Flat Plans. Blog 4

This is the flat plan of my front cover. I decided that i wanted the background to be the same shade colour as parts of the masthead because it will link in a way. After looking at lots of different shades of this colour with the masthead i found that it looks better as a children's magazine front cover for the background colour to be very bold as well as the masthead and have the masthead and background colours kind of contrasting so that it stands out and is eye catching. I wanted the masthead font to be two different colours that alternate because it is brighter and more eye catching to a younger audience, the colours of the masthead also show it is a children's magazine and this would appeal to children.
The main flash that i have done on this flat plan isn't the one i am going to use because i decided it wasn't the right kind of story of the target audience i am aiming this magazine at, i thought it was more for in a gossip magazine such as, 'Heat' or 'OK!'. This kind of main flash would be aimed at people more around the age of 20+ but my magazine is aimed at children 10 and up. The main flash i am now going to use is, pop stars new years resolutions and it will include the pop stars that would be this target audience's favourite and most well known.With the tagline, 'The BEST place to find the HOTTEST pop goss!' I wanted it to sound exciting and for children to read this and want to read more of the magazine which is the aim of a tagline. Using capitals for the words 'BEST' and 'HOTTEST' enhances and emphasises the adjectives which the target audience for this magazine will look at the most.
On this flat plan it says in a star shape to one side how much the magazine is going to cost, it says it will cost £2.00 but i am going to change that to 99p because i think this will attract more buyers as the target audience is young and may not be able to afford £2.00 for a magazine especially with pocket money. By making the price 99p it sounds cheaper than £1.00 and so the customer will be more willing to buy the magazine.
One of the other main sells i chose to do was about a famous male actor called 'Cameron Williams' which my target audience would know and admire and to draw them in, the article is about secret confessions the famous actor has and is only telling this magazine which then makes the audience want to know the secrets he has, as no one else will know, this makes them feel special.
The second main sell i wanted to do was about a famous band that has come back into the charts with a new album after being away for a while. The band is called the 'Queuetee's' because i thought it is a girl band and so they should have a name that sounds quite girlie but unusual and unique so the spelling is different to how you would expect it to be. This main sell would appeal to my target audience because the majority of them would be female and females in my target audience like girl bands and idolise them.
Finally the third main sell that i want to write about is 'How to get your ideal guy' but after thinking about it, i thought that this was aimed for older people again people that might read 'OK!' and 'Heat' magazines. So i changed the language and rephrased this to 'How to impress your CRUSH! All the best tips from REBECCA STARLY' by rephrasing this it is now aimed for the target audience i am doing.
Lastly i wanted to do all the most important information such as, names of the pop stars and adjectives so that the audience see these first and read the articles inside.

For the page heading which is contents on this page i wanted to use the same font as the masthead on the front cover so that a pattern is followed to the next page. It shows on this page that the background is shaded a pink colour but i have now decided that i want the background to stay white so that everything that is on the page is more bold and the colours show up more, i think this will be appealing to a younger audience and be eye catching. I wanted to use boxes to show what was going to be in the magazine because that way you can then visually see what is going to be further on in the magazine and i think this is important for a young audience because they can get bored easily and so by using images in boxes it could make the buyer look further on in the magazine. I wanted the boxes to be tilted because this way it looks more quirky and not as dull as just straight and upright boxes, this is again important for a young target audience and all these things could help get their attention and want to read on.
How i set out what was going to be in my magazine i found quite difficult but i found a way that makes everything that is going to be in the magazine like clear and bold and easy for young people to read. I put the column to the right of the page so that when the reader reads the title contents they will then automatically read what will be in the magazine after that because when you read you read going right and then the first thing you would read after the title would be whats in the magazine, this again would help to catch the attention of a young audience. I have put the writing in a different colour for the page numbers so that it is more bold and easy to read so that they can quickly skip to that part of the magazine.
After researching lots of different pop magazine i found that they had lots of competitions and opportunities to win things, so in my pop magazine i wanted to do the same thing because i think this also can have a factor in whether the child wants to buy the magazine. For example if the child sees something that they would really like and there is a possibility of winning it then they might be more likely to buy the magazine. I put prizes to win that i know that the target audience will probably want such as a Nintendo DSi as this is new on the market. I wanted to put pictures of these prizes but i thought it would be better if the images were later on in the magazine and had a whole page to do with prizes this way the reader knows what page the prizes are on from the contents page and will skip to that page.
At the bottom of the page i put a welcome section which says hello to the reader and welcomes them to the magazine basically, i thought this would be a good idea because this is a friendly gesture and i think would be suitable in a children's magazine as they then can have a clearer idea of some of the things that are going to be in the magazine by having someone tell them in an informal way. I have added at the very top of the page, the masthead of the magazine 'POP ROCKS' above the title contents which then reminds the reader of what the magazine is called. I have also used the same font as the masthead for the words 'POP ROCKS' so that this font is recognised to the audience.

This is my double page spread flat plan, as you can see i wanted to create it so it is very bold and eye catching so that my target audience won't just skip past it when they are looking through the magazine. I researched other pop magazines like mine so that i could see how they layed out their double page spreads, i did this so that i could adapt mine to suit the target audience and looking at other magazines like mine really helped me create something that catches my audiences eye.
I wanted to make the background colour pink so that i could create a theme colour for this particular band ' The Queuetee's' as on the front cover their image's background is also pink. I did this so that the audience could link them and know who is being talked about. I thought a good idea would be to use a darker colour to use as the background colour of the boxes that the article will be written in so that it is more bold. I thought having the main image of the band in the middle of the page so that it is the most eye catching part of the page and this also shows the young target audience what the double page spread is going to be about. Also if the audience know who the band is and they are very famous then it will be even more appealing to them and make them want to read the article more. I wanted the 'Queuetee's' part in the heading to be bigger and bolder than the rest of the writing because this is also one of the first things that the audience will see and will make them want to read more if they know who the artist's are.
To give more information that doesn't relate to the actual article i used a different shape to write text in so that it looks more interesting but you can tell that it isn't about the article. This was used to tell the audience about where they are touring and how to get tickets, by doing this the magazine is promoting the band but also informing the audience about what the band are doing. After thinking about how the double page spread was going to look like, i decided to make some changes when i was making the magazine.
I changed the layout quite a lot but i think it benefits it. I moved the main image to the left hand side the the double page spread so that i could fit more of the article in and so it wouldn't be confusing to read especially as i have a young target audience, having all of the article on one side would be easier to read and make sense. I looked at 'Top of the Pops' magazine to see how they did their double page spread layouts and i saw that they mostly kept the article together and had the image to one side. I still wanted to keep the background colour as pink but the only thing i changed was not filling the boxes with the article in a different colour because i couldn't find a colour that would go well with the theme and that would make the text easier to read so i left the boxes blank and transparent so that they are the background colour.
I also moved the circle shaped box that tells the audience about the band touring to the bottom right hand side of the page, this shows the audience that this information isn't about the article but information you might want to know after you have read the article.
The only thing i added to the double page spread was the box and image where you can win a sighed photo of one of the band members, this would attract my target audience because if they are fans of the band then this is something that they would want to win.
I used a font for the title that links with the font used for them on the front page, again i did this to create a link that the audience could recognise.

Fonts. Blog 5

This font is one of five fonts i am going to choose between for the masthead on the front cover of my music magazine. I think this would be a good font to have, but i would like my title to be in all capitals.


This is the second font i looked at for the masthead. I like the way it is very bold and makes a statement and also the way it looks like it has a shadow behind it, but i don't think i goes well with a pop magazine for a younger audience.

This is the third font that i looked at, it is very clear to read and i think would look quite good on the front cover of my pop music magazine, but i think my masthead should be more informal and not so neat.

This is the fourth font i looked at for my magazine. This one looks more informal than the third font, which makes it good for a pop magazine for a younger audience. I don't think this font is bold enough and will be eye catching enough.

Finally this is the font i have chosen for the masthead of my pop music magazine. I think this font is informal enough, creates a good effect with the way it is 3D and i think would be very eye catching to a young audience.


All of the fonts i have considered are from the category 'cartoon' on http://www.dafonts.com/. I chose this theme because from looking at different pop music magazines, they all seem to have quite cartoon type mastheads to make the magazine appealing to young people. I have also noticed that the letters in the font on pop magazines are usually slanted or tilted in some way to make it look informal and interesting to young people as well as less intimidating, i think.

This is the first font i looked at to be the font for my main flash head line. I really like the way it looks quite comical and would be good to put in a magazine aimed at younger people because its easy to read and isn't very intimidating. It is bold and very noticeable, which is what i want for a main flash headline.

This is the second font i looked at, it is bold and would be a good font to use colour in for the main flash but it looks too similar to the masthead so i don't think this would be the best font to use, i would like to use something different.

This would defiantly be a good font to use for the main flash because it looks like handwriting which would appeal to a younger audience and is very easy to read. Although i don't think it is bold enough to be the main sell font.

This is a very easy font to read and looks fairly bold but i think i would like to use a font that looks a bit more interesting. I don't think that this would be eye catching to a younger audience.

This is the font i have chosen to use on the font of my magazine for the main flash. I think it is bold enough and is easy to read for a younger audience. It also looks more interesting than some of the other fonts, but it looks professional enough to put on a magazine.

I have looked at five different fonts to see which one would look the best as the main flash font. I came to the conclusion that i would like it to look eye catching but also look professional. I would also like it to be bold and easy to read as it is aimed at a younger audience. All of these fonts i have looked at are in the category 'comic' on the website http://www.dafont.com/. I really like them all but i defiantly think the one that i have chosen for the main flash font is the best one as it will be eye catching to young people.

This is the first font i looked at for the font i am going to use for my main sells. I like this one because it is simple and neat but it is also again easy to read for younger people. It isn't too bold but it is noticeable.

I quite like this font as the main sell font because it is unusual and eye catching if it is in capitals but on the other hand i don't think i would use it because it isn't bold enough and may not be very noticeable on a busy front cover of a pop magazine.

This font is really bold and easy to read but i think it may over power the rest of the front cover and take the attention away from the main flash. I think this would be good if it wasn't so bold.

This font was from the category 'groovey', i quite like it because it is very different and would be very good to fill in with colour. I think it would be interesting to a younger audience but i don't think it is very easy to read for young people. i would like my font to be clear.

This is the final font i have chosen for my main sell font, i really like it because it looks quite interesting and is bold but not too bold that it will over power the main flash. I think it would be good to fill in with colour and i think it looks clear and neat which is important for this kind of magazine.

I looked at two different categories for choosing the font for my main sells, i looked at 'sans serif' and 'groovey'. I looked at these two because i wanted the font to be clear but interesting. I thought i would look at 'sans serif' first because that is more of a clear and easy to read font but then i thought that it was quite plain and dull, so i looked at 'groovey' which is where i found my font that i will use. I think i made the right choice because it is clear and looks interesting to a younger audience.

Analysis of contents page and double page spread. Blog 3

As i have chosen to create a pop magazine, i chose to analyse 'Mizz' magazine's contents page and double page spread.

This is the contents page, lots of bright colours are used to attract attention to the important parts such as what is going to be included in the magazine. A bold block of red colour is used to show contact details and to show who did what for the magazine, by using a block of colour like this is makes it noticeable so that the reader can see how to contact them and who to speak to. The bright colours also make the reader look at it first and is appealing to a younger audience as this magazine is for children.

A range of different colours are used to show the different categories that are going to be included in the magazine such as, 'Celeb' and 'Real life'. This is a good way of letting the reader choose what kind of thing they want to read about and having all of that category such as 'Celeb' in one place instead of flicking through all the pages to find what they want. As you can see colour is used quite a lot to attract attention to the important parts and is eye catching to a younger audience.

They have used sans serif font rather than serif font, this is easier to read and is common in magazines now as it is more popular. As this is a magazine for a younger audience the font should be easy to read and big. They have used lots of different colours for the font as well which makes it more eye catching and interesting.

The language they have used is simple but interesting to younger people and also easy to read again. They need to use simple language use as this is a magazine that is aimed at classes C2DE which are for people with lower paid jobs, which suggests they are not as well educated as the higher classes such as class A. But mostly the language is simple so it is easier to read for young people.

The images they have used are big and bold and they stand out. They use up a lot of room on the page and usually are relevant to what is going to be in the magazine. Making the images relevant to what is going to be in the magazine lets the reader know what is included easier and let them know what they may want to read in the magazine using an interesting photo

, it also makes a younger reader know what is going to be in the magazine which makes it easier for them.

The layout is neat and mostly in columns so that is quick and easy to read. Some of the images are next to the story and page number in the contents column which makes the image and story link so that the reader can see the connection and choose from both the image and story title, and see whether they would like to read it.

The colour used on this double page spread is only a few different colours like, pink, red and yellow. These are the three boldest colours that are used. They are very bold and straight away eye catching.

Again they have used sans serif font which is easier to read and a lot more clear compared to serif, again as this magazine is aimed at younger people it is a lot easier to read for them. Some of the words like 'camp' and 'rock' are in capitals which makes it more eye catching and makes it a lot more bold and makes the reader look at that part straight away. Words like 'come to' are not in capitals as they aren't that relevant and don't need to be read straight away. They want the reader to see what the page is about right away so they don't just skip the page because they think its boring. I have noticed that the words they want the reader to see are in capitals and are made to look exciting and bold.

Again the language is simple and easy to read. The parts of the article with the most gossip are either separated from the rest of the article or and made a lot bolder so it catches the eye easier. Because younger people usually like reading gossip, it makes it more appealing to the target audience. The sub headings are written in a very exciting way and makes you want to read more and much of the sub headings are just adjectives.

The images that are used are big and quite 'in your face'. As the article is on a band they have used images that are related to the band and use obvious props like guitars. This lets the reader have an idea of what the article is going to be about. The images over lap some of the words in the title and other bits of writing, which suggests that some the writing isn't that important and the images are more important and will draw the reader in more.

The background of the double page spread is the image of the band which makes this the most important part of the two pages, the writing in the article is then over the top of that in boxes that are tilted. This gives the double page spread an informal look, which again is usually done for a younger target audience as it looks more interesting to look at. They have used lots of shapes such as circles to again make it look more interesting to younger people.

Everything about this contents page and double page spread is very bold and made to be eye catching as the target audience is young and need to be colourful and interesting so they carry on reading it and buying it.

Target Audience. Blog 2

As i am doing a Pop genre for a music magazine, i looked for information about how many people and what age group and class read certain pop music magazines. I found this information on www.nrs.co.uk, this is a website that you can find magazine statistics on.

For Top of the Pops magazine i found that,

• 62,000 ABC1 class people read this magazine.
• 107,000 C2DE class people read this magazine.
• 139,000 people aged 15-44 read this magazine.
• Only 30,000 people aged 45+ read this magazine.
• 47,000 males read this magazine.
• But, 122,000 females read this magazine.

By looking at this information i have found that, this magazine is aimed at people with lower paid jobs and are a lower class. As you can see 45,000 more people in the lower class's (C2DE) buy Top of the Pops magazine.

This magazine is defiantly aimed at younger people as more than double of people aged 15-44 buy this rather than 45+ aged people. Also, many more females than males buy this magazine, which makes this aimed mostly at females.

A typical reader for this type of magazine would be, a young teen aged female probably around the age of 14/15, their parents would be in the lower class, not well paid jobs. I think that the type of person that would buy a magazine like this would be a main streamer because this magazine shows mainly famous pop stars who are rich and have a status, this is the type of thing main streamer's want. They will go with the flow and look up to the most popular artist and they don't stand out. This type of reader would definatly be a 'BAT' as the type of person is very young and innocent and this is what type of magazine it is, it is aimed at young people (mostly girls) and the content is innocent.

I decided to look at a different type of magazine that i am not doing and see what differences i find about the two different types of magazines and the different type of people that read them. I got this information off the same website as before www.nrs.co.uk.

For the Kerrang! magazine i found that;

• 239,000 ABC1 class people read this magazine.
• Only 178,000 C2DE class people read kerrang! magazine.
• 378,000, 15-44 year old people read this magazine.
• Only 39,000 people aged 45+ read this magazine.
• 290,000 males read this magazine.
• 127,000 females read this magazine.

After researching the statistics about this magazine i can see what type of people read this particular magazine. I can then also compare how different the target audience's are of each of the magazines i have chosen to research.

It shows that more people in the class's ABC1 read it, which means they are more upper class than class's C2DE, they have better paid jobs and for example can be doctors and lawyers. This shows that this magazine will be more expensive and more popular with better off people.

Younger people tend to read this magazine a lot more than people over the age of 45, this means that the target audience they wanted to read this magazine was obviously for younger people. From my experience more people around the age of 15-20 read it.

It also shows that it could be aimed more at males as there is a much higher number for males reading this magazine than females.

I think the kind of person that would buy this magazine would be a 19 year old male, with a well off family, possibly who have parents that are lawyers or a higher status job. I also think that the type of person buy buy this magazine would be a succeeder as they have money but they don't need to show it, by buying this type of magazine they are showing off that they have money they are just buying it because they like it. For example, someone buying Vogue magazine would be showing off that they have money and a high status as it is a very expensive magazine and is known to be a high class magazine. But buying this magazine doesn't seem to me that it is really expensive and showing off. I think this person would be a YAK as it is a rock type magazine and rock music is known for its 'out there' behaviour. As i said before this person would be young probably between the ages of 15 and 20, as these are the ages when the person would be young, adventruous, keen and single. I also think that the typical type of person to read this magazine would be a 'good-timer' for the same reasons that i think they would be a 'YAK'.

Introduction. Blog 1

For my main piece of coursework, I have been asked to create the front cover, contents page and a double page spread of a new music magazine. I had been trying to choose between doing a Rock 'n' Roll magazine and a Pop magazine, I thought that doing a Rock 'n' Roll genre would look more stylish and suit an older target audience, but I thought doing this one would be too easy to communicate with my own target audience and type of music. In the end I chose to do a Pop magazine because I thought it would be more challenging to communicate with a younger audience and I wanted to find out more about the pop genre and how the magazines are set out and why.

This task is a stage up from my preliminary task i did before, this time i will be using the skills i have developed from the preliminary task and making my main piece of coursework better.

This is my preliminary task:

http://mediaaspreliminarytask.blogspot.com/