Flat Plans

The front cover that I have designed has aspects of Top of the Pops and Mizz magazine. This means that this pop magazine will catch the right target audiences eyes. This front cover has the main image in the centre with eye contact towards the audience, this is a very important aspect to make a connection with the audience.



The name of the masthead was out of five possible choices –
• Pop It!
• Burst
• What's Popin'
• Pop Babes
• Star

To get a better understand of which one I should use I asked the people in my class which they preferred for a pop magazine. I did this by asking around and tallying it up, coming to the conclusion that ‘Pop It!” and “Burst” were equally as good. When starting to draw my flat plans I liked the idea of “Burst” more as there were more things I could do when creating the magazine. I feel that when drawing this I thought of balloons and them bursting, giving the idea to write it as though the letters were about to pop. Therefore, giving off two meanings as it is also a pop magazine. When having a look on http://www.dafont.com/ I found three that I could have used, however, the second one I edited to get the marks as though it looked like it was about to burst and realised that this would make a lot of unneeded hassle throughout my work so I decided against it. The first one compared to the third one looked a lot more like something you would see on a pop magazine and so I decided to go for that one. The font is called “Billo Dream” which is the font I will want to use in the masthead and in other areas of the magazine throughout.


The font that I want to use for the main sells is going to be sans-serif ‘Trebuchet MS’ as I want it to look less formal which will give a friendlier feel towards its audience when they read it. All of this is something that I noticed when looking at the other pop magazines I have mentioned. This is the font I would that I want to use, it is very clear, making it easy for people to read which is important when appeal to a younger audience. This font looks very informal making the audience feel more like they are friends with the magazine and therefore creating a relationship with its readers. Another font that I want to use is ‘Arial’ for the less important things that I don’t want to catch the reader’s eye as much like the date of release, the issue number and the price. I want these to be fairly small so it doesn’t distract the audience away from the main sells and images.

Looking at the front cover there are 10 main sells, which is roughly the same as the magazines that I have analysed, give or take. This means that it fits in with the image of a pop magazine front cover and therefore likely to attract the right audience. These main sells include buzz words such as “exclusive” and “top tips” which catch the reader’s attention. Along with the buzz words this magazine design has double figure numbers which makes it feel like it is a packed issue with lots of things going on inside, there are words such as “ur” which is part of mode of address and the way the text speaks to its audience, along with being slang which teenagers can relate to thinking that the magazine is up to date with all the latest information. There are a few images on here which break up the text from the main sells which I feel is needed for a magazine for this age group. The strip line across the bottom tells the reader straight away what to expect within the magazine which helps them to decide whether to buy it and also adds to this packed magazine feel.

Moving on to the contents page that I have designed for my magazine, the bursting theme from the font “Billo Dreams” has followed on from the front cover. This makes the magazine flow better from one page to the next making it look less disjointed. Starting from the top you can see in the right hand corner an image which will be of the editor of the magazine, and a small text box. This will be a short paragraph just to explain to readers what is going on in the magazine. This helps the connection between the magazine and the audience even more. There are quite a lot of images on this page which is what I wanted to create to appeal to the audience that are targeted as they are most likely going to want to see quite a lot of pictures and not too much writing, especially on a contents page. The way that this page is designed makes it easy for the reader to know what page to go to depending on what they are interested in. With the fairly big boxes with text in, to the images which I feel do enough explain by themselves.

All of these images and text boxes have a page number next to them so the audience know where to find them, these numbers will be in the “Billo Dream” font to link the number to the heading on the page they want to go to. Not all of the pages are shown on this page but I don’t feel that is necessary as the reader is most likely going to pick the magazine up from the main sells on the front cover. The contents page will highlight some of the things on the front cover and include extras that weren’t on there. The fact that some of the images and text will be in circles and not all in rectangles adds to the imagination and creation of the page.

There is an advert/campaign in the bottom right hand corner of the page, I think that this will be changed every issue to put across concerns that need to be raised for people of the age group that are buying this magazine. I wanted to get across the idea of bullying in this issue. Other things can be used in there such as child abuse and sexual relationships as the target audience relates to those early on in puberty who might be confused about such things. I feel that this adds a sense of security between the magazine and its readers because if they are suffering from any troubles such as some mentioned above then there is an email or hotline that they can go to. The reason for it being in a magazine is going to be a lot more effective then it being on a billboard or newspaper as this isn’t something they are likely to pay attention to. The advert however will not be too big, it doesn’t want to be the main reading point of this page as it doesn’t happen to the majority of people but is clear enough for people to see.

The double page spread for my magazine is something slightly different to what I have analysed, it is an interview with an artist which is something that I wanted to do as I have seen that true stories within magazines like these take up a double page spread I didn’t see why an interview couldn’t. To make this more like a young audience pop magazine though I have made sure that there are a lot of pictures of the artist which will attract the reader’s eye. The text is colour coded for the interviewer and the interviewee which I feel makes it a lot easier for a younger person to want to read it as it doesn’t look daunting like reading a newspaper. I will be using my font “trebuchet MS” for this as this is my main font throughout my magazine.

The colours throughout this magazine design will be in pink, purple, yellow, blue and white. This, along with the fonts, will make the magazine flow a lot better giving a chance for the reader to enjoy the experience of this magazine a lot more as it will not feel disjointed and some parts being out of place.

Analysis of existing magazines

A front cover analysis of Smash Hits magazine August 2004 and Top of the Pops magazine October 2007.

Use of colour - There are many colours used in both magazines, the colours are quite vibrant and eye catching. In both magazine the colours used in the masthead is followed through and used in the rest of the front cover in the main sells and to make parts of it stand out more than others.

Font styles - The fonts used in both magazines are sans serif which means that they are aiming to be more contemporary and appeal to their target audience. Smash Hits font styles are more unisex, the only thing that makes it seem more feminine is the 'Steal Jennifer Ellison's style' this is probably because this is wanting to appeal to the female audience more than anything else in the magazine. In Top of the Pops the font used is very curvy which is commonly known to be more feminine.

Language use - In Smash Hits there are many buzz words used, they use slang that their audience can understand which also makes them seem more contemporary and 'cool'.

• 'Juicy secrets'


• 'All new'
  
• 'World exclusive'


• 'Shocker'


• 'Madness'
  

These all make the reader feel that this magazine is better than other pop magazines as they are being told about the latest gossip, the newest stories and all about the newest shows on TV. Words and phrases like these engage the audience to read this magazine. Other techniques used to make the audience interested in this magazine are things such as the rule of 3, on this front cover the 'mad, bad and dangerous' will attract the reader's eye as the rule of 3 is effective and powerful.

In Top of the Pops there are also buzz words used -

• 'Special'


• 'Plus!'


• 'Truth'


• 'Freaky'


• 'Amazing'
  
• 'OMG!'
  
• 'Exclusive'

All of these will catch the audience's eye when looking for a pop magazine. Abbreviated words are used such as 'OMG' so the reader feels like the magazine can relate to them, the magazine seems 'in the know' and makes it seem 'cool' and this also gives the idea that they are 'friends' with the readers. The other techniques used in this magazine are things such as alliteration are used 'star styles' and 'Hollyoaks hunks' the effect of alliteration is slightly poetic and so it makes it comfortable on the ears when it is read aloud. On this magazine cover there are also numbers to suggest a packed issue, '54 star style essentials' and '5 sexy Hollyoaks hunks' these numbers usually stand out well on the front cover to attract the readers eye, this is used as it is a simple yet effective way for people to want to know what it is about.

Images - The main image in both magazines takes up about 2/3's of the page, they both slightly cover the masthead and are famous people at the time who have got a main sell to show that there is something about them in the magazine. Generally the main story in that issue. In Smash Hits there are two other images on the front cover relating to stories inside the magazine. This, compared to Top of the Pops isn't that many, they have 13. For this type of magazine I think it is good to have lots of pictures as it is for a younger audience, they usually prefer to look at pictures then read because the name of the celebrity may not be clear to them at that age.

Layout - The main image in Smash Hits is placed in the top section of the page, this then gives the bottom half of the page to the main sells and other images. There is a tag line which is 'Squeezing stars juicy bits' which is a pun and also has alliteration which makes it flow more. There is a strap line at the bottom of the page to explain about all the artists that will be in the magazine.

A Contents page analysis of Mizz magazine

(Due to Top of the Pops does not have a contents page)

Use of colour - There is again lots of colour being used in the contents page to draw the reader in, the pages are categorized and this is done by headings used with different colours. This will make it a lot clearer for the reader if they want to look at a particular thing in the magazine first and if they are deciding whether to buy it this make it clearer to show what is in the rest of the magazine.

Font styles - There are only two or three fonts used on the page, this is generally a font for all headings and a font for the rest of the text on the page. This makes the page flow better and makes it easier on the reader's eye.

Language use - There are buzz words on the page are words such as the following -

• 'Caught out'


• 'Cringe'


• 'Divas'

This is still following the idea that the magazine is trying to be in touch with the readers. Other things such as 'Star Style', 'Bag a bargain', 'Wise up for winter' and 'Banish those blues'. These all appeal to the reader as they are also easy on the eye but are slightly poetic and make it flow easily.

Images - There are quite a few images which take up over 1/4 of the page this is used not just to reveal what is in the magazine but also breaks up the page so it doesn't look like too much writing.

Layout - There is only a column for the actually contents part on the page. The rest is a paragraph from the magazine, adverts, contact details and images. The paragraph written by the magazine is in the top left hand corner, the pictures below this, the contents in the middle of the page with contact details down the right hand side. There is also an advert at the bottom of the page which is relevant to people reading this magazine. This is a good way of advertising products as they need to get it across to a certain audience and this then means that they can find the right magazine for this.

A double page spread analysis of Top of the Pops magazine

Use of colour - Again the uses of colour on these pages are still vibrant, eye catching and bold. There are still around five colours being used and this probably means that they are following this theme throughout the magazine.

Font styles - Quite a few fonts are being used on this page, especially for the headings. This is probably because they are using different fonts for different topics on this page as they having something about Pussycat Dolls, EastEnders and Zac Efron and David Beckham. This means that the font styles are a way of separating the page in to categories.

Language use - The language used here still follows through from the Top of the Pops front cover that I have already analysed, even if this is not the same issue, the magazine has the same idea throughout all their magazines. They are Using words such as 'Drama', they are using speech boxes from the members of the pussycat dolls to make us feel that we are getting closer to them then we actually are. The language used in these are quite comical.

Images - There are a significant amount of images on this double page spread. This is quite common for Pop magazines as they are aimed at a fairly young audience who would prefer to see more pictures and less writing. Unlike more sophisticated magazines such as Cosmopolitan.

Layout - The main story for this double page spread is Pussycat Dolls taking up 2/3 of the page. There are two other stories on this page which are the far right of this spread. This makes the reader see the main story first then follow through to the less 'important' stories. There are many photograpghs with caption underneath. There is hardly any writing.

Target Audience

>From this data from http://www.nrs.co.uk/ we can see that Top of the Pops magazine is more popular with C2DE with 170,000 readers, C2DE are socio-economic classifications which include people who are skilled, semi and unskilled manual workers, the unemployed, pensioners and students. 139,000 readers are in the 15-44 category which is most likely due to teenagers being interested in the magazine and the older end of the age group being the ones who buy the magazine most probably for their child. There are only 47,000 male readers of this magazine compared to 122,000 female readers. This shows that this magazine is a lot more popular with the female audience, we can see just by the front covers that it would appeal to them more for obvious reasons. The male audience to this magazine could even be the ones that are the older end of the age group buying it for their child so this doesn’t give a clear/accurate explanation. However we can look investigate into other areas such as articles and quotes to get a clearer idea.

I took the initiative to go onto the TOTP website and found that this magazine is published monthly for £2.20 this is something that I will need to take into consideration when making my magazine. I also looked to find a way of contacting them to ask about their target audience and see what they say. Here is what I said below. I have explained that I am at Sussex Downs College and that this is for my media coursework. Here is the answer I received. This reinforces my statement above about young teens and their parents who buy the magazines.

Another magazine I want to look at is Smash Hits, this was a very popular Pop magazine in the 1980's. However, unfortunately it folded in 2006 but has continued with a music channel. I have looked at other data to find out who this magazine was aimed for. When I looked on Wikipedia it stated that it was "aimed at teens and young adults" and that it was a fortnightly magazine. This is different to the comparative magazine that I am looking at, the differences between these magazines make me think why this one folded whereas Top of The Pops is still going.

I found an article on the BBC website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4673136.stm), which said that it was "essential reading for teenagers during its peak in the 1980's" this backs up Wikipedia's statement which means that we can definitely say that this is a magazine that was targeted at the teenage audience but was in its prime decades ago. Another quote I found within an article written in 2006 mentioned that "Today, Smash Hits is a lost cause that has somehow contrived to shed 840,000 readers in the past 17 years." (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/feb/03/pressandpublishing.popandrock) this shows that in the peak years of this magazine there were about as many readers as there are for Top of The Pops today.

All of this is similar to the data that was found on NRS for Top of The Pops magazine. This shows that this is the vital target audience for this type of magazine and I will need to take this into account when constructing my magazine and making sure that it has characteristics of those above.

Introduction

I have been given a task to design and produce a front cover, contents page and a double page spread for a new music magazine. This task is a development of my skills from the preliminary task as I will be using the same software. I have decided to focus on Pop music for my magazine.

Here is a link to the preliminary task, a college magazine -

http://jessicablackmanastask1.blogspot.com/