Q - Q is a rock magazine with a huge target audience as they cover well known, and admired performers, and is a trusted name. The age range is 20+ as the target audience have to have some music history, as they cover iconic bands of certain times, and the content is for maturer minds.
• Billboard - billboard covers all music that is popular and in the charts. They are very up to date and in tune with the youner audience of about 16+, as they include polls, and tweets etc, their main target audience are females as they present it in a quite femine fashion, as its all quite pretty and full of need to know gossip.

 

Evaluation of preliminary task.

For the preliminary task i had to make a student magazine. I firstly had to take my own pictures of a student in college, which had to be a mid-shot, so i took some pictures of my friends in various poses and places to give me lots of choices, also it went well for the student theme. I then made the title, which i chose the to colours tie with the image, which brought on the style of my magazine. I then created my cover lines to go on my magazine, and made them the same style as my title but white so they stood out, which then made the theme for my magazine, exams, be apparent, so that everything on my pages was about the exam season and so it made the issue date appropriate.

I learnt many new things with InDesign, which will help me with my music magazine.
I learnt how to;

• Add effects to text.
• Fade backgrounds and shapes.
• Make processes quicker, so i can achieve more in a lesson.
• Feather edges so its not so harsh.
• Apply shadows.
• How to bring images in and change sizes.
• Apply colours.

I will use all my knowledge for my music magazine task, to make a music cover, contents and double page spread. I can use my knowledge in the way that i can add effects to make it look different, and eye catching, this will all help me create a theme and brand for my magazine.

finished contents page.

I have finished my contents page, by adding in
page numbers, and titles,
I added some shadow and glow effects to the writing,
to make it look professional,
and I made the numbers white to not make
it look like a lot of block text.

contents page.

So far for my contents page, I have done the same style masthead, and title,
so that they both link in with the front page, as well as the purple theme, so i made the
background fade, so that the purple continues through,
without having a block colour, so that it looks clean and professional,
I have added in a picture of a student reading to match the purpose of revising.

contents page flatplan.

The basic layout of my contents page.

finished magazine cover.

I have finished my magazine cover.
I have included;

• shortened cover lines
• magazine slogan
• issue and date
• masthead 

I feel that my colours work well and compliment each other, without being gender specific.

The writing stands out from the page, and easy to read as the cover lines have an outer glow an are white against the dark background, an the slogan and date has a satin effect and are bold colours.

Magazine cover: day

Today i added in my picture, for the main image, to the size of an A4.

Then i added my masthead, in Comic sans and learnt how to match the colours of the purples from the jumper, i also added shadows and satin effects to the masthead, and then finally titled it to 20, to give a more modernised look.

I then added a purple column on the left hand side, also in the matching colour, and made the gradient fade out, for a base for my cover lines, so they stand out more, and it looks tidy.

Today i have managed to add a couple of cover lines, which i shortened them from my previous notes as they were too long, but now you just have to glance at them to get all of the information of what they are about with minimal words, i added an outer glow, to give a more professional look, and to make them jump out of the page.

Preliminary task: proposal

My magazine is aimed at South Downs College students at age range of 16-18 year olds, and this issue will be about, how to revise, exam tips and resources.

My cover lines are going to include such things as:

-Are some foods better than others for revising?

-How much sleep should I be getting?

-The best 10 ways for revising

-The best hints and tips for exams

-How time should you revise for?

-Pull out revision schedule

-Get the balance right between work and play!

I chose MYsdc as it’s almost like a logo, simple, easy to read and easily identifiable.  I want to give my magazine an up-to-date design, which would make students pick it up and read. The reason why I put MY in capital letters is so that it emphasizes the fact that it Is about the students and helping them with their questions, which all links to south downs college, by sdc, so that they know that all the information included will be relevant to them, such as exam times etc.

The fonts that I will use will all be fuss free, bold and simple, so that it’s very eye catching, and doesn’t take effort to read.
The masthead is in the font named MV Boli
The cover lines will be in bold and italic for headings and descriptions, so that it’s clear and easy to read and will be in the font:  Comic Sans MS. The colours will be in yellows pinks purples and blues, so they tie in with the theme, of being bold, clear and fresh.

The masthead will be in purple as it will tie in the image by the purple jumper, the blues created by the light and carpet, and the purples and pinks in the feature light.

I have rejected titles such as;

·       South Downs, my South Downs College, South Downs magazine, SDC – because I felt some were too long, o impersonal that didn’t connect with the reader.

My magazine will be A4 portrait and my chosen image will take up the whole page. I have chosen A4 as its not too big, so they can easily put it in their bag and not take up space, also if I made it smaller it would make it harder to read, and take away the whole fresh look to the magazine.

I would have this magazine released seasonal, so that it covers important and relevant information that the students will want and need to know for the season to come.

On the contents page, my colours and fonts are going to be continued throughout, so it will be clear and tidy, and Im going to include little images from pages in the magazine to make them want to read on, and know what to expect.

Preliminary task: chosen cover image.

i have chosen this image because it is a very strong main image,
as it has the college in the background, showing the link to 'sdc',
as well as giving many interesting angles, shapes and light.
The main image is relaxed and its is what the
eye is first attracted too, and links to the 'MY', as it is a
current college student during their day.
I also like it because its got the white ceiling at the top
leaving a good canvas for the masthead, and also
being tidy on the left for all the coverlines.

Preliminary task: cover images.

i love the way the eye is guided
to the main image by the hand
rail, i feel this gives a dramatic
effect.



this is a very strong main image because
it has the college in the background,
giving many interesting angles, and the
main image is relaxed and its is what the
eye is first attracted too.






i like the different focuses in this image,
and it guides your eye to the main image,
however the text on the sign would
interfere with the left third.

 


this picture is very strong as it has
interesting angles in the background,
but is not taking away from the main image
of the student.



i like this one as i tried to incorporate
the exam timetables, as that's
what this edition is about.



this image i feel is very strong as
your main attention is on the student,
and the activity is revolving around
studying.



Preliminary task: initial ideas

Task 5 : Skills Audit

Today we just did a quick over view on our skills on the mac, so that we know that we have all the knowledge to go on with our design tasks.

task 4 - IPC Case study

The types of magazine and target audiences IPC have been associated with, have been

• men (up-market and young)
• women (mass-market and up-market),

which they have created many many magazines which all go along many different genres:

• television
• music
• home
• garden
• sports
• hobbies
• cooking
• celebrity
• cars
• fashion and makeup

IPC would be a very appropriate publisher for a new music magazine, the main reason is because they are a well known reliable corporation, to lean on because they have already been successful in the past.
Other reasons are because they are so practised and are very strong competitors, so they would instantly be successful, as they are very sturdy and serious about the campaigns they provide/support that they would let  you down,  as well as having many existing connections to include celebrities/bands that can be in your magazine to make it look popular and well known attracting needed audience to buy the magazine, which you would need to advertise, so would need strong advertising companies, that all want to be involved in the IPC.

IPC would be likely to publish mainstream music, as there is a global market for that, as its so well know, as well as strong genres like rock, pop, dance, that can easily be recognised and have a strong audience.

Publishers like Bauer may be appropriate because they own more than eighty influential media brands spanning a wide range of interests , including heat, GRAZIA, Closer, MCN, FHM, as well as radio, tv and online brands, and have very strong advertisers to their name to help you with connections, which would mean they have a very sturdy platform for a new music magazine as they already provide successful magazines, and that already own a large amount of audience, that will be easily introduced to a new music magazine.
A helpful website - http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

Task 4: IPC research

Helpful websites about IPC:

• http://www.ipcmedia.com/ 
• http://www.ipcadvertising.com/ 
• http://www.ipcmedia.com/about/companyhistory/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPC_Media
• http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

IPC stands for international publishing corporation.

IPC media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men which brings that to a total of 26 million UK adults, but if you included websites that collectively reaches over 20 million users every month.
IPC's diverse print and digital portfoloio offers something for everyone. Their main focus is on the three core audiences: men, mass market women and upmarket men.

IPC's men portfolio (IPC Inspire) comprises a wealth of leisure brands including:

• Country Life
• Horse & Hound
• Rugby World
• Decanter
• Nuts
• Mousebreaker
• NME

All these cater for the adventurous, busy energetic people, as they embrace life for its highs, they follow their passions habitually and they seek out information and advice to enhance their enjoyment. this means that its a very broad portfolio of magazines and websites that cater for the markets interest, And the pool of marine, sport, hobbyist, equestrian and rural life brands has a natural delivery toward the media-elusive upmarket man.
For every interest sector, there is a highly respected editorial team that produce the authoritative content empowering readers to fully indulge and enjoy their passion.
All throughout this advertisers benefit, as they can have specialist messages placed within the most relevant editorial environment, so that it engages the reader.
As well as the upmarket men, they also cater for young men, such men that are media-elusive individuals, who take their media n their own terms. IPC is a leading content provider for today's man, as they offer big brands, and adverts that 18-34 year old males want.

The mass markets women division (IPC Connect) includes many famous women's weeklies:

• Look
• Now
• Chat
• Women
• Whats on TV
• TV Times
• goodtoknow network.

This provides an everyday woman of the household, as an ideal audience. They are constantly juggling tasks, their pleasure of 'me' time, is taken up with visiting a website or relaxing with a favourite magazine.
IPC is the leading consumer publisher for mass market women, as they provide weekly magazines and websites that are packed with inspiration, entertainment, information, advice, celebrity and real-life, which appeal to women and mums of all ages and attitudes.
Advertisers access these powerful communication platforms predominantly through IPC Connect, which represents IPC's portfolio of women's weeklies.

The up markets women division (IPC South bank)  compromises luxury fashion brands including:

• Marie Claie
• InStyle
• woman&home
• essentials
• Ideal Home
• Livingetc
• housetohome

These magazines appeal to the confident, selective and exacting in all they do, upmarket women have a wide variety of interests, IPC caters for them through a portfolio of famous Media brands, printed and online.
IPC Southbank and Connect, provides the portfolio with high quality imagery and high quality editorial - fashion and beauty trends and advice, home styling, celebrity, environment, business and real world news.
This is all delivered to the target audience through glossy magazines and exciting websites, IPC media provides advertisers with wonderful opportunities to associate with famous media brands and connect with millions of affluent, aspirational and inspirational women.

Current news about IPC Media - is that Marie Claire and InStyle devise 'Digital watermarking' campaign for Armani code.
L'oreal luxury has partnered with Marie claire and Instyle to promote Armani Code with a multi-platform campaign that uses digital watermarking to unlock additional content.

The sturucture of the company started off in 1963, by merging three leading magazine publishers - George Newness, Odhams Press and Fleet way publications, which then cam together with the mirror group to form the IPC. The the structure stemmed off 5 years later creating a whole tree of publications, so creating a very sturdy and successful structure.

The history of IPC dates right back from the 1800's right through to now (2010).

• The first big bang went off with 'The field', leading to many other country hobbies,
• Then in the 1920's came the releases of 'Idel Home' and many other woman's magazines,
• Along came them 1950's with the release of many music and TV magazines, 'New Musical Express',
• 1990's onwards came the releases of celebrity gossip like 'Now' and 'LOOK', and also the creation of lads mags like 'Nuts' - which was backed by a £8 million marketing investment. and also develops many great new media brands such as 'housetohome'.
• 2010  and the IPC Media restructured  around the three key audience groups: men, mass market women and up market women.

Task 3: Essay

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer ?

Teenage girl magazines include a very materialistic content, which is either stereotypical or influential towards the target audience, of which i am going to investigate.
This certain type of magazine include such things as;

• skinny models,
• unrealistic/airbrushed skin,
• makeup,
• fashion,
• adult content e.g boyfriend tips etc. 

This could potentially influence many girls views and make them want to change who they really are so they can fit into the categories, that have been made in the magazines like being 'normal' and  having a 'pretty' image, also it could make teenage girls see hunting boyfriends and beautifying as the norm; which could be argued that these are made to be their sole purpose in life.
The magazines do not seem to ever include interests such as politics, environmental issues, or any kind of music that ventures beyond the 'popularity', these could be included, with cleverly placed items between all the materialistic pages, to remind and teach them of reality.
 This means the teenage girl, by the power of teen magazine, have been heavily stereotyped, and their interpretation of society might depend on the personal knowledge that magazines have presented to them, the articles expects her to be interested in boys, sex, fashion, beauty and fame. The magazine is therefore a "powerful ideological force" of image and behavioural traits presented within the magazines that become the stereotypical norm for the teenage girl. All this taken into consideration shows that magazines should be taking a healthy amount of responsibility.

However i feel that this is something that teenagers enjoy and use this as their past time activities to escape from reality, which i feel is very reasonable.. IF, magazines would include a number of things such as;
making a little logo that shows that what they are seeing is real or photo shopped etc, also a back page explaining that these images and stories are all for entertainment purposes and should not be taken so literally, and then if they need any guidance they should include helpful pages and/or contact details to guide them through various difficult situations. This would all provide professional advice. Then if this is all included, the parents take on the role of authority and responsibility, by letting their daughters buy them, and read them, as long as they understand that what they are seeing is not real and does not have realistic goals.

It is also not all about the parents, or the magazines taking the whole responsibility, as its also the actual products in the magazine such as fashion and makeup, that are wanting to advertise their clothes and marketing campaigns, which are being viewed by young girls, and this is all being authorised to be distributed to the public. If they have a problem or a concern about any issue they should stop it and discuss changes, causing no conflicts to the general public.

Overall magazines should be hold the majority of responsibility for the social ramifications of the representations they offer, because they are ignoring obvious rule breakers, that include quite strong content, but i do believe that with a few tweaks of the magazines, they could be resolved of some of the responsibility, but as it stands at the moment they are very much curve balling around rules and regulations causing conflict and disagreements throughout, which i feel can be easily fixed. Giving some authority and responsibility back to the magazine editors, by not having to be dictated to, by the advertising companies.





 

task 3: articles

- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/4990907/Teen-magazines-are-sexualising-readers-says-watchdog.html
- http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/30544/popular_teen_magazines_and_their_possible.html
- http://www.christian.org.uk/news/teen-mags-blamed-for-sexualising-girls/

These links are very insightful views about the sexualisation of young girls reading teen magazines, and are very useful to help understand the genre representation provided in magazines.

task 3: 5 magazine examples

Having looked at these teenage magazine covers i have noticed that they all have the same generic conventions;

• Well known and iconic female celebrities, this will draw the audience in as is showing well known stars.
• Bright colours including pinks, blues, yellows - all of which are very eye catching.
• All including ways to look good, including fashion, make-up, as thats what teenage girls want to know about so they are up to date and 'fit in'.
• They all include relevant gossips of the times, to be included in popular conversations.
• They all have a quiz or competition, to entice the audience as its always a bit of fun, and potentially win a good prize, and can enjoy it with friends.
• They all include a free gift / poster etc, to again, feel they are getting more for their money and its exciting and fun, as teenage girls will be persuaded with free make-up.
• The titles are very short and snappy, and easy to understand the meanings of the magazine, which sets the overall tone, while being big bold and brightly coloured to attract their eyes.

All these build up the teenage girl genre because its attractive looking, full of gossip and is relevant to what they all want to know about, which includes films, guys, music and celebrity gossip.

task 2 part 2

This is the cover of a vogue magazine, showing a well known actress, Jennifer Anniston, as the main image, the target audience for this magazine will be females from the age of 16 - 50, as it covers many female interests.

I am firstly going to comment about the main image of Jennifer Anniston, as this is what you first see. Jennifer is in a very dominant pose, showing that she is a successful woman, which many females look up to, and will find this intriguing. She is also in a very flattering, long red dress, which makes her look very young and attractive, so that it makes the younger audience interested, as well as the older audience, as they would like to know her tips and secrets!
The background of the main image will defiantly appeal, because everyone wants to be in the sun, on a luxurious beach, and it just sets an expensive feel to the whole magazine that will make the readers come out of their own reality for a while and enjoy the gossip.

Next is all about the left third, model credit and cover lines. All the themes of the information given, is about beauty, fashion, holidays, romance, Angelina gossip, and as its Christmas, gifts! This will appeal to the target audience because, the most recent gossip at the time of release was about the Brad Pitt saga, this will entice the audience as they want to know all the details, for their own conversations with friends to be in the loop, and what better for it to be from one of the main people, Jennifer Anniston herself !, and as its a well known and successful actress, the magazine as a whole will just have a popular and genuine look. Everyone knows women always want to be up to date with fashion and accessories, and be the talk of the town, so letting secrets out about 'smart investments' and the must haves about clothes and jewelry, that will go with 'everything'!, will make woman everywhere want to buy it, especially as its from a respected fashion magazine which you can always trust to make you look good, with virtually no effort at all. The selling line to this magazine is how to get a 'three minute freeze for younger looking skin', this will appeal to the busy, working woman, when she hasn't got much time, and there is a quick way to look good, she will do anything for it. The main cover line for this magazine is 'holiday romance' with snippets of attracting looking stories underneath, about love stories, prettiest portrait, and America's most glamorous bed room. This will appeal to females who are either looking for love, or wanting to know how pretty other women are, or even to get tips for their own bedroom.

The title is very big and bold and takes up the width of the page while being very subtle, this gives them an expensive edge as its not coloured and tacky, also it means that because they are such a well known company, they don't have to highlight there name, they can just rest on it and concentrate the attention to the celebrity and stories. The titles text is written in a quite a old fashioned type writers font, in white, which in a way blends into the background, but stands out because its sharp against the unfocused background.

The use of colours on this magazines are very strong against the blues and whites, the left third is written in black which looks tidy and bold, where as the main cover line matches the title and contrasts with the background making it standout. the model credit matches the red dress, to show there is a direct link from the celebrity to the gossip.

Overall this is a very strong front cover as it has allot of very successful, and eye catching techniques and subjects. this it because the target audience is very obviously portrayed and covers quite a wide range of interests for all ages of women.

task 2 part 1

Terminology Glossary :

• Masthead - normally includes the title, address and staff. The name / title is displayed in typeface  which it is designed, as it is the visual branding of the titl,e and is usually done in a unique typeface to be very recognisable.
• Dateline - Month and year of publication, often with the price, so people know how old/new information is, and even for collectors. Note that a monthly magazine usually hits the news-stands the month before the cover date.
• Main image - on many magazines there is a large image, which is the main focus on the front cover. This sets the tone / genre, as its very important as it needs to attract the audience, as its the first thing they see, e.g. a beauty magazine may have a close up of a womans face showing makeup, and then will attract young females.
• Model credit - the model's name, with a quote or description, which is either relevant to the gossip included, or a positive statement about them, which would attract the audience as a well known star is included.
• Coverlines - these are groups of text which are distributed around the main image, without detracting from it too much, to give little snippets of information to the reader, to entice them to buy it.
• Main cover line - this is normally very large - normally taking up about a quarter of the cover area. Most likely in a bold colour, so its eye catching, and as its the main story it will attract the correct audience, allowing the tone of the magazine to become apparent, wether its for mothers or men etc.
• Left third - this is where a magazine cover includes the most text, as its where the eye instinctivly looks, as we read from left to right, so will give the audience the information quickly and easily.
• Bar code - standard barcode used by retailers, to price the product.
• Selling line - short, sharp, positive quote or description, about the magazine, to make it look well known and popular, to sell the magazine.