Target audience average person

Brand product:
 Magazine: Visa
Target audience: 
 Teenagers and young men (majority men but some women too)  The most common preference would be for rock, indie and hip hop e.g. Arctic monkeys, Florence and the machine, Jay-z but would be always willing to try new bands. The reason I’ve chose these bands is because they are the bands that most people listen too at that age.
The predicted lifestyle of the audience:
They would be following the fashion trends of mainstream shops like top man or river island. They would be interested in the latest technology and most likely own a smartphone of some kind. They would be also conscious on how they look so would be going to the gym or jogging etc.  Post university and would have a reasonable income so have some of a disposable income.  When reading this magazine they wouldn’t want to spend a long time reading each article and would just like to quickly catch up on the musics latest news while traveling or watching tv.
Tone of voice (text on magazine):
This would be a laid back display of text and would have text that gets straight to the point. The style of the magazine would be a mainly visual magazine where each article would include obvious pictures that give a clear idea of what the article itself is about. However the text would be have very simple but good grammar, good enough to easily understand but not written in a formal way. The reason for this is because the reading time for each issue will not be very long. The majority of people read magazines to catch up on news and not read into details about the news.
Advertisement:
The main advertisers would be supporting new fashion items and technology such as new looks from Topman, frequencies from Hugo Boss, not only fashion but they would advertise items like shaving. Another form would be the latest offers on technology e.g.  New apps, new smart phones.

NME

Masthead

The Style of this magazine corresponds to the music reviewed inside. With the masthead such an iconic symbol for music loves of that genre there is no need for such a big masthead. Even without the musical knowledge of the magazine the colours used make the masthead stand out with bright red colours. With such a clash in colour schemes and the masthead it stands out and disrupts the image of the stylish magazine.

 With it not taking up much room on the cover, it enables the editors to use the extra space to help attract new/existing customers to buy the latest issue of NME. Like Q magazine it only takes up to 15% of the page enabling the magazines name to become more of a logo than a name.

Features

Unlike other important music magazine, NME don’t use general conventions and instead change their use of features around on each magazine.  The features on this magazine are dotted around the page and make them much more noticeable. The features disrupt the average look of a magazine and create a much more interesting take on the average magazine feature layout of all of them on a side.

The feature “Inside the Kaisers Brits Party” offers “Exclusive”. This gives the customer a feeling of secrecy and being the only group of people that know that sort of information. Like Maslow’s hierarchy of need, it gives the audience of the magazine a feeling of belonging. This sense of belonging would incline people to be more willing to buy the magazine because it would mean they’d find out exclusive gossip.

Continuing with the same theme of music as the main cover line the features show the biggest bands in that genre and offer written articles about them inside. The use of colour linking the features to the main cover line straight away shows a link between the bands and makes all the white text seem much more interesting and stands out a lot more compared to the small feature in the bottom left about Fall Out Boy.

Not only is the use of colour important but the size of the font creates a sense of hierarchy within the magazine. The main cover line being the most important and attractive article in the magazine is displayed in the biggest text and in the most obvious place on the cover. With the main cover lines taking up all the space on the page the features beside it are typed in smaller text sizes. The reason for the smaller sizes is to make each feature stand out more than the last one. The size makes the features stand out more and therefore seen by more customers on the shelves of the shop.

With every magazine competing for the customers money the most interesting articles are normally made the most obvious and the features “Arctic Monkeys, Our new favourite band” only help gain customers as they are a well known band with a huge fan base.

Plugs

The plugs in this cover are shown and advertised to the people who listen to the music NME review.  Keen music fans would want to have a poster of their favourite. So to have the chance to pick up free posters inside as well as read a magazine about your favourite music bands it is a win-win situation.

The main plug offering the free posters of bands is right at the top of the page where you’d expect the masthead to be covering. Having the plug directly next to the masthead enables the customer to see the plug straight away after looking at the name of the magazine. The sticker like shape with the words “FREE” also over laps with the masthead as if it’s more important than the name itself.

The text throughout the cover is consistent and stays the same basically for every feature and cover line etc. However for the plug at the top of the page the font is serif in bold. The use of this text gives a feeling of importance and formality. Having the plug written in this font helps give the idea that this offer won’t happen again for a while and you’d have to get these posters now so you don’t miss out.

Like the features the plugs are written in white. This helps give the idea that they are all of the same music and all linked. Not only that but it also keeps the magazine stylish and doesn’t ruin the covers look. With almost all pieces of text using the same colour scheme it helps make all pieces of text stand out.

Main cover line/picture:

With such big named artists such as Morrissey in the magazine having his face on the front cover attracts music fans no matter what.

The picture overlaps the masthead and makes the face stand out. The picture focuses on the guys face and automatically attracts the reader’s eyes to his face. This use of photography enables people to instantly recognise the well-known artist and straight away have a good idea what the main article will be about.

The main cover line isn’t typed in serif, the effect of this is that it makes it less formal and becomes more of a casual read. The fact it is a more casual read than serious reading (e.g. The Financial Times) helps aims towards the target audience lifestyle. In the media kit of NME it is targeted at a lower age and people who either won’t have time to read in detail or don’t want to and instead chose to just catch up on all the music gossip.

With the main cover line is the subtitle giving more information about the article. To make it stand out it’s typed in two different colours and placed right under it so it stands out right next to the main cover line.

Mojo Magazine

Main picture

When looking at this magazine cover, the first thing that instantly stands out is the picture of Johnny Marr. With his hand pointing out towards you it seems like Mojo are trying to make you feel like a member of the magazine. With this use of him they make you feel like you belong to the group, as in Maslow’s theory having a feeling that you belong somewhere fulfils you.

Not only does the Picture of Johnny Marr make the reader more enticed but also stands out from the rest of the cover like a sore thumb. The reason for this is that on almost every feature of the cover the picture is interfering with it. On the masthead (which is one of the most important parts of the cover) for example Johnny overlaps the title and immediately makes the customer get distracted by the main article. As Johnny Marr is so well known throughout the music industry having his face disrupting the masthead will instantly attract music fans as well as Mojo subscribers.

Masthead

With Mojo being such a big music magazine, the masthead is probably one of the most important features of the magazine because it shows the quality of the magazine. Any keen music lover would realise that a Mojo magazine would just be about music and not full of adverts and no text. With such an easy name for the magazine it enables them to have it covering the whole width of the page without ruining the presentation.

As it covers the whole width of the page it inevitably it will take up a fair amount of room. For example the main articles picture of Johnny Marr overlaps with the masthead. To stop this from being a problem the name has to be so easy to read that customers can miss out almost couple of letters and still instantly be able to know what magazine it is.

With Mojo being such a massive music magazine the style/look of the magazine is crucial for it to not lose any customers. With style being so important all the colours must be the same theme and suit the style of the magazine. With this in mind Mojo used a plain and simple colour for the masthead. The colour white works well and doesn’t create conflict and distract the customer from the features displaying what is inside the magazine.

Features

Linking with the main image the features show what articles are written about Johnny Marr and his band The Smiths.  The features itself are all in different sizes, colour and fonts. With all of these features clashing in different formats, it makes the features stand out and help advertise what is inside the magazine.

  The main feature about the smiths is relatively small. The small piece of text saying “The Smiths Acid Trips And Going Solo” compared to other features on the cover it is relatively small. One of the main reasons the editor would have chosen that would be because of the picture. There would be no need to have such big pieces of text about The Smiths when there is already a picture about it.  Any customer with an interest in The Smiths would have a look at the article no matter what it is about.

The use of different colours means a colour clash throughout the cover. Doing this creates an effect on the features which makes them stand out a lot more. This happens because all the different colours create conflict and make it attractive towards the eye.  Although there are multiple colours being used on the features they are all in style with the magazine. The colour scheme is a very simple design and doesn’t ruin the image of the magazine being a stylish music magazine.

Plugs

As soon as you read the masthead you are instantly drawn to the plug in the left hand corner of the page. The sticker like shape offers the customer free CD’s when buying the magazine. Not only do they have that plug but they also offer chances to see “The Damned” for any music fans the chance to see the band live is a great experience and a chance in a lifetime.

The plugs are placed in places in the magazine where they are easily seen and don’t involve much looking. The reason for this is because they want to try and attract new customers. Having the plugs in such places means that people walking by would be attracted to the offer of free CD’s or the chance to see The Damned play live.

The colour of the plugs is slightly out of place compared to the rest of the magazines colour scheme. When looking at the two biggest plugs:  “Free CD!” and “Skip off school and see The Damned” there colour is completely different compared to the rest of the magazine’s cover.  The colours green and yellow make it unusual and stand out completely from the page causing you to notice them and read them.

Selection process for school magazine photos

In this picture I tried to capture an average lesson on the computer. When choosing where to take this photo I chose not to go for a clean background and instead go for a normal classroom. The reason for this background was that I didn’t like how every picture was trying to focus on the main person in other magazines, I thought I could try and make it as average as possible and show that this was a working school.

I wanted to try and have more than one person in the photo because I felt a lot of photos in the magazines I analysed only had one element in their photos, either one single person or a very simple drawing. As I hvent used a camera for quite a while, i chose to experiment with effects and techniques. I chose to not use this photo and instead try different angles and arrangements.

 

Like the photo above I tried to show an average day at school with a display board in the background.  I ended up choosing this photo for my contents page. The reason I chose this picture out of all the others taken for the magazine, was due to the content of the picture. The background was of an average school display board yet a student was hard at work on the computer. This made it slightly different to any other pictures I’ve seen in a magazine.  I tried to make it as normal as possible and not have any white background. I feel that when a white background is used it destroys the idea of the moment being created. So instead I went for a natural picture of an average student with no editing or special background.

Here is the first picture I took. Although it’s very bad quality I wanted to see what the picture would look like when in the context of my magazine. When I put it in my magazine I found it very off putting having the idea of so much going on in this particular photograph. I decided to not even try and get a good photo because the idea didn’t work at all in my magazine. The actual idea of the photo was to show an average 6^th form class as it is without any editing or clean floors (unnatural for a classroom). When taking this photo I planned to use this for my front cover. I was trying to show that our school was busy even when we’re working. I showed this by focusing on one corner of the room where there were loads of empty seats yet so many people were working at the same time. I chose not to use this idea or this photo at all due to the terrible quality of picture and the idea itself did not work for my magazine.

Here is my final picture that i have chosen for my front cover. After trying different techniques and backgrounds for the image and theme i have chosen to use this photo for its topical reasons and background.  At the time of the picture the Poppy Appeal was in action and vast amounts of poppies were being worn and sold. With this in mind i spent time taking photos out side to have this as my main artictle in the magazine. The reason for this was to link the appeal to the plants outside where it is natural for them to grow. Having the background of shrubbery and trees also brings a change to the average photo shoot background or dull surroundings. Not only will having the photo taken outside show a link to the Poppy Appeal but it will also bring a welcoming image to the school itself. Having this picture on the front cover will improve the image of the school because it would show how the school feels about charities.