evaluation

My magazine achieves the conventional features of a pop magazine for teenage girls as its background is pink, which is popular for girls as their favourite colour so it will attract them.

It also has the typical bar code, date and issue number which are all included in a magazine.

The is an attractive young girl on the front who is smiling and looks welcoming. Most pop magazine have a model as the front cover who is smiling so i think i have achieved that conventional feature for my magazine.

However i did challenge one controversial topic which is being discussed over the past coupe of years. And that is too skinny models being on magazines which influence young girls to go on diets, leading some times into anorexia or bulimia.

For my model i didn't choose an exceptionally skinny girl to be on my front cover and contents page and double page spread because i wanted to break that convention and get the message across that looks aren't as important as they seem.

Another way i broke this convention is that i didn't put that much make-up on the models as i wanted them too look natural because i didn't want to influence my target audience to put piles of make-up on as they are on young teenage girls.

This was my model for my front cover:


As you can see she isn't the typical skinny model who is barley wearing nothing at all.
She also doesn't have that much make up on either.

My next model who you see in the contents page and the right hand corner of the front page is also not the typical skinny model you see on nearly all the celebrity/fashion magazine. She also is wearing considerably more clothes than typical models do.

Some media institutes like WHSmith, Boots, Superdrug and large supermarkets would distribute my magazine as most of the shops like WHsmith, Boots and Superdrug are all popular shops for young girls when they go into town to do some shopping, that would be one of the main reasons that they shops would agree to sell the magazine.
Large supermarkets like Sainsbury's and Asda would be good to distribute my magazine because you are more likely to see daughters and mothers shopping together and they may persuade their parents to buy the magazine for them.

My target audience was covered in a previous blog:http://milliegladwin.blogspot.com/2009/11/target-audience.html
The way i dressed my models (fashionable yet basic clothes) suited my target audience as in my profile for my typical reader she wore fashionable yet relatively cheap clothes. This would attract that type of person as she would be able to relate to them and would be able to buy some of the clothes advertised in the magazine.

After using Photoshop and Indesign for the first time i found it considerably more helpful than if i hadn't of used them.
For example i was able to cut out an image and put it on a transparent background, which was very useful as my original background wasn't appropriate for my magazine.
I was also able to get fonts from http://www.dafonts.com/, where i was able to download fonts and use them in my magazine to make it look more professional

Looking back to my priliminary task, i think it helped me with the main task by reminding me of how to design a magazine. Also it prepared me to think of a design for my main task.
I saw it as a sort of draft for my main magazine as i wanted to experiment with the two different designs, what style and colours look better.

Photo's

I chose this photo to be my main photo on my front cover.

I took it on a normal background because i new i wanted to crop her out and put her on a plain background.

I wanted most of her body in it because i wanted to show off what she was wearing and her whole look as she was the main concentration on the front cover.


I chose my model to wear a plain yet stylish dress to modestly bring out her celebrity status, as my target audience isn't that old i didn't want to glamorize dressing up and focusing on looking nice as that's not what it's all about, like present magazines now, causing you girls to feel pressurized into looking perfect.

Continuing with that point i didn't want to have my model with loads of make up on as i wanted her to look natural and real. So i put on the basics, Mascara, foundation, eye liner etc.

I chose my model to be smiling so she looks welcoming and isn't intimidating to the reader. I also made her look at the camera as it looks like shes looking at the reader which makes it more personal.

The way she has both hands behind her back shows her innocence which is good as it doesn't give off a bad impression to the younger audience.

I chose this picture to be in my contents page to show the different celebrities that will be showing in my magazine.

The colours the models are wearing are all colour coordinated as they are all wearing blue or black - simple colours. Their co-ordination of colours reflects the groups connection with each other, it shows their closeness and strength as a group.

The way they are all leaning into each other also reflects their closeness with each other, which is good when you look at a band, it makes them come across as more friendly.

The poses the models are doing are modest and not too flamboyant. Which gives off an innocent look which is good to have for you teenagers and sets a good example.

They some of the models are wearing glittery clothes which links back to the genre of the music by girls between age 12-14 liking glittery things and also links to celebrity status being all sparkly and great.

I chose this photo to be in the double page spread as the larger photo because it shows her innocence as she is smelling a flower.

It is also seen as very feminine when you see flowers and especially to younger girls which are my target audience for my magazine.

I chose her to be facing to the side because it suits the action she is doing and it captures the details of her facial features and the features of the flower.

Fonts

For my magazine, i had to choose some fonts for my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

For my front cover i decided to only have a maximum of three different fonts. That way it would look professional and would be easier to read.

For the title of my magazine i chose three different fonts that i could potentially use, which where the following:



The first font is simple yet girly as it is bold and clear but also has sparkles around the letters which subtly helps it to stand out.

The second font is bold and clear, however that is really the only thing about it, which is good but not when you want your magazine to stand out.


The third font has a lot going on. It stands out with all the range of sizes of stars in it.
However compared to the font of the Top of The Pops magazine title they are quite similar as they both look like they are sparkling, which draws attention to its self.
As i couldn't decide on my own on which font to use for my title i asked a few of my peers what their favourite font was and what would look better.
The reseults where that 5 out of the 10 prefered the first font, 3 out of the 10 prefered the second font and only 2 prefered the last font. For that reason i chose the first font as my main title for my magazine
The fonts i used for my sub heads and pull quotes i used a simple font like Times New Roman as its simple and easy to read.

Analysis of existing magazines

This picture is of a contents page for Mizz magazine. Mizz magazine has used a range of different colours to draw attention to the reader. It also makes it more fun to read because of the different colours.
For the readers sake it has grouped the different types of articles and pages in the magazine making it easier for the reader to get to what they want to read first.
They have also used a range of pictures on some of the main articles in their magazine. This may be to get the readers to read those things first as they are the main features.
They have included on the right hand side of the page the name of their magazine, the contact details and all the workers involved in making the magazine.
Compared to Top Of The Pops it looks less colourful, with a plain background, it makes it look like its not quite finished.
At the bottom right hand corner there is an advertisement to help dyslexia. This is quite interesting as it is asking for funds and raising awareness, it is a nice gesture but in my opinion doesn't really relateto the theme of the magazine. However they have included the target audience by suggesting cake sales at their schools and all other things the target audience are familiar with.


Looking at this front cover of Top Of The Pops i can see that the target audience is for young teen-aged girls. I know this because of the large amount of feminine colours used throughout the page. There is a lot of pinks and purples, which young teen aged girls favour.
In many female magazine covers they include a main sell section on their magazine using a large number to draw the readers attention to it. However in many magazines they usually advertise quite expensive things as the target audience can afford it. In this magazine they have chosen relatively cheap items as the target audience cannot afford expensive things. This is a way of drawing the target audience in.
Compared to other music magazines they only use a couple of pictures. Sometimes only one main one like Mix Mag. However in Top Of The Pops magazine they have a substantial amount more. For every Flash and Sub Head they have included a picture to go with it. This is to make it easier for the target audience to read as its for a young audience. It also makes it more fun to read there is more pictures than text so its quite relaxing as well.
On this magazine cover there is a lot going on. In some ways it's quite a bad thing as you may feel like you have missed something out which you don't want to feel. For example in music magazines like Kerrang or Vibe they have quite a simple layout with main flashes and the whole page isn't squashed and packed with information. Usually in magazine they have a main picture and then a main flash to go with it and then usually that's the only picture on the magazine, if not they are small ones in the strip line. But in Top Of The Pops they have placed a load of pictures dotted around which makes it look quite messy.
The magazine wants to look glamorous and by doing so they have made the name of their magazine look glittery and all around the front cover they have added sparkles. This is to maybe try and relate to the reader as when your the target age of Top Of The Pops, girls usually want to feel glamorous so by helping them they are drawing them in to buy their magazine.

Target Audience

Using www.nrs.co.uk i looked up the statistics of readers for Top Of The Pops magazine, from April 08 to March 09.
I found out that the amount of readers of Top Of The Pops aged between 15 - 44 was 1,430,000.
The Statistics showed me that most of the people that read Top of The Pops are in the social class C2DE.
My target audience for my magazine would be 12-14 year old girls.
Profile of a typical reader
A thirteen year old white english girl who is in year eight at a public secondary school. She is averagely popular with a few best friends. She has no boyfriend but has a crush on a boy in her class.
She does relatively well in class and passes all her subject test.
On the weekend she goes out into town with her friends and goes to the cinema. Sometimes sleeping over at her friends house.
She completes all her homework on time and rarely gets detentions.
She wears the basics for make-up: Mascara, Foundation. On a typical weekend she wears jeans a fashionable top yet relatively cheap, pump shoes and accesories.
Her family is financially stabile and she gets ten pound a week pocket money.

Introduction - Main Coursework

For my main coursework i have been asked to design and create a music magazine front cover, contents page and two page spread. I have decided to create a pop magazine for girls at the age of 12 - 14. This task is a develpoment of my skills from my preliminary task. http://milliegladwin.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html

Photographs

I didn't chose this photo because i didn't think it really suited what i was asked to do. It is a head and shoulder shot however it isn't very clear that it is. Also it looks like it has been taken without much thought. The pose isn't a very serious pose either unlike the picture i chose. However it does look like a fun photo which i wanted but i don't think it was very suitable for a college magazine. This picture also doesn't really come across as a sailor theme which was my aim of using the photo, although the girl has a sailor hat the colours used in the pictures don't match the conventional colours of a sailor.

I chose this picture for my magazine cover because its a head and shoulder shot, which is what i was asked to use. I also chose it because what the girl is wearing is a sailor outfit which sailor colours so it would be clear to the reader why she is wearing it. You can also see the whole girls face which i think is needed for a front cover of a magazine.