Flat plans

These were my flat plans. My first image I had inspiration from the music magazine ‘Flavour’. This was the only flat plan that went to plan as my final products looks completely different. The other three images did not go to plan. I believe that my final products look much better than my flat plans. I have realised that plans don’t always work and change is sometimes change for the better and in this case, the change that occurred was for the better. The reason why my flat plans maybe did not quite go to plan was due to lack of research. While doing my flat plans, I did not conduct as much research I should have done. I did not put much thought into it although I knew planning is a vital stage.

Pie charts representing my results

After producing my questionnaire, I issued a pie chart which enabled me to structure my results efficiently. By constructing this, it showed me easily what option was most popular from each question. From these results, it allowed me to start producing my magazine. I found that everyone liked the colour scheme 'black, white and blue' and hardly anyone brought a magazine so this enabled me to produce something that's fresh and unique to meet their needs. As I could not decide on a particular colour scheme, I thought it would be a good idea to put this question in my questionnaire although it didn't help me because I didn't use the colour scheme that was most popluar in my questionnaire on my magazine. I thought it was important to ask my audience what type of pose would attract them as I could then use this type of pose in my magazine

Results from my questionnaire

I then checked my account to identify my results 12 days later. From the information I have gathered, I can tell what type of genre of music most people prefer. This gave me a much clearer insight on what genre I would base my magazine on although I knew what I wanted to go with right from the beginning. One of my questions asked my audience what colour scheme they would prefer on their magazine and my audience said ‘black, white and blue’. However as this is a common colour scheme among many magazines, I wanted to go with a unique look. So I came up with ‘black, white and yellow’. But, these three colours only worked with a black background and I wanted to use a white one. While playing around with the colour yellow, I came across the colour gold. I thought this would work with my magazine because it represents money and wealth which relates to my image of him in a suit.

Scamps

Yesterday in class, we designed our scamps for my front page, contents page and double page spread. This gave me a clearer insight on how my artist will be portrayed on my front cover, and the layout of both my contents page and my double page spread, although I dont have a fixed decision on the way my contents page is going to be set out. While designing my front cover on a sheet of paper, I looked at different types of magazine covers which helped me bring different components together as one. My scamps will be up soon!

Use of semiotics in XXL

The magazine XXL relates to the genre that I want to do for my magazine. There are a variety of ways semiotics is presented on this front cover. I am going to deconstruct XXL to show you the ways in which they are shown. From the people used on the front cover, we can tell that they are the class of 2011. Without the text 'class of 2011', we wouldn’t have been able to figure out what year the picture was taken. Unless you look at the barcode which has the date it was issued. However, I only know this due to the text they wrote on right. Without out that, I would've also thought the same. This is because of the books on the desk which suggests they are at school. Many of them don't look very happy which suggests maybe some of them haven't graduated?

The topless man on the front at the right is an artist and maybe the word on the board he's holding suggests that they are his lyrics? The man with the slingshot at the back shows he's the mischievous boy of the class and causes a lot of trouble. If they were smartly dressed without any text, the reader would automatically think that it's a school/class photograph. At the bottom of the magazine, the word 'featuring' is in a different font. This might suggest the producer of the magazine wants the reader to be drawn to the names of the artists in the picture.

Without the text at the bottom, the audience won’t know the names of the artists. The text at the top 'the 4th annual freshmen issue' suggests that the words 'the 4th annual' is more important than the words 'freshmen issue'. I can tell this because the first three words are bigger and the other two which suggests the producer done this purposely to attract the reader. This might be of interest to the reader because it shows that there are more magazines issued before it which may make the reader want to buy the previous editions.

More about the use of words! On the right hand side, there is a use of the rule of three 'rappers, rhyming, and relatives’. The word 'rappers' is bigger than the other two words which suggest the importance.

How I carried out my research...

As part of my research to find out what my audience want, I created a questionnaire. I did it by using a website called survey monkey. At the end of creating my questionnaire, I was given a link that I got people to sign. I posted the link on a social networking site like Twitter. From there, my followers would see this on my timeline and eventually click the link and fill out the questionnaire. I also used BlackBerry Messenger to broadcast the link which I kindly asked the contacts to fill out. Here are some print screens of how I broadcasted it via twitter.

5 different type of magazine titles - similar genre

As part of our research for my music magazine, everyone in my class has to research about 5 different music magazine titles and we have to discuss what their names connote in relation to their magazine. As my genre is hip hop/RnB, I will be looking at a wide range starting from vibe - my favourite!

The title 'Vibe' is always in bold is consistent in every magazine. What I've realised is in the title every letter is capitalized except the 'e' at the end being lower case. It could be to represent the male audience as it big and powerful being capitalized. The title is red which flows with the magazine as there's not a variety of colours used and only two. Red and black are normally a good combination of colours which is very eye catching. This attracts customer and is recognisable from a distance. As red is both a males and females colour, anyone can read it so it appeals to both males and females. The title is behind the artist (Nelly) and is a convention as the same position is in every magazine. I've noticed that in each and every one of their magazine covers, they have used either two/three colours which go well together. Using two/three colours which blend together well, allows the audience to be attracted to it as it isn't busy, being colourful doesn't always appeal to your audience! It's the layout and how it's portrayed attracts your customers in my opinion.

Another music which is a hip hop/RnB based magazine is 'The Source'. The title is large and is sans-serif which makes it looks professional. 'The' in The Source is smaller than 'Source'. This could symbolise that the word 'Source' is much more important than the word 'The' as it's much bigger and bolder. This is eye catching to their audience as it is the first thing they notice after the picture of the artist. The title is positioned behind the artist. Notice, it's the opposite from vibe. They've also used a colour that appeals to both males and females so it attracts both genders. The colour gold connotes wealth and good health which relates to the the artisit (nas). He's a rich, well known famous artist as he has sold over thirteen million records in the United States alone.

XXL is a rap based music magazine. The colours for the title is always white and red. Everytime I look at the title, I feel as though it has been stamped onto the page. Maybe that's what they want there reader to think? White symbolises cleanliness and peace whereas, red symbolises passion but war and violence. The red relates to the picture as his hands are guns which suggest violence and aggression. This could put the customers off buying this particular with this artist on it. However, if the customer is a 'The Game' fan (the artist on the front cover), then they are likely to be attacted to it.

Flavour is another popular magazine that caters for Rnb artists. It's a free magazine which is difference from the ones above. The white, yellow and black colours work well together and are consistent throughout the front cover. Another difference between this one and the others above is that the title is place in front of Cher Lloyd (the artist). The colour white symbolises purity, the colour yellow symbolises joy and happiness and the colour black stability. The hand gesture of her having her hand over the mouth suggests many things. It could either suggest that, she is shocked and she just found out something. Or it could suggest that she is keeping a secret by covering her mouth. One thing that I have realised that throughout Flavour's magazines is that the heading 'Flavour' is always either behind or in front the artist. However, in Vibe, the title is not consistent and is always behind the artist.



The last but no least is 'Respect'. Another magazine that catera for RnB artists. Straight away, the reader is drawn to the image as it's the most important thing. From his facial expressions, you can tell that he is serious. The pull quote used at the bottom left hand corner, shows that he is being boastful about his current position in the music industry. Brown symbolizes self discipline which could link to the serious look on his face. However, there is not a lot of information on the front cover which is one factor that I dont like.