Afsana Khatun-Ali Ms Prince/ Mr Morris

masthead

Main image .. It takes up the

whole page, so all the attention is on the image.

Also on the image usher

has a ring in his ‘marriage

finger’ which links into the word married int he cover

line.

Main cover line

Sell lines

barcode

The word exclusive is

a selling point,

meaning that only

they have it.

The number 15 is bold and

yellow, so is the word ‘sex

scandals’ so it brings attention to the words.

The word sex is used a lot, also it says ‘the sexy issue’, however the word swagger covers the Y which makes it look like it says the sex

issue.

The word swagger is the only word in red and

also in a different font, so it catches the eye.

Masthead

Main image

Main cover line

Barcode, website and issue number

3 consistent colours

Sell lines

The posture, the hat tilted, the bling and his hands in his pocket all portray the bad boy

image, however in the cover line it says the word ‘virgin’ which

contradicts what the image portraying

masthead

Close up of kanye, he has direct

mode of address with the audience,

so it brings the audiences

attention straight to the image

humour

3 consistent colours

Main cover line

Sell lines

Website and issue number

Bold masthead, in nearly all VIBE

magazines the main image is on top of

the masthead but in this one it's different

Main cover line

3 consistent colours

Sell lines

Main image

He has a serious face, however the

glasses make it look slightly

clownish/geekyish

It’s rare you see black and white main images on the front cover, also the red stick out a lot as it clashes with the black

and white

Barcode, website and

issue number

Titles..?

Xclusive

GVM (good vibe

magazine)

Rhythm

Beat I chose Xclusive because the way it is spelt is the way young people usually would spell it in text form, so they can relate to it. And because it portrays that the magazine is exclusive and

like no other.

Audience research/ profile reader

MastheadKey image of main band/artistAdditional Key imagesBarcodeIssue numberDatePrice3 consistent coloursWeb addressA freebie

My masthead goes across from one end of the page to the other, it is bold like most magazines e.g. VIBE and it stands out. I have also added a pink outer glow, I chose the colour pink as it fits in with my colour scheme and main image as the model is very girlie.

The barcode is in the bottom left hand corner. The issue number, date and price is next to the masthead in the top right hand corner. The main image of my friend Anam Sayeed posing as ‘Maria’. Maria has direct mode of

address with the audience, which everyone on all the front covers have. Maria is wearing glam clothes as that is how I am portraying her.

I purposely placed the top of the main image on top of the masthead, as seen on nearly all front covers so all attention is on the main image.

I haven’t added any additional key images as I wanted all the focus to be on ‘Maria’, so I chose not to add additional images as ‘Maria’ wouldn't solely be the centre of attention if other images were to added. I have used 3 consistent colours black, white and pink throughout the making of the front cover. All magazines have 3 colours which they use on the front cover, the colours I have used are red, pink and dark blue.

I decided to divide the page up in two, on one side have the main article and cover line and on the other side have the sell lines and additional key image. I did this so it can look different to most RnB magazine front covers as most of them if not all have the main image in the middle and the sell lines around it. Another reason why I did this because it brings more attention to the main image.

Another challenge could be that I used a female on the front cover as the main image, many magazines use successful males as a main image on the front cover. Using a female isn’t very unusual now as females are now pretty much seen as equal in the music industry.

Page numbers listed.

Editorial note.

Editorial’s picture.

Images from of who the main article is about and other articles.

It can have the similar theme to the front cover e.g the same 3 consistent colours.

Editorial note- I noticed most if not all contents pages have editorial notes, so new readers or even existing ones are aware of what is going to be in this particular issue.

There is an image of the main artist, I chose to only have one image

as the main article/artist is the highlight of the magazine. Most magazine have images of things that are going to be in the article, however I decided not to do that as I wanted the magazine to mainly focus on the special Interview.

There are page numbers next to the articles so audiences know

where to go to read a particular article.

It’s got a similar theme as the front cover, and the 3 consistent colours I used (pink, red and dark blue).

Page number.

Image of the band/artist.

Introduction of the band/artist.

A band/artist interview.

Title.

Page numbers on both the pages. The title- “the truth about Marias’s new win” it makes the audience

think what is the truth which leads them to read on. I have spread the title over 2 pages as it would make the title bold and pink which makes it stand out.

Also the first letter of the paragraph is large and bold this is something I have seen in many magazines.

An introductory paragraph, where I talk about “Jen’s” childhood and the amount of awards she has already won.

Again, I have used the 3 consistent colours, red, pink and blue My main article is in the form of an interview, so I decided to have the

interviewer’s question and interviewee’s answers in 2 different colours, so you can tell apart the who is who, this again I have seen in a lot magazines.

Another one of the conventions used in the magazine is the enlarged certain quotes. The quotes which are enlarged are mostly exaggerated quotes to lead the reader on to read more to find out the whole story.

I have 2 large images of “Maria” on each page, one image

is of her in glam attire and the other it of her in casual clothes, this portrays that even though “Maria” is a star/diva she is still that normal/down to earth girl she was before she got famous.

I also decided not to make the interview lengthy as most 16-24 year old females would prefer not to read so much.

I have aimed my magazine at 16-24 year old females. I originally aimed it at 16-24 year old males and females, however after some research I realized that no RnB magazine is aimed at solely at females or males. In addition, what females want in their magazine males may not want that, e.g. Females may want gossip, fashion, hair & make-up, a male is most likely not to want that in a magazine he would like to read.

A suitable social class for this magazine would be the working/middle classes. I think it is mainly aimed at the working class as they are the ones who would listen to RnB music more than the middle class, also, the artists choice of clothing is from high street brands and so working/middle class audiences will relate to them. Also, the price of the magazine reinforces the ideal target audiences. The price makes sure that the magazine can be available to most people.

In terms of psychographics, I believe mainstreamers would be attracted to the magazine, mainstreamers, again, with the price, also, people who listen to RnB music ten to go with the flow and what’s in trend at the moment.

An ideal media institution to distribute my media product would be IPC Publishing. IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone. Their 80 magazines include , NME, Uncut, What's on TV, Pick Me Up, Now, Marie Claire, In Style. They distribute to such a wide audience including my target audience(16-24 year old females interested in fashion and music- stuff ‘divas’ would be interested in) so they would have the knowledge of both fashion and music to get my magazine to the consumer.

Before this task, I had never used Photoshop before. So everything was new to me, and whilst creating my front cover I was learning at the same time, that is what lead me to having many different front covers, as I couldn’t decide what I wanted from all the options in Adobe Photoshop. I had difficulties with getting used to using lasso tools, dragging the images, working out layer the properties and the smudge and eraser tool(although I haven't quite mastered the smudge and eraser tool).

I also have learnt that it is essential to use a high megapixel camera, even though the image may look fine on Photoshop but when you print it off it can look totally different(pixelated).

In addition, I have learnt key features of magazines, e.g. Masthead should go across the page, magazine front covers use 3 consistent colours, main image should take most of the space in the front cover and much more. Finally, I realized that you cannot rely n technologies a 100% as you have to have a back up for each piece of work.

I would change the layout of the contents page, I originally wanted the contest page to be plain, simple and not too over crowded, however the layout that I have chosen does not look good. I only realized that I did not like the layout of the contents during the end of the task, which meant I had no time to change/correct it.

I don’t think the colour scheme is appropriate for this particular issue, this issue was meant to be girlie/glam for the main article/artist used. And the colours red, dark blue and pink did not portray this. If I had a chance to do it again I would change the colour scheme to pink, orange and white, because these are very summery/girlie colours and would go perfectly with the issue.

Also on my contents page I would make Xclusive stand out more, by making

the font bold and increasing the size. This is because Xclusive is pretty small and unnoticeable.

I would not add contents on the contents page, because people are aware that it is a contents page and you don’t need to state it. I have wasted space my adding contents.

This isn’t something I would change , but I forgot to add my name under the

editorial not so if i had a chance to redo it I would my name or a signature.

Looking back at my preliminary task, I think I have improved a great deal because back then the only thing I could probably use on my own was the text box, it took me quite a while to finish my preliminary task as my first one was deleted of the laptop I was using, which made me to start using my own USB all the time. Also I couldn’t add much things to my front cover for the preliminary task as I couldn’t use the layer properties correctly.

In addition my contents page for my school magazine, isn’t very good because at the time I wasn’t aware of what goes into a contents page except for the page number for particular articles. You can see this by the way I have not added a editorial note in the preliminary task or a picture of the editorial because I didn’t really know what it was before I started on my contents page for my music magazine.