Target Audience

To appeal to my target audience, I am going to attempt to mirror the mixmag contents page; I am using a black background - this will make the contents of the magazine seem a little like a night club (which is where my genre of dance music is found). I am keeping the colour of lime green consistent throughout my magazine and using a picture of my main artist SIAN on top of a lime green background; the lime green background could be interpreted as a bright light (disco light). I think the colour scheme works really well.
To keep similar fonts throughout the magazine, I am continuing to use Courier New and Consolas as the main fonts and I have now decided to use Amity Jack as my new masthead and I will use this on the font that says 'contents'. It's bold and edgy but still quite 'curly' taking the edge of formality away. As my target audience are 16-21 year old's, a bold font for the masthead/heading would not be particularly appealing. Here is an example of AMITY JACK:

Another way to successfully target my audience is through use of images: I will use more than two secondary images on the contents page. Mixmag usually uses one but to keep my magazine looking busy and interesting I will use two. This will entice the reader...
Furthermore, the layout of my contents page will have the stories in columns - because 'move' will be a monthly magazine, I must make sure it is jam-packed with stories so there will be around 80 pages worth. I will use white font for the stories but highlight the heading of the stories in burgundy to tie in with the colour scheme of the burgundy masthead. This will create symbiosis.
Overall, if I follow the above, my magazine should successfully appeal to my target audience and be not so dissimilar to mixamg or DJ either.

Drafting and planning

I have reconstructed my double page spread:

I have kept the background of my DPS lime green to create a clear connection and consistency between the front page, contents page and double page spread. I have kept the layout not too dissimilar from the first attempt; the main artist is positioned slightly tilted to the right hand side which connects to usual dance music magazine's. I decided to keep the secondary image of S.O.D. over the artist image to make the page look busier and more interesting. However, to improve on my use of secondary images I will use a caption underneath in my third draft. I used white highlighting over the most important text in the article in attempt to make it stand out to readers and seem quite bold and edgy to appeal to my target audience. I ensured that the heading and subheading are bigger and bolder to differentiate themselves from the main article. The article itself is an interview with SIAN regarding her album success and new tour. I made sure the font is really small to make it appear like a real life article. Overall I am happy with my second attempt of a double page spread; I think it seems pretty realistic. 

Organisation / Drafting and planning

To improve on my contents page:

I am going to change the layout completely. Firstly, I am going to remove the main artist image as it's been pixelated because of the sizing. This means I will need to use a better quality image if I want to stretch it out as much as I have.

I will not use the masthead again on my final contents page because it could bring confusion to the reader as to whether they are looking at the right page or not. It also takes up too much room and a contents page is supposed to be full of juicy information and gossip that will be revealed later on in the magazine.

Between the black highlighted boxes, I should think about using spaces to ensure that it looks modern and fresh to appeal to my target audience as it creates a sense of simplicity and boldness. 

I must make sure that I edit the secondary images well so that they don't appear pixelated like the main image and have bits erased or not present e.g. half of a finger missing etc. 

I must ensure that there is a consistency of fonts as I could keep the contents stories the same as the masthead but differ the main artists quote font on her main image to give her a specific identity. 

I must make sure that all images on the contents page are prominent and aren't overlapped by the stories to give them a sense of importance and allow them to stand out to the reader.

I am doing this because looking closely at magazine's such as mixmag I have noticed that I have lots of room for improvement:

I can use negative space around the artist to feature my articles and like I said ^ I'll use highlighted boxes, this links to this cover of mixmag. This magazine has a variety of fonts but looking closely, even so, the ones used are consistent; the cover lines are the same font as the title. I'll have to do this in my magazine to stick to the generic conventions found in this edition of mixag. 

/Drafting and planning/Target audience

By taking on the feedback via peer assessment I have taken the time to construct a new front page with the areas of improvement within it.

DRAFTING AND PLANNING:

Firstly I changed the font of the masthead and made it more rounded. I thought that the font of my previous masthead was a little to long and straight where as this new font 'consolas' is quite short and round. This appeals more to my target audience because my previous font had more of a kerrang type target audience. 

Then I added my magazine's website to the arm of the M in the masthead which makes it look less cluttered if positioned here. It is clear cut and still gives information. Websites are present on most magazine front pages and on my previous draft of the front page, the website of my magazine was hardly visible as it was very small.

I changed the positioning of the bar code and changed it to look vertical rather than horizontal. When looking at editions of mixmag magazine I noticed that the bar codes were positioned in this direction. Next to the bar code I have put the dateline which features the date, issue and price. I also did this in my previous draft but like the website it was hardly visible and small.

I have changed the layout of my cover stories too and kept them close to the edge of the page. This ensures that they are not overlapping the cover star SIAN making her seem less important. I left larger spaces in between stories and small space in between separate lines of the same story - this reverts from the text box look I gave my cover stories in the previous draft; giving my magazine's front page a new sense of professionalism. 

TARGET AUDIENCE:

I kept the idea of the burgundy highlight behind the anchorage text as it creates symbiosis with the masthead. This makes the cover story stand out and seem much bolder, appealing to my target audience.

I also used other famous dance music artists on the front page which is one extra, compared to last time. Including 'Disclosure' on the front page will make my magazine genre scream out at the target audience as Disclosure are very popular and always in the news This will appeal to my target audience because they will also like Disclosure as they are in the same genre of music as SIAN.

Finally, the last change I made to my front page was that I used the left third rule. Using this in my particular genre of magazine contrasts with mixmag who keeps the masthead central but connects with DJ who sticks to the left third rule. I think the left third rule works well for move magazine because the title is short and it allows me to fit in another cover story in the top right corner; giving my magazine a sense of business.

I am happy with my second draft of my magazine.

First draft feedback

I have received lots of very helpful feedback on my front page, contents page and double page spread.
For my front page:

I have been told to - 

• Added a pug
• Use a more rounded font for the masthead
• Stick to the left third rule
• Cover lines must be smaller 
• Cover lines must had spaces in between
• The bar code could be vertical and up the side of the magazine

For my contents page:

I have been told to - 

• Use a better quality main image as this one is quite blurry
• Remember to include an actual section for the main artist because there isn't one
• Don't include the masthead, just use an identical font and size to type 'contents'
• Use spaces between all of white text boxes or alternatively don't use white text boxes
• Make sure not to 'turtlise' the images (have parts cut off or uneven)
• Include more stories

For my double page spread:

I have been told to - 

• Make the text smaller to make more a story
• Ensure that the title is the same font/colour/size as the masthead
• Re-position S.O.D. to where her name is mentioned in the article
• Always check spelling, punctuation and grammar
• Get rid of any artist action e.g. *winks* - this is unprofessional 

I will take on these ideas for improvement in my magazine to make it successful.

Drafting and planning

I have finished my first draft for my double page spread:

To connect with the burgundy and white theme throughout my magazine, I have ensured that the colours of my fonts stick to these two colours in the double page spread. I have used a lime green background once again to make a link to the lime green background on the front page and the contents page. 

The large image is my main artist quite obviously as it's a large picture of her in connection to the large picture of her on the FP and CP. I used a secondary image on my double page spread because many magazines of all genres do this to make sure that it's full to the rim of gossip and information. The secondary image is an artist whose name is actually featured inside the article and this is the reason I included it.

I used a quote positioned underneath the main artist image which is a rhetorical question. A rhetorical question draws the reader in, leading them to want to know more. It's also very personal and makes the article appear interesting. I positioned the heading 'SIAN EXCLUSIVE' in the top left hand corner to establish an order and then the subheading underneath it which is a simple summary of what the article will be about.

I stuck to the two main fonts in my magazine of 'courier new' and 'segoe UI semibold'. This creates consistency throughout  my magazine because both of these fonts are used on my FP and CP too. The font colour of the questions in the article is burgundy which connects to the masthead colour and the white connects to the colour scheme throughout the magazine generally. This differentiates the questions and answers and makes the DPS seem coherent and clear.

I've ensured that the article was written in columns because this is what all magazines follow when typing their stories. I used a rather large letter for the first letter of the article which links with all other magazines and newspapers etc. and establishes the beginning of the article too. 

Overall I am happy with this first draft of the double page spread as I've kept the consistency with the fonts, colour schemes and artist image. I also like the change in artist appearance from FP and CP to the DPS, it presents that I have a wide range of images of my artist too. 

However, to improve on my DPS I think I could have positioned the main artist image somewhere else and perhaps could have positioned the secondary image where the article says S.O.D's name for coherence. But on the whole I am very happy...

Drafting and planning

I have finished my first draft of my contents page of move magazine.

To connect with my burgundy masthead, I used burgundy coloured font for consistency in the phrase 'contents' and 'features' this will keep a professional flow throughout my magazine. I have ensured the main story is featured in burgundy as it's my main house colour.

Like my front page, the colour scheme for the contents page is identical. I have kept the idea of purple, green and white so that my stories stand out and look official... I made sure that the same colour fonts were kept away from one another to avoid a colour clash. 

I have continued to use the fonts 'Segoe UI Semibold' and 'Courier' but for my contents page, to prevent the page from looking boring, I included Arial Black too on the quote for my main story. I have underline the quote off the main story so that it stands out and is clear to the reader that this is the article to watch out for, it is the most important one. All of the fonts look quite edgy and sharp, linking to the clear loud genre of music my magazine is about.  

To make a link to my inspiration mixmag, I added the the page numbers on top of the images of the secondary artists in my magazine. This will give 'move' a sense of professionalism - allowing me to understand how layout of a magazine can appeal to the target audience. 

I ensured that all of the stories were positioned with gaps in between establishing that they're all different, this could also be understood by my use of different font colours for each story. I included all of the stories that were on my front page inside my contents page to keep my magazine appearing real and organised.

I used paint.net to add the secondary images. I was influenced by mixmag again to do this. I think it makes my magazine look nice and busy and shows that I had a range of images to choose from for my magazine. I made sure I used both genders so that 'move' will appeal to its target audience successfully. 

Overall, I am happy with my first draft of my contents page because I included more than one image, successfully achieved symbiosis (through the house colours - consistency of burgundy) and made my contents page relate to my magazine of influence mixmag, in more than one way.

However, to improve on 'move's' contents page, I will possibly included the magazine's website at the bottom of the page and maybe a link to the twitter/facebook page to make it appear popular. I may also include my selling line on the contents page if it doesn't look too busy. For improvement I must also remember to keep my text underneath the title and page number all lower case so it doesn't seem rushed. 

Drafting and planning

I have finished my first draft of my front page of move magazine.

I have created a new burgundy masthead as I thought it was similar to the red mastheads used by other magazines like Q and NME. To create symbiosis, I ensured that the anchorage text was burgundy too; this makes a consistent colour scheme throughout the front page. 

I used white text boxes to highlight the cover story text. This makes them stand out and creates emphasis of their importance. The colour of the texts range from purple to green - this is what I had planned, linking to my post from the 7th of January - the best colours to align with the lime green are purple, burgundy and white. 

The fonts I used are Segoe UI Semibold and Courier New. I think they are both effective as they are both edgy and bold. They are clear cut and make my magazine quite simple yet eye-catching. Some of the words on the cover stories are bold or underline and this establishes their importance. All artist names are in bold to jump out at the target audience and show what's inside. 

I made sure that I included a bar code to keep my magazine looking professional, this makes it appear ready to buy from the shelves. The dateline is relatively small on the left hand side of the bar code, it includes the edition number, the month, the price and the magazine's website. This is what magazines typically include in the dateline. However, to improve on the dateline in the real thing I shall make it a little bigger and stand out more.

In the bottom left hand corner of the page I have issued my selling line as 'you haven't seen dance music yet' which is sort of similar to mixmag's selling line of 'the world's biggest dance music and clubbing magazine'. I think my selling line will make my magazine successful as it's very engaging as though the target audience have not experienced dance music fully and they will only be able to get this opportunity if they continue to read. To improve on the positioning of the selling line, in my final magazine front page I will put it either above or below and central to my masthead to mirror the positioning of mixmag's selling line. 

Overall I am very happy with my first draft, I stuck to my idea of changing my masthead, I kept the colour scheme bright and I used pun's on the cover stories. For example, story one on the left hand side is based on the artist example setting a 'bad example'. Also the story on the bottom right presenting Tiesto is based on a fan throwing a lighter on stage; but the story name 'shoes on fire' is actually one of Tiesto's tracks. The only things I set out to change are the size and position of the dateline and the position of the selling line. 

Organisation/Target audience/Research into similar products

I am currently undergoing the production of my first draft of 'move' magazine's front page, contents page and double page spread. I am constantly referring to mixmag magazine and vibe magazine to guide me along the process.
For the front page, I will have the masthead central and covering the width of the page. The colours will be red and white. I am changing the colour of my existing masthead because I think it's too dark and the connotations of black are mystery which contrasts with my outgoing, loud magazine. A medium closeup of my artist will be used centrally on the front page too. There will be big anchorage text along the bottom left of the image to draw attention to the cover star. The selling line will be central underneath the masthead with the same sort of text, it will say 'you've not seen dance music yet...' leading the target audience to continue to open and read the magazine. On the top left hand side of the image I will contain information about an existing artist like Example to give my magazine a realistic edge. On the right hand side there will be two cover stories, one on my first secondary artist JE55ICA and another for Electr0Juni0rs - these will be exclusive interviews or top stories on their new album release. I must ensure I include a bar code on the bottom right corner and to the left of the bar code, I will feature a dateline.
For the contents page of my magazine I will keep the colour consistency of red and white linking to my masthead and creating a sense of consistency. On the right hand side of the contents page there will be an image of my main artist, preferably a long shot. At the bottom of the contents page, there will be three images, one of JE55ICA, Electr0Juni0rs and one of another spare artist Monika. To make a connection to mixmag, I'd like my images to have numbers on so that the images link to their number in the list of stories on the contents page. I will keep the same continuous font or switch between a more lively font e.g. courier and segoe ui semibold. I've had a change of heart and realised that my magazine does not have to be identical to mixmag to appeal to the same target audience, it just has to have a sense of similarity - the colour scheme will contain bright exciting colours in connection to the music genre.
My double page spread will contain the same bright colours found on the front page and contents page. I may keep the background lime green as the my artists background is lime green. I have researched that these colours go with lime green the best:

I think this research will be quite influential because my artist is female and magazines like mixmag and vibe change their colour schemes in each issue but keep the same style of masthead and layout. I think I could reach success by having a quite extravagant colour scheme. I will use the font segoe to make a link to the rest of my magazine. I will position the heading over my artist with a quote e.g. 'I cannot wait to land in Ibiza...' as a link to my main artists new single 'step up's' success. The text will be in columns like other typical magazine articles and to differentiate the questions from the answers, the question text will be bolder and a slightly darker colour. 

If I follow all of the above my magazine should be a success as I'm sticking to the guidelines of usual magazines. I'm intending to keep a consistent colour scheme throughout my draft, a various range of images and clear, bold text. 

Drafting and planning

I have drafted my contents page in terms of layout and images, my aim is to somehow replicate a mixmag idea of a contents page:

I have included the magazines masthead to keep the magazine clear and consistent similar to mixmag. I have wrote 'contents' to ensure the reader that this is where they will know where to find certain stories. I have included the main image of the artist my main story and double page spread is on and secondary images which is similar to the mixmag sort of approach. This keeps the magazine looking busy and full to the rim. The numbers over the pictures tell the reader which pages they will find these artists on. 

To add a realistic edge to my magazine I will now have to add in the stories included in my magazine and think of edgy stories and titles to give them on my contents page.