flat plans

Planning of what needs to be on the magazine, the name of the magazine, some of the sells and the different articles in the magazine, the mindmaps of the of the conclusions I came to after planning.

The flat plan for the front page will look something like this; the front page will have a large masthead that reads "POPTASTIC" with the tag line "pop the bubble" underneath. there will be a large image that has the two members of Mixture, they will be looking straight at the camera and smiling, this is to create a happy and friendly appeal to the magazine.

The main sells are the exclusive interview With the band Mixture. Also the "10 new styles in pop", "hot new gossip, the latest pop dramas", "celebrity best buys of last year", "xmas number one" and "up coming bands" these sells are meant to make the readers wan to find out what the rest of the articles say. The date of the issue, issue number, barcode, price, and magazine website all feature on the font page so that the reader can clearly see them.

The contents page is filled with a lot of the article details like the page numbers the articles are on. there will be a welcome message from the editor and a picture of the editor on the left hand side at the top. Underneath there will be some pictures from articles and the pages numbers they are on labeled on the images. In the bottom left hand corner there is a section that tells the reader that they can win tickets to see the singer Natalie, I have used this as when a reader sees the "Win" word they are drawn to it to see what they can win.

The main part of the contents is down the right hand side of the page, the magazine is split into 5 sections, these being; celebrity, fashion, music, you and extras. these will be colour coded to make it easier for the reader to find the section in the magazine they want to. beneath the contents section is the contact information for the magazine such as the fax, address and the telephone number. In the bottom right hand corner there is a page number.

The double page spread has on the left hand page 3 large images of the group Mixture, these images will be or the band at different times, they will have captions underneath that say a fact about the band or where the picture was taken. The subheading "Mix it up!" is a play on the band name.Around the images there will be the exclusive interview with Mixture.
On the right hand page there will be a large image of the band at an intimate gig that will have a caption under it. Beneath that on the bottom of the page there is a subheading "back stage" in this section of the page there will be 4 small images of the band from after a gig, in the dressing rooms and an image of when one winner went to meet Mixture. in the bottom right hand corner there is a page number.

analysis of an existing magazines double page spread

This is a double page spread from Top of the pops magazine.


On the right hand side of right hand page there is a large image of some of the members of the Pussycat dolls and a large title that reads "Dolls Drama!" that's written in pink and bold so that the reader is drawn to the images around it and then reads the article. beneath the large pink title there is some smaller images of some of the other members of the Pussycat Dolls. There is a mixture of large images and smaller ones. The article is highlighted in yellow boxes and each picture has speech bubbles that the magazine have made up things that they think the pop star would be saying or thinking. some of these are a micky take of the stars.


On the left hand page there is an image of David Beckham and Zac Effron together with the subheading of "men utd" this is a play on words. the article underneath is in a purple box to make it stand out against the other articles on the page. the last article on the left hand page is about Eastenders, this shows that the magazine is keeping up to date with the current television programs that young people will be into.

The articles are easily split up into little chunks, that are in different colours so that they can be told apart and the articles don't all run into one. The language used on the double page spread is quite informal and is used to identify with the target audience, the writers have used language that people in today's society would use.

This double page spread is a busy page with a lot if colours and images, there isn't much text but this is done so that they reader doesn't get bored and stop reading the articles, then they may think that it was a waste of money and not buy it again.

analysis of existing magazine contents page

This the contents page from a mizz magazine.The first thing to notice about the contents page is that its completely covered and there are no spaces left blank, there is a lot of information on the page.

In the top left hand side there is a welcome message from the editor, it tells the reader a bit about what they have in the magazine and the pages that they can find the articles on. the words "welcome" are written larger in the top left of the page and the they are in pink and a sort of handwriting kind of font, underneath this there are some images and page numbers that the interviews and articles are on to make it easier if the reader wants to read a specific article. And under that in smaller print is the name of the photographer.

The actual contents information is on the right hand side and is split into 6 categories ; Celeb, real life, style, fun, you and plus. this is so that the readers an find the pages they want quickly and easily. they are also colour coded that correspond with the page numbers on the bottom of the pages. this makes it easier for the reader.

At the bottom of the page on the right hand side there is a box that has information about a company creating awareness for dyslexia. there are telling the readers about it so that they can get their support, magazines often have a charity or organisation linked to the magazine that they help to create awareness for or raise money for.

The last section on the contents page is the red column on the right, this has the contact details of he magazine such as the address and the telephone numbers, fax numbers etc in case a reader needs to get in contact with the magazine.and all the names of the editors and the writers for the magazines, these are like the credits for the magazine.

The fonts on the contents page are San serif and easy to read, the information is split into little sections so that its easier for the reader to take in and they don't get bored when reading it.

analysis of exixting magazines covers

This is the may 05 issue of Smash Hits, the masthead is large at the top of the page and is in the two colours that it is remembered by; yellow and white. The magazines target audience is young teens and people who are interested in pop music.



The main image is of "son of dork" and the main sell of this magazine is that its comparing the two bands "son of dork" and "Mcfly" with the sell of "why Mcfly should be afraid. Very afraid", this makes the viewer want to read the article. another main sell is "Mcfly the weirdest habits you'll ever read" the issue is clearly from the time when "son of dork" and "Mcfly" were very popular and they were being compared and thought to be quite similar.



The main image of "son of dork" has one of the group (James Bourne) and the words beside "James Bournes new band" inferring that its his band and not the whole groups... however the rest of the group are in the background.



The pictures next to this are of Gwen Stefani and the heading to this is "10 incredible celebrity make overs " the use of number to catch the viewers eye and and the images to make the reader want to know more about the celebrity transformations. in today's society people are very celebrity orientated, they interested in how the celebrities live, look and what they do, as people try to copy their styles as well as their lifestyles.



There is also on the left hand side a "win" section, this is written in pink so that the viewer notices it and the rest is written in yellow so that they stand out from the other text on the front page. This is done to attract the reader, they think that they have a chance to win something.


The font styles chosen are bold and simple, they stand out. They main colours that are used are yellows, blacks and whites. a simple colour scheme is used as it is more effective and adds to the simplicity and the design of the front page.
The front cover features a barcode,magazine price (£2.00) and website details.


The bar along the bottom tells the readers what else is in the magazine and and makes the reader want to know hat the magazine is going to say about them.





This is the September 07 issue cover of Top Of The Pops magazine, this is clearly targeted at a young teenage audience as it features some of the cast of high school musical.

The masthead is large at the top with the logo from the TV program Top Of The Pops so that the viewer can identify with it

The main sell is the "you're a STAR" exclusive interview. The front of the magazine is quite busy and eye catching. The main colour scheme seams to be purples.

The BBC are clearly named on the front of the magazine so that the reader is aware of the company who owns the magazine. This also helps to promote other magazines and programs made by the BBC.

They have given the magazine the name "Top Of The Pops" as it follows the TV show that was a music show and very popular in the past. The font that has been chosen was chosen because it will help to promote the sales and it was also a the TV show was big and it is the same font that was used for the TV program. it is also big and bold so that it stands out.

There are the large numbers "56" to catch the viewers eye and make them want to know what there is "56" of, in this case it is "hot buys" this promotes other products and if they are featured in a magazine then young people are more likely to go and buy them to fit in or to be cool.

All four of the models on the front of the magazine have eye contact with the viewer and the pose is friendly and seems as though they are all friends, the magazine has exclusive interviews with the cast (these four characters) from High School Musical, to fans of high school musical or the younger readers this would be interesting and they can identify with.

Another main sell is the "celebrity love secrets exposed" this is because the young teenage population are interested in everything about their favourite celebs as they want to be like them. The magazines get hold of these stories so that young impressionable teenagers buy them and they act this way as they think that what the celebrities do and at like is they way they need to act to be cool or popular.

The front of the magazine features a barcode, the issue number and the time that this magazine is on sale and next to every sell there is the page number that that article is on.

target audience

the website results are

This is a chart from the NRS website, that shows the different age groups that buy different types of magazines and the amounts of them that are bought. This shows that the target audience for my music magazine should be aimed at people aged between 15-44. as the most sales are to people in this age group, with magazine sales reaching the 139000. although sales in other ages groups are still occurring they are nowhere near as high. the sales in the last month for Top Of The Pops magazine reached 169000.This age group would be the best to target a new POP magazine to, the only question being is there room in the market for yet another POP magazine?

The main POP magazines that these young people are buying are things like Top Of The Pops as the younger generations aspire to be like their favourite POP stars and want to find out about them so they can copy their style and they way they act.

The typical profile for a typical reader of a POP magazine would be that they are most likely to be mainstreamers, they go with the flow and don't want to stand out from the crowd, they will usually buy the latest make up, CDs or DVDs just to fit in with those around them. They will probably be in the groups C2D or E, this is shown on the chart as only 62 people from the category ABC1 buy theTop Of The POPs magazines are more people from the category C2D and E. The magazine should be targeted at the younger of the age group as they are the ones that are more likely to buy the magazines.

Introduction

The task is to design and produce a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a new music magazine and to write a blog to outline the planning and evaluate the overall work. The genre I have chosen be will be a pop magazine.
The task is a development on the preliminary task of redesigning the college magazine.
http://mediaaschantallerheasullivan.blogspot.com/