Front Cover Analysis 2 - Research

This is a magazine cover from Q magazine, it features Cheryl Fernandez-Versini (formerly Cole). Usually Cheryl's style is very pop and girly, whereas on this cover she has been styled to look more like a rock artist. Richard Dyer can be applied here as he says that "a star is an image not a real person", and in the way that Cheryl has been styled so differently to how she would usually look, Dyer's theory is shown to be true.

A house style has been proven again in this cover as it does in other Q covers, the masthead is always in the same location and in this issue, the red text has been used not only to highlight the masthead and separate the different articles, but also in the strapline to highlight the word 'rocks'. As Q features predominantly rock artists and bands, this fits into their usual style of music. In this edition, Cheryl has a large amount of makeup on, and it looks as though she has decided to create a look that is sexy and appealing to men. Although Cheryl's audience is mostly younger females, this look could persuade more men to buy the magazine.

Her heavy eye makeup is indexical to the genre of rock, and alongside the leather jacket you can see her wearing in the bottom right corner. These signs all work together to show the genre and make the customer know that the issue is going to be featuring the rock side of Cheryl's music.

A puff is used on the cover of this magazine, the puff is used to tell the reader of something different inside the magazine, about a different article, in this case one on John Lennon. John Lennon was a member of The Beatles and therefore by displaying his article on the cover of the magazine, could be used to draw in more older readers.

How this research has influenced my ideas and creativity:

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 musicians life, rather than solely focused on music.

Finished and Annotated College Life Cover

This is my finished and annotated cover of my college magazine. I have tried to include as much of the technical language as possible, and to explain why it relates to my plan.

Front Cover Analysis 1 - Research

After creating my college life cover magazine, I have decided to analyse magazine covers of fashion and lifestyle magazines, I thought their features would be different to those included on music magazines and therefore may give me more ideas on what I could add to my music magazine to make it stand out and differ more than those currently on the market.

 This is a Miss Vogue cover featuring Kendall Jenner. What I liked about this cover was the simplicity of it. Usually on magazine covers, there are small pieces of writing advertising the contents of the magazine around the image on the front. This simply shows a photo of Kendall with her name in a paint like font across the bottom. There is no advertising or writing so you are simply looking at the image of Kendall and nothing else. I thought this was a different approach to adding the other articles and posters, offers, etc. around the image that the other types of magazines usually include.

This is a Teen Vogue cover featuring Kylie Jenner. This cover takes a more usual layout, including the articles around the image of Kylie on the front. Teen Vogue has it's masthead along the top of the cover, over the top of Kylie's hair. The masthead of Teen Vogue is always the same, however the

"Teen" changes colour to match the colour scheme of each cover. The front of the cover uses the same red to advertise the articles, there are a few words in red making them stand out more, whilst the rest are in black. The red is eye catching and suggests an element of danger, which ties in with one of the articles about "cool-girl style". The background features very neutral colours making the text colour easy to choose as not only does it contrast with the background but also with Kylie's neutral outfit colours.

Finished Contents Page

This is my contents page, I felt that simplicity was best here as I know from personal experience that most people actually ignore the contents page, so by keeping it I black and white, if the contents page was used the information wanted would be easier to find. Two of the items advertised on my cover were the new build and the prom photos, so I have included an image of these on the contents page to break the text up slightly and to add make the contents page more interesting than if there simply was just text.

Finished Magazine Cover

This is my finished magazine cover, it is the same as my planned one. I have used the same colours as my plan, the only difference is that the coloured letters in the title are in a different order as I felt this way around looked better than on my original plan as the red and orange being next to each other diminished the other colour and made both colours stand out less than now that they are separated by the blue.

 

Magazine Cover Draft 2

This is my partially finished front cover, I have added more coloured boxes to the front and added the stories in matching text colour according to my article.

Magazine Cover Draft 1

This is my first draft for my college magazine. I have added the masthead to the image at the top o a white background separate to the photo.

Hand Drawn Cover Drafts

This is the front cover design for my college magazine, I have used lots of colours to make the cover bright and exciting.

This is the contents page, this is to be left basically in just black and white with colour photographs advertising the main articles.

Target Audience Research - Photographs on Flickr

I uploaded my three favourite images to Flickr into the Vale Media group, this will allow people to comment on my images and provide feedback on the photos I took for my magazine.

The above image shows my images on Flickr, these are on my account page and are available for any member of the public to view/share/comment on. The image below shows them in the Vale Media group where students and teachers from Sixth Form/The Vale Academy who have been accepted into the group can comment and leave feedback on my images.

Rejected Cover Images

These images were my least favourites from the selection I took of Sarah.

I don't like this image as you can see the hinges and the edge of the door frame, also in the bottom right corner you can see my shadow in the photo. After this photo I repositioned where I was standing and asked Sarah to move towards the other side of the door a little so the hinges were not visible and I prefer that photo much more than this.

I would have liked this photo had it not been blurry, Sarah was looking into the camera but unfortunately either she or I moved just as I pressed the shutter button leaving the photo blurry and not suitable for use.

I feel that in this photo I was too close to Sarah, The background would have been nice as it is plain and easy to add text to of all colours, however I do not like any of the photos I took of Sarah on this background.

Magazine Cover Images

For my cover image I have decided to use Sarah as my model. Out of all of the images I took, these three were my favourite.

I like this photo as Sarah is looking directly into the camera, she is smiling and the focus of the camera is on her so the image looks clear and sharp. It is a medium close up and therefore fits the brief for the magazine. The background is plain and a neutral colour therefore making it a good image for the magazine cover as text could be added onto the background.

In this image the sun was behind me as I took the photo, which is shown in the image. The lighting is significantly brighter in this image than the previous one, the background is again a neutral one, however this contains more detail than the previous image as the wooden background provides a classic, rustic look to the image. Sarah is again smiling, the image is clear and focused and Sarah is looking into the camera again.

This photo is again in the sun, therefore brighter than the image taken inside. The background of this photo contains one of the trees from the gardens at school and this adds colour to the background, contrasting with the black and white of Sarah's hoodie and hat. In this photo Sarah is looking just off centre and not directly into the camera, this looks more natural and she seems to be more relaxed than in the other photos. Aside from the tree the background is a neutral shade of blue, this would be good again for adding text, however the tree could make that more difficult with this image.

Media Theorists

Hodge and Kress define genre as "typical forms of texts which link kinds of producer, consumer, topic, medium, manner and occasion" they added that "they control the behaviour of producers of such texts, and the expectations of potential consumers."

 

This makes sense to me as it shows the way the audience and the producers can shape a genre. The producers only create the types of music they know will sell, and produce what they feel comfortable will make a profit. However consumers also play an important role as each customer will buy what they enjoy, and this will reflect in sales back to the producer. This can influence the genre as if an audience is not enjoying a type of music, there will be a decrease in sales and the music the producers make will change to meet the needs of the audience.

 

 

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Steve Neale says "genres are instances of repetition and difference."

 

This is also true as genres are established through codes and conventions. Codes are created by them being involved in a significant amount of films, and when used repeatedly they become conventions. An example of this would be in Western films with tumbleweeds, they have been used so much in the desert and in frontier towns that it is expected for them to make an appearance somewhere in a Western film, be that for comedic effect or for atmosphere. The differences between genres is what defines them as separate classes, they are important as some people will favour a certain type of genre and therefore will look specifically for that media in their preferred genre.

 

 

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John Hartley states that "genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the meaning-potential of a given text."

 

In some respects I can agree with what Hartley is saying, there can be some limits in defining genres, as the conventions and the codes can limit what could be included in media. However some people are now pushing those boundaries and creating hybrid media, this allows the genres to not be limiting but to show what works well together, for example, Romantic Comedies and Punk-Rock music.

 

 

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Both audience and producers control genre, this can be seen in how audiences respond to types of media. The producers create what they think will sell, but if the audience responds negatively, the producers will change what they create in order to grow their brand.



College Life Cover Plan

Who?
For the cover of my magazine I plan to use someone else as my model. I would like to use one of my friends, I think it would be easier to work with someone I feel comfortable around and have a comfortable friendship with as it will be more enjoyable and I will be more open talking about my opinions with them.

Where?
There are many places around college that would be suitable locations, for the most part there are lots of natural places across the school field and outside Glanford on the road side of the building. However  there are places inside of the buildings too, many with plain backdrops that would make adding writing to the cover of the magazine easier. I think the best idea would be to try taking a range of photos in a few different locations and deciding afterwards on the best quality photograph for the cover.

Costume?
As this is the college magazine cover, I think that I would rather my model(s) wear anything they felt comfortable in, or something they would wear on an average day to college in an attempt to represent the accurate image of life at sixth form, be that causal or slightly more smart. As long as the model is satisfied with what they are wearing and comfortable in front of the camera, I will be happy with whatever they choose. Makeup will also be included in this sense, if my model chooses to wear makeup, I will be happy with whatever they feel comfortable in as it reflects their attitude towards college and will represent how life really is as a college student.

Props?
The only props that I think would be used, if any, would be folders, school bags, books etc. Most students will have those on an average day but if not I will be bringing some myself to use in the photographs if they will add effect.

Photoshoot Inspiration - Music Magazine

Photoshoot Inspiration from emilybritcliffe

I have created this powerpoint to give myself something to look back on when preparing to shoot the images for the cover of my music magazine. It is full of outfit ideas and inspiration very similar to my own style that I would like to include on the cover of my magazine and style my model in that particular fashion.

Q Magazine Cover Analysis

The magazine cover I have chosen to analyse is one featuring Ed Sheeran. Q magazine has the masthead consistently in the upper left hand corner, often with text over the top of it highlighting an article from that issue. All of their magazine covers consist of a Middle Shot, this usually is centre frame and has the name of the artist somewhere on their body. In this case, the font is in red and a chalk effect font, the red could be used to add to the theme, adding an indexical sign that works with the masthead to make you think of Q Magazine and also works to pull the whole cover together in a theme. Around the image of the artist, there are other articles advertised, reviews of artists and interviews, and these are all in a white colour written in block capitals, separated by red accents towards the edges of the cover. The main feature seems to be the 50 albums of 2014, this is large on the cover, slightly covering the artist photo, and is in a white font identical to the Q on the magazine masthead, and is also on a red background, which makes the reader think of Q Magazine but also again adds to the theme. The bar code is also featured on the bottom left of the cover, this is conventionally on magazine covers as the issue number is commonly displayed there, alongside the price.

Edited after the lesson on the 10/09/2015 to add more technical language.

Kerrang! Covers

My favourite magazine to read is Kerrang! This is a music magazine produced by Bauer Media Group, the magazine focuses mainly on the rock/punk music style and is classed as an alternative music magazine. I often buy Kerrang! for myself, and the magazine is produced weekly. I have selected two magazines from the variety I currently still have, which appeal to me.

The first is this: 

This cover is quite bright, the background is a faded green colour with white writing along the back. The Kerrang! logo is displayed behind the prominent image of Vic Fuentes, but can still be seen emerging at the sides. Vic Fuentes is the lead singer of a band called Pierce the Veil, and in this issue it is advertised that they will be presenting the main article, therefore using the image of Vic to advertise their magazine. Red and yellow are colours often used on the cover of Kerrang! as canbe seen below, this adds a theme to their magazine and makes it often easily recognizable

on the shelves.

The same font style is also used to make the magazine recogniseable. Bright colours are used to make the magazine appealing and eye-catching to the audience, and the contrast in colours are effective in highlighting the different articles available.

The second is this: 

This magazine is focused on the preview for Reading and Leeds music festival, as someone who couldn't go to the actual festival, the article showing some of what would be happening was nice to have and for people going it would have build up excitement and anticipation for the festival. Again the red and yellow colours are used to advertise, and the logo is in a contrasting white to ensure it stands out from the background. There are a few different artists shown on this cover as this shows a variety of who will be performing at the festival.

Bauer Media definitely know that the colour scheme is eye catching to their target audience, but also to prospective customers. I think that having a consistent colour scheme is important as it makes the magazine identifiable and also that using contrasting colours helps to make articles and important news project from the background, and making it more noticeable, which could encourage more sales if customers were looking to buy the magazine for a specific band they liked which otherwise would have gone unnoticed. In my magazine I will try to keep a consistent colour design throughout and also I will incorporate contrasting colours for article headings and for on the front cover.