Flat Plan Double Page Spread

This is the flat plan for my double page spread.It is going to be either an interview or an in-depth overview about the pop star Vanessa Parsons from the cover.The information is going to be about her life as she has just won the music show 'Music Idol' and now is going to make a career in the pop music industry. I am also going to include some pictures of Vanessa's life so I can introduce her to my audience.The information is going to be more like basic staff such as ' birthplace, favourite place to go on a holiday, favourite book';I will try to include some quotes from the performer so it can look more interesting and appealing.

The layout I'm going to use will be in a light colours as the rest of my magazine.Although I might put some dark colours so there can be a contrast and the page could look more eye-catching.I will stick to simple colours so the page doesn't look too obtrusive. Another thing I am going to do is to put the information and pictures in a 4 grid design.

The Display type such as the headings,subheading and pull quotes will be in a bigger and different font compared to the body type( the text of the article).

Flat Plan Contents Page

This is the flat plan for my contents page.

On the top left corner of my page will be written 'CONTENTS' so it can clearly show what the page is about. Under it there will be a random picture and a bit of text in the corner showing who is on the picture and in which page you can find the article.

The title of the magazine will be written next to the picture in the right corner and it will be in the same font but different colour and size.

The contents will be spread in different sections: 'Cover', 'Celebs','Entertainment'and 'Plus'. There will be a line under every section title.

At the right bottom corner there will be a box which shows 2 posters that will be enclosed to the magazine.

I haven't decided what the background of this page is going to be yet but I am thinking of putting some pictures or a single light colour.

Flat Plan Front Cover

This is my flat plan of my front cover. The title of my magazine is 'FAME' and it will be written in big bold letters(probably red) at the top of the magazine so it can clearly stand out from the main sells.

The strapline 'Britain's N0 1 pop magazine' will be above the title and it will be written in white letters on a pink background. I haven't decided what colour the background of the whole magazine will be but I'm thinking of light colours like yellow,pink or white. This will match with my audience(15 and above) style. Most of my main sells will be in bold black letters.

My main image will be of a blond girl as I've seen that most of the pop magazines use blond artists such as Britney Spears,Cristina Agilera, Lady Gaga.The hair colour will match with the light colours of my magazine.Also her clothes will be in darker colours so they can stand out from the light colours around the picture.I have decided not to put the image in the middle as most magazines have their artists just in the middle and I think it's quite boring. Above the main image there is a little circle which will show a bit of text about the prizes in my magazine.I am thinking of 'Win an I-pod' or something similar.

Most of my main sells are written in the left side of the magazine. They will be in different fonts but I haven't decided what fonts I am going to use yet. I have also put some of the main sells in a box to make them more eye-catching as they will be longer stories than the others.There are also some main sells in the right side of the magazine. One of it is written vertically. This will make my front cover look better.

The main flash is the first text written below the price and the date.I have realised that it has to be bigger as it has to be eye catching and my audience has to be interested in it. It is not written in enough big letters on my cover and it looks like another main sell. When I start doing my magazine I will change the size and the location of the main flash.

The bar code will be at the bottom right corner of the front cover. The price and the date will be under the title as there is a blank space.

Double Page Spread

This is a double page spread I am going to analyse from a 'Top Of The Pops' magazine.

The language used on this page is quite informal and chatty,quoting phrases from Nicole from the Pussycat Dolls that say ' These pants are giving me a wedgie' and David Beckham : 'Is that your hand on my bum?'.
Top Of The Pops usually uses an informal language which attract younger audience instead of a formal language that is used in other types of magazines.

The main colour used on this double page is pink. For example the big caption 'Dolls drama' in the centre of the first page represent the style of the famous group Pussycat Dolls. The word 'dolls' is more associated with the barbie world where the colour pink is an obligation. Also the strapline which is at the top of the double page is pink and 'gossip' is written all over which suggest that this page is all about gossip and drama.
Most of the page is a combination of pink and yellow colour. They are bright girly colours that relate to the audience.

There are a lot of images all over the double page spread. One A4 page on the left and an one-third of the second page is taken up by images of Pussycat Dolls. There are also quotes and some text around those images. The second part of the double page is taken up by 3 different images of 4 different people. They don't really catch the attention of the reader as they are being taken over by the main article's images.

There isn't much text on this double page spread which suggest that this audience don't like to read much and prefer to look at the images. This is related to younger kids who like to just flick through magazines.

There aren't any pull quotes as there isn't much text. There are captions on the photographs of this double page spread like 'Dolls Drama' and 'MEN UTD'. They are all written in informal language and written in bold letters so they can stand out.

Contents Page

This is a contents page from Mizz magazine I have chosen to analyse as Top Of The Pops doesn't have one.

There is a 'Welcome' on top of the page which invites the audience to this magazine's style.The page is divided into 4 grids.

The contents are split into different categories: Celeb,Real life,Style,Fun,You,Plus. This makes it easier for the readers of the magazine as if they are looking for a certain article , then they would know in which category it will be.

The title doesn't seem to be on the right place. It's written on the top right corner in a sans serif font but it looks like its a title of an article because it is left out of the page. The rest of the text is also written in sans serif font. The writing is small and therefore harder to read.

The background of this page is white. The main colour is red, but there is also green, blue,pink and yellow used for some words and subtitles. Those bright colours will attract the audience who are mostly female teenagers.

The language used is more informal which will catch the young teenagers attention.

Second magazine cover

This is the second magazine cover I am going to analyse. The name 'Smash hits' gives you an idea of what the top hits on TV are, usually pop hits.

The model used for the main picture is the famous multimedia star Britney Spears who has been in the pop charts for a long time.

The title is written in big pink and white italics letters. The tag line is written underneath it. The pink colour of the main sells matches with the title. This suggests that the main sells are information about artists and their 'smash hits'. The group 'Five' and 'Kylie' are pop artists like Britney. However P.Diddy is also included in this magazine. He's associated with the r'n'b genre, but he also has got some hits with pop artists like Justin Timberlake, Christina Agilera and more. There are other artists included in the text such as Natalie Imbruglia, Robbie Williams,Christina Milan. Sum 41 is a group which is associated more with the rock and punk genre. But they are also included in the magazine as they've been in the pop charts as well. The main flash is linked with the main picture. The question 'Britney, pop princess or drama queen?' sounds like a dilemma.

The main colours of this cover are pink, yellow and white. They are bright colours which match with the genre. Yellow is used as a background colour and pinks and whites are used for the text.This way the magazine looks more simple but still eye-catching.

The strapline is at the top of the cover. Basically it shows what this magazine is all about:pop,r'n'b,rock,rock,dance,rap,posters,song words,prizes,gossip,TV,film. These topics are all connected with the music media.

There is a section in front of the picture that looks like a filmstrip in front of the magazine with 12 posters of pop artists.This is a way of connecting music and films.

The bar code is at the right hand bottom and the price is underneath the title.

Analysis of existing magazines

First magazine cover

The first magazine cover I am going to analyse is a 'Top of the pops' magazine September 07.

The main picture on the cover is of the two famous actors from ' High School Musical ' which followers are aged 10-15.

The authors have given the magazine this title to show who is on the top of the pop music. They have used modern , mostly sans serif font. This makes the cover more attractive to the targeted audience.

The main sells are all about gossip, make-up and fame, which my audience tends to like. They have chosen mostly bright colours like pink and yellow which will attract younger females aged 14-15 or even younger. The use of pink matches with the colour of the artist's T-shirt.They have used pink for the title and some of the main sells.Those colours also suggest that this is a teenage magazine and most stories will be based on music,fashion,gossip,etc. The text colour matches with the with the colours in the main image by making it eye-catching,but not too tufty.

The language used is informal, which again suggest it is a teenage magazine and it appeals to a teenage audience. There is also alliteration in some of the main sells , e.g. ZAC'S 'LOVE LIFE' and 'Hollyoaks hunks' , 'star style' which makes it more effective. I didn't spot any rhymes in the main sells.

The demographics on this cover are mostly for females.You can tell this by the colours used which are mostly girl colours. Also the main sells shows what usually girls this age are interested in. In fact, I think that there aren't any boys who read this magazine. Or even if there are they are mostly gays. The audience is mostly ABC1 class because they are more desirable about gossip and spending money on magazines like this one.

The main picture shows what is on the top this season. In September 2007 the most famous couple and the most famous movie teenagers were talking about were Zac Effron and Vanessa and the movie they play in called ' High School Musical'. It is a posed shot which suggest that the magazine story will be about their life together. If it was a live shot then the story about them would have been about an event they attended or something similar.Live shots are usually taken by paparazzi. The facial expression of the two characters shows their happiness together as a couple. In this kind of magazine it is usually a female star in the picture. But couples are often seen on front covers. ' High School Musical' and Vanessa and Zac were famous all over the world, but mostly in Britain.

There is some other information presented such as bar code which is at the bottom right hand corner. The date and the price of 2.20 is also shown next to the bar code.

Target Audience

As I said in my previous blog the target audience for my magazine will be females aged 15 and above who are music lovers of the pop genre. There will also be some bits who might be appealing to teenage boys as well. Using http://www.nrs.co.uk/ I found out the target audiences of the different magazines within my chosen genre.

I had a look at the 'Top of the pops' magazine and found that there were 164 000 readers overall in the period October 2009-September 2010 for which shows the huge amount of UK readers interested in this magazine. The research shows that there were 55 000 readers of the audience ABC1 and 109 000 readers of audience C2DE. This suggests that C2DE which are people in the lower class , pensioners or others who depend on the state of their income and have more free time are the main readers of this magazine. The table shows that there are 145 000 readers aged 15-44 males and females. 20 000 of the readers of this magazine are 45+ which is almost 4 quarters less than the young readers.The total number of male readers is 41 000 and the total number of the female readers is 123 000 which suggests that females are the main readers of the magazine.

The NRS Readership for 'Top of the pops' magazine showing the results from July 2009 to June 2010 estimates that there have been 158000 readers overall. 58 000 are marked as ABC1 class and 100 000 as C2DE which shows that most readers are from lower and working classes such as semi and unskilled manual workers,teenagers and others who depend on the state of their income.

The magazine I am creating will be aimed at females aged 15+ with ABC1 social status as they are more desirable for gossip and will be more interested in buying my magazine.

Introduction to Main Coursework.

For my main piece of coursework I have been asked to design a front cover,contents page and double page spread for a music magazine. My work will be produced using the program InDesign. I have researched different music genres and magazines and decided to make a pop magazine.I have also researched the audiences for pop music magazines and found out that it's usually female teenagers from all ages.The target audience I am producing my magazine for will be females aged 15 and above. This task will be a development of my skills from the preliminary task I did at the beginning of the course.

This is my finished contents page.

I think I could have done a lot better. I could have put a background to make the page more colourful. In this way it doesn't seem that this is a contents page of a magazine. It looks like it's a contents page of a book. I also could have changed the font and the size of the text on the page.

Apart from that , I think it is organised and easy to read. I didn't have much time to put pictures and layouts so I left it in this way.

Evaluation

This is my finished front cover. I think it is quite good because this was the first time I used this program and for this amount of time I think I've done quite well.

There are things that I could have done better - maybe the font of the title and the main sells.The title overlaps with the letters of the background picture. Also the bottom of the front cover looks unfinished and not so attractive. I also could have put another picture.

Apart from this , I think the rest is good. I like the main image I took.

Flat Plans Contents Page

This is my flat plan for the contents page. I have only put the main sells which are on the front cover. And I have also changed the order and the pages info. I have added a new main sell which is not in this flat plan.

I have also added a text box which shows that the rest of the text will be there. At the bottom of the page I have put the Lewes College logo. I haven't put any pictures.

Flat Plans Front Cover

This is my scan for my front cover. This was the first idea of how my front page was going to look like.

Originally my title was going to be in black and bold letters as it shows on the picture.But then I decided my title to be in sky blue letters because there was a text from the picture behind and the letters were overlaping with the title. First I decided to have a tag line but then i realised there will be too much text and the audience wouldnt like my magazine. I changed the order of my main sells and added a new one as there was a spare place at the bottom of my front cover. My scan shows that the layout is red. But in fact I decided that my layout will be from the picture i took.

The only thing I didn't change was the main image.

Photographs

I have chosen to put this picture for my magazine front cover. Scarlett is in front plan so the audince will clearly see the main image.

I think that this picture is quite good as it shows a happy girl and the college logo behind her. You can also see the 'Visitor seating' written on the logo which suggest that Scarlett might be introducing the college life to new visitors.

The picture on her T-shirt is also related to the audience.

Photographs

I have decided not to put this picture on my front cover as Scarlett is too far away and magazine readers wouldnt be able to see her properly from the first look. You can also see other things in this picture like part of the table and the sofa which will distract the audience.

Introduction

I have been asked to do a magazine for Lewes college. We have to do a design cover and contents page of the magazine. My target audience is 16-19 years old students.