Magazine Practical Assignment

On my research of case studies I looked at two brands of R&B magazines Billboard and Vibe. So I could get a valuable gathering of primary research that would give me an idea of what conventions established R&B magazines have that makes them successful.

The two front pages I looked at both used the colour red in the main image their artists for example in Billboard Rihanna’s hair was red and in Vibe Lil Wayne was wearing a red sailor’s jacket. This gives connotations of passion and danger. This colour must have been used to draw reader’s attention in more. They both also have a White large masthead, so readers can clearly see what magazine it Is. The amount of text on the page was to a minimum on both front covers as the main image of the artist takes most of the attention.

The differences of these magazine front covers is the pose of the artist in each magazine in Billboard Rihanna is crawling, whilst have direct eye contact with the camera. Whereas in Billboard Lil Wayne is standing directly in front of the camera and has sunglasses on, looking up towards the sky. This may show the importance of the artist, as he may be considered to be a higher status than everyone else and Vibe may be using a different approach to grab reader’s attention, by attracting men in a seductive way.

After looking at these aspects of the magazines I wanted my magazine to challenge conventions and make my magazine a little different to the others, so that it would stand out. On the front cover I used the colour Green, to give the overall appearance of a fresh new look. When looking at both of artists of the magazine I also realised that they were both afro Caribbean, so I decided to use a different approach and created an artist, with a different ethnicity.

Even though I tried to make my magazine different to competitors, there are some similarities. I was more inspired with the Billboard magazine than Vibe. I didn’t put too much information on the page and the layout and design for my sell lines are similar to Billboard. As I have the main text in a white box and extra information underneath. I had my artist name going across the page so that readers could clearly see who it is.

The two contents pages that I looked at were completely different from each other, which was what I wanted so that I could get a variation of ideas. Billboards contents page is different to Vibe’s by the amount of information that is put on the page. It has four images and had a table that states the top No1 albums, songs and ect… that are out, making their contents page more interactive. Whereas Vibe went for the classy less cluttered look and included only the features of the magazine and one main image of the main artist in a greyscale over tone.

There aren’t many similarities but they both used a black font for the masthead ‘Contents’, but both use different style as Vibe has the letters underneath each other and Billboard has a robotic look by having white lines within the lettering.

When creating my magazines contents page I decided to use the ideas of both vibe and Billboard. I didn’t put too much information on the page but managed to show all the information that would be inside. I did use multiple images as I thought it would look more appealing if readers could see pictures of artists that would be in the magazine. With each image I put the page number inside of it, so people could easily indicate where in the magazine it is going to be.

I made sure that I put the name of my magazine ‘Upbeat’ in the top left corner of the page as I noticed that both magazines did this as Vibe had a large ‘V’ placed behind the main image and Billboard simply had it on the top half of the left page. However I didn’t have my masthead styled in any particular way as I wanted to stay simple because of the bright colour I used in my contents page I didn’t want my magazine to cheap.

Furthermore I also looked at double page spreads which I noticed that they don’t use many colours but stick to a strict colour palette. By using the colours red and black on the artist, as if they are both bringing out their dangerous side. Also the poses that both artists had were very serious and powerful as both artists had an emotionless expression on their face.

When I looked at one of the double page spreads I liked the way they used multiple images of the artist in the background, to show their personality and made it in black and white, so it seemed as if it was the personality we didn’t know about. Then with the other magazine I liked the fact that the main image had the whole left side of the page, so reader’s attention drew straight to the artist as she was an international well known singer.

When creating my double page spread I wanted to use the ideas of both of these magazines had, so I made sure the right side of my double page spread main focus was my artist. Which I used four different pictures of her doing different poses to show different sides of her personality. I kept the colour of the images instead of putting them in black and white as I still wanted my magazine to be different to other competitors.

When looking at the text of both of them I noticed that their text was positioned the same as they are both going vertical. However, I decided to have a different approach and made my text go horizontal and vertical with quotes inside them. I thought this made my text look a lot more fun as my pictures showed the same theme and I wanted that to come across the whole of the two pages. I created this theme further by not using the colour red but sticking with the colours Green, White and Black.

In my research I was able to look at press packs and noticed how interactive they were and how the magazine companies managed to have websites, Facebook pages, Twitter and etc, So that they can reach everybody in the world. In my proposal I discussed how I wanted to do the same thing so I made sure that I included website in my magazine so that this can be done.

On my Blogger I put five questions up so that I was able to get feedback from people so I could see who they thought my magazine was targeted and how particular social groups are represented. When deciding on what age range they believed that my magazine was targeted at overall the age range was between 18-25 year olds. Which I’m very pleased at. My main goal was 16-20 year olds so that result is still in my age range. They decided it was for a male and female audience but made further comments that they thought it was more on the female prospect than male because of the colour scheme. But as I had images of male artists on my contents page this took this aspect away. Furthermore they put the magazine in the category that it will be targeted at upper class and possibly working class. They believed this from the layout of the magazine as there wasn’t much information on the front page and contents page, this made it very formal. This is a positive light on the social group as its where I wanted my magazine to be targeted at , which I stated In my proposal.

On the overall appearance of my model and what she is wearing, I think that she does represent the upper class social group because of her designer furry jacket that she is wearing and because the magazine would be published in December she will be in that months fashion trend.

From the clothing of what my models are wearing than their location, this reflects more of the social group as one of my models is trying to target the females with a flowing yellow dress. Then my male models have a strong pose looking down attracting the male and female audience.

My magazine would be a mass market product even though its social group is for upper class and working class. As the content of my magazine doesn’t just have information on music even though 80% of it is .There is 20% of it being about lifestyle as well, so it gives the chance for readers to look and feel like a celebrity. Which I hope would widen the amount of readers as the other 80% is split up into different sections of the R&B industry explaining the latest news, events and little bits of gossip that may be going around. This would make mine a mass market product than a niche market as there’s content in my magazine for everyone.

To make sure that I was right with this decision, I did some more independent research and I made sure that my target group agreed with this and asked them to read my draft of my journalism for my double page spread. I wanted to see if they enjoyed it, that they would actually read it and too see how I could make it better for them. They all believed that it was something that they would read as they are always interested when artists make new albums or are making a comeback.

In my proposal I stated that IPC would be the publisher to publish my magazine. As they were the Uk’S Leading consumer brands publisher and publish with 60 iconic brands, which I wanted my magazine to be part of. Therefore I wanted my magazine to be international meaning that it will be distributed in two or more countries. These will be in the UK and America, as the artists that will be in the magazine will be from these regions. Therefore making them unknown to other countries in the world and better suited for these.

I will be having my magazine distributed in local corner shops and supermarkets. So that everybody will be able to reach them, however for the loyal consumers there will be a chance for them to get an order of ‘Upbeat’ magazine every month to their house. Through signing up in the internet, so it becomes a lot easier for them. I will also have a website that will have the latest artists in the charts, games that will provide the chance of consumers producing their own song and competitions. This will make my product a cross media product. There will also be a Facebook page, where every week we will upload a picture to do with the latest news, for example a picture of a new album that’s coming out and asking consumers who they think this is? Or having a song up with two different artists singing it and asking people who they think sung it better. I think this would make our target audience more interested in our product and want to get involved with certain things. It will also bring more consumers in. Furthermore we would also offer an app that people can get on their phones so they can give them frequently the latest news and ask for comments about things and also give them another chance to put their names forward in competitions. With the possible aspect of them having the chance to meet a celebrity or winning some products or attending an event for free.

On my front page I managed to attract my audience from the colours used, by not using the typical colours you normally see in an R&B magazine. So that it would stand out amongst the other magazine brands. I also had my model making direct contact with the camera to build intimacy and make it look like she is looking at you. Her name is also the second largest font on the page so that readers can see her name clearly from far distances and can notice it’s something important as in the double page spread it states she’s making a comeback. From most of the audience feedback that said they liked the clear easy to read concept I had to my magazine by only using a couple of words for my sell lines.

I believe the idea of me having a model that isn’t a stereotypical model that you would see on a magazine like this, makes my magazine more unique. I also made her do dress changes instead of making her wear the same clothing across all three pages. I first had her in a furry jacket for the front cover. A red dress with leopard print heels in the contents page and a colourful green dress and big Jewellery in the double page spread. I did this so that it will show different sides of her personality and attract both the male and female audience with her different outfits.

To address my audience I did use different types of media so that they would be more intrigued with the product I will be producing , as I used Prezi to do my magazine proposal and was using blogger to ask them particular questions about my magazine.

From the process of constructing this product I have learnt a great deal of technology skills. On Photoshop I’m now capable of cutting the background out of an image, using the ruler tool by making sure that all text and images are in line with one another. Then, controlling the layers by locking them as this prevents me from changing or moving the layers around.

I used InDesign for constructing my magazines Contents and Double page spread. This is a lot better source when creating pages that have a lot of text in it as well as images. As this gave me the chance to change things around and re size images ,allowing the text to overlap certain colours or having quotes placed in the middle of them.

By using Blogger this allowed me to reach out to my target audience quicker and easier, so that they could access any work I have created or designed, from anywhere with an internet service. This made it more efficient when I needed to collect feedback from people. As by using paper and asking for people to write it, may have involved me not getting as much detailed information than what I did successfully get given. Blogger also allowed me to design the wallpaper of each blog you publish so that it could reflect your magazine and make the appearance of your blogger more interesting for my audience.

I also managed to create a proposal instead of using the usual PowerPoint, I used Prezi , which was more interactive and made my work a lot my interesting to look at when I was making my pitch to my audience. Furthermore I have also used four other technologies for my evaluation, to also show the various amount of technologies that I’m am also capable to use.

From looking back at my preliminary task of creating my college magazine I have come a long way as I’ve managed to use different technologies and understand the magazine industry a lot more than what I have before. As doing research before I conducted each task before creating my magazine made me create a magazine that challenges the normal conventions that you would find in an R&B magazine to make my product unique.

I understand the importance of fonts and how it can change the whole concept of your magazine. For instance bubble writing is what your normally find in a children magazine and graffiti is what you possibly could find in a rock magazine. I also realised that you must keep the same font amongst all the pages as this gives your magazine a lot more professional look.

I now understand different camera angles such as close ups, long shot, point of view and etc.. That have helped me understand photography a lot more as in my preliminary task, I mostly consistently used the same shot for each image, whereas now in my music magazine, I have produced different shot types.