Evaluation Task 2

How does your magazine represent a particular social group?

The genre of my magazine is UK Grime. This means that the stereotypical target audience of this genre is mostly young teens and young adults aged around 16-26, both male and female.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                To attract my audience I told myself that I needed photos for my magazine that would relate to my audience. I went ahead and found my model which was in the age margin for who i wanted to target with my magazine. 

I also thought that if I wanted to appeal to my target I needed the model to fit in with the fashion style of people within the age margin but also within the grime genre. In my pictures throughout my magazine, shows him wearing a black hoodie, black bomber jacket, and a baseball cap. These are typical clothing items that a lot of our generation these days wear. This means that the magazine will relate to a lot of people and attract them. He is also wearing a gold chain and a gold watch. This shows that within this genre comes success which also motivates a lot of young people out there. As clothing and fashion is a huge passion for people nowadays, especially people within my target audience, I think that the fashion used in the pictures in my magazine will create a bond within the audience. 

My magazine will be aimed at all ethnic groups as it is mostly targeted for the people's passion for this music genre.

Evaluation Task 1

In what what does your magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real magazines?

My magazine uses the conventions of a magazine but also developed in a way to make my magazine unique in my way. I do not challenge any conventions because i follow through with the conventions required in a magazine.

For my title, i followed to conventions of a magazine. I created my title using inspiration from current magazines. The title for my magazine is quite common in the magazine industry. I researched a lot of magazines and saw that the letters are most of the time close together. I then decided i will go ahead and use this style in my magazine. I used the magazine 'FADER' as inspiration for my magazine title.

I decided to go with a similar style and layout of the front cover of 'FADER' magazine. I placed the main title and the main coverline in the same places as the 'FADER' magazine as i liked the simple but effective look of it.

 I also added a few of my touches to it to make it look unique and not too similar to the 'FADER' magazine. These include colour. I used a different colour on the main coverline, whereas, 'FADER' uses white or black most of the time. I used colour as i want my magazine to stand out from all the other music magazines. I stuck to the colour scheme which was mostly black, white and grey but also a couple of colours from the clothes of the model such as orange.
 I also stuck to the convention of the title being big and bold to stand out to the audience and grab the readers attention. I also kept the original convention of a normal magazine and placed the bar code at the bottom left of my magazine with the price of the magazine above it.
 Another similarity between my magazine and a lot of music magazines, especially grime, is the medium shot of a music artist in the centre of the page of the front cover. 

Formative feedback - Miss Hunter

WWW: Ron - your recent updates are good. Your case study is detailed and thoughtful.


EBI: Some of your statements need more explanation. E.g you have said that a monochrome colour scheme links to grime - explain why they link.


Next steps: Publish all your recent work to your blog. Push yourself to complete your magazine and to begin your evaluation.

Photoshoot For Magazine

Inspiration For Magazine Photos

I chose these pictures as inspiration because i think these type of photos will appeal to my target audience for the grime genre. 

Also, i would like to stick to the colour scheme of dark colours such as black and grey as they suit the genre. Grime is a very underground genre and a lot of artists rap about very dark subjects and events that have occurred to them in their pasts. Grime artists express themselves in their music by getting their stories across to their audience. They tell stories in a very deep way which will get to peoples emotions. The dark colours link very well with the genre due to these reasons. As you can tell, in all of these pictures, the colour black is in use in the clothing. Some of the pictures are even taken in a black and white effect to go with the genre.
  

Audience Research

Case Study Part 4: Double Page Spread

The double page spread of this magazine about Miguel which is a very famous American singer. It takes up 6 pages in the magazine and each page has photos dotted around equally. This articles target audience is Miguel's fans which are mostly females because of his style of music. Miguel is a very successful singer so the audience want to read about his music success.

On the first double page spread, there is a medium long shot of Miguel. The fact that the target audience is mostly females, the article is almost trying to seduce them so they can read on. In this Mid shot, Miguel is topless underneath his jacket and is holding a bunch of roses. Roses and the colour red both show love and passion which is going to attract a lot of females in this case. Also, it seems as if he is throwing a rose at the reader. This stands out and will bring them in even more into carrying on reading the article. The colour red is also very eye-catchy and it contrasts the background, which is white and makes the whole page quite powerful. The colour white, which he is wearing, shows light, goodness and perfection which makes the article more bright and not boring to read and look at for the readers. Another thing that really stands out on the page is the title 'MIGUEL IS TRYING TO SEDUCE YOU'. Even through all of the colours, photo and symbols used to show this, the title is there to make it even clearer that 'Miguel Is Trying To Seduce You' and that this is the whole point of the article. The title is in black. It is very bold and the fact that it is in all capitals makes it stand out even more. It also contrasts the white background.

Under the main title there is a small paragraph of a summary of what the articles is going to be about. The font is quite small compared to the main title but it is big enough for the readers to read it. It is also not very long. They kept it very simple but effective because it says what it is going to be about in only a few words at the end, 'Sex, Drugs and Self-Empowerment. The font is pink which is a feminine colour. This goes to show that the articles is definitely aimed more towards females as pink is thought to be a very girly colour. In this small paragraph the names 'Miguel' And 'Ted Kessler' are in different colours to the rest of the paragraph. Miguel's name is in black which is bold and Ted - which is the interviewer- is in white which also stands out in front the shadow of the rose in the background which is dark. This different colour font in names is done to just make it easier clearer to see who is involved in this article, in this case it is just the two.

The next double page spread is where the article actually starts. The layout is quite simple and the writing to photo ratio is quite equal. This is done so the readers do not get bored of too much reading and if there was just writing on the page they would automatically think that it is boring. The photos give the article a more fun and live experience. There is writing all the way down the left side and all across the bottom of the page, but the photos are all bundled up mostly on the middle and the right side of the double page spread. The writing is laid out in columns so it is easier for the reader to follow. In the bottom left corner of the page there is a black box which stands out and straight away catches the reader’s attention. The editor has picked a quote and put it in the box with white font so that the reader views it before reading the article. The quote could suggest that it is an important part of the interview so it will make the reader curious and look for it in the article and maybe read on from there. The article uses simple black font which stands out on the white background. The bold black title 'TOPLESS' stands out and also links to one the main topics of the article which is 'sex'.

On the right there’s 4 different photos of Miguel, all different sizes and are set up overlapping each other. The first one is of him crowd surfing which shows the interaction between him and his fans. In the photo, everyone is trying to reach for him. This shows how much his fans love him and that he loves his fans back as he is interacting with all of them. In one part of the article it shows another way of his interaction with his fans. "I FUCKING LOVE YOU, MIGUEL!". The word 'fucking and 'love' show how passionate his fans are. He replies "Love you too, baby" to that fan which, again, shows how much he loves his fans back. The fact that he uses the word 'baby' makes it seem as if he knows that person but it just shows the connection he has with his fans and how we makes the feel good and welcome. This also interacts with the reader as it shows what type of person he is and presents his personality in a positive way. The other 2 photos of him on stage express his passion for music and singing. In the photos he looks very passionate by the way he is jumping and dancing while holding the microphone. This just shows that he is not just there to get his performance over and done with but to also leave a fun and unforgettable experience for him and his fans. The last photo is of his album cover, 'Wildheart', which is also quoted in a pink box on top of the photos which gives information about them.

On the last double page spread, the editor used a similar layout as the one before where most of the page is columns of writing but also a few photos aswell around the page. This time there is a long shot of Miguel walking down a street on the top left corner of the page, which covers about half of the page. The clothes he is wearing follows the colour scheme which shows that the colour scheme is constant throughout each double page spread. The colour scheme is clearly white, black and red. In the long shot, he is wearing black shades, a white shirt, black and red striped trousers and classic black shoes. These colours are very classy and show he is a classy guy but also shows the consistency of the colour scheme used and that the magazine is very organized and sophisticated. The bold black box with the quote is used again to catch the reader's attention, so they can view it first and then try to find it in the article so they can read on. This makes the reader really interact with the article and makes them feel like they are a part of it. The quote used is about 'sexuality'. This will have an effect on the audience as they are females and sexuality is a big thing for them. The last photo is a close up of Miguel and he is looking towards the camera. It seems as if he is looking into the readers eyes. This is used as a way to make the reader feel like they have interacted with Miguel as it is the last picture of him from the article.