Ideal Readers

In class today, we were focusing on ideal readers and target audiences. Firstly, we analysed a section of a magazine. I analysed a double paged spread of Kerrang magazine. It was an article on a rockstar. We then came to conclusions about what that person would be like. For example, what breakfast cereal they ate, how old they were, what do they drink, where do they go on holiday and so on. All these questions we knew would affect things like the editorial decisions, design principals, mode of address and the balance of promotion and critique.

We then analysed the magazine Kerrang as a whole. We came to a conclusion, that the readers would most likely lead an alternative lifestyle. We thought that it would be mainly male readers, who would enjoy going to the pubs or watching live music. We believed the magazine to interest people who were interested in the music genres rock, acoustic and metal. We think the magazine would interest unsigned artists, who one day desire to be in such magazines. It would also interest festival goers and music channels who are interested in the promotion and so on. We suggested that the age range for the magazine would be between 15-30. Stereotypically, we judged people who read Kerrang would most likely be downloading illegally rather than paying. Kerrang holds posters and images, also backstage gossip and interviews and we thought that these would interest younger adults.

We then analysed Mojo, similiar to how we analysed Kerrang. We decided that the readers would most likely be more mature and earn a higher income. We judged that perhaps the readers would be from the London region. We believed again, for the magazines readers to be upper class men, who dined and drank in wine bars and so on. We believed the readers to download music legally and actually pay for the music.



Target Audience Questionnaire

As part of our coursework is to create a front page, contents page and double page spread of a music magazine, we suggested creating a quesitonnaire to find out what people are interested in nowadays. I created a questionnaire and handed it out to fifteen people. They weren't just ordinary people, they were my target audience, which is aimed at teenagers and younger adults. I asked ten general questions and then analysed all my results. Here is my questionnaire:

From this questionnaire I found out a lot of what my target audience are actually interested in. I now know what to cover in my magazine, and what would interest people the most.I can now adapt this information and then include it in my actual music magazine itself. This questionnaire has helped me to engage and understand what people are looking for in a offical music magazine.



Preliminary Task Photos

As of my preliminary task, I took a variety of images to choose from. I needed a medium close up specifically, so as well as doing this, I also added some other photos, for example long distance shots. Here are all my images I took for my preliminary task, even though I actually only used three of these images, I have decided to write a short paragraph on each photo of whether I picked it or not and if not, why I decided not to choose this image.

I didn't use this image because although I liked the layout of the photo, the model on the right was laughing! This made it look slightly weird because in a school, the picture should resemble students studying rather than laughing, although obviously they still should have fun!

I didn't use this image again. I didn't use it because I wasn't sure of the lighting on the picture. I thought it seemed quite shadowed but not in a good way. I also didn't like how the models head on the right was slightly cut out and out of the picture and generally I just didn't like camera angle.

I really didn't like this image. Firstly, the camera angle is terrible on it, the laptop is the first thing you see. Also the reflection of the laptop shows the most, and it shouldn't be like that. The photo of the main model was good, and I like the fact that the other model was standing behind in the distance, however the lighting on the back model, I didn't really like, simply because it seemed accidental and not purposely done.

I used this image on my front cover of my school magazine.I liked this image because I liked the camera angle of it, and the way it was almost a birds eyes view. I also liked the fact that the model was smiling, seeming that the school was quite a comfortable and appealing school to be in.

I also used this image too. I liked this image because I actually really liked the lighting of the photo. I thought it emphasised on the actual models and made them stand out more, especially against the white, clear background. I also like the focus of the image, with the models in the middle but also more to the right, creating the look of actually recieving the certificate making the image look more realistic.

This picture, yet again I did not use. I didn't use this image because although I like the way the models are posed, and I actually like the camera angle, as it is centred and also the whole picture is 'busy' I thought the picture looked a bit awkward and didn't look as realistic as the other ones. I would of perhaps used this image though, if I needed more images, but at the time I was happy with the amount of images.

I used this image in my front cover of my school magazine. I liked this image because I thought it looked really realistic and also an upbeat image. It shows the students looking happy, which of course is a good advertisement for a school magazine. It also shows the school recognises the achievement of the students. I liked the camera angle of the photos, with the way the students were centred in the middle. I think is was my favourite photo taken.

Analysing My Preliminary Task

Along with my preliminary task, although I have already created my premilimary task evaluation, I also have now analysed my preliminary task of my front cover and contents page of a school magazine more closely and in much more detail. I have spoken of what I did and why and I have also then stated some improvements I would do next time to be more creative and adventerous.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

We produced a front cover of a school magazine and a contents page of a school magazine. I decided to name my school magazine ‘Fusion’ as I thought it sounded quite mysterious and fancy. I aimed my school to be an all girls school, so I had a set target audience of who my school magazine was aimed at. My front cover has a dark pink background. I followed this through with my contents page too, like it was a house colour. Stereotypically, as it is an all girls school I set my background to pink, because if it was an all boys school I wouldn’t be setting my background as pink there! However it is a darker shade of pink so this makes it less stereotypical. The font I used, I carried on with both my front page and my contents page. The font was sans serif and looks quite a bubbly and lively font. It looks a friendly font, so this is suitable and good for a school magazine. I then included three pictures of my front page. Each picture shows different things, for example one is a student working, another is receiving achievement- showing the schools talents and the other is of two students looking happy and smiling. I cut and shaped the images differently, simply to make the images look more unique and make my front cover look much more unique. I then included a quote at the bottom of the front cover, simply to ‘show off’ and excel the school of its judgements. I also made up a logo, although it was quite a basic logo, I thought including a logo would be much better and make my front cover look more realistic and good. For my contents page, as mentioned before, I have used the same colour background throughout like it is a house colour. I used the same font again, following that through too. However, I changed the colour of my font to white, just to show clarity and difference between my front cover and my contents page. I structured my contents page text differently, just to make it look more stylish and unique. It also makes it look more friendly, as and it is a school magazine, this helps it look more enjoyable and appealing to students. I included the title of the school along the side, just to show what school they are talking about, if somebody accidentally missed the front page or something. What is included in my magazine varies. I have used traditional things that normal school magazines hold, for example term dates and so on, but I have also included things like interviews with teachers, and students achievements and peer mentoring. I have made my magazine act as a school magazine properly. Obviously, it is obvious that the instituion who made this magazine, would have been a school and you can automatically know this, with the images, and my quote at the bottom of the front cover showing that it is an academic school. The audience for my media product would be the students of the girls school. It would also obviously be aimed only at girls. I have aimed to attract the students by making my font look friendly and not harsh, making the background colour more ‘girly’ and more attractive and also included images of happy students, to intrigue and indise students. From making these products, I have learnt how to use the software Serif. Unforutnatly, I never knew how to use this product, however from this task, I am now able to use the software and now know it well. Overall, I am pleased with my preliminary task. I think I have achieved what the task was to do very successfully and hope it gives a friendly and warm approach to the students. I aimed not to make my front cover looking harsh, as I then knew people wouldn’t want to read it after. So I made it look attractive and friendly to intrigue and lure people into my magazine. I am pleased with how everything came out and am now looking forward to the main task of making my music magazine.

Preliminary Task- Contents Page

For our preliminary task, we were asked to design and make a front cover page and a contents page. We used the software Serif PagePlus 11 to create and design these. Below is my contents page. Although it looks quite basic, I think this works quite well, because it shows the purity of my school. I used a dark pink background, because my magazine is aimed at girls being my school being an all girls school. I know this is very judgemental of me, however, I thought as it was a darker shade of pink it worked better. I used the white font against it, to make everything stand out and catch people's attention more. I have put in the schools logo being 'Fusion' on the right hand, top side of the page. I have done this to remind people what school magazine this is. The font I have chosen for my masthead of 'Contents' is aligned to the left, simply because I wanted to break tradition and make it look more unique. My font used as the text, is quite lively and fun looking text. It is sans serif which looks more attractive and also more friendly to the students. The way I have sectioned my text is also different and unique and breaks the status quo. I did this for my contents page to look different and unique. Overall I am quite happy with my contents page, because although it looks quite subtle, it also looks very effective in my opinion. Here is my contents page:



Preliminary Task- Front Cover Of School Magazine

Also for our preliminary task, we were asked to design and produce a front cover of a school magazine. I then did this. I followed through with a house colour of a dark pink, in which I also used for my background of my contents page. I did this so they followed the house colour together, but also so people recognised the magazine by the colour, as it is quite a unique colour. I put in a made up school logo, in which was very simplistic with just a shape, inside saying 'Fusion'. I wanted to keep things simple. The font I used was the same font I used for my contents page, I again followed this through for the simple reason of simplicity and also for people to again recognise my magazine easier. I included a quote, in which I obviously made up, to make the front cover look more offical and professional. I then included three different pictures, and editted these pictures to make them look more interesting and appealing and also very unique. I overall think that my contents page and my front cover work well together, and that they are both suitable for use of my school magazine. Here is my front

cover:

Ideology Sheet- Analysising Another School Magazine

'CURRY COLLEGE SCHOOL MAGAZINE'

• The background of the magazine is actually an image. The image gives us the impression of nature, with all the greenery and the trees. So this to us, could show purity of the school and perhaps calmness. Across the left hand side of the front cover, is like a film script, reminding me of something like a Hollywood scene. So this could convey to me, a theme of drama, perhaps the school focusing on performing arts? And I can tell all of this from the front cover and the images used. With the buildings in the background of the front cover, semiotically, the masthead stating 'CURRY' looks as if it is sitting in the clouds on top of the buildings, perhaps showing a high status of the college?
• From the front cover, I have already put together a few ideas. From the masthead, I can see that perhaps 'Curry College' is of a high status, up amongst the clouds in the sky above everyone else. With the greenery and the trees, I could tell that perhaps the school is pure and calm. And then with the Hollywood script role, I can see that perhaps the school focuses or if gifted in performing arts? Perhaps it is a performing arts school or maybe even specialises in performing arts/drama?
• I would say that the target audience for the magazine would be perhaps the students or even parents/carers of the college. I can tell this because the magazine doesn't really convey a certain vibe or emotion. Stereotypically, I cannot judge from the front cover whether it would appeal to females or males because there are no certain colours that immediately make me think. The magazine does look very welcoming and doesn't look threatening. It also states on the magazine cover that the magazine is for 'parents, alumni and friends of the college clearly stating its target audience and purpose.
• The background of the front cover, is actually an image, dragging us to the centre of the magazine. As I have already said, I could convey from the front cover that with the masthead being amongst the clouds and above the buildings the college could be seen as a higher class and also with the greenery perhaps nature. I like the image to the left hand side of the front cover, because this shows to me that the school could perhaps be unique, because normally images are normally centred in the middle of the front cover.
• The magazine shows us that the institution who produced the magazine of course are not a actual publishing company, but they are a school. Clearly we know the school is successful.
• The magazine does not show to me to have any inaccuracy or untruthfulness about it. It simply is a school magazine,  offering what the school has on offer, not for people who are interested in knowing about the school. It cannot lie to us because the magazine is for parents of the school, and obviously the parents know everything that goes on and what the school offers already.
• My first judgement of the magazine, was that it looked quite a friendly and chilled college. With the fluffy clouds, and the green scenery, this showed that the school looked relaxing and mature. It doesn't look threatening in the slightest and looks friendly and attractive.
• The magazine does not offer anything directly from the front cover. However indirectly from the front cover, I believe that the magazine is basically showing to the parents and carers of the college, that their children are in a safe and peaceful place and the school looks safe to be at for everybody.
• The magazine does not offer any issues in the slightest, it looks the most nonthreatening magazine there is!





BBC London School Trip

Our media class had the opportunity to go to White City in London to the BBC centre. Here we spent a day in a office/class room, on the computers. The class was divided into threes, in which we all participated into the making of a magazine. As a class we were to create a magazine, featuring fashion, music, arts and more. I worked in a three, and our focus was on fashion. We were to select photos and edit them in order to put them over three pages. We created a double page spread, and then a separate photo on a page. Here we learnt how to focus on different parts of a magazine. The day was fun and flew by! It was like we were generally doing our job to create the magazine, which is what I actually want to do when I'm older.



Typography- First Practice

We were to design and come up with lots of different fonts, to be then used finally for our preliminary task of creating a front cover of a school magazine. I decided to name my school magazine 'Fusion'. I then began to come up with different types of font, although I will most likely not use these ideas, I decided to post them to show my progress up to my final design. Here is my first set of ideas:

We also were learning about The Ten Rules of Typography in print based Media by Paul Felton. Here we were studying the ten rules in detail, and were deciding whether or not we would go against these rules and why. With my preliminary task, I didn't use more than three different typefaces in each document, I placed both my headlines at the top of the page and they were in larger font, however I did break the third rule by using my body copy a bigger font than 10pt or 8pt. I did this because I thought my front page and contents page suited better with a larger font to make it more readable for people. The fourth rule I agreed with, and used suitable font, however I didn't specifically use kerning in either of my front page or contents page. I did however, use stressing, by making my font on my front page and my contents page bold, I did this in order for it to stand out and to make it easier to read. I didn't use capitals for a whole text body and I didn't ensure all my letter were aligned on a baseline. I went against the nineth rule, by not using the flush left ragged right alignment. I wanted to structure my front page and contents page differently and uniquely. And finally, for the tenth rule, I broke this again and I did not make my lines too short or too long, I wrote what I wanted to write and didn't follow this rule whatsoever.

Media Homework- Analysis and Brand Identity of 'Uncut'

'UNCUT' MAGAZINE

• The background of the magazine is grey. This conveys darkness and gloom and perhaps death? This could show what type of music the magazine shows, maybe rock or even heavy metal?
• From the front cover, you can tell that the music in the magazine is rock. Stereotypically, I could work this out because the image shows four men who I would immediately judge as rock stars.
• I would say the target audience would be for adults and perhaps older teenagers. The magazine looks quite hard and severe from it's colour scheme and it does give the approach of 'rock'. 
• On the front cover, there is a centred image of the band called 'The Clash'. There is a huge headline over the image stating what the band's name is, giving us details to help us clarify.
• The magazine shows us that the institution who made the magazine are specializing in rock music. Also the magazine must be doing quite well with the way there is a flash on the front cover offering a free CD, this shows the magazine to be successful with having the money to hand out free CD's.
• The magazine doesn't show to me, any inaccuracy or untruthfulness. The magazine simply does everything it says on its cover.
• My first judgement of the magazine was that it appeared quite rocky and severe. I thought this because the colours were quite harsh and the images seemed to me quite rocky. With the dark background, this shows the harshness of the magazine.
• The only value offered from the magazine directly is the free CD that is offered. It also has another flash which states 'Special New Interviews'. These are values of the magazine.
• The magazine does not raise any issues.
• On the front cover, there is a lot of text standing out, offering lots of band interviews and so on. These lure people and make people interested.

Media Homework- Analysis and Brand Identity of 'NME'

NME MAGAZINE:

• The magazine's front cover consists of dark but bright colours. The colours are red,black and white. All these colours show different things. Black perhaps suggests hard or darkness. Red could suggest passion, perhaps passion for music? Or it could suggest anger? And the white then suggests perhaps simplicity? 
• The magazine would appeal to perhaps teenagers to young adults, perhaps the age 15-30 with a interest in music.
• On the front cover of the magazine, Oasis are on the cover. In big black writing there it states 'Oasis'. So people who are huge Oasis fans would definitely love this magazine.
• The masthead is covered a bit by an image, however this is very common in issues on 'NME'. This is like another 'Brand Identity'. 
• The magazine immediately tells us that the institution who made 'NME' has a huge passion for music. Noticeably, in every issue of 'NME' the colours remain the same and the images are always centred on the front cover. 
• You can tell by how successful 'NME' is that the magazine must be doing something right. On the cover, there is nothing that stands out to me as untruthful or inaccurate. The magazine states exactly what it does.
• In other people's opinion, judgements can be made. Firstly, they would judge straight away that 'NME' is a music magazine, perhaps preferring to alternative, rock and pop music. They would be able to see that Oasis are the front line cover and inside the magazine there and interviews and so on with other bands.
• Values are offered directly by the magazine including interviews with stars, interviews with old bands a year on and so on. This stands out in bold to grab people's attention and grab them into the magazine.
• There are no obvious issues raised in the magazine. All that it conveys and includes are main interviews and images from band members. There are no actual concerns a breaking news from the front cover.

Preliminary Task Practice

As part of our AS coursework, we have to do and produce a preliminary task. The task was to produce a front cover of a schools magazine. To get my mind together on what to do for my front cover of my school magazine, in class, we began to annotate different school newsletters, looking at different parts of the newsletter and breaking it down, seeing the advantages and disadvantages of it. Here is my annotated school newsletter I did:

Annotating Music Magazine

For part of my research into music magazines. I annotated a popular, hit music magazine named 'Q'. I broke down the front cover of the magazine, and seperated it into sections. For example, I focused on the masthead, then the image and so on. Here is my annotated front cover of 'Q' :