Photo Variations

This image was edited using Photoshop CS3. I flipped the image because I thought it looked more appropriate and where her head is tilting and looking up to I would place my title here (in the top left hand corner). I used the Magnetic Lasso Tool to go around the chewing gum. To change its colour to a bright pink I went to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Colour Balance. To make the rest of the image I just used a blue and pink tint over the image to make it bright and colourful. This is my favourite image and I have decided to use this as my front cover image. It will make a good front cover image as it is bold, colourful and appeals to my target group.

For this image I simply used a colour overlay (pink) and played about with the contract and brightness effects.
I then 'feathered' the picture. This makes it look as if it has been surrounded by a shadow, or as if the person is being looked at through a keyhole or something.
I think the image says alot about the 'artist'. For example from the colours the artist comes across as happy, fun, lively and bubbly. All these connotations of this image are positive and the target audience of my magazine like these type of people, therefore I will use this image for my double page spread as the audience can  read a lot from the image alone, before even reading the article.

Magazine Mock Up's

Magazine Layouts

Audiences and Institutions

Bauer media (magazine company) produce mainstream magazines such as Grazia, Heat, Kerrang!, Q, More!, Closer, Mojo, FHM and More..
The target audience of these magazines vary, due to the genre of magazine. To create a target audience for these magazines, Bauer Media make a ‘research panel’ which is designed to understand today’s consumers (19million every week). These research panels offer a greater understanding of consumer behaviour and tracks consumer trends as they appear.
A source from the website www.bauer media.co.uk says “The panel’s 10,000 + members, aged 16 years and over, have been recruited from a wide range of Bauer Media’s brands including FHM, heat, more, Kerrang!, Kiss, Magic 105.4, Empire and GRAZIA.” This shows us that the research panel is an effective way to find out target audiences for certain magazines and what they are interested in, in a specific time.
Bauer Media also carry out an on going project called ‘Phoenix Project’ which was formed in 2008 to investigate the world of music looking at people in the UK’s interest and passion for music. The Phoenix project included an interview with 1800 individual consumers aged 16-45 to find out the future of the music industry and business. This project helped to find out that music was the most popular magazine, taking over other magazines such as fashion and sport mags. This helped the company to pick out the target audiences for the magazines, what bands/ artists they are interested in and what genre of music they listen to. 

 

IPC Media produce mainstream magazines such as NME, Look, Marie Claire and more.
IPC media get their target audiences for their magazines by dividing their audiences for magazines into 3 groups which are, men , women, and upmarket women. The company have different offices that work to make these certain sections for the certain audiences better and more effective. This is done by research ect. The main audience for IPC media magazines seem to be mainly women.
IPC media produce more niche magazines than mainstream for example housing, photography and gardening magazines.
This company doesn’t have any other media like radio shows and TV programmes.
The brand image for IPC Media is simply different font used for each letter. This is shown in the colour blue in front of a white background. Blue is a very popular colour for brand images as it is classy, classic and bold. 

 

BBC magazines are mainly about education and learning. These magazines target audiences are mainly children and school pupils aged 6-16. This is because the BBC is known for its children TV programmes and channels such as CBBC. It also links in with the political side of things and how the government that is related to ‘BBC news’ want young people to learn more ect..
BBC Magazines produce mainstream magazines that are automatically recognised due to the popularity of the TV shows.  The TV shows link strongly to the magazines and include the same things.

                    

Development hell produce only niche magazines. These are not very popular due to lack of target audience attraction. The magazines have a limited target audience which is only adults. This company does not have any other type of media.

Future media produces mainly guitar (rock) magazines being the largest publisher of these in the US and UK. The magazines that future media produce are both mainstream and niche. Future media promote other things aswll such as game consoles,

Title Block Ideas

                        

1) This is my first title block idea. Its made by a font called 'Cutie Pop'. The reason why I used this font is because it linked with the name of magazine, its quirky and reminds of a typical teenage girls handwriting. I like this font because its curvy and smooth, rather than edgy and sharp. The font says a lot about the target audience. It shows that they are bubbly and young - this is also portrayed through the colours used, although the black against the pink gives a slight 'edgyness' to the font which is very effective and best describes the genre of music that is going to be featured in the magazine.                                                          

2) This is the second font i tried out. It is very simple yet very effective. This font emphasizes on the word 'POP' as its very round and curvy as if its going to actually 'pop'. The colour also links with the word.. It is almost as if its a balloon or chewing gum about to burst. This relates to the genre of music because 'Pop' is very fun and bright! the thick black line around the text emphasizes the lettering and makes it stand out.

3) This font is similar to my second font but its more closer together rather than spaced out. I dont think this font is as effective than the one before as it doesnt really create the 'POP' message that i would to get through.

4) This font is quirky yet professional. I like this font because its simple but at the same time creates a 'pop' effect. The colour used is really effective as its girly, bright and vibrant which attracts the target audience. The way the text flows is very effective, as it reminds me of the type of font a magazine would use.

5) This font is the same as above but using a different colour and a shadow. the shadow and colour creates more of a dark mood with the shadow emphasizing on the darkness making it very dramatic.The font looks as if it is related to music - but not pop.. it looks as if it should 

 say 'hip hop'.

6) This font is very round, bright and vibrant. I dont think it fits very well with 'music' as its too formal and simple.

 

Title Block Analysis

From the font we can tell that the style of music used in the magazine is ‘broken’ and ‘rough’ which rock music is usually associated to. The broken glass effect on the font emphasizes the ‘edginess’ and ‘rough’ style. The writing is capitalised and bold. The colour black emphasizes the boldness and makes it stand out. The way it is capitalised is as if it is coming out at you, grabbing your attention instantly.

The colour black stands out from the white background as they are effective contrasting colours making the title seem so much bolder.
The font used tells us that the magazine is bold and different from the other music magazines. It also shows us that the audience that read this magazine are out-going, loud and are young – middle-aged age group. The title tells us that the magazine is going to be loud and bold throughout it, making the magazine seem really edgy and ‘rocky’. The title of the magazine itself is the sound of an electric guitar. This is effective because it tells us that the magazine is a music magazine.
This suggests that the target group for this magazine are young- middle aged rock music fans who are interesting in the electric style of music being shown in the magazine.

The font of this title looks as if it is old English. The style of the writing is ‘flowy’ and joint up. This suggests that the genre of music is an old English type of music that is still popular, for example rock. The title of the magazine ‘Rolling Stones’ comes from the band name The Rolling Stones- who were a popular English rock band who have been around for years and are still popular and influential. From this font we can tell that the genre of music is rock.
The colour of the title is red with a grey shadow behind it. The grey behind it makes the title look much more vibrant and bold. The first letter of the title 'R' is extended and then links to the letter 'L'. This is effective because it is almost portraying a 'guitar string' or the sound of the genre of music that the magazine is - and with the extended letter makes it seem like the sound just 'flows'. The way this is written also links with the actual word 'rolling' which is really effective. The whole title infers that the genre of music the magazine is about is 'rock' and that it is 'original' - coming from the style of font.
This suggests that the target group of this magazine are middle aged people both male and female who are interested in 'rock' music and that have grown up listening to this music and are familiar with this magazine.

From the title you cannot really tell what the genre of music is going to be but it suggests that it is going to be bold and modern due to the font. The font is bold and capitalised which suggests that the music is going to be different, bold and loud. I think it would be 'loud' because the title is as if it is screaming out to the audience and immediatly grabs your attention due to the colours and boldness. The colour red has been used to give off a modern and dramatic effect. This links into the magazine and suggests that its going to be and include bold things that stand out from other magazines. The colours have also been used to attract the target audience, and the black that outlines the red is almost like a shadow and emphasizes the boldness of the text. The font suggests that the target group are young because the title is modern.



Double Page Spread Analysis - NME

The choice of band featured in the article suggests that the target audience for this article are David Bowie fans who grew up around the 1970’s when he was most popular. This specific issue of the magazine is based around celebrating David Bowies work and how he has influenced huge artists and bands now. I think others (the younger target group) who don’t know much about David Bowie would be interested in this article too, as current popular artists/bands who they are interested in are influenced by him, which makes the younger generation want to know why.
A lot of different age groups are interested in David Bowie for many reasons and he is still as popular nowadays as he was in the 70’s, as he influences a lot of music and fashion.

The type of language used in this article is sophisticated and formal. ‘The ideas that that Warhol had espoused – in trading on familiarity’, this quote from the article shows that the type of language is sophisticated because of the words ‘espoused’ and ‘familiarity’. The way it is written is like it is informing you about David Bowie’s influences and why he is such a ‘hero’.
The language used shows us that the target audience are of a mature age, and that they are sophisticated and who are interested in the music industry, by the way the article makes references to artists like ‘Lady Gaga’ as if they should automatically know who the article is talking about. This emphasizes on the popularity and massive interest on this specific story/article.
‘The credible end of pop is rediscovering Bowie’s big ideas’ this phrase tells us that this magazine is emphasizing David Bowie as a big icon. This links into the style of the magazine because it almost promotes other things and the certain words used like ‘rediscovering’ are is as if they are making something seem much more bigger and better.  
The dominant colours used throughout the double page spread of David Bowie are hot pink and white. The colour pink is very vibrant, bright and bold. These connotations of this colour link in with the characteristics of David Bowie. Bowie was different, bold and vibrant and stood out from other artists in the 70’s, and this double page spread stands out from the other articles in the magazine.
The pink text and image borders stand out from the white background and by looking at the pages make the audience feel as if they are going back to the period of time when David Bowie was most popular (the 70’s). The colour pink was also a main colour on the front cover of the magazine.
The style of text used is the same throughout the double page spread. It is black, bold and easy to read. The black text onto the white background it a good contrast of colours which makes it even easier for the audience to read. The boldness of certain phrases emphasizes them and immediately draws your attention to them which is effective as most bold phrases are the captions to certain images and pieces of text. A large letter is placed at the beginning of the start of each section of the story. This makes the reader not loose concentration on what they are reading and ‘breaks it up’ a bit.
The double page spread is laid out very neatly and organized with a sense of ‘funkiness’. This creates the mood of the type/genre of music David Bowie creates and links really well with the article layout. The text is not orderly and in columns like the first page of the double page spread, instead it has a column to the left and a ‘mind map’ style article on the next double page spread. The text on the pages that looks like ‘a mind map’ are put in bubbles spread out around the page. These each have an image inside them with a pink border. This is very vibrant and bold. It really stands out and is interesting to read, rather than just a load of text and a few images.  The way it is laid out also is like a timeline giving the dates of each piece of text clockwise across both pages. This makes it even clearer for the target audience to read and it also makes it more fun, young and interactive rather than boring text.
The pages are taken up by more images than text, even though there is still a fair amount of text displayed on both pages. There seems to be more images displayed on the double page spread because it is like a tribute for David Bowie, showing different stages of his life and career.  
The tone that the magazine is using when addressing the reader is as if they are ‘sharing’ the story of David Bowie’s life. The magazine isn’t using direct address; instead it is as if they are telling a lot of people (the world) about it rather than just one person. Although the reader isn’t getting direct address is still makes them feel as if they are part of being told something very important and inspiring.
The artist David Bowie is represented as a ‘legend’ through the images shown on the double page spreads. It shows him growing as a superstar, in films and performing at concerts. The amount of images shown make you feel as if David Bowie is very important and into his work that he does. The images also make him look like a powerful artist and loved by his fans.
The style of the double page spreads match the style of the front cover as they use the same colours and the same bold text. It is also about the same thing and the puffs on the front cover are included in the article. This makes the magazine more effective because the article shows the information shown on the front cover clearly.
As a first time reader of this magazine you do not need any prior knowledge when reading this magazine and article. The article tells you all you need to know about the artist David Bowie and gives you the full incite of his life, career and how he has inspired people with his work.  For example the timeline used on the double page spread shows you enough you need to know about the artist.