First Draft of Front Cover

     This is the draft of my contents page. I used the main image of the front man from Skies Of Until, the band used in my features page. I used my research to look at the conventions of a magazine, so that I knew what was essential to include. I made sure that i had a dominant masthead, automatically increasing the brand identity with the consumers of the magazine. I also made sure that there was a large main image, and used a direct image to catch the readers attention. I then made the text overlap onto the picture enhancing the interaction between the image and the text, telling the reader that this story is linked with the image. I also added a poster special, as I've seen this feature in Kerang, and thought that it would be applicable to my target audience. The other sell lines are smaller than the main feature, so that it's clear what the main feature is, but also shows that there's a lot more content to the magazine. The banners at the top and bottom, are also there to show how much more content there is, even if they're not read by the customer, they still glance at them and recognise that there are many other band and artists featured within the magazine. 

Improvements To Be Made:

- Most magazines have the head of the artist featured overlapping the text. To improve i could do this on my final draft.

- A subheading under the the masthead may make it clearer to the consumer market who the target audience for this magazine is, if it's not already clear due to the mix of artists featured.

- The text saying 'Katy Perry...' should also be moved up a bit as there is a large gap above it, and at the moment is slightly merging into the 'Win!...' text below it. 

First Draft of Contents Page

Below is my first draft of my contents page, which features all the articles that will be included further into the magazine. I was inspired to use the top half of the page for a large image, and the bottom half for the text of the features coming up in the magazine, by Kerrang. I looked at this layout within my research and thought that it was incredible effective, as even readers who don't read the contents page fully, can have a quick glance and can see an extra feature which they may not have noticed that was on the front cover. 

The colour scheme follows the house style of the front cover, as well as having fonts in common with all three pages. It follows the conventions of a traditional contents page as it has an editors note, lists of features and page numbers of articles and sectioned content e.g. 'features' or 'reviews'. But it also challenges the traditional contents page by having the editors note at a slant, and by adding another feature which is not usually featured on a contents page. The feature is 'Top Picks', and I included it as I wanted to increase the chances of the reader stopping to read the contents page, by giving them a further insight on the staff behind the magazine, and by giving them a heads up on new singles and albums, as well as other happenings in the music world. 

Improvements:

To enhance this pages' effectiveness, there are some changes that need to be made. 

- One being the adding of the missing picture by the 'VIP Meet and Greet with Olly Murs'. 

- Other images could also be added to interest the reader into looking at the images and then making them want to read some more into the contents of the magazine. 

- My branding is not fluent with the front cover logo of 'The Mix', so a white logo would be needed to put into place next to 'This Week In...' to add fluency to the magazine. 

- The 'Top Picks' section where staff have mentioned their favourite song or album this week also needs to become less 'boxy', by getting rid of the outline around the text, meaning that it flows more and encourages the audience to read on rather than stopping at the edge of the box.

- A page number would also be useful to the reader next to 'Unseen Pictures of Green Day's Stadium Tour', so that the page can easily be located by the reader, instead of them having to search through the contents below, keeping their interest levels high. 

First Draft of Features Pages

Below are the two double page spreads that I have created for my feature pages of my magazine. Even though the brief said 'a double page spread', I've created two as I personally think that this is more accurate to other music magazines which I've noticed from my research, and think that it works really well. From my research into music magazines, it's not often that the main feature of the magazine, in which mine is, is only across one page. This inspired me to go further and create two, also meaning that I had more of a chance to show my innovative idea's for the opening double page spread. 

 From looking at my first draft of opening double page spread, I think that the page itself gets across the theme of the article to follow, as well as portraying what sort of band is featured to an audience who is unaware before reading on. The biggest problem with this page is the placing of the text, as it goes through the middle, and would be cut out when properly forming part of a magazine. I need to look at how I could rearrange the text in a slightly different way to overcome this problem. I also need to see if it's possible for me to take some more pictures, but featuring all of three of the members as this is what the article is based upon. This was my plan from the beginning, but due to inconvenience of the band I could only photograph Jamie Ellis. However, I do think that by just using images of him on his own grabs the readers attention as it gives them more to focus on, and makes it clear who the front man of the band is. 

Above is the second double page spread of the draft of the features page. I think that this page was successful in following the conventions of a music magazine as it has features such as a pull quote, a heading in the top left naming the band, columned text and the main image on the right as this is the first page the reader see's when turning the page. However I do think there is still a lot of room for improvement. The smaller image is oddly placed when looking at the whole spread, so the layout of fitting in the image with the text would need to change. I could also look into the different sizes of text, for example on the first paragraph, this could be enlarged further to make the page even more eye-catching. 

Front Cover Screen-Shots

This shows the screen-shots of the stages I took when designing and creating my first draft of my front cover. I used the program Serif PagePlus 11 at both home and school when creating all three of my drafts, and will continue to use this program when finalising my designs. 

Front Cover Screen-Shots

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'The Mix' Presentation

Here is the video of the proposal that me and my partner did in front of the class, this goes with the powerpoint 'The Mix Proposal'. 

Contents Page Screen-shots

When I first started to create my contents page, I printed out the basic layout of the page, and annotated it saying what I need to change and what I need to make sure I do when continuing the process of making the contents page. Click the image to enlarge and make the handwritten text more visible. 

Here are my step by step screen-shots of creating my first computerised draft of my contents page:

Contents Page Screen-shots

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Features Page Screen-shots

Here are the screen-shots that I took whilst creating my features pages, showing exactly how I put together these pages.

Features Page Screenshots

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Article on 'Skies Of Until'

This is my final article: 

     According to front man Jamie Ellis, this band seeps out from the mainstream pop-culture whilst still being fully attached. ‘Skies Of Until’ have hit back at the quirky, pointless indie lyrics about ‘dancing at discos’, and come up with some electrifying content to fulfil this nation of music-lovers. With them, their guitars.

     The trio are here today to give us an insight of what they’re really up to right now, and their plans to conquer the world…

     ‘We just wanna play live, make our fans happy, and make sweet, sweet music’, states lead guitarist Richard Porteous. ‘With all of these mixed in, our world domination will be well underway!, Jamie, the vocalist, buts in whilst Tom Wilson chuckles in the background.

When we ask the boys of ‘Skies of Until’ about the events leading up to this interview, they all turn to look at each other in confirmation, and then their story is unleashed. ‘Yeah, we probably shouldn’t mention this, but that woman over there with the blonde hair said she’s only get us this interview if ‘the singer’ went on a date with her afterwards’  giggles Tom. Laughter infected the group as their producer, as it seemed, grew redder and redder.

     ‘We’ve just been playing gigs here and there, we love touring, that’s probably the main way we got our music out there’ Tom states bringing an answer back to the original question. ‘I think people love my face more than anything if I’m honest, we’ve got a huge majority of girls in our fan base, so it must be my looks’ Jamie jokes sarcastically, or was it sarcastic? Who knows with Jamie, as it seems Tom and Richard don’t know either.  Eyes from Tom and Richard turn to him and Richard states ‘stop talking shit Jamie, just because you love yourself doesn’t mean everyone else does’. Jamie shrugs his shoulders and pretends to sweep his invisible long hair over his shoulder, giving us a cheeky smile and a wink.

     The trio’s new single ‘Last Winter’ is a heart-felt but up tempo track, that the boys tell us was meant to be a filler track on the EP, but after popular demand from their fans, they’ve released it, matching it with an emotional yet eccentric music video. The video contains the usual beer, babes and beats, but with a twist, but I’ll leave you with that until you see video yourself, because I definitely highly recommend watching it.

     Now being three boys in a band, this lot must get a lot of fan mail from girls; we ask them what the weirdest thing they’ve ever received was. Tom tells us that he once got a giant teddy stuffed with strawberry flavoured sweets, after saying that strawberry is his favourite flavour of anything once in an interview. Richard also says that he was once delivered a pair of ‘Vans’ shoes with his name engraved on the white edge of the shoes, in his size of course. ‘I was touched that someone actually went through the effort to give me these, I’ll keep them forever, but won’t where them out often in case they get wrecked’.

     To create the gorgeous sounds that come from this band, we figured that they must have been inspired by someone pretty good? ‘I really love Jimmy Eat World and Green Day, I love pretty much every song these guys have ever made, and just think they’re superb’ says Jamie in ore. ‘Yeah me too, says Tom, but my favourite is a band called Train, I went to see them recently, and they’re definitely the best live band I’ve ever seen, and probably best I will see, they were so amazing’ Tom adds. Richard tells us that his inspiration came from older bands such as Pink Floyd, ‘my guitar is actually a guitar from Pink Floyd’s studio, my dad bought it for me last year, and I absolutely adore it’. 

     From just talking to these guys, everyone in the room can feel the cemented bond between the three of them, and this is definitely reflected through their music. Jamie overviews their situation, ‘With the three different backgrounds, mixing them up with some music, and ending up here within the same 2 years, that’s truly amazing.’

  We definitely agree with you Jamie, and wish all three of you luck on your quest to conquer the world, just one step at a time.

Other Possible Images For Magazine

Here are some other images that I have taken that may come in use in my magazine somewhere, either on the front cover or on the contents page.

Other Possible Images For Magazine

The pictures taken at 'Paramore & B.o.b.' were taken on a camera which me and my partner Kiran Reyatt shared. We both equally took pictures whilst at the gig for our magazines, and so the images we use may overlap at times. 

Photo Shoot

Here are my images from the photo shoot I did with Jamie Ellis, the front man of 'Skies of Until'.

Photoshoot Images

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When taking the pictures, I made sure that there was a slight gap at the top so that there is room for my masthead to they didn't overlap. This also meant that i can crop it if the pictures need to become shorter when being used on either the front cover or the feautures pages.

Explanation of Artists Featured

     When choosing the artists for my magazine, I first looked at to what type of artists are featured in the most bought magazine that are out there today, and saw that many feature rock/alternative bands. This helped me decided that I will definitely feature this genre of music artist, as I already know from research that it's popular. 

     I also thought about the aim of the magazine that me and my partner had decided. We stated that we wanted to cover a variety of genres and artists, new or old, especially ones that are in the charts or public eye at the time the magazine is produced. 
     For the feature page and the front cover, I chose to use a real band, that I would be able to take pictures of. They are a local band that are my friends, so I will be able to photograph them for the magazine. They're a band called 'Skies of Until', and are a pop/alternative band made up of three boys between the ages of 18-20. From knowing the boys, I'm able to make up the article, but still base it around them, using quotes of things in the way that I know they would say them. I thought that using a band as the main cover story would be the best option, as I know from research that magazines with bands like this on the front sell, and then I would also be able to mix up the genre's with the other features on the cover. 

Sketch of Features Page

For my features page, i decided to do 2 double page spreads, as from looking at my research, not many articles are only spread across one double page. This way, I can use the first double page spread to catch the readers eye by making it vibrant and completely different to the usual boring headline. Then for the second double page spread I can have the full article, along with another 2-3 images of the front-man. 

Sketch of Contents Page

This is my basic plan of what the contents page of The Mix will look like. I was inspired by the contents page featured in Kerrang, and like the half page divide between image and text. I used aspects of this layout, but changed many of the details to make it my own, and also more appealing to my target audience. I added the Top Picks section, in which I plan to have images of people that work within the magazine, and what songs or albums they like this week. 

Sketch of Front Cover

This is my first sketch of a basic plan of the front cover of The Mix, with some idea's of what features will be on the front, and what sort of image. I haven't used colour as at this point I'm still not 100% sure which colours I want to use, as i need to be able to change them quickly on the computer to get the best look at how the colours will go together. 

Contents Page Analysis - Kerrang

Contents Page Analysis - Kerrang

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'The Mix' Proposal

Working with my partner, we presented a proposal of our magazine to the rest of the class. We acted like we wanted them to invest in our magazine, so we had to give a good detailed description of how we want our magazine to be and what the content will be like. This way, we gained feedback from the class, telling us what we could improve on and resolve any queries that may have been unclear. This proposal was filmed and will be uploaded in a following post so that the proposal can be watched, and the questions from the audience can be seen. 'The Mix' Proposal

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Article Research - Kerrang

Article Research - Kerrang

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Questionnaire Results

1) What is your favourite genre of music?

Classical - 0

Rock - 4

Pop - 7

Drum 'n' Bass - 1

Hip-Hop - 3
Other - 0

2) How often do you buy music magazines? 
Every week - 6
Every month - 5
Every 3 months - 2
Every 6 months - 1
Less than once a year - 1








3) When was the last time you bought a CD?
This week - 2

This month - 4

Within the last 6 months - 5

Within the last year - 3
Over a year ago - 1

4) Do you like to know what's happening in the charts? 

Yes - 12 

Sometimes - 2

No - 1

5) Do you buy magazines based on the content of the front cover?

Yes - 10

Sometimes - 3

No - 2

6)  Are you more like to buy a magazine that has a group or a soloist on the front cover?

Group - 12

Soloist - 3

7) Are you interested in new artists? 

Yes - 9

Sometimes - 4

No - 2

8) Which of the following do you use to listen to music? 
iPod/Mp3 - 4
Phone - 1
TV - 1
Radio - 3
Computer/Internet - 6

9) How much money would you be willing to pay for a weekly magazine?

Under £1 - 3
Between £1-£2 - 9
Between £2-£3 - 2 
Between £3-£4 - 1 
£4+ - 0






10) How often do you listen to music? Every day - 13
2-3 times a week - 2
Once a week - 0
Once a month - 0
Less than once a month - 0

1. 

Music Magazine Questionnaire

Here is the questionnaire I gave out to my potential target audience as part of our market research for the music magazine.

Music magazine questionnaire

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Mood Board of Target Audience

After brainstorming who our target audience are for the music magazine, I made this mood board to give a rough idea of the lifestyle and interests of the type of people we aim to attract to become potential customers. 

Target Audience and House Style Brainstorm

Together me and my partner discussed and brainstormed who we want our target audience to be, and what we want our magazine to have a look like, taking into consideration all of the research that we have done on other current music magazines. 

NME Cover Analysis

This is my analysis of the NME cover with Paramore as the featured band, with the headings masthead, colours, images, text, uses and gratifications and positioning and size. Click on the image to make it bigger to be able to read all of the text. 

Music Magazine Background Research

Music Magazine Background Research

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Second draft of school magazine using DTP

        This is our second draft of the school magazine for the preliminary task. We looked at the feedback, and tried to adapt the cover as best we could to fix most of these problems. We changed the colour of the subheadings, telling the reader what's inside to white so that it stood out more from the picture, and makes it easier to read. We also added a black shadow underneath the main story and the competition, as these are the stories we wanted to emphasise the most and make sure the audience notices and reads.  By adding the competition on the front, we felt that it would attract the whole range of our target audience, as well as giving them a reason to buy the magazine. We also took some pictures to put in the gaps that were left before next to the story about the media trip. The white outline that we added to the photo's from the media trip is effect as well as it makes the photo's stand out from each other, at the same time as not taking much attention from the main image but making them more noticeable. 

         We do understand that the picture we have used as the main image is not strictly a medium close-up shot, as the brief explains but is just a medium shot. We did try to crop the image so that is was medium close-up, but didn't look as effective as the Bunsen burner was cut out, and it just looked like a girl in goggles looking down for no reason. This is why we decided to keep this as our image, as it fitted much better with the whole design, and was more effective and related to the cover story it's representing in a much better way.  

             We also apologise for the bad quality of the image of the front cover, the printer wasn't of the best quality to print in colour, and we couldn't erase any of the lines that it made across the page. 

     

Feedback Time

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Draft Of Magazine Front Cover using DTP

Above is our first draft of the school magazine front cover using Desktop Publishing. We used our own original image, and made up the main stories featured on this page. We tried to use the first sketch as much as possible and used it as guidelines when designing this. We still need to take and add our original pictures to go with the 'Media Trip Photo's' along the bottom, and this will be shown in our next attempt. We made sure that matched what the Preliminary Exercise instructions set out for us to comply with, and to check this we made a quick tick list, as shown below.  

First Sketch Of Front Cover

To start thinking about how our magazine front cover is going to look, me and my partner put our idea's together and came up with this sketch. We decided on having a science related story as the main cover story as our school is a specialist science college, and also attracts many of our target audience. We also wanted to make sure that the masthead was clear, and looked appealing to the target audience, without looking too boring or sophisticated to keep up high interests in the magazine. We made sure that other stories and images were laid out appropriately so they can be read and understood easily without blocking the main image or other text. This sketch will help us enormously to design a draft of the front cover using DTP, and will give us a basic guide to how we want it to look. 

Who co-ordinates and edits the magazine?

As this magazine will be run by students, the co-ordinators involved will be students, as will the editors. They will probably be students from higher up in the school, for example members of the sixth form, as they would have a mature overlook onto the website, and would be more experienced than students would be further down the school. These students would most likely take Media and/or English so that they have plenty of knowledge on the content and appearance of the magazine, making sure it appeals to all students at the school. 

Who writes the articles to go in the magazine?

The articles that will go into the school magazine would mainly be written by students, but maybe some being written by teachers. The students writing the articles will probably in the higher years of the school, from around year 10 upwards, and will mainly consist of students that have an interest in writing, journalism, media or just want to promote an event or something happening within the school. By using students to write the articles, this helps the magazine to make sure it's targeting the right audience, as the students know who they're writing to the best, making it much more accurate than an older author guessing what their target audience wants from the magazine. 

Who are the Audience/Consume?

For the preliminary task of creating a school magazine, we need to consider who we will be targeting our product to, so that all articles are relevant and interest the reader. The magazine would be on sale at school, so the target audience would be all school years, from 7-13, meaning the age group would be from 11 to 18 year olds. The magazine would also obe priced so that it would be affordable to everyone, and we think the most suitable price would be of 50p.

What type of articles should go into a school magazine?

To appeal to the whole range of students, aged 11-18, it's vital to have a big variety of articles inside the magazine. This will make sure that the magazine attracts all elements of their audience, and keep up their potential customers. Below I have come up with a list of possible articles that I feel will be appreciated by the target market within the magazine. 

• School sport team and individual news
• School council meetings and outcomes
• Club information, with special features on new clubs that haven't happened before
• Upcoming events in school
• Charity events
• Workshop notifications
• School trip insights
• Term dates
• Agony Aunt page
• Department features
• Staff insights
• Fashion page, with links to sixth form dress and textiles
• Achievements 
• Competitions
• Former pupil successes 

School Magazine Name Idea's

To choose a suitable name for our preliminary task of creating a 'School Magazine', me and my partner decided to do a brainstorm of idea's, and then choose our favourite. We underlined with dots our most favourite names, but then decided on 'The Rumour', as you can see if highlighted in pink. We thought the name 'The Rumour' would be suitable as we want the magazine to appeal to 11-18 year-olds, and not their parents, so didn't want to make it too formal or boring.