Social identity

Social Identity is "a person's sense of who they are or self-concept based on their group membership", meaning their social in-group, or out-group.

In 1979, Henri Tajfel and John Turner proposed the social identity theory. This was away to explain intergroup behaviour and that all groups are important to our social identity – they essentially give us a sense of belonging in society.

 

There are two main groups, in – groups and out – groups. In (us) groups are the people who a person shares a common identity, and then by definition out (them) groups are those who a person is perceived as different, not in their in – group. Thus, our social identity is satisfied by in – groups, and dissatisfied by out – groups. We identify ‘us’ and ‘them’ categorisation through these mental processes

• Categorisation: categorise and identify to understand social environment.
• Social Identification: adopt identity of group put ourselves in.
• Social Comparison: compare to other groups.

 

An example of in-groups and out-groups would be Mods and Rockers, two conflicting British subcultures in the 1960s/70s.

 

Mods were clean cut, fur trimmed parka wearing youths who listen to soul and British blues bands. In contrast, Rockers were influenced by Rock n Roll, leather jacket wearing and creeper adoring youths who were centred on motorcycling.

 

Throughout the period, they are known for their conflicting ideologies as both went through social comparison, sometimes leading to violent outbursts such as psychical fighting.

Pop identity

Name: Lara Scout
Age: 22
Hometown: London, England
Genre: Indie/Indie rock

Lara was born and raised in London. Her mother is an artist, and so has always been exposed to creativity. She discovered her love of music through small gigs at local live music venues and festivals. Accomplished piano player, many of her singles feature her friends' old university bands, giving them her unique sound. Her influences  and favourite artists include Banks, Passion Pit, Arcade Fire, Lauren Aquilina and Funeral Suits.

 

She describes her style as "anything goes" - often dressing in what she likes rather than to a certain style. Her clothes come from a mixture of high street brands and reclaimed vintage shops. Much of her style inspiration is from her mums "fashionable days when she was younger".

 

Her personality is bright and energetic with a mix of sarcasm and humour. She is a hardworking and determined as well as free spirited and open minded. She appreciates other artists work and always aims to improve her own.

 

Drafts of Covers

Before I went straight into taking photos and designing a front cover,I sketched what I was planning to do. This is due to the fact that I wanted to experiment with different ideas and be able to edit or change certain aspects. Additionally, it helped me think about what types of shots I wanted for my main image on my cover. I then went away and took different images that corresponded with some of the drafts I had made up. Furthermore, it helped me greatly as I could look at other magazines and take aspects of their covers that I liked and feature them on my ideas.

 

I later then created digital mock ups on the computer using the photos I had taken. I tried to replicate some of the ideas I had drawn, but I came to the conclusion that the ideas sounded good in theory, but did not look good in practice. As a result, I adapted and changed my cover many times to get it to my final product. I didn't end up using any covers below, but I took some of the different features of them and applied them in different ways.
 
 

Opinions on final product

I asked a few people, who would fall into my target audience, what they thought of my music magazine. The results are shown below individually, as unfortunately I was unable to get them to work as a single video.

Perfect Contents Page

Much like front covers, the same concept applies in terms of everyone has different opinions on what makes contents pages good. There are, of course, specific features and conventions that make contents pages recognisable, but different audiences will have different preferences as to what they want them to look like.
 

Conventions of a contents page

Title: this is usually the biggest text on the page, highlighting what the page is. Sometimes the magazines name may also be included.

 

Main image: contents pages typically has a main image that relates to the main article of the magazine. It is normally bigger and bolder than the rest so it stands out.

 

Subheadings: these are usually bolder and tend to list the main articles, before they are then later explained.

 

Articles: they are usually arrange in chronological order of the magazine, and so often dictate the layout. additionally, some bigger articles have small explanations about what the main function of the article is.

 

Editors note: this is typically a few lines about the magazine from the editor. It is commonly in an handwriting font to connote a more informal and personal mode of address to the audience.

 

Features

House style: like the front cover, this is an important feature than links the magazine together. It promotes uniformity and professionalism, consequently making the magazine more recognisable and looks more put together. This can greatly impact the success of a magazine.

 

The Four Fs: when designing a magazine - these are important aspects to consider throughout. The main ones used in the contents pages are function and format, as the main aim for a contents page is to be easy to understand and inform the audience of what is included in the text.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality, by definition is; 'the relationship between texts, especially literary ones'

 

This means that different media texts will often reference other ones, the most noticeable ones are in TV programmes like The Simpsons or Disney productions. Also, the popular rewriting of fairy tales in a modern setting can be seen as a 'highly cultured use of intertextuality'.

There are different types of intertextuality, these are as follows;

• Explicit - the intertextuality is noticeable, and, is meant to be noticed. This consequently adds to the overall look of the text
• Implicit - this type is not as prominent in the text, and so is more subtle. It is only noticeable to those who are paying attention to it or understand it.
• Accidental - the intertextuality is unintentional and is usually only pointed out afterwards.

Intertextuality is not plagiarism. This is because authors or writers usually make it clear when they are evoking an reference that it is another piece of work.  

Intertextuality in my magazine

I have no plan to include intertextuality within my magazine, any intertextuality that may occur is completely unintentional. This could potentially happen because I have used inspiration from other magazines such as INDIE and Q, and have somewhat modelled mine around them, but I still want to create a unique piece of text. I have done this so I can attract my target audience, to give them something familiar that I am confident they will like.

 

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

For my preliminary task I had to create a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. This was the first time I had ever used the software Pixlr and so it was a learning process. Due to this, there is a large difference in the way my prelim and final product look - most noticeably the photography and editing. Lastly, fundamentally, both tasks were different as there were different aims and target audiences as well as a different context, meaning that they would have ended up distinct from each other. However, they still essentially has the same task - to construct a magazine.

I have also carried out every role done by professionals at real magazine houses. This meant I was the photographer, editor and columnist for my magazine. As a result, it has opened my eyes to the extent of pressure when constructing a magazine and how much thought and consideration goes into it along with the constant scrutiny of what it looks like.

Front Cover

The front cover of my prelim was taken in front of a piece of artwork in our school gallery. This created a vibrant and busy background, however it then meant I was limited as to what I could put on it in terms of text or use any other editing techniques. Consequently, the overall look of it is not majorly professional or sophisticated. Also, as I had previously mentioned - I had never edited an image in this way before. As a result, I experimented lots with different ways I could present the front cover as I was getting used to the different tools. This ended up helping me greatly with my final piece because I was more aware of what I could use, and so ended up taking different photos with the idea of "I can edit this to look like this or change that" in mind. Furthermore, I feel like this is reflected in my final front cover because I haven't just changed where the image is situated like I did with the prelim, but I have edited and manipulated the image so it corresponds with the aim of creating an indie music magazine.

The prelim image is also of a lower quality - this is due to my inexperience of creating a magazine and I was not aware of what I wanted to make.  The fact that I had never used Pixlr software also contributed to this. Furthermore, I used my prelim to help e combat problems that I had previously experienced. An example of this that I ended up taking my photos using a mundane white background. Although it isn't particularly exciting, it meant that I could really experiment with text and in cooperate more colours into it. It also allowed me to create a bigger contrast between the model and background, so she was the main focal point, rather than being lost in the colours like my prelim cover. I also had little experience at the time of my prelim about what made a good magazine cover and the different conventions of it. As a result of this, my masthead is pretty basic and my coverlines are more listed. Using my learnt knowledge, I built on this for my final cover and experimented with different fonts and the situation of certain features such as the main cover line and barcode/issue number. There is also a more definitive housestyle in my music magazine. This is because I was dictated to by the background of my prelim task and so the only colour I could really use was black so it would stand out. Consequently, I aimed not to make the same mistake with my final one and I ended up having a main theme of a deep pink, black and white. I used this because I wanted to keep to the minimalistic idea that I hade created, which I was unable to do with my prelim task. The fact that it was an indie music magazine contributed to this because I needed to make sue it appealed to the target audience of teenagers who like the genre, not a school magazine for older students.

The layout of the cover also differ greatly. This is partly due to the fact that I was less experienced when creating my prelim at editing, but it is also because I had different aims. My school magazine was meant to look like it was more student made - the idea behind the name 'Student Speil' as it is their ideas and this impacted the masthead - making it less formal and more creative. Consequently, my music magazine was made to be distributed on a larger scale than a school, as so the overall look needed to be more professional and appealing to the target audience that consisted of different people. Therefore, in comparison, my prelim task layout is quite dull because of the listed coverlines and basic masthead, whereas my final product is more minimal and the coverlines are more creative.

Contents Page

The differences between my preliminary contents page and my final contents page are largely similar to the cover pages. This is because my editing is basic and less sophisticated as it was for my final piece. While contents pages are usually associated with generic lists, my final piece is inspired by other magazines and certain conventions of them. I wanted to improve on the layout and overall look of the contents page, and to an extent, used my prelim as an example of what I wanted my final one not to look like. Furthermore, there is little difference between my prelim cover and contents page. This could potentially be classed as housestyle, however I think it makes the magazine too plain, so I wanted my final piece to be something to look at, but still have the theme of minimalism whist being understandable.

I decided using a white background for my final contents -  this is because I felt that it gives a clean and professional look. It also links to my colour theme and it allowed me to explore other editing techniques to make it attractive to the reader. Essentially, I picked out the parts of my prelim task that I did not like and strived to do the opposite of them - the most significant is the background and layout. Granted, the aims and target audience were different, and I wanted it to have a more professional look, but I still like the idea of the main image of the model looking away. The main focal point, I feel, is still her, however it does not detract from the rest of the page. I think that I haven't really challenged any conventions, as much of what I have done I researched and took inspiration, however I don't believe this was a bad move. Conventions are conventions for a reason - they work, and I didn't want to end up losing the main function of a contents, to inform, by going crazy and making it too minimal or vice versa and making it illegible. Additionally, my final contents fits well with the housestyle and it links further to my double page spread I created as part of my final product too. I also felt that by adding more images switched up the dynamic, as opposed to my prelim, and so linked to the audience that I was trying to connect to - the younger demographic. Lastly, I felt like my prelim was too much like a book, and this was the only previous visions I had of contents pages, and so with my final one I wanted to in cooperate all my new information on them to create something unique yet familiar and appealing.

Conclusion

Overall, I feel I have progressed hugely from my preliminary task to my final product. This is due to the fact that my editing skills have improve massively, and I was able to change the main features of my final cover image, such as brighten her eyes, as opposed to just change its positioning. Furthermore, my photography skills have improved because I was able to apply my knowledge of conventional images used in magazines and shoot photos that I know I could use for certain things, rather than taking photos for the sake of it - which in turn gave me a smaller range because I knew what I wanted, and so took photos specific to my aim. This process also allowed be to learn about new software and experiment with tools I had never used before. As a result, it meant that I could use my time effectively to create a more professional and sophisticated magazine. I also learnt along the way the many factors that need to be taken into consideration when creating a magazine. For my prelim I just took some photos and thought adding text made it a magazine, but I now know that so many other features make a magazine, from sell lines on a cover to pull quotes in an article. Every aspect of a magazine is important and making it stand out and attract attention requires scrutinising down to the last detail to ensure a solid reading audience.

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

See link to prezi below;

https://prezi.com/prye_2ki7qzu/media-institutions/

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract my audience I had to consider many different factors. My audience is the younger demographic that, I would hope, are interested in the Indie/Indie Rock genre. This means that they would most likely be more laid back and relaxed with a "don't care" attitude, much like the Indie bands. Also, they are 'explorers', and consequently, I wanted my magazine to reflect this so it would make them identify with the content and want to read it. Lastly, the language that I used was inclusive with a mixture of personal pronouns. This therefore means that it is addressing the audience personally, and so attracts them more to it.

 

I also took my own personal opinion into account. This is because I fall into the target audience to an extent due to my love of the genre and demographic. This helped me as I could almost see it from the target audience perspective and criticise my own work. It also made it easier to make because I knew what would interest them. However, this also created the problem of that what I want is not the majority opinion, so I had to make sure I wasn't getting to involved, and to combat this I took into account the results and opinions that my survey offered me.

 

Cover Page

 

 

 

Contents Page

Double Page Spread

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of creating my final product, I used a number of different technologies, some new to me and some I had already used previously.

Photography

I used two different cameras when taking my photos - an iPhone 5 and a Samsung Camera. I found both extremely easy to use - this was due to the fact that I already knew how and had used them before. Consequently, I faced no problems, other than that of making they had a full battery charge.

The Samsung Camera shot a slightly better quality photo, due to this I had the intention to use if for my cover, however I ended up choosing an iPhone 5 photo because it was better for what I wanted and needed for the cover. All other photos in my magazine are shot with the Samsung, however I also find that it is hard to determine which one uses which as the qualities are so similar. 

 

Samsung Camera

iPhone 5

Furthermore, when taking my photos, I had to work out how to structure the lighting in the room and this therefore changed the overall effect and quality of the photo. Also, I believe that the fact my main cover image is shot on a phone shows the staggering developments in technology, and it also connects to the younger demographic with how they adapt to the advances of technology. This means that the photos are of a standard that they are used to seeing.

 

Editing

For editing my photos I used two editing websites - Pixlr and BeFunky and the software's Pages and Microsoft Publisher. I used these on a school Apple Mac and my own Asus laptop. All of the technologies were new to me at the time, except Microsoft Publisher. Therefore, I had to learn how to use them through help from people who had previously studied GCSE media, as I had not, and experimenting myself. 

 

On Pixlr, I used a combination of the Express web app and the Editor web app. I also had an abundance of photos to choose from as I had taken so many, this meant I did not need to constantly alter or edit the same ones - something that would have made the process lengthier than it eventually was. On Express I ended up airbrushing blemishes, removing shine and smoothing the images. Additionally, I used both Express and Editor to add overlay images and text.

It took a while for me to completely understand Pixlr and how to use all the different tools. This caused a slight problem because I didn't immediately get to grips with how saving the images worked as so it caused lots of irritation when I wanted to change something. However, this was not a large problem in the grand scheme of things, and the pros of Pixlr far outweighed the cons. As a result of this, it was my main editing tool for my cover page and other images in in my magazine because it helped me achieve the style I was going for and also created a professional look.

 

 

 

 

As Pixlr was my main editing tool, I used BeFunky as more of a photo enhancer. This is because I edited the images in terms of cosmetics - making eyes brighter, eyebrows more defined and thicker eyelashes. The web app was simple and easy to use which made the process quicker as I had not originally intended to use it - it was, as I have previously stated, an enhancer. This is because I used it after I had edited using Pixlr so the main adjustments had been made already.

 

 

 

Microsoft Publisher was the software that I used for my contents page. This was because I had access to more fonts, unlike pages, and this was important because I wanted to use a mixture of serif and sans - serif to make it. Furthermore, I was familiar with it and so it made the process quick and easy. However, due to it being Microsoft, I did not have access to it at school on the Apple Mac, and so this meant that the process was done at home. This was an inconvenience because if I saw faults at school I could not edit them, but other than this, it didn't cause any major problems. The quality was also good as it didn't pixelate any of my images, so the professionalism of my magazine wasn't affected.

 

 

Pages was a whole new concept for me. This was because I had always used to Microsoft Office, however, due to its simplicity, it took no time at all for me to understand it and adapt to how it works. I used it for my double page spread in terms of writing and editing the text as well as attaching the image to the text. I was able to do this by firstly creating my interview in portrait and chose this software because it was easier for me to use to create the entire two pages. I then created a landscape page and joined the separate image and text together. Throughout the whole process there was nothing I found particularly hard or that I couldn't overcome by myself. Perhaps my only problems were how to layout the text so it fit in a portrait page and looked how I wanted it to look so I was happy with it.

 

 

Computers/Blogger

I used both my computer at home and the school Mac. I found this a little challenging because of the differences between them and the fact that they were both new to me - I had never used a Mac and my computer was new. Consequently, I was not familiar with how they worked, mainly the Apple Mac, and so I was often asking for help from those who had used them. This was probably the main cause of the problems I had as I needed to learn where and how to save my documents, what taking a screen shot of an image did and how I could use it. However after a while I had successfully adapted, for the most part, and there was little problems during the rest of the creation of my magazine.

 

Blogger was also completely new to me, and I had never hear or seen it. It took some while to get to grips with in terms of how it everything worked and the concept of writing posts for people to see. Now, I feel that I have learnt to use it effectively and have changed it to fit with my theme of simplicity and minimalism. Consequently, I have built up my confidence in writing posts and have improved how and what I write.  

 

Overall, I found a mixture of things hard throughout creating my magazine, but I managed to successfully overcome all of them. Taking my photos caused little problems and Pixlr was both frustrating and time - consuming, but I used it most throughout my editing process. My main issue was that almost all of what I used was a new experience to me, and so I think that I have done well in adapting to use it, even though it wasn't extremely complicated to learn. Therefore, I have learnt that many different technologies can be used to create a professional effect and that we are not limited by what photos we take because of all the different tools and ways we can edit them.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

See link below to prezi.

https://prezi.com/pjiluv8-s3bq/how-does-your-media-product-represent-particular-social-groups/

Who would be the audience for your media product?

In order for a magazine to be successful, it has to have a solid audience that you can understand so you know how to get them to buy it.

I aim for my magazine to be targeted at a younger demographic - so in terms of age, it is quite broad. However it is between the ages of 16 upwards, ending at around 25. I did not intend for the age to go as high, but after thinking it over, there is really no age limit that people can stop listening to music. Consequently, I made the age higher, however because of the way I have designed the magazine it appeals to younger people, not adults. Furthermore, my magazine is not gender specific, and although it features female models, it has nothing in it to suggest that only women can read it.
This links to if the audience is mass or niche. I believe my audience to be mass, because although people who listen to indie music try to be 'different and independent', the music genre is becoming more well known, with some artist entering the charts. Therefore, it cannot be niche because that means it would be specific to a certain group, and as I stated before, my target audience is broad. This also links to what music my audience would be interested. Indie music has many sub - groups, an example being indie rock, so each person may be interested a different style. Also, with its increasing recognition due to music charts, this could potentially mean they would listen to the latest/popular music. Although this goes against trying not to be mainstream, music is for every and anyone.

My audience will also be in the ABC1 category, meaning that the magazine will be a luxury item. Furthermore, this means they will also live in a western culture and music is important in the lives of people in that culture. Many western people also experience FOMO (fear of missing out), and so those who can afford to always keep up with the changing news then they will most likely have a sufficient amount of money. Additionally, NRS results show that 164,000 of ABC1 15 to 33 year olds purchased Q magazine; indicating that music magazines are still relevant to a younger demographic despite the increased use of technology. However, this does mean that my magazine may not or will not appeal to those who are not westernised.
I believe that these social grades in this method demographic classification are a little outdated and insulting. They focus mostly on earning levels and income, which in todays society is not particularly important to have a good quality of life, as someone's standard of living does not determine  their life. It also suggests that classify someone as DE fits the stereotype as lazy and unemployed which could potentially make people believe they are only worth their category. Additionally, nowadays it is easier to move through the levels and grouping people is not as easy as this method suggests. Granted however, it is useful statistically, and for experiment/research purposes it is helpful to collect data.

The interests of my audience would most likely be entertainment like film or going to concerts/festivals. Additionally, they are probably use lots of technology in terms of social media platforms, and so they can easily stay 'follow' artists. Consequently, this is why I have chosen to centre my magazine around finding new artists and providing information on new songs/gigs. This is because supplying information on new artists could provoke them to research them, and so this reduces the problem of FOMO. Also, their age impacts their lifestyle which in turn can dictate their interests. This means that within my audience I will have students/teenagers who probably only have part-time jobs or are in education, and so information on low gig ticket prices are something that would appeal to them. Additionally, those who are in full time employment would most likely have no problem affording the magazine because it only costs £1.50 - the reason for this is that it needs to be affordable to the age group that is the younger demographic.

The ideology of indie is that artists are 'for the music', blazé towards the idea of a large fan base and have a sense of sex, smoking and drugs. Also, indie bands/artists are casual and unique in the way that they dress, unlike that of the genre rap that usually features heavy gold chains. This indicates that my target audience could be affected by this and like to seem like then don't care, but are in reality conscious of being up to date. Lastly, the penumbra effect is when a small amount of different people outside the target audience pick up and consume the product. It is possible to occur for my magazine if it aesthetically pleasing then other people may read it, but it is unlikely that fans of a specific genre on the opposite spectrum would pick it up. Also, the idea of the 50 Quid Bloke is not relevant to my magazine because it isn't aimed at older men and so they wouldn't be interested in buying it.

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

There are many conventions of pre - existing texts, these include;

masthead, images, colour scheme and coverlines that all add up to the format of the magazine - this is then typically made consistent throughout the magazine to develop a house style that continues across any other issues.

 

In terms of Indie music magazines, the stereotypical convention is the iconology of something different. This means having props that might not relate to the content or either extreme or minimal costume. The artists tend to be white, but of many nationalities, and are shot with minimal facial expressions. Due to the fact many indie artists are bands, most cover pages stagger the position of the members and during interviews, there is no definitive colloquialism that is associated with the genre.

 

Masthead

The masthead is typically located at the top of the magazine, either centred or to the left, although some magazines choose to change and break this convention - with Billboard placing theirs vertically down the left hand side. This is consequently a key convention due to its importance in identifying the magazine.

 

My music magazine is called UNDISCOVERED (meaning: to see, to get knowledge of, learn of, or find out; to gain sight or knowledge of something previously unknown.) with the connotation that my magazine's function is that it offers music information that people do not know yet. I have clearly placed my masthead across the top of my front cover, making it identifiable and noticeable. I have followed the typical convention with the reason that it just simply works: conventions are conventions for a reason.

 

I have used a sans - serif font because it is bold and fits with the idea that I wanted my magazine to be modern. This is due to the fact that my magazine is aimed at a younger demographic that is westernised - so a modern theme would appeal to them. Additionally, after looking at many other indie music magazines, it was clear that they were bold and as a result ended up being a focal point of the magazine. In comparison, my masthead is relatively similar as I took both INDIE and Billboard (though it may not specifically be indie music) as inspiration.

INDIE magazine masthead

Billboard magazine masthead 2015

Each one of my mock ups also used this convention, I chose not to try to challenge it because I was already certain that I wanted this style, my audience survey re - enforced this because they liked it and that I wanted magazine to have an indie feel, so I followed by example. Consequently, this means that I have kept what they use in terms of font types and the placement of the masthead, and with the help of my survey that suggested using white, it ties in with what most magazines use too (as displayed by INDIE). Furthermore, as part of my format of my magazine I chose a minimalism theme, and this was encouraged further by my survey to my specific target audience. Therefore, this explains the simplicity of my masthead of it being in capital letters that gives a sense of uniformity and clarity.

 

Images

Second to the masthead is the type of image that is used as the cover and that are featured throughout the magazine. This is because it is what the audience first sees - it needs to be able to draw them in so they want to read what is inside it.

Typically, the model on the front cover should be facing forward, making eye contact with the reader to create an engagement. Some magazine may use the concept of the male/female gaze to make it more appealing to their specific target by placing them in position or using different types of costume. The contents page should have related images to the cover, as well as a range of others in accordance to its function and what is inside it that can be placed creatively to draw in attention. Lastly, the double page spread should be related to the article and able to draw attention, but also work well with any text that may be place either by or on it. The shooting of images range and are dependent on the message they are trying to convey of the genre and lighting can factor in how the audience see the model.

For my magazine, I used these conventions to create an effective front cover. Out of the many images I took, I chose the close up below based largely on the eye contact. By having her eyes looking out, it creates a connection from the audience to the artist and draws them, and as a result are more inclined to buy and read the magazine. Furthermore, my magazine is centred around this particular model, so having connection to the audience means that they want to read the interview and gives the idea that they can get to know her. Additionally, the posing of her hands are slightly less significant in terms of audience/artist connection, but it links to the conventions of Indie magazines. This is due to the fact that by obscuring and covering the face, it gives a different feel - much like how the genre is 'different'. Lastly, her facial expression is minimal, and as I stated before, this is another convention because it gives a more relaxed tone.

Original image

Edited final image 

This image is also the one suggested by my survey. By using it, I have listened to the thoughts of my target audience and have therefore made it so it appeals to them. Also, I have taken into account what I would like to see - being the target audience demographic and fan of the genre. Lastly, it corresponds with the function of my magazine - to inform on indie music, and the image connotes that it is on that specific genre.

 

i-D music magazine

 

I used the magazine i-D as my inspiration because of the eye contact. Although one eye is covered - a signature feature of the magazine - it highlights how minimal facial expressions work and I based mine loosely on this. However, my model is showing no skin, unlike Rihanna in this photo as her collarbones and chest are slightly visible. I used the theory of the male gaze, but drew the audience's eyes to hers by brightening them - making them more of a focal point. Additionally, I used heavy eye make up to enhance her natural beauty, rather than exposing skin because this was something she was not comfortable with. Therefore this means that to get around the problem I focused on her face so females would want to look like her and males find her attractive. Consequently, in comparison to existing texts - I followed the conventions of eye contact to draw the audience in and enhanced her features using the idea of the male gaze.

 

As part of images and layout, my double page spread continues the theme of minimalism. I used a Marie Claire double page spread for inspiration and it is clear that my one uses features of it. The way the text is displayed is similar to the pre - existing one as I have a quote in centre as well as the main title in a serif font that contrasts to the sans serif text, make it stand out along with it being larger and a different colour. The image covers only one side of the double - page and I took this when she was unaware. I think this has created a good effect because it links to the pull quote -'.. songs reflect me' as it is a more natural photo. Lastly, I have used a consistent frame by aligning the text so it is uniform and clean, linking to the minimalism of my whole magazine. Five of the six images I have used I have taken, with the exception being a stack of vinyl records on my contents page that I have taken from Google Images as I was unable to take one myself.

 

My double - page spread

Marie Claire double - page spread

Colour Scheme

I have only used three different colours in my magazine; black, white and dark pink. This is because once the there are more, it becomes too busy too look at, which does not fit with the running theme of minimalism.

 

 

The reason I chose a dark pink was because this is the colour of the lipstick the model is wearing in my cover image. The reason for this is because the jacket she has on has a slight pink tinge also, so I decided that I would be best to use. Also, my survey results stated I should used black, white and red - so I decided to replace the red and keep the black and white. Furthermore, the pink, although feminine, is not everywhere, so does not make my magazine seem like it is only for girls. It is also bold, so I used it to highlight certain features of my magazine - mainly being the artist name. Additionally, all three of my aspects follow the same format and I was aware of this when designing them so they were all consistent. 

 

Coverlines

A feature of a magazine cover are the coverlines that inform the audience on the format of it. The typical conventions of them are that they are located around the main image. How many there are of them are dependent on the magazine and if it is cluttered or simple. My magazine is more unconventional in terms of the mainstream music magazines like Q and RollingStone. This is due to the fact that the main coverlines are at the bottom of the image rather than to the side of it. I chose this as its simple, and after the feedback from my survey it was apparent that my target audience preferred something that was simple and clean, rather than cluttered with lots of information.

 

Additionally, my music magazine genre is indie - therefore the conventions of these types of magazine is that they are simple (as demonstrated by i-D). As well as coverlines, my magazine cover features a sell line in the left hand corner below the masthead - 'Discover New Indie' - this explains more about the magazine and its function. This is another typical convention of a magazine cover as sell lines are designed to be short and memorable that connotes the magazines purpose. 

 

 

Typical Q music magazine showing coverlines conventions

House Style

The house style of a magazine is among the most important conventions because it is in every aspect of designing a magazine. This means to create an effective one, I have used a continuous theme of minimalism, structured text/margins, colour scheme and images that all link together. Therefore, I have stuck to this convention so my magazine looks more co - ordinated and professional. Consequently, in comparison, my magazine is no different to any other (with the exception of magazines such as RayGun) and this is effective because it also makes it more likely that my magazine will be recognisable if more issues were created. It also makes a larger margin for success because it will be familiar with my target audience, meaning they know what they will be getting in terms of what it looks like and what its function is. Lastly, it gives the magazine a sense of identity and a good impression to the audience, making it wider as I am not limiting myself to a niche one.
 

Conclusion  

In conclusion, my magazine mainly follows the conventions of pre - existing texts. This is due to the fact that I have strived to not challenge it because this is not always the wisest choice. By not disregarding conventions, it  makes it more successful as it is recognisable and professional looking. Additionally, I followed conventions of the genre of my magazine because indie is simple and laid back and so is minimal, juxtaposing the cluttered and bold conventions of pop music magazines such as Billboard. I am also aware that whilst simple and clean covers may not work for everyone, it is what works for my audience. As a result of this it makes my magazine more successful because it is aesthetically pleasing to the audience so much so they want to buy it.  Furthermore, by keeping the four Fs - format, function, frame and formula - in my mind whilst designing it, it clearly conveys the message that I want it to have: a place to discover the best indie music. Consequently, I am pleased with the overall look of my magazine as I feel I have created a unique magazine that is identifiable.