Photo Planning

For my front cover, I will use a medium closeup. I would like one similar to this as it is simple, yet the makeup, and outfit is bold. The image consists of 2 main colours, Navy and red. This will set the colour palette for the rest of the magazine. I will do this with my front cover image and incorporate the clothing colours with my colour palette. I like the angle of this image also, because it is unusual.

This particular image, is more natural and less posed. I would use an image like this for my contents page. I will use more than one picture on my contents page, to break up the text. This image would go well with the one of Adele (above) as it also includes the colour red, fitting with the colour palette  The background colour could be easily changed to navy too. This image features a low angle shot. I like the way this image comes across and i feel the angle makes Taylor Swift look powerful. 

The image above is very simple and perfect for a double page spread, it is and eye-level shot showing the model as they would be seen in real life to the naked eye. For my double page spread, I will use one main image like the one above, or one like the one to the right. The image to the right shows a wide shot with a slight low angle view. Most double page spread articles which include the same artist as the one on the front cover, usually keep the same colour palette used in on the front cover image.  Double page spread images tend to take up a whole page, usually the page on the right hand side. The article to go with the image goes on the left hand side.

This image shows the music side of things, yet is more posed, I could use an image similar to this as a contents or double page spread image. This is a long shot, it shows the model's whole body, this would be a good image for a double page spread or contents page. My contents page should feature 2-3 images. However, I may challenge codes and conventions by using only one main image.

Main Artist Profile

The main artist profile for my double page spread/front cover will be a new, young, successful artist. Around a similar age, maybe older than my target audience itself. I will use class, age, gender and ethnicity to help build my character to fit my magazine style and it's audience. This will help create the perfect artist for my magazine. The artist I wish to create will be aged 17-25 and most likely female. This is the perfect age range for my target audience to be interested in, also the correct gender of interest too. My artist will be social grade C1-E class. Ethnicity will be British, this is because that is the type of artist most voted for in my survey. I would like my artist to be represented in a good way, instead of the bad stereotypical way that young adults are seen in. My artist will be just like any other young adult who has worked their way to the top and earned what they have. My artist will be mature for their age, creating a positive representation of young people and intriguing adults, making them change their opinion on teens and young adults.

An example of a young British artist is Rita Ora, I would like to base my artist on someone like her. Another artist I like is Willow Smith, however she is not British, but she is young, therefore fits the representation I want to convey.

Double Page Spread Flat Plan

Contents Page Flat Plan

Front Cover Flat Plan

Title And Font Notes

Title:
Out of my 3 possible magazine titles I chose LOUD to be my title. I chose this because I feel it is suitable for my audience as music is best listened to loudly. My double page spread titles include: 'How my encounter with Rita Ora changed my life' 'Her private life away from the spotlight' and 'Being famous isn't as great as you think it is'. After asking people of my target audience age, I found that 'Her private life away from the spotlight' seemed to be the most popular voted headline. I feel this fits accordingly as my target audience is made up of mainly females and this will appeal to them. Feedback: "This would be a good headline, as it leaves you in suspense and you want to know what's happening to her and why."

Font Notes:
I will use serif for all text except particularly important details. For example artists names and other things I want to make stand out. Having done research I have decided that my text needs to be bold to be recognised. Title fonts will be in bright bold colours to make them easy to read and able to be seen from a distance to catch the audiences attention. After having done research and asking my target audience, I have come to the conclusion that serif font is used mainly and san serif is used to highlight particular details. This can be seen in all main music magazines. I have not decided on a particular font for my magazine yet.

This magazine cover shows an example of the artists name and extra details in a different font (serif). I would like to do this for my magazine. I feel it would create a nice effect that would appeal to my target audience.

Initial Ideas And Institution

Initial ideas:

For my magazine, I chose 3 possible titles. These were: Music Blend, LOUD and Noise. After collecting my survey information it was decided that the magazine title would be 'LOUD'. I think that the name will be in capitals as things that are either shouted, or said loudly are put in capitals through media. I think I will also use serif font this title. My magazine content will include mainly 'new' artists, however the content of my magazine will feature all kinds of pop artists. Articles will be about artists and what they are doing with relevance to latest tours, new looks and family life etc. My double page spread topic will be about and artist and how they came to fame, their background and who helped them along the way. The style and design of my magazine will be very modern. Bold, bright and attractive to the audience. Colours will match that of the artist on the front cover and create a theme for the magazine. Existing products that have influenced me include Billboard magazine, and we <3 pop.

Institution
The institution who would publish my magazine are Prometheus Global media. I chose this institution because they publish Billboard, another popular music magazine of the same standard and genre I wish my magazine to be.

Sub-Genre Codes And Conventions

Front Cover:

• One main image,featuring the artist being used as the main story.
• Artists tend to be young and new artists.
• Artist will be very well groomed and the colour of their outfit, will usually set the colour palette for the page and rest of the magazine.
• Masthead is usually along the top of the page in big bold writing, usually serif.
• Font colour will vary, usually Black, red or pinks.
• Date, issue number and price usually placed in bottom right hand corner or top right in a small font size e.g 5-8ppt.
• Content includes new songs, new artists and what's the latest celebrity story or look.
• Cover lines usually in sentence case and the next largest font after the masthead.

Contents Page:

• 2-4 images usually one main image and 3 smaller, minor images.
• Features what's to come in the magazine
• Which pages to turn to with large numbers on the images indicating which article the image relates to.
• Again images of artists or things artists have done.
• Writing here is usually sentence case and a smaller font, serif.
• Will include many cover lines next to images
• Font colour will typically be black or white.

Double Page spread:

• One main image on either the left page or the right.
• May rarely include one minor image next to the article relating to the story.
• Headline will be on either the left or the right hand page. Never normally across both pages as this makes it hard to read.
• Subheading will be a lot smaller than the title and usually placed just below the heading above the article.
• Article font size will be around 9ppt.
• Font for the heading and subheading may feature either serif or san serif.
• Font colour depends on the colour palette, but will usually feature in black or white for the article and various different colours for the heading and subheading.
• Main image will feature a picture of the artists alone. Normally posed at a photo shoot for the magazine.

Font Analysis

Font Type:
Font style in A popular pop magazine, Billboard, tend to be all san serif. The only place we see them use serif is for and artists name. Here is an example of one of Billboard's magazines featuring Iggy Azalea. As you can see the only thing written in the serif style font is 'IGGY POP!'. To fit with these conventions I will use mainly san serif and only use serif for names or separate details. I will do this for all pages in my magazine.



Range of fonts:
On the front cover of a magazine, they tend to stick to 1-3 fonts, this is so that it is not too hard for the audience to read without becoming confused. As you can see from the Iggy Azalea cover, there are 3 fonts. One for the Masthead, one for Iggy's name an one for coverlines and other information. In my magazine, I will try to stick to only 2 fonts as I feel that will make things easier to read. I will stick to this theme of 2 fonts for all of the pages in my magazine.

Size of fonts:
Font size varies throughout the magazine. Mastheads and headings tend to be the largest text on the page, the size of it usually takes up to a quarter of the page. Coverless and subheading are a lot smaller, usually between a font size 70pts-100pts. Column writing in attics is usually kept between 9pts and 10pts. This is because it sets the layout of the magazine and you are still able to write a ling article without having to sacrifice a full page main image.

Colour of fonts:
Font colour for pop magazines tend to be pinks, blues, reds, yellows, black and white. These are colours that draw the attention of the audience. They are bright, bold colours. The colour of the font usually matches the main image and colour of the clothes that the person is wearing. In my magazine, I will match the font to my main image so that my magazine looks smart and fits typical pop magazine conventions.

Font case:
Font used for the masthead of a magazine tends to be in sentence case, but larger to give it the effect of capitals. subheadings and cover lines however vary, some can be all caps whereas others can be sentence case. You never really see all lower case in magazines. Articles are usually in sentence case as there is a lot of writing. I think in my magazine I will stick to sentence case unless it is  for a masthead.

Font style:
Font style in pop magazines, look more modern in younger aimed audience magazines like 'We <3 Pop' For example, the font is more serif and girly looking. Whereas a magazine like Billboard features more san serif traditional fonts similar to times new roman. As my magazine is aimed at an older target audience, I will use more smart modern fonts as well as traditional fonts.

Examples of font types:

Target Audience Survey And Results

As you can see, out of 55 responses, over 70% of them were female. This is a good response as I am aiming my target audience at both males and females however the majority will be female.

The majority of the people who took my survey have said that they would like a pastel colour palette. This is a more female orientated palette but can be made more masculine with blues and beige. The fact that the other colours chosen were black white and other bold colours connote that colours are quite important. This matches the genre coventions.


As you can see the majority of my responses are the age of 17 or over. This is around the age I am aiming my magazine at. This is good because it will be an accurate representation of what my actual target audience would like to see in a magazine.


My magazine title will be 'LOUD' as that is the title that people liked most. With 3 options I think they had enough choice.


 I found it interesting to see that there was a tie between celebrity information and English artists. Considering most pop artists we listen to are in fact American artists,it is surprising that people don't want to see them featured. However I will feature both English artists and celebrity information.


Considering pop music is my chosen music genre, it is good that nearly 80% of people who took the survey like pop music. This connotes that my magazine will fit my target audience's needs.

Representation And Stereotypes

Gender
This particular cover proves Laura Mulvey's theory of women functioning in two ways only: As erotic objects of desire for people within a story, or as erotic objects of desire for the spectator. This female has been sexualised, she is pictured topless, this is appealing to a male target audience. Although she is covering herself she is still showing off a lot of her body. Using sex to sell is one of the most common tactics used by any media product. If you are appealing to a male target audience, putting a female on the cover half naked will more than likely increase your magazine sales. My magazine is going to be aimed at a mixture of audiences. Therefore a sexualised image of a female may not appeal to a female audience. Because of this I will not use gender stereotypes in my magazine.

Youth
Here we can see Lorde, a young artist, featured on the front cover. Bill Osgerby said that the representation of youth has not changed much over the past 100 years. He also said that you don't have to go far to find a bad representation of youth. This image however, portrays youth as successful. Although her clothing is not smart, it is stereotypically the sort of clothing a teenager would wear. This may be seen as a bad representation. However, she is on the front cover of a magazine, earning huge amounts of money for putting her talent out there. This shows that teenagers can be successful. My magazine is aimed at an older audience, so teenagers will not be featured. However young adults aged 20-30 will be featured. The images of youths I use, will show positive representations and connotations of youth.

Race
Malik says that the word 'race' only applies to black and asian people. This is because they are the only racial groups that 'own' an ethnicity.Whiteness  has been neutralised as though it is the 'norm' when it is quite clearly another ethnic group like the others. This particular magazine cover shows your stereotypically hooded black male. This is seen as threatening, although the crown and the title 'Usher in a new era' shows that this is a simple cover with no racial tags. Black artists usually feature in hip hop magazines however this artist features in a pop magazine, breaking the stereotype. Pop magazines are typically filled with white artists therefore my magazine will feature mostly white artists to in keep  with the stereotype.

Sexuality
Lady Gaga is a female, bisexual artist. This can not be seen on the magazine cover. This breaks the trend, usually if somebody is gay or lesbian or bisexual, it is talked about and pointed out. However the media has changed over the past few years and it is becoming less of a big deal as to what somebodies sexuality is. Andy Medhurst says that sexuality disrupts representation, in the real world you cannot 'see' somebodies sexuality. Therefore you would not know their sexuality unless they told you. Media shows gay men as 'screaming queens' and lesbians as 'dykes'. Gaga breaks these stereotypes in her feminine pose, showing no signs at all as to what her sexuality is. My magazine will feature artists of all sexuality and gender. This will not break any stereotypes because most magazines feature all sexuality types anyway.

National/Regional identity
This magazine shows clear national identity. This magazine connotes that it is aimed at American readers as it features an American flag in the background. Andrew Higson says that "Identity is generally understood to be the shared identity of naturalised inhabitants of a particular political-geographical space- this can be a particular nation or region" My magazine will feature national/regional identity but not in any particular detail.

Class
Richard Butsch said that working class men in the media are seen as "incompetent and ineffectual, often a buffoon, well-intentioned, but dumb. This magazine shows Eminem as a rough, uneducated male. This makes him seem a lower class than somebody like Adele for example. The way people dress can give off a stereotype of what they are like and how they may act towards people. My magazine will feature people of all classes as I feel that class should not affect how successful you are in an industry. Different styles of music create different representations. For example, the music genre HipHop, has embraced negative representations of their music genre. I feel that this is because the negative representations make the music artists feel like they have more of a status and power over people. Negativity towards their style of clothing, or choice of tattoos for example, may make them recognised more in the music industry.