ConventionsFrom researching different types of magazines, they all have silimar elements which contribute in attracting the audience.
Firstly the Rule of Thirds concept, (which are shown with the red lines on the image). Where each line intersects there should be a point of interest, within the third area it should contain key information and the title heading should be at the top where the hotspot area is.
The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. In this image for example, the top left third shows the magazine title, the top right shows key information that is included in the magazine, as does the left and right side. The middle areas show the front cover model therefore is key interest.
The Route of the eye is presented by the blue line, this perception is used so that if the reader quickly glances at the page it follows this route, therefore the most interesting parts of the magazine should be placed on this line. On this image it starts at the magazine title,
through the eyes onto an article, through to the model down to another article and across to another heading. This magazine has used this concept really well as it attracts the audience.
Other conventions of magazines include a heading at the top, a barcode should be shown as well as a price and a date. The cover model is usually in the middle of the magazine and the article headings as well as lures, 'free gift' headings are also shown on the front. The layout is typically cluttered depending on the type of magazine it is, but a few more modern magazines such as 'Vogue' and 'LOVE'. In comparison to my magazine I have tried to use as many conventions as I can, for example, I have placed the title at the top in a large font to attract passers by at first glimpse, there is also a date and a price and issue number. The model image is a close up image, i've noticed that most magazines have a mid shot of the model therefore to make my magazine more eye catching and unique I have decided to use a close up shot to make it stand out from others. I have also used a variety of differnt fonts to make the magazine look more appealing. I decided to go with a black, white and purple colour scheme, this keeps the magazine looking more minimilistic and also less cluttered as my survey results showed me this is what the audience prefers.
When researching contents pages, I noticed that the conventions are quite similar to those of the front cover. Route of the eye, rule of thirds, as well as relevent text and images are all important to attract the audience. This contents page is split up into different sections, these include features, oasis special, every month and q review. This keeps the contents page organised and easy to read, and also if the readers want to find an article quickly they can look at the section headings. The picture has been taken so it fits the bands persona. There wearing indie style outfits and the location looks quite cool. The other conventions of a contents page include columns to make the contents page look structured. 
For my contents page I have decided to include an editors letter to make the magazine more personal and so the readers can feel more involved as it addresses the reader personally, it gives an over view of what is in the magazine and what has been happening since the last issue. I have also tried to keep the contents page quite ordered and clear by sectioning the letter and the contents page, using a dashed line. I have also kept things clear by highlighting the letter box to keep it looking separated from the rest of the page. I have also decided to have the date at the top of the page. I have used a picture of myself at the bottom of the editor letter to keep the magazine quite informal and relaxed. The other two picture relate to the contents and whats in the magazine. I have used similar colours as the front page to keep continuity. If you look at the contents page using the route of the eye it runs through the title through the pictures and editor letter and back through to the contents, so it should appeal to the audience making them want to stop and read the page.
The last part of a magazine that I have looked at is the double page spread. The same rules apply, the route of the eye follows through the title picture and article. It is common on a double page spread to have one main picture and also small ones that have been taken from other sourcesa
A bright colour scheme has been used because the picture is quite busy with no paticular colour scheme so a bold highlighting blue has been used to out line the bold title and other pieces of information such as the pull quote the the audience will probably look at first because they stand out more. The pull quote is also usually a small piece of text that creates interest with the reader making them want to read on. The article if it is an interview is most commonly written in columns, with each question asked written in a slightly larger, bolder font and then the answer following underneath.
I have decided to use one image for my double page spread, to keep the page simple and more focused on the whats being said in the interview. The overall layout is quite simple but from previous research I know that readers like an ordered uncomplicated page. The questions are in a bold purple font so they stand out from the answers. At the bottom of the page is a quote stating when the new album is out. The style of my article is informal and relaxed to fit and coordinate with the other pages of the same house style and also to put my audience at
ease and feel involved in the conversation.
ease and feel involved in the conversation.
Represenation
Following the results from my research (questionnaire) my target audience should be teenage girls. This was because i noticed that most magazines especially music are aimed at the male public.
Through deciding upon my target audience I could therefore begin to create my magazine keeping them in mind when making choices from shot type to color schemes used.
I have decided to use images of a young model, so the target audience can relate more to the girl and to anything she says the readers will admire so she should be a good role model.
They are usually fashionably dressed and shown to have a more unique, 'different' style. Within images the attention needs to be focused on the artist unless a prop or setting is used to represent something about the models character.
I have decided to use a female for my front cover because I wanted it too appeal more to the female audience. I wanted to the model to have quite a girly look, and also I didn't want to use any editing on the model so the audience can relate to the model more if her skin isn't perfect. I decided to use a close up image as it is more intimate, the model is looking straight at the camera to give a direct address to the audience. I have used a black and white image to make the picture a bit more intense and unique from the others. I also decided to use a close up image for the front cover so the main attention is on the artist and not what she is wearing, as I do not want the readers to associate the magazine with fashion. I have used a relaxed form of address to the readers, the magazine is aimed at teenagers therefore the language I have used should appeal to a young audience. I have tried to keep it light-hearted and upbeat with a relaxed feel.
Although I have previously mentioned that my magazine is aimed for predominately females, I don't want to restrict my audience to just girls, therefore I have tried to incorporate the colour scheme to also attract the attention of males also. I have used mainly black whites greys and the main colour, purple which is a gender precise colour. It also stands out very well against the black, attracting the attention the of everyone.
Institutions
When doing my research I have looked at many different style of magazine, looking at mainly genre, layout target audience etc.
The publisher of Nylon magazine is 'Jaclynn B. Jarrett', which is a private publishing company based in New York. This American magazine is aimed at mainly girls aged 14 and onwards, however there is also a male version 'nylon guys' which is more appropriate for the male audience, and the company also doesn't restrict its gender attention. The magazine looks at mainly musical artists and actresses, appropriate role models to feature on the front of the magazine.The layout of the magazine is fairly simple, with only a white, red and pink colour scheme with black font, (headings highlighted in red). I have also used this idea by highlighting my headings in purple. Not very many font styles have been used on the front of nylon magazine, therefore I have also used a limited number but enough to highlight different areas and attract attention. The magazine itself includes articles featuring music as well as fashion. This keeps the magazine versatile and varied, something I aim my magazine to be, although predominately looking at the music industry.
Another publishing company I have looked at is IPC Media. IPC produce the music magazine NME which I originally researched as the concept of my magazine would be and is similar to this. IPC are owned by Time inc, who are then owned by Time Warner. Time Warner is the worlds second largest entertainment conglomerate. This company produces magazines such as NME, Nuts and other sports magazines, it also reaches women by producing magazines such as Look and Now.
This is an image from the media pack of NME from the IPC Media website. It shows their target audience as majority male ABC1's with a median age of 23 who have a strong passion for music. This shows that the publishing company should market a magazine like mine, because their NME magazine shows that they reach 74% male, this way publishing -such as mine they would be reaching a wider more diverse audience. NME magazine is popular music magazine in the UK, which is published weekly since 1952 and was the first British magazine to include a singles chart. The magazine became closely associated with punk rock, through the writing of Tony Parsons. This also is more represented for my magazine as it focuses more on music other then other topics such as fashion or lifestyle for example.
Target Audience
The target audience I set myself for this project was mainly females aged between 14 and onwards. I thought that it would be a good idea to aim my magazine at mainly the female generation because from doing previous research and looking at other music magazines audience ratings it seemed that the media was only predominately aiming their magazines at males.I discovered this through my original audience research in which I created a questionnaire asking what people look for in a music magazine and also finding out a little about their personal preferences with regards to what sort of magazine they are most likely to buy and the genres of music they listen too.
In my questionnaire, I also asked what magazine is preferable, the most popular answer was gossip, followed by fashion and music therefore I learnt that to appeal to the readers I needed to include certain conventions of these magazines although I should also incorporate conventions of a music magazine to keep it within the brief.
Appeal to Target Audience
Another way I tried to appeal to my target audience was by using interesting pictures, and of young models to feature in them. By using young and influential role models this will make readers interested in what they have to say and what their wearing etc.
These are some examples of the images I have used in my magazine project, I had to use interesting pictures for my contents page as well as front cover to keep the reader enticed and want to carry on reading the magazine. I have used black and white images as well as colour ones to keep a variation of pictures, you don't often see them in magazines either so they are quite interesting to look at.
I also tried using appealing colours and fonts to make the pages look interesting and exciting and worth looking at .
Technologies
One of the main technologies I have learnt to use is www.blogger. com, the use of internet blogging helped me to construct all of my coursework and keep it all in one place. started the media course I did not know how to use internet blogging and so through this course I have learnt how to. This has been very useful as I am able to edit posts, publish them so my teachers can see them and access it easily and have all my posts there if i want to change anything. The programmes I used to produce my product include; Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Publisher 2003 and photoshop. I decided to use Mircrosoft publisher to create the Front cover, contents and double page spread, I already knew how to use this programme and so this is why I chose to use it, however I feel I have learnt to use it even better through the construction of my product. I made sure I used publisher for the double page spread as you can have the two pages next to each other making it easier to construct. or all three pages of my magazine I had to use a variety of different skills. An important skill that I needed to use was design skills, because without this my magazine would look unproffesional and would not appeal to the target audience. Also, from the research I did into existing products I looked at the different designs and layouts of the magazine within the same genre as the one I have made. I needed to design mine in a way that ensured it would fit into the correct genre, as well as appeal to my target audience therefore I took this into account when deciding on the design of my magazine, for example the colour scheme and the layout of each page and what was included. I also planned each page by creating a rough draft of the layout, researched different fonts and decided if they would be appropriate as well as colour schemes. I used photoshop to edit pictures making composition darker and lighter to make them look relevant to the magazine. I also used a website www.dafont.com which enabled me to look at very different unique fonts to download and use, rather than use the Microsoft ones, the site is free of charge and you can download as many fonts as you like, meaning the fonts i chose looked more relevant and appealing rather than the 'bog standard' ones you can get on Word and Publisher.
Progression from preliminary task Overall, i feel like i have made considerable improvement in all areas of this project from doing my preliminary task to my main task, the final preliminary task has positive and negative elements, for example i like the font, and i think it is appropriate for the brief that was given, however the picture quality as well as editing is pretty poor which lets it down. Another comparison is the use of fonts, i have used a variety of different fonts on my final front cover rather than my preliminary where i only used the one. I also think that I have improved on my design skills; this is because I feel that the layout and design of my main task products are much better and more developed than that of my preliminary task. I also feel that my research and planning skills have improved and developed, because the research and planning that I did for my main task was much better and more detailed than what I did for my preliminary task. Overall I am very happy with the progression that I have made and I can see that I have made a lot of improvement and I am pleased with the final outcome.
