Jul 21, 2015
FROM MY CASE STUDIES OF THE FIRST MAGAZINE THAT I ANALYZED AS YOU CAN
SEE THE FRONT COVER IS MAINLY COVERED WITH THE FEMALE ARTIST ONLY AND
THERE ONLY FEW SELL LINES/TEASERS. AND UNDERNEATH IS THE MASTHEAD; ON
THE WHOLE THE MAGAZINE CAPTURES AUDIENCE ATTENTION BECAUSE FIRST IT’S A
FAMOUS NOTABLE ARTIST AND THE WAY THE MAGAZINE IS LAYOUT IS: THERE ARE
FEW TEASERS AND THE USE OF ANCHORAGE (THE TITLE) IS SHORT, CATCHY AND
EFFECTIVE AT THE SAME TIME. THE SKYLINE ‘COLLECTOR’S ISSUE” IS GOES OVER
THE TOP OF HER HEAD SUGGESTING THAT IT’S MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN HER.
THEREFORE THE WHOLE MAGAZINE PURPOSE IS ON THE MASTHEAD SINCE ITS
FRONT OF THE ARTIST AS IT’S BIG, BOLD AND UPPER CASE LETTERS ARE USED TO
MAKE STAND OUT. THE STRAP LINE IS UNDER THE ANCHORAGE TEXT (TITLE) AGAIN
IT’S ENCOURAGING AND THE USE OF SPACE OUT MAKES IT MORE VISIBLE FOR THE
AUDIENCE TO SEE IT ESPECIALLY WHEN THE TEXT COLOUR IS WHITE. IN MY FRONT
COVER I’VE USED SOME CONVENTIONS AND CODES THOSE SET OUT BY
PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE BUT I’VE ALSO SUBVERTED AS WELL AS DEVELOPED
CONVENTIONS IN CONSTRUCTING THE LAYOUT OF MY FRONT COVER AND I HAVE
MAINTAINED THIS IN MY CONTENTS PAGE AND THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD. MY
FRONT COVER FOLLOWS THE IDEA THAT NO MATTER HOW IMPORTANT THE ARTIST
IS IN THE FRONT COVER THE MASTHEAD WILL BE ALWAYS MORE IMPORTANT
BECAUSE TO ME IF IT’S ONLY ABOUT THE MODEL THEN THERE ARE THOUSANDS
MAGAZINE OUT THERE WHO HAVE ALSO BEAUTIFUL/HANDSOME MODEL ON THEIR
COVER AND THUS WHAT MAKES MY MAGAZINE UNIQUE IS THAT THE MASTHEAD IS
THE MAIN ESSENTIAL AND IT’S NOT ONLY ABOUT THE ARTIST BUT OTHER STORIES
TOO (COVER LINES).
The colour theme is also simplistic with having grey and white
implying a formality and mature approach as in target audience.
This links back to my case studies ideas and the ways my
magazine has used and developed forms and convention of
music magazine because like all the music magazine I believe
that my artist image is strong influential image as a front cover
artist because when photographing I made sure that I use simple
plain backdrop to make artist plus the anchorage text to pop up
to the audience eye by itself. Alternatively when looking at a
British music magazine you will see in majority of the magazine
the masthead is behind the artist (some magazines like NME or
Q are always at the front to show the magazine is successful and
dominant in terms of the issue of the magazine. But in British
Bollywood magazines sometime they either put the artist behind
the masthead or the masthead front of the artist this is because
the issues depends how famous or attractive it is about the artist
e. g If it’s a hot spicy issue then the masthead will be on the
back of the model. As a result I choose to have the masthead
front of the artist because I didn’t want the artist to look like the
main cover star as if it’s only about her because the anchorage
text is different (the issue is different) and in keeping the fact my
target audience is also on professional people and qualified
people even though it’s aimed at young audience.
• ONE WAY MY FRONT COVER FOLLOWS THE CONVENTIONS OF A MAGAZINE IS THROUGH THE USE OF MASTHEAD : WHEN RESEARCHING AND DOING MY CASESTUDIES I’VE NOTICED THAT THE MASTHEAD IS ALWAYS LARGE, BOLD, CATCHY TITLE AND QUITE SHORT, PLUS FROM THE MAGAZINE NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTION TASK , IT WAS MENTIONED THAT NO MATTER WHICH OR WHAT POPULAR ARTIST YOU PUT IN YOUR FRONT COVER THERE’S NO GUARANTEE THAT AN AUDIENCE WILL DEFIANTLY BUY IT, THE ANCHORAGE AND THE MASTHEAD ARE ALSO THE HUGE COMPONENT FOR A SUCCESSFUL COVER. THEREFORE REMEMBERING THIS TIP I CONSIDERED THAT AS WELL AS HAVING AN ATTRACTIVE MODEL IN MY COVER MY ANCHORAGE TEXT MUST BE EFFECTIVE AND THE MASTHEAD SHOULD BE DISTINCTIVE ( THE MODEL AND THE MASTHEAD SHOULD BE THE CENTRE OF ATTRACTION; THE MASTHEAD SHOULD APPEAR FIRST SO THAT THE AUDIENCE KNOWS WHAT THE GENRE THE MAGAZINE IS ABOUT). SO THEREFORE THE ELEMENT THAT I HAVE REINFORCED FROM MY CASE STUDIES AND THE ESSENTIALS ELEMENT OF A PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE IS THE MODEL. WITHOUT A COMPELLING IMAGE IT WOULDN’T DRAW A POTENTIAL CUSTOMER’S INTEREST TO MY MAGAZINE WHILE SITTING IN A MIDST OF THOUSANDS OF OTHERS AT A SHOP. IN ORDER TO MAKE THE IMAGE OF THE MODEL POWERFUL BUT SIMPLE, I’VE USED A GREY BACKGROUND WHICH IS NEUTRAL AND APPEALS TO BOTH GENDER BUT AT THE SAME TIME I WANTED THE LAYOUT TO BE EFFECTIVE AND PROFESSIONAL BECAUSE I WANTED EACH ELEMENTS TO BE STAND OUT E.G. THE TITLE IS CLEARLY VISIBLE, BOLD, BRIGHT, FORMAL USE OF FONT WHICH SHOWS THE MAGAZINE IS DOMINANT ALONG WITH THE READER IS DRAWN TO THE STRIKING CENTRAL IMAGE WITH THE BRIGHT PINK AND BLACK ANCHORAGE TEXT.
FRONT COVER
I have tried to maintain the codes and conventions of a real music magazine. I
have used double page but however I didn’t use any other images except my
model images. Usually in a contents page there’s more than one different artist
picture but In first side I used the mainly the model within in a grey backdrop with
pink subheadings to balance out the feminism idea that it’s only a female target
audience it’s also aimed at males audience . By mixing pink and black fonts in the
grey background balances out the feministic since it can appeal to masculine too.
In the feature section I’ve outlined the lead articles as you can see the lead articles
are brief, snappy and there is a short explanatory giving the reader more choice
whether to read or not this is because the text being justified is one of the common
conventions of magazines. The most striking difference in my contents page is that
it’s only the same model pictures being shown more than once not to show that the
general focus should only be on her but I wanted to accentuate the fact in this
content page there is more than another issues to read and it gives the audience
more easy choice; it almost lures the audience to read about it more as there’s
isn’t anything particular highlighted to read “especially/must”. Rather than having
images with number I decided to have numbers separately in a square box. As my
magazine colours were based pink and black, using these two colours again would
give a feeling of elegance, formal, sophistication, bold, confident and create a
classy mood especially as it’s for qualified and professional middle class as in
social group audience.
AND HOW THE IMAGES LINKS WITH THE TEXT. AT THE FRONT OF THE PAGE SINCE THERE’S NO MASTHEAD TO INTRODUCE THE TOPIC, THE IMAGES ALMOST INTRODUCE WHAT IT IS GOING TO BE ABOUT AS WE CAN SEE HER OLD IMAGES BEING SHOWN. THE RESEARCH FROM THIS MAGAZINE ,HAS CHALLENGED AND DEVELOPED THE CODES AND CONVENTIONS IN DIFFERENT AND SIMILAR WAYS AS IN ORDER TO KEEP THE INTEREST OF FEMALE AUDIENCE THE MAGAZINE HAS TO GIVE OR INTRODUCE OR CHANGE THE CONVENTION IN ORDER TO MAKE IT LOOK INTERESTING BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY TO MAKE SURE THE AUDIENCE DOESN’T BUYS ANOTHER MAGAZINE. IN CONTRAST THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD IN MY MAGAZINE SIMILARLY FOLLOWS THE CONVENTIONS SET FROM MY CASE STUDY MAGAZINE FOR E. G IN THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD YOU CAN SEE TWO PULL QUOTES BUT HOWEVER IN ORDER TO HOOK AND SUSTAIN AUDIENCE INTEREST I MADE IT SHORTER AND ALSO I WROTE IN PINK AND BLACK , THE USE OF PICK AND BLACK FOR THE PULL QUOTES SHOWS THE ARTIST STRENGTH AND SYMBOLISM FOR HER FEMININITY AS THE STORY MAINLY TALKS ABOUT HOW SHE DOESN’T SPENT HER TIME WORRYING WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT HER, WHICH AGAIN SHOWS HER MENTALLY STRONG . ADDITIONALLY, I’VE USED A DIFFERENT FONT BECAUSE TO SHOW AS IF SHE WROTE IT BY HERSELF AND CREATES ADIFFERENT MEANING TO READ IT AS IF IT’S FROM A DIARY OF SOMEONE, THIS FONT KEEPS THE PAGE MORE NEAT AND TIDY WHICH GIVES THE PULL QUOTES MORE TO STAND OUT.