evaluation part 7.

What have you learnt about technologies in the process of creating your product?

What have you learnt about technologies in the process of creating your product? on Prezi

evaluation part 6.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

what is a media institution?
A company that owns a large number of smaller companies in various mass media
what kind of institution would I be looking at?
Because my product is a music magazine I need an institution that takes part in publishing. One of the first ones that come up when you research this is IPC media who currently distribute NME, this is the kind of publisher I would target as apart from NME they don't publish many music magazines and so there's a gap which mine could fill
I also think that because an indie magazine is quite new and relevant a few publishers might be interested, this is good as it means I would be able to pick the one that I think would do the best job at getting to my target market

why IPC?
As I said, IPC publishes NME who promote to a similar audience as my magazine. This means IPC would already have experience in the kind of promotion and distribution I'd need. IPC has also stretch NME across a variety of other media forms with a TV channel and website, this is something I would hope might be a possibility if my magazine gathered the right fan base. This is a good idea as well because indie music listeners and specifically my target market are frequent users of different technologies.
IPC is also a UK based media institution which would be helpful for my magazine as I don't think it would have a big enough following to be took abroad because of the newness of the indie genre.
the correct decision?
To check this was the right decision I revisited earlier research from www.nrs.co.uk that looked at readership figures for NME, this confirmed that IPC could grab the readers as NME had an astonishing  253,000 buyers between October 2010 and September 2011, this reinforced my earlier decision as it made me realise that even though they do have a lot of readers for their existing magazines they still had a gap for mine.
who would stock my magazine?
I would want quite a well known retailer to stock my magazine. I would try to get a place like HMV to stock it as it's a music store and doesn't always just have the mainstream things but some for niche audiences as well. I think this would be a good place to start selling as people that are normally very in to music will go to HMV so this would enable the possibility of a secure 'fan base'.

evaluation part 5.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to the full product?

As well as the things I outlined in this video I learnt a few additional things as well. As a result of the deadline I really had to be time conscious and learn how to manage my time effectively so I could get everything done. As part of my time management I also had to make sure all my research was done being I had to start my project.

The research was a lot different to what I'd done before as well as we were doing it a lot more in depth so this was something new we had to learn. Other things we did in more depth were thinking throughly about our photos and creation of our products. For instance we thought about and planned where we were taking our photos rather than just taking them randomly.

We also paid attention to smaller details when creating, an example being a barcode on the cover which is something you wouldn't typically think about.

evaluation part 4.

How did you attract/address your audience?

evaluation part 3.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? on Prezi

evaluation part 2.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

After establishing a TA I had to kind of mould my magazine around them. When doing this I found the research I had done on blumer and brown really helpful! I thought about what I would want people to use my magazine for. I decieded to focus a lot on Individual Psychology and the idea that you can build a sense of yourself from media texts. This didn't mean creating a group of clones but instead giving a variety of different insperations and people to aspire to.

As well as this I liked the idea of Diversion espacially because of the age of my TA. Being in sixth form myself I know sometimes you need to get away from work and have some down time. This would also hopefully be something my magazine could provide.

evaluation part 1.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

how does the cover do it?

By using a typical boy who I would class as part of my target market I have tried to appeal to both males and females. This is because Indie music is largely about the music rather than the apperance. So even though males may be able to relate to him and girls may draw a particular sexual appeal from him - which is found to be something that sells in the media - it shouldn't really matter because they would probably be paying more attention to the guitar.

I used bands that are well known in the Indie scene which those that maybe aren't that in to Indie music would probably recognise too. This presents the readers as current and up-to-date which is a part of Indie music because its only quite recently began to surface virally.

The fact that everything on the cover is to do with music also reinforces the fact that Indie is very much about the music. I say this because you see some music magazines that will advertise things about clothes on the cover, this isn't something that would represent my target market very well.

how does the contents do it?

The large image on the contents again features a guitar and so as I said before my readers would probably be more interested in that than who is actually in the photo. I used no other photos in my contents and laid the writing out clearly. This can represent the idea that my readers would be people that prefer things to be straight to the point. They'd rather be dancing at a festival that searching through a contents page to find the story/band they want.

how does the double page spread do it?

The main idea of my double page spread is to be a guide to festivals. This is something thats very big with Indie music as it suits it quite well. The tone of the article is very informal and jokey so to represent my readers as people that enjoy humour rather than hard hitting stories.

Th article also says a lot about alcohol because my target audience is primarily university age students who would be legal to drink. The amount wrote about alcohol would seem to represent them as quite rabid drinkers but for a festival, this is the norm.

The images I used in the montage on the left page are all one that seems quite fun and full of life - or as full of life a still image can be. This would be typically photos maybe found on my ta's facebook page or just on their home computer, memories from one of their many adventures.

why represent them in these ways?

I didn't really deciede how to represent this social group I just tried to follow the conventions of how they'd been betrayed to me before in the media. Throughout my magazine I wanted it to be familiar to then as though it had been shaped around them and their lifestyle. This was majorly done - as said in the video above - by representing them positively. Again because if I presented them in a negative way why would they want to buy my magazine?

the final products.

- There are around 5 different fonts I used on my cover. This is because some fonts I used - such as the ROB PARKER - I used to give the artists their own font. With the other sell lines I used identical or at least very similar fonts but put them in different colours to create distinctions on the page

- I tried to stick to a 3 colour, colour scheme and did with all of the text using only White, Navy and Yellow. My cover image I put in black and white to reach the vintage and timeless look that is very apparent in a look of Indie texts. I let the guitar colour appear through as I wanted to make it stand out and draw the readers attention to it to reinforce that its a music magazine

- The cover model isn't looking at the camera to appear less intimidating as Indie is quite a 'soft' genre.

- There's a burst in the top right corner saying 'new'. This isn't hugely noticeable but would just let people know its new so hopefully they would want to try it out.

- The only words on the page in yellow are 'Rob Parker', this is because he is the main artist article and so this needs to be largely promoted as it's what draws a lot of people to the magazine

- I used '50 best selling tracks of the month' as one of my most noticeable sell lines as its a curiosity statement and would make people wonder what the 50 tracks are.

- The main image on this page is the only one and is consistent with the cover image, this fits with the idea of formula which is part of the four f's. This just means that the articles and contents should be similar throughout and weekly/monthly.

- The orangey colour of the numbers are nearly matched to the coloured guitar in the picture. This presents the colour scheme of the page which is quite simple like the front cover is.

- I didn't put many items on my contents as I just wanted a few main things so people would go to look at these and find other things in the magazine.

- There's only 3 different fonts on this page for the title, numbers and written words. This helps to make the page look neat so it's easy to navigate.

- The main title is what you see first on the page and immediately tells you what the article is about. It's written in quite a messy young font. I also used little picture symbols in the top right corner to fill the white gap and also because it fitted well with the feel of the article.

- The writing is in three columns as this looked most conventional. I put a quote at the bottom of the middle column to split the text up.

- Under the heading there's a tagline reading 'how to survive the music, mud and mayhem'. This is the wording used on the cover again contributing to the formula of the magazine keeping with a consistent style.

- The photos are all tinted blue to make them seem more unified. It also dulls down some of the colour to give it a more mellow festival look. 

- Within the article there are sub-headings which separate the writing and allow people to read what they want to on the page. At the beginning of the article there's a section saying 'ingredients' with bullet points to introduce people to the article.

- There's a 'drinkaware' warning at the end of the article which was put in to contrast the amount of talk of alcohol in the article. I put this in because as a 'gatekeeper' I would control what people read in my magazine and although alcohol is fun they should know there can be dangers.

COVER DRAFTS

i created this draft of my cover but there was something that wasn't quite right so then i created all of these..

double page spread. 2nd draft.

front cover. 2nd draft.

my design philosophy.

My personal opinion of what looks good in  magazine is going to contribute significantly to what my coursework will look like. I also have to take inspiration from my music genre and obviously follow conventions of typical music magazines. I've decided to blog bout what kind of things i personally look for in a magazine along with those that you'd find in an indie magazine.
Retro vs Modern. As paradox as it sounds, I like both and I think the indie genre does too. The mix between retro looks along with modern music are what i perceive indie as. The look many indie artists have isn't the latest fashion trends but more vintage, timeless and preppy looks.
Use of Colour. I think black and white is good. Colour sometimes can make things look tacky in my eyes but then in some cases it can be really effective. When using colour I'd use very similar colours and try to avoid clashing ones. Indie magazines would also support this i think as they use quite neutral colours on the cover and throughout.
Minimal vs Cluttered design. I love minimal design. I think this may predominately be because when I've tried to experiment with  more cluttered design its never worked but still, I prefer minimal. I think it also things to be seen clearly and allows you to make important things more accessible for the eye.
Timeless vs Now. This is a big thing with indie. It is timeless. I believe that in however many years you could look back at an indie band and they would still look slightly conventional to the era. I really like this idea, just that whenever, wherever it would still be cool. That is if you think indie is cool in the first place.
Conventional vs Original. I prefer a mix of both. I think it's possible to be conventional with some original aspects, though you have to be able to get away with it. It has to be something subtle that's original but something that's still noticeable. The indie genre itself is original. It's whole purpose is to be independent and different. Saying this though, they do have some conventional idea's as there is no way to be completely original, its near impossible.

david carson.

David Carson was an American graphic designer who brought many innovative ideas to the making of magazine covers. He mainly focused in the use of different typography when designing his covers for his magazine 'Ray Gun'. 

His designs went completely against what anyone else had seen before. Even though you can barely read the sell lines and probably will have no idea who's in it excluding the main image i really like some of them! This one in particular i really like with the photo/white stripe divide. I probably won't design my magazine around his ideas as they go completely against conventions and thats not something i want to do.

cover font.

I decided now I'm looking at doing another draft of my front cover I would do some research into the font for my title. I set up 7 of my favourite fonts on a page and then printed this off to ask people what their preference would be. The page looked like this;

of the 15 people I asked 5 chose option 5 and 3 people chose 3 and 4. The others only had single choices.

So now I'm going to try the cover with font 5 and see what i can make!

 

contents page. 2nd draft.

This was the one i liked the least out of my first drafts so I despreately needed to sort that. I've looked at a lot more indie magazines since making my first draft and also have asked people their opinion on my first drafts. A general concenus was that it was too black and white so I put some colour in this one - crazy i know.

I like this one a lot more and think it looks way more conventional than my first attempt.



'The Fly' contents deconstruction.

This is the contents from an issue of 'The Fly'. It takes up one page as the one on the right is an advertisment.

The majority of the page is taken up of an image, this is of an artist featured in the magazine and in the right bottom corner is the page its featured on.

The top of the page is the date of the issue and in a smaller font 'CONTENTS'.

The bottom of the page is taken by the other features in the magazine, these aren't categorised but instead ordered by the page number.

They've used a simply layout so it's easy to see the pages and whats on them.

'The Fly' double page spread deconstruction.

This is a double page from 'The Fly'. This is from their newest issue and taken from their website view of it.

The main image fills one whole side of the double page. This is something found in a lot of magazines though sometimes the images will be smaller. 

The colour scheme for the page is simple. The black and white scheme with the bland colours from the image make the page and writing quite bold. It also fits with the connotations of the band name as 'sacrifice' is quite dark and sinister.

The picture is conventional of the indie genre as they normally go against the conventions of a typical magazine - skinny smiling faces. The people in the image are under dressed and only some are looking at the camera.

The buttons at the bottom of the image aren't actually part of the magazine but were there to navigate around the online version.

The bigger 'W' at the start of the article is almost a must for any article. I don't know why, you just see it everywhere, but credit to it, it looks good.

'The Fly' cover deconstruction.

To see the kind of style i want for my cover I've decided to deconstruct an existing Indie music magazine.

the bands name is one of the most prominent texts on the page. Its central to the cover and is what primarily catches your eye.

the title of the magazine appears at the top of the magazine and is in a sans serif font. This is the least formal font and would be the font most familiar to the target readers.

the only burst on the page is in the shape of a pricing ticket and labels the magazine as free. This is in yellow and is the only easily identifiable colour on the page.

this is a banner at the top of the page and is simply band names split by a slash. This would maybe highlight some bands that are featured in this issue.

although you can't really see it very well this is the dateline which is underneath the title. Its states the issue date of the magazine as well as the internet site, letting people access the magazine on more than one medium.

the main image on the cover is of the band 'The Horrors'. They are standing so that all of their faces can be seen but some obstruct others bodies. The backgroud is a dark cloudy sky which seems to fit with the bands overall look. They seem quite scruffy which follows typical conventions of indie bands.

  

Blumler and Brown - 1972

Many people have come up with theories as to 'what people do with media'. Bulmer and Brown came up with four primary factors for why people may use media:

• Diversion - Something to do, escape from reality/problems.
• Personal Relationships - Using media to discuss with friends afterwards. Media as a substitute for 'real contact' (this idea heighten with the age of facebook?).
• Personal Identity or Individual Psychology - Defining yourself by your media texts, building you sense of self.
• Surveillance - Finding out about the world, finding out info.

These all seem rather relevant as to why a person would buy/read a music magazine and I think this theory can be the least criticized.

I think all of these i will try to apply to my magazine. I especially want to concentrate on the Individual Psychology. I want my magazine to almost be able to define the 'indie' genre. I want people to be able to read it or even just look at it and be able to relate to it. I also want them to be able to gather ideas from it about their lives, places they want to go, bands they want to see.

contents page. first draft.

Love the 'interview central' bit, not too sure about the rest. 

front cover. first draft.

double page spread. first draft.

This is my first attempt of my double page spread. I used photo's that I've took from previous things I've done. I tried to make it look conventional to a normal magazine by using colums, photos and a large eye-catching title. I used the 'Polaroid' effect on the photos because I thought it seemed to fit the 'festival' idea that the typical square photo. I created the pie chart in the corner with influence from Q as i saw one in one of their magazines about the different aspects of a band. I really like their use of it so i created my own for the aspects of a music festival. Any comments on improvements would be gratefully accepted!

edited tests.

These are all my edited versions. I really like the ones in black and white with the guitar in focus. I like these because the black and white is quite conventional of the indie scene and the guitar in colour puts emphasis on the fact that its a music magazine.

test shots. working out my recce.

These are all original shots I took to begin to gather an idea of what kind of images I wanted. I then looked at my favourite ones and edited them to see what I could make, these will be on my next post.

risk assesment.

Before taking my photos I had to check that the equitment and area was safe. As it was the middle of the day I didn't need any lighting equitment and I planned to use natural light. The camera I was using was borrowed from school and already had a safety neck band which decreased my chance and dropping and breaking it.
The only other equitment I was using was a guitar which was only as a prop and so I didn't need to check much about it. I did have to make sure however I had a back up camera and guitar for the unlikely possibility that one was damaged.
When checking out the area I was taking the photos I removed any rubbish from the ground so it was safe and also made sure that no cars would be driving by to ensure safety for me and my model.
Once I had prepared and check all of this it was safe to take my photos. There was still risk of injury from trivial things like tripping but this was something that couldn't be help, jsut everyone around had to be sensible and safe.

niche audience magazine.

This is a magazine that only sells 26,000 copies a month. Compared to the hundred of thousands that NME and Q sell this is a tiny amount. The magazine is published 6 times a year and is targeted at a very niche audience. 

The main types of music that Shindig advertise are; Mod, Garage Rock, Psych and Freakbeat. These are very targeted music genres that are typically based in the 60s. 

So far they have only released 25 copies and a standard copy costs £4.95 but they also sell annuals that cost £11 each. Although this price seems extreme the people that will buy this magazine will have to be very into their music and so wouldn't mind buying the magazine.

Shindig are on both Facebook and Twitter which are free social networks and a great way of advertising for small businesses. This must work due to the 26,000 subscribers but not well enough that no one else in the class had heard of it. 

                                                         

The front covers are all very similar. They have a constant 60s theme and the writing and cover image will follow this. The three code color scheme is present on the cover with the use of Yellow, Orange and Black/White. The artists feature on the cover have the same laid back, 'i don't care' look. 

inspiration.

This is what i want my magazine to be. This is a band I mentioned to be on my target readers top 5 most played called Two Door Cinema Club and they are a huge inspiration for my magazine. Their music is sound that allows you to just get lost in the moment and that's exactly what students need. I wanted to put this song here 1. to break the 'picture-writing-picture-writing' layout i had going on, 2. to give an idea of what I want my magazine like and 3. because it's an amazing song.

POP MOOD BOARD.

Although I'm not doing pop as the genre for my magazine I wanted to create a contrast to my indie board to almost see what not to put in my magazine.

INDIE MOOD BOARD.

this is what they'd look like. maybe.

This post links back to my target reader and who I plan to aim the magazine at.

This is a photo i'd expect to find on my readers profile. I personally got this photo from tumblr which is also a website I think they would be interested in, forgot to mention that before, woops.

target reader profile.

Socio-economic Group; Upper middle class
Age; 17-25
Gender; Prodominantly male but also targeting some females
Ethnic; White caucasian
Lifestyle;

• STUDENTS - either university or sixth form, wouldn't want to be too specific 
• Fesival goers
• Messy looking, that 'i didn't need to try to look this good' look
• Many friends - Uses social networking, on trend so maybe a twitterer?

Top five most played on their iPod;

1. The Wombats
2. The Vaccines
3. Two Door Cinema Club
4. Livingston
5. Vampire Weekend

So, if it wasn't already completely obvious the genre of my magazine is going to be indie.

genres.

A genre is a category of artistic composition, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. 

Music magazine genres;

• Rock
• Pop
• Indie
• Dance
• Folk
• Dubstep
• Country

I have already planned that I'm going to do a magazine with an Indie genre. I found it really hard to find any existing Indie music magazines but i did manage it in the end. Some magazines that currently work with the genre are;

'The Fly' and 'Under The Radar' are both indie music magazines that are available in the UK. 'Avenue Sixtyone' differs from them because it is an online magazine. All three are quite unique looking with their images but still follow the typical conventions of a magazine.

Q - 'discover great music'

HISTORY
Q was first published in October 1986, automatically setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher photography and printing standards. When starting out the magazine was sub-titled 'The modern guide to music and more', but this later changed to its now 'Discover great music'. It was originally going to be called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), but the name was changed in oder to avoid confusision for a snooker magazine. Another reason which was ucovered in Q's 200th edition is that a single letter title would appear more prominent on newsstands.


TYPICAL CONTENT

The typical cover on Q is quite similar to that of NME's. There will be a main artist - although on some issues there is more than one or not even a person - this will be accompanied by the artists name being the most prominent word on the page, excluding the 'Q' of course. Also alike with NME is the changing colour scheme taken from the main image. For example on the issue above the blue colour scheme is taken from Florence's eye make-up. The colour scheme will normally have only one extra colour added to it as issue will usually comply with the red and white colour scheme first and foremost.
The typical Q issue will use around 150 pages but this may change with special/limited editions. Many artists including Adele, The Kings of Leon, The Killers, Madonna and loads more. The issue will start with the 'Q Contents' followed by its monthly features that are all subbed at the beginning with Q. These features include things such as 'QNow' and 'QLive'. There will be some recent music news and then feature articles on special stars for each different magazine. The magazine will often include things with statistics such as in the most recent issue 'The Superbowl in Numbers'.
The page layout within the magazine is fairly consistent, the red and white colour scheme is carried throughout the magazine with a different colour featured on various pages. The Q is also very often featured on various pages.


TYPICAL READER
Using the national readership survey tells us that between October 2010 and September 2011 we can see that 476,000 people brought the magazine. Like for NME this will only show the amount of people that brought the magazine apposed to how many that would have actually read it as more people than the one that brought it are likely to have read it. As with NME you can also see the percentage of men and women that buy it, by this we see that 0.9% more of the male population buy the magazine as opposed to women. This seems like a believable statistic as Q is quite targeted at the male population and you can see this on the cover and throughout. For the most part, readers of ‘Q’ will be fans of indie or alternative genres of music, because this is the genre that the magazine mostly writes about. Although quite often Q will feature artists such as Rhianna or Lady Gaga who would fit more under the 'pop' genre.


HOUSESTYLE
Q is an instantly recognisable magazine by its large red and white developed logo. This is always found in the top left corner although it may sometimes be slightly covered by the main cover image. Q is not only a magazine now but a household brand, with a successful website, hosting many TV events and having many links with charitable organisations. The cover will usually host a main artist or sometimes even film stars or a special edition cover.


PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION
Q is published monthly by Bauer Media Group. Brauer is a german publishing company which operates in 15 countries worldwide. There magazine circulations amounts to around 38 million magazines a week. Brauer owns two media brands Q and Kerrang which are both heavily based around alterntive/rock music. Their publishing brands consist of women's weekly magazines; namely Bella and Take A Break. And also TV listing magazines such as TVChoice and Total TVGuide.


SOCIAL GROUP REPRESENTATION
Q shows a softer side of some artists and presents a new look at the music industry. With its quite frequent use of statistics and ratio graphs it presents the Indie genre as an intellectual and logical one. Reading the words in the magazine allows you too see its very often use of sarcasm; a widely used form of wit. This creates some humour in the magazine giving it the 'softer' side compared to NME.


ANYTHING INTERESTING?
The title dropped 10, 718 in the 12 months to December 2011, sliding 12.1% from 88,240 to 77,522. Q magazine is feeling the credit crunch like everyone else..

NME - 'the ultimate guide to the week in music'

HISTORY
The paper's first issue was published on 7 March 1952 after the Musical Express and Accordion Weekly was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn, and relaunched as the New Musical Express.

It was initially published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. 

On 14 November 1952, taking its cue from the U.S. magazine Billboard, it created the first UK Singles Chart. The first of these was, in contrast to more recent charts, a top twelve sourced by the magazine itself from sales in regional stores around the UK. 

TYPICAL CONTENT

The typical cover of a NME magazine will be of a single artist with there name as the prominent writing on the page. The colour scheme used are normally tailored to the magazine and take inspiration from the artist on the cover. The colour will normally be taken from something insignificant, for example, on a previous issue the colour scheme was derived from the artists nail varnish. I think this is so clever and gives the magazine a fresh look each month! The covers aren't normally too busy as everything is clear and easy to read but they are never to empty either. They often will have a burst such as the 'Blur comeback interview exclusive!' to highlight interesting things that are inside.
The typical NME magazine consists of around 70 pages though this will sometime change with special editions. Artists such as Oasis, Rihanna, Kasabian, Lady Gaga and many more have graced the cover and inside pages. The issue will normally start with news relevant to the time of release concerning the world of music. Which will then be followed by feature articles of different artists and pages for letters from the readers. You would also find advertisements, competitions. An unusual feature of the magazine is that it doesn't have a contents page but instead a band index which alphabetically lists all of the artists appearing in the magazine and which page to find them.
The typical layout of a page inside NME is very similar to that of a newspaper. This is especially evident on the news section where the prominent colour scheme is black and white, fitting with the conventions of a newspaper.


TYPICAL READER
The national readership survey is a website that is very helpful for finding out these sorts of things but only to a certain extent. From the web page we can tell that around 253,000 people brought the magazine between October 2010 and September 2011. This only shows who brought it though as many others may have read it, either in the shop, a copy of someone elses or even sitting in the hairdressers. The website also breaks down who brought it into ages. The two age ranges are 15-44 and 45+, these, especially the first, are very broad age ranges. If you take the two extremes from the first one, 15 and 44, their opinions and views on a magazine would be very different. So to have them in the same category doesn't really seem sensible, it's kind of like taking the views of Christians and Catholics as the same, it just wouldn't work.
The survey does however tell us the amount of men and women that buy the magazine and 0.4% more of the male population buy the magazine than the women population. This seems plausible as the magazine does seem to be aimed more at men due to its sometimes provocative images of women and the authority the male artists present when they're on the cover. Though again, this isn't totally representable as some women may read the copies that a male has brought and vice versa.


READER FACTS; 

• total readership spends £326 million on audio equipment per year
• 52% working full-time
• 29% are still studying
• 71% of readers think it's important to look well dressed

HOUSESTYLE
NME's housestyle is similar in nearly every magazine. The masthead 'NME' is always found in the top left corner  which allows the readers to identify it straight away. The main artist of the issues name is normally always the most prominent thing on the cover. This will help in establishing creditability for the issue. The magazine is quite loud and in your face to comply with its 'indie rock' feel. This is because the ideology of indie rock is quite a calm loud, although that sounds absolutely absurd, it works. 


PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION

NME is published by IPC media ltd. This is a UK publishing company which produces over 60 iconic media brands. With print alone it reaches almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men, totalling almost 26 million UK adults. There male portfolio consists of brands such as Nuts, Rugby World and of course NME. As well as this their women's division also holds brand names such as Marie Claire, Look and Chat. 

As well as the magazine NME now also stretches across many different media platforms such as nme.com, NMETV, NME radio and many live events and awards.

SOCIAL GROUP REPRESENTATION
NME creates quite a realistic view on the celebrity culture that we have become accustomed to and also often presents it from their point of view. Although NME will vastly only represent a small cross section of the music industry - the 'indie rockers' - it will sometimes venture to produce articles with more commercial artists as the muse. Previously this has included artists such as Lily Allen and Lady Gaga who are obviously international starts, a great reason to have them on the cover of your magazine.
I think the way in which NME presents its reader is in a quite intellectual way by the format and content of its articles. The use of sometimes offesive images on the cover does manage to keep the edge that NME has created. Although many people may like to read it, it doesn't appeal to all due to its sometimes 'bad boy' nature.

ANY INTERESTING?
NME is mainly focused on selling to men. This is quite expected by the amount of attention paid to females within its pages.

And nothing else as of yet. If i find something, it'll be here shortly after.

HISTORY OF THE MUSIC MAGAZINES

As part of the research for the main task of creating a music magazine front page, contents and double page spread I'm going to look into the history of two current UK music magazines. I've decided that I'm going to look at NME and Q music magazines.

research methods.

Primary research involves the collection of data that doesn't already exist.
examples; questionnaires, interviews and textual analysis.
- I will aim to use this quite a lot as i want my own information about magazines rather than using other peoples for example I will be doing a lot of my own textual analysis of existing magazines.
Secondary research involves the summary and collection of existing research.
examples; internet websites, cenus and books.
- I would use this when its come to things like finding facts and figures about the magazines and also for finding things like definitions, or information about existing material.
Qualitative research is that which involves words or a persons personal response.
Quantitive research is research that can be measured and evaluated to show trends or patterns.

ideology of music

'the ideology of music will affect the design. A pop magazine will use bright, primary colours and smiling pop stars. Rock magazines will be clashing, use aggressive fonts and colours and have grimacing bands, sometimes making rude gestures.'
- Mr Swain

magazine cover terminology.

• title - a name given to a piece of work. This would conventionally appear at the top of the cover.
• sell line - a short, sharp description of the title's main marketing point for example 'Cosmopolitan' has the sell line 'The world's No 1 magazine for young women'.
• splash/burst - an insert on the front cover which contrasts from the original image in order to stand out. 
• menu bar - typically a horizontal bar listing things that can be found in the magazine.
• WOB - white on black on the cover to create contrast.
• dog end - pretend fold on the corner of the page.
• cover lines - one line descriptions of articles found on the cover of the magazine. Their purpose is to entice the reader into buying the magazine.
• boost - the biggest sell line that is intended to increase sales of the magazine.

contents page.

this is the draft of my school magazine content page which is something else as well as the cover that i needed to do for my preliminary task.

 The colour isn't exactly the same as the cover as i did it on a different computer but i would obviously make them match if this was more than a draft to keep the in house colour scheme.

 I also need to put a photo of the editor, me, but i never had any on this computer so I couldn't.

I tried to split all my contents into different sections to make the page easily navigational and i think it worked well. 

I included an action picture of the school football team to accompany the top story 'Libero wins the league' and to also make the page look a bit more interesting rather than just writing.

I re-emphasised the magazine title at the top of the page as I'd seen this done in more commercial magazines like 'Vogue' and really liked it.

I made the page numbers bigger than the words as i think sometimes on contents pages you can't see what page its on and i wanted this to stand out. 

I left the background clear as i thought this made the page look clean and allowed all the words to be clearly read.

hello first draft.

I seriously have way to much time on my hands, but thanks to that, i made the first draft of my school magazine cover!

I've tried to keep a 3 part colour scheme to fit with conventions of typical magazines and I've hopefully kept it.

 I like the photo I've used as the book shows connotations of school and the mid shot also follows typical magazine conventions. Though i dislike it cause its blurry, i tried to fix this with editing and by brightening and contrasting the image but it never worked.

I added a burst in the corner with a competition headline to try to grab the readers attention.

The main headline is 'Libero wins the league!' and I've tried to convey this but making it slightly larger and all capitalised in comparison to the other sell lines.

Not really sure what I'm gonna change about it at the moment but I'm very sure I'll start finding faults. Fun fun.

preliminary task shots!

I think theses are all possible candidates for my front cover image.

I probably wouldn't use this one though as it is too blurry.