My Music Magazine - Double Page Spread Draft 9

Since my last draft, I have only changed the image pull quote and borders. There was a large amount of white space on the right hand side of the image which I felt I needed to fill. To minimise the remaining white space, I copied the flower border and flipped it vertically to fill the other side of the page. This meant that I had to make my image and pull quote slightly smaller, but overall I feel the look of the piece is better with the border on both sides of the image.

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 12

In this draft, I have moved my page number to the right hand side to fit conventions better for a magazine. I have used colours that I feel work well together and look effective on the black background. I feel there are still a few changes that could be made to really finish my product, as I am currently unhappy with the fonts, they are all very similar, and although this creates synergy with my other pages, I feel a variety is more conventional and also my work better to highlight different sections of the magazine text.

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 11

After leaving my draft for 2 days and then coming back to it, I have decided to make a large change and to make the background black. I feel that, although unconventional. having the background black with the white and red text and the gold colourings of my puffs, I have created a better synergy to my cover. I am much happier now than I was with my contents page, and after a few final tweaks I think that I will be finished.

My Music Magazine - Double Page Spread Draft 8

To this there have been some minor changes since the last draft, however I feel that they have created an effective and professional appearance to my magazine. I have added a gold background to one of my pull quotes and change the font colour to black to allow it to stand out. The design of this box is as if paint has been smeared on the page, and the opacity has been lessened so that the text stands out more. The style of this box adds to the rebellious, rock style of the magazine genre alongside the font used for 'dream' in the title, while the rest of the page, I feel, has a more vintage style, lots of flowers and black and white. 

Also to this page I have moved one of the previous pull quotes onto the black part of the image in the upper right corner. I still felt that with the addition of the border, the image was not as eye-catching as possible, but I feel that now with a brighter colour and something to read, that people would pay it more attention and read into the image more, matching it with the article content. This then left me the room to add another pull quote from the text in the previous position of the other, and I chose another that I had highlighted in my article.

Finally I ensured that my text was left aligned around my pull quotes to make the boxing and the professional appearance tidier and more effective and also to fit to convention of magazines.

My Music Magazine - Double Page Spread Draft 7

To this draft, I have added a drop capital, as specified on my plan, this required a small amount of movement of the text but I think the end effect looks professional and styled. I have also added the website and name of the magazine to the bottom of the page, and moved my page numbers to the corners, this fits more with conventions of double page spreads, and finally to these pages I have added a small triangle at the end of the first page to inform the reader to carry onto the next page, as is sometimes included in the articles. I feel that I am almost finished with these two pages and I am happy with the way they look so far.

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 10

Finally on this draft I have added the website and magazine name underneath the banner along the top. This allows the branding to create synergy throughout my magazine. I think that I have now completed my contents page and I am very happy with it. I am going to leave this draft for a couple of days before coming back to it and seeing if I would change anything again.

Target Audience Feedback - What I Have Created So Far

Target Audience Research - draft of front cover, contents and dps

Can you identify the music genre from the front cover? Please write it below.

Yes - Rock.              rock/vintage
pop rock                  definatley (sic) rock
Rock (vintage)        rock
rock                         only because of sell line. Image says nothing.

Is synergy created between the pages? How?

Yes they all have the same colours.
similar fonts and colour scheme
same fonts
similar fonts + colours
colour scheme + fonts
the colour scheme and font
synergy is created through black and red text

Are there iconic, symbolic or indexical signs? What are they?

The red and black is symbolic of rock.
Symbolism of leaves?
Red & black = rock, symbolic
Make up and dark colours are symbolic
red + black symbolises rock
red + black - rock
The make up and the use of the colour red

Who do you think the TA is? Age? Gender? Ethnicity? Sexuality?

I think the target audience is teenagers, and female.
16-25, female, all sexualities.
16-25, female, both, both, Both
16-25 female
16-20 female!
16-20 Female, all races, and Both sexualities.
both genders 16-19

What representations are created?

The dark eyeliner and colours represents the rock genre
dark clothing, rock genre
Dark clothes and strong make up represent rock.
the deep colours & bold makeup
bold strong makeup
Bold makeup and Dark colour's (sic) swit (sic) rock
dark eyeliner represents rock black and red symbolic

Is the language formal, informal or a mixture?

Informal due to including a swear word.
Informal
Informal
informal
informal
informal
informal register appropriate for a younger TA.

Is there anything missing? Anything you would like to see added? Are there changes you think should be made?

The price is too high for the ta.
Price too high
Banners
quite pricey, and white
bit high of a price, otherwise great!
price too high otherwise i love it
price extremely high for young TA
front cover needs more features
page no's in wrong place on dps + needs mag name/website on dps/contents
Contents fonts/layout is wrong - delete "page"

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 9

For this draft, I have changed the colour of the font entirely to black with the headings being red, which allows my house style to be stuck to and I think it works effectively together overall. I have also finished adding the article text and almost the images and I am very happy so far with the way it looks.

My Music Magazine - Double Page Spread Draft 6

In this draft, I felt that the photo alone looked rather plain and had a large amount of white space around it, so I added a leaf and flower style border to the edges and also made my photo smaller. I feel that this looks effective on the page and also works well with the image as the leaves can still be seen in the background and the colour makes the border work well.

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 8

For this draft of my magazine, I have almost finished adding the articles and the images for my magazine and I have changed the colour of most of the text, trying two different styles to see which I prefer. So far I feel that the red headings and the black text look better as they allow the text to be easily read and look clearer than the majority of the text being in red.. I am quite happy with the way it looks so far, however I do feel that the colours may still be wrong for the image I am trying to achieve.

My Music Magazine - Double Page Spread Draft 5

For this draft I have added the photo I would like to use to my article. I have edited the colour of this photo to be black and white as the background was different shades of green and my models top had blue stripes, these would have made the page very colourful overall and I wanted to use red and gold as my colours for my magazine to have those stand out, and the colours in the photo would have changed that effect. Also the black and white of the photo matches that of my cover image and that works alongside the red and gold colours, bringing a house style and synergy to the pages. I feel that the effect is coming together well and although I still have a few changes I would like to make, I am beginning to be happy with this page.

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 7

For this I have now also finished adding my articles and I have added another photo, this is a location photo from the set of one of my photoshoots, and I have used it to draw attention to one of the articles I have added.

I think having the text for the page in red may be too much and I think I could have to change it sometime in the future, however I will finish adding all of my articles first.

My Music Magazine - Double Page Spread Draft 4

For this draft, I have changed the text and ensured that the text will all still fit onto the page after receiving my marked copy back. I have also added a small black square at the end of my article as I have seen is a convention in magazines to mark the end of a text.

Double Page Spread Article - Marked Copy

This post is showing the suggested changes for my DPS text, and which changes I have made to the text for my final product.

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 6

This draft shows that I have added some more articles to the page and finished adding my page numbers.

I also have added a profile image of the artist I have created to my contents page, this will allow the feature article to stand out more and also adds colour to the page.

My Music Magazine - Double Page Spread Draft 3

For my third draft of my double page spread, I have had do differ from my plan a little to allow the text to fit on the two pages. The image will now be smaller however I like the layout so far and I think it looks effective.

My Music Magazine - Double Page Spread Draft 2

This is my second draft of my double page spread. I have added my pull quotes in a gold colour and a handwritten style font. I feel this makes the pull quotes seem more personal and also the gold adds to the colour scheme I have created through the magazine so far. The pull quotes may be too large currently but until I add my text I am not sure how large they need to be.

Double Page Spread Article

 Success was all Cait wanted from an early age, and as her career is set to take off, we find out more about her life and her motivation to become the face of a new age of music. We discover the artists that inspire her, and learn about how she plans to reinvent the styles of the entertainers we love to bring rock music back into the 21^st century.

Burning ambition. According to Cait, the dream of becoming successful is all that gave her the strength to keep pushing herself throughout her childhood. Abandoned by her mother and struggling through bullying at school, only her bond with her father and her determination to be a success kept her fighting to reach the top. Finally after 17 years, she has had her first top ten single and has been chosen as one of 1968’s rising stars for 2016. Now in an exclusive interview, we look deeper into her past, find her inspiration for music and also get an exclusive look at her upcoming album, scheduled for release 2^nd January.

Cait describes her love for music beginning at a very young age, she told us that she “can remember dancing stupidly with [her] dad,” telling us that “it’s such a stupid memory but it’s one of [her] favourites” because of how happy it makes her. “Things all got a bit shit after that” she tells us, beginning to broach on the time her mother left. “It got tenser everyday as my dad and my mum started to argue more, then there were fights and eventually, I heard glass breaking, a door slamming and the car driving away. She never came back after that, well, I mean I guess she did cause I got home from school one day and all her shit was gone and my dad was crying. It was rough, all we had was each other, but we got through it.” After that, music was her salvation, there was a song for every mood and every feeling, and Caity listened to them all. She tells us that she found her inspiration in every song she heard, but the anger and hurt in rock songs mimicked the way she felt often, and comforted her, knowing that there are other people out there that feel the same way. “I just wanted to make music that made me happy, and connected to people, letting them know that they weren’t alone.”

Her music style is influenced by people like Bonnie Tyler and Alice Cooper, David Bowie, The Clash and Fleetwood Mac, artists that she says her father influenced her to listen to, but also more modern bands that she has found herself, she tells us “Bring Me The Horizon, Pierce the Veil and Pvris are all bands that I find large influence with, I am a fan myself and I know so many people that are also fans. I love the atmosphere at their concerts and the friendliness and sense of community that is so strong throughout the fan base.” She goes on to say “I think sometimes, what older people forget is that music is such a large part of everyone’s lives now, more than ever before, and that when they criticise the music their children listen to, they could be talking about the one thing that keeps them going through the harder times.”

Something that Cait stands firmly against is bullying, after experiencing it herself through secondary school, she wishes that she could stand up for everyone who is going through the same thing. “I know from personal experience the devastating effects that bullying can have on someone’s life, every day is constant torture, and you wake up praying that today will be the day that it ends. Interpret that into whatever sense you wish because I’m not being any more specific. Sometimes it really is a gruesome as that.” Cait herself was tormented on and off all day every day through ages 11 to 15, and uses those feelings and experiences in her music, “we all know someone that has been through it, is going through it or possibly will go through it, and that is who my songs are directed at. Cait is working alongside the Anti-Bullying Alliance to raise money and help them to help everyone who needs their support.

As for her upcoming album, Cait tells us all about how excited she is to be releasing it, and drops some details about her music video for her single “Hallucinogenic Experience”.

“Writing the song was actually a lot of fun, I spent a lot of time around new people, not all of whom I would suggest looking for yourself, but observing their lifestyles and being in their circles really opened me up to viewing life differently, and allowed me to find some inspiration for a song that I am really proud of.” After asking if she was happy with her choice of her first single she replied with “yes, I am very happy! I think that the song really reflects me and the way that I feel, and that’s what is most important to me, staying true to who I am. You always see these stories of people entering the music business and falling off the rails because they can’t handle it, James Arthur and Amy Winehouse for example, but I know I’m ready. This is all I wanted in life… I dropped out of school for this to work. It’s my dream.” Moving on from the single, we talk about how her upcoming album is coming along, she tells us “Oh! It’s nearly finished, I feel like I’ve created some amazing stuff that I’m really proud of, I’ve worked with some incredible artists and I am more than excited to release it in February. The album cover is finally finished and I’m planning on tweeting the picture in a few days so you’ll get to see it soon!”

Finally, we got onto the topic of the single that is rapidly making its way up the charts, “Hallucinogenic Experience”, and the way that it could be the beginning of rock music’s comeback, but also the video, when it will be released and just what it is all about. “Well, the video is mostly going to be outdoors, I know that the title suggests… illicit activities, but for me it is mostly about how this entire experience has been crazy. It all happened so quickly, just from me posting YouTube videos to being approached by Asylum Records and then the recording studio, writers, chart single, album, video, dancers, everything! It was so quick and honestly, I still feel like a lost sheep, but I’m finding my footing and I’m getting there.”

Cait’s album, “Remember When…” is planned to be released on the 2^nd of February next year, and before then look out for one more single in the upcoming weeks.

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 5

For this draft I have added the live images from the Bring Me The Horizon concert on the 26th of November. I have edited these slightly by making them brighter and clearer and straightening the horizons of the images. I have also differed from my plan as the way I had planned to have 3 images in the 'next issues exclusives' section made the page look untidy and cramped into the corner, and so I changed it to one larger image which allows the page to look cleaner and more professional.

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 4

In this I have continued to add more boxes and another gold puff, this adds to the house style and the colour scheme suggested by my target audience in my research. I have also added some more page numbers.

My Music Magazine - Cover Draft 5

For this draft, I have made some significant changes to the layout of my articles and also added some more features. I have moved the Bring Me The Horizon puff to the lower right corner and also made the barcode and price smaller, also on the right hand side I have moved the article higher as to ensure the page did not look cluttered and jammed together. I have also changed the colour of the price to black as it stands out more on the white stripe of Caity's shirt better than the white text did. This movement allowed more room on the left hand side, to which I moved the article further up, this allowed room at the bottom of the page to add in a pug and some social media and the website of the magazine. This would appeal to younger audiences, especially the addition of a snapchat account, and also fits to convention.

I do feel that the text of the interview article is too large as it covers the image significantly so I may end up making that smaller, and I also feel that the upper left corner is quite empty and therefore I may add something there.

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 3

In this draft I have added some boxes to show where my photos are going to go, and also moved some of the text boxes for my articles around so that they do not look cramped and untidy.

My Music Magazine - Double Page Spread Draft 1

This is the first draft of my DPS, the font is slightly different to how I originally wanted it, however the more I see this font the more I think that I am very happy with this font.

Live Images from Bring Me The Horizon

These are the images I took at the Bring Me The Horizon concert on the 26th of November 2015. I will be using them on my contents page in two sections as stated on my plan.

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 2

This is my second draft of my contents page for my magazine, I have used the same font throughout and the same colours for my fonts. I am not sure that the spacings of my boxes are right, I think some of them need to be smaller, the same goes for the spacings between two articles in the list, for example the "where are they now?" section only has two articles but they are separated by quite a large amount of space and I think it would look better if I made the distance smaller.

I have also noticed that on the banner at the top of the page, the word "photos" is cut off slightly and I will fix that in my next draft.

My Music Magazine - Cover Draft 4

For this draft, there have been no large changes, however I decided that the makeup my model had was not dark enough to fit the rock genre. I have added darker, bolder and larger eyeliner using Photoshop and also smudged it slightly under her eyes to make them stand out more, and draw attention to the moody, slight angered expression on the models face, which I feel add to the rock genre context.

My Music Magazine - Cover Draft 3

After reviewing my cover draft, I was very unhappy with the way that it looked. It was very boring and basic and although my audience would have preferred a clearer cover, I felt that it was much too plain. I removed the box around my second article to allow there to be more free movement, and also changed the look of the puff advertising the Bring Me The Horizon article. I already prefer the look of this cover. I have added a bar code and a price and also my background image. The colour of the image background was black, which meant that I had to change the font colours for my articles in order for them to be readable. Where the text was black, it is now white so that it can stand out.

My Music Magazine - Contents Page Draft 1

I have again tried to stick to my plan as much as possible for my contents page. I like the contrast of the red and white in the banner at the top of my page, and also how the red text and the black headings are used to make more information stand out. I have included a gold coloured puff on my contents page advertising free downloads and also started to include the descriptions for my articles throughout my magazine. I need to add my images, which I will do once my photo shoot has taken place.

I have used simple black lines and the original white of the page to create borders and boxes to include my information in, and I think that using the white space to my advantage to separate my boxes out is an effective use and makes the white space purposeful instead of wasteful.

I think I may change the colour of the border lines as the black of the sub-headings and the lines makes the colours block together and lessens the effect of the colour scheme, and so I will experiment with different shades of grey for my headings.

My Music Magazine - Cover Draft 2

This is my second draft of my music magazine, I have added more features from my plan to my front cover, which has allowed me to see the basic outline that I would like to build on. I feel like my plan may have been too simple, and although my audience said they would prefer a plain cover, that the basic shapes and thick lines I currently have added to my cover are too basic and need changing or altering slightly until I am happy with them. I have used the same font throughout to create a house style, and the same colours for detailing.

My Music Magazine - Cover Draft 1

This is the first draft of my music magazine, I am trying to stick to my plan as far as possible, and with slight changes and the addition of the logo of Bring Me The Horizon, I feel that I have achieved this.

DPS - Draft and Photoshoot Plan

Contents Page - Draft and Photoshoot Plan

Front Cover - Draft and Photoshoot Plan

Target Audience Research Analysis

I created a powerpoint to showcase my Target Audience Research so that the results from each question were far more clear and easy to understand, and also because the powerpoint software made it easier to add coloured graphs and charts to allow my research to be presented nicely.

Analysis of Target Audience Research from emilybritcliffe

How My Research Has Changed My Initial Ideas

How this research has changed my initial ideas:

• From this research, most of my initial ideas for my magazine have been backed up and confirmed that this would be most appealing to my target audience, for example, I stated that I would prefer darker clothing and makeup, whilst still keeping a modern edge to my costume, and my audience suggested more up to date looks and darker options as the most popular choices.
• For my colour scheme I wanted to use black and white, with lighter coloured accents to add to the importance of certain features, my audience again confirmed my ideas by making Black and White and Dark the most popular colour choices, and Red, Blue and Gold the other most popular specific colours to include, so I will make these the colours for my accented areas.
• I did not ask any questions about the type of shot that my audience would prefer, however I plan to create another questionnaire more specific to the cover of my magazine, and this will be where I ask about the pose and type of shot the audience would prefer.
• Again in the questionnaire for my cover, I will ask about the filter for the cover shot, however I still agree with my updated initial ideas that a coloured image on the cover would be a better, more attractive option, and I perhaps may use a black and white image for the centre of my double page spread article.
• In my survey, my audience confirmed an interview would perhaps be the best option for the content of my DPS, and I would like to centre the content of my interview around the life outside of music, like stated in my ideas. Some questions could be about how the artist got into music for example and the types of previous artist they aspire to be like, and who their music inspirations would be.
• After my target audience research, I definitely am planning to include a free download of music, and I would prefer it to be a link or code for the music to be downloaded from the internet rather than a physical copy.
• My target audience confirmed that they also have no real preference to the gender of the artist on my cover. I would prefer to have a singular model on my cover rather than a band, and I think the model will be female, as I know more female friends who would suit the style I am picturing for my cover, and would be more available for a photoshoot.
• This research has again confirmed that a clearer front cover would be the best option for my magazine as I said in my updated ideas. Therefore this will be the style that I am aiming for with my magazine.

How Research Has Influenced My Planning and Creativity

Front Covers:

This cover has allowed me to see that I would definitely like to use a black and white theme to my cover, and that adding a small amount of colour allows the effect to come across classy but also very effectively. In my updated ideas, I thought that a black and white image may work effectively to get across the vintage theme of the magazine, however after looking at this cover, I think that understated colours are just as, if not more effective in having a lasting impression that works well with the genre.

This cover has allowed me to see how the contrast of dark makeup and clothes can create a rock magazine image, and how the circular puff can be used to highlight an article on the cover that is completely different to the main article. I would like to use this idea to create an article for my front cover that may be more about lifestyle or fashion or an article around a musician’s life, rather than solely focused on music.

From this cover, I love the difference of the graffiti on the background as opposed to the usual plain studio shots on Q's covers. The fact that the image breaks the medium close up convention by having a posed full body shot is also appealing.

This magazine cover has told me that a black and white image could be useful in representing the vintage era, and that when advertising anything on the front cover, the best way to do so is to use brightly coloured puffs and banners.

This cover has allowed me to see that I would definitely like to use a black and white theme to my cover, and that adding a small amount of colour allows the effect to come across classy but also very effectively. In my updated ideas, I thought that a black and white image may work effectively to get across the vintage theme of the magazine, however after looking at this cover, I think that understated colours are just as, if not more effective in having a lasting impression that works well with the genre.

Contents Pages:

Analysing another contents page in this style has cemented in my mind the idea that I do not want to use this type of layout and that I would much rather have my images and articles and page numbers in separate organised groups like the Q magazine from the last post. I much prefer the orderly layout and I think it makes it easier to see which image matches, which article, and I will endeavour to use elements of that in my magazine. However from this contents page, I like the fact that the font on all of the numbers was the same, for the images and list of contents, and for me I like how that ties the images and text together.

This contents page has shown me that it is again effective to break convention. The use of one singular image draws your attention to it, and makes the feature article very obvious. The black and white with red additions makes the puffs more noticeable and effective and that is something I may try for my magazine.

This contents page has shown me that it is again effective to break convention. The use of one singular image draws your attention to it, and makes the feature article very obvious. The black and white with red additions makes the puffs more noticeable and effective and that is something I may try for my magazine.

This research has shown me some of the conventions of a rock magazine that I would like to incorporate into my magazine, and some that I would prefer to break in my magazine, for example, again the images being placed separate to the articles. I would prefer to use a layout similar to the Q contents page I have previously analysed, pairing the page numbers and the summary of the article with the images being used on the contents page and create a list of he other articles that do not have images.

Each time I analyse a contents page set up in this format and layout, it reinforces the fact that I would like to break the conventional vintage rock magazine layout and bring something to a more modern audience. I also like the use of the red to indicate something important as it is eye catching and also holds a symbolic sign of importance.

Institutions Research:

This research has shown me that there is no magazine for this company aimed at my target audience or of my genre. This could be a good company to approach to produce my magazine, as they do not have anything like my magazine. Their main target audience seems to be younger and more towards the lifestyle genre and so to approach them with a music magazine could be profitable for their company.
This is only the opening pages of the double page spread; however, I think as the start of an article, this is very effective. There is not a large amount of text on the page as the image and title take up the most amount of space; even then, in the space left there is only a short paragraph. This allows readers to take in the image and the title, and for those who know of Buck Owens’ music, the title being his song title too, and then to read the lure and possibly the first paragraph to then decide if they want to carry on. This would be especially effective if the customer was going to be reading a page or two in the shop before buying the magazine as it would allow their attention to be grabbed by this double page spread and to buy it, maybe listen to some of Owens’ music. I would like to recreate something similar to this as I love how the image is the main focus of the page, and how the star has been styled to match Dyer’s theory.

Guardian Media may be a company worth considering as they currently do not have any music magazines in their production, however they also mainly produce news and lifestyle magazines, and therefore may not be interested in the production of a music magazine.

I do not think that Bauer Industries would be the right company to produce my magazine, as they already own Kerrang!, Mojo and Q, all of which cover a wide range of bases in the music industry. Mojo is a magazine that I will be analysing many times, as will Kerrang! due to the fact that the two magazines together create a vintage rock genre, and therefore Bauer as a company have the vintage rock genre of music already in publication. Bauer is such a large company that there would be no need for them to produce another magazine in a genre they already have a niche in, as it would not be feasible enough for them to make a profit.

Double Page Spreads:

The large image is very conventional of a usual double page spread and allows me to see the difference between sticking to convention and breaking it. It has shown me that the best places to break convention would be more in the cover and contents pages rather than on the double page spread. It has also shown me it is best to stay simple with the colour and complexity of the layout and to make it look effective, before focusing on the content of the article. One feature I did like about this very much was the unconventional title, using a pull quote as the title really works well with the theme of this piece of writing and adds well to the mystery and connotations behind the image.

This double page spread has really allowed me to see how colours and clothing styles and image colours, like the sepia used in this article, can create a stereotypical image that may not be the one wanted by the band, or one that the audience would agree with. In my magazine, I would like to try and break down some stereotypes, and this has allowed me to see how a stereotype is not a simple thing to work around, because no matter how careful you are, there is always a chance you could include something very stereotypical that may be the exact opposite of the image you are wanting to create, and that stereotypes have to be considered in planning.