Analysis - Kerrang! Blink 182 Feature Spread

To get an idea of the common conventions of feature articles, I am now going to analyse a double-page spread from Kerrang! magazine, about a member of the band Blink 182. The primary target audience of this article is working class (social grade C1-E) white males, aged between 14 and 25, who are fans of rock. However, Kerrang! can appeal to people of any age, ethnicity or class.

Layout

In this article, the colours are red and black as the two standout colours. This appears childish, suggesting that Kerrang! may actually be aiming for a younger and younger target audience. There is not much text featured, which connotes that the target audience does not like to read large amounts of text. All of the text, except part of the title and a quote, selected from what has already been written in the text, is on the left-hand page, with the images all on the right-hand page. In the top-left corner, there is a shape containing the name Blink 182, which tells the audience, if they could not identify him from the photo, who he is and why he is famous.

Imagery

The primary image used shows the feature artist looking scared. This could connote that he is reluctant to have an article being based around him, and possibly that he is scared of what the article may reveal about him.

One of the secondary images used is that of a toy dinosaur. This immediately connotes a young audience, as toy dinosaurs are usually played with by young children, usually boys. This could also connote that the feature artist is trying to recapture his youth, by playing with child’s toys.

Typography/Text

The font used for the main title is a scratchy font, which appears as though it has been repeatedly scratched onto the surface of a desk. This is similar to what is commonly seen on a table in a school, and supports Hall’s theory about the youth being willing to wreck and ruin things for their own entertainment.


Conclusion
Overall, this feature spread provides an excellent example of the use of connotations. Having looked at the layout, however, I think for my feature spread I will use a different style to this one.

Analysis - Vibe Magazine Contents Page

Target Audience

The primary target audience of Vibe magazine is working-class (social grades C1-E) black men aged between 15 and 30.

Layout

The top right of the page is taken up by the word “Contents.” An image of Kanye West takes up the centre of the page, with a caption to the left of the image. The list of contents is slotted along the right hand side, appearing as if it was an afterthought. In the bottom-right corner, there is a note saying who took the image, and standard copyright information.

Colour

The entire contents page is coloured in greyscale, except for a heart on the main image, which is coloured red, to stand out. This is a very stand-out colour scheme, and is a very bold choice. The colouring could refer to the rapper on the central image, Kanye West, and how he is often portrayed in the news as being a bad person, yet they may be representing how he is always seen in black and white as a crook, even if this is not true.

Imagery

Instead of the common conventions for contents pages, there is only one image shown on the contents page, and it looks like it would be more suitable on the front page. The only colour on the whole contents page is in the image, reflecting on Kanye West’s album artwork for his album released at the same time, which was plain with the only detail being a red heart. The image shows West wearing a suit, suggesting that he is trying to escape from the stereotypes that are "grabbing hold of him", and are represented by the arm that is holding him back, as though it is restraining him. He also looks as though he is not very interested in what is going on, with a bored-looking expression and hands in his pockets, which is a classic expression of boredom.

Typography/Text

The main thing noticed about the text originally is how the word contents is broken down into three lines; co, nten, and ts. This is done across every contents page Vibe has done. The rest of the text, in comparison, does not stand out as much, and fades away more into the background. Other articles mentioned include a biopic about a hip-hop legend, the Notorious B.I.G., and an article about J. Dolla. Both of these rappers are well known, and therefore would hook in more of an audience.

Conclusion

Overall, I would say that this was a worse example of a contents page than the other contents page I have looked at, however it is still better than the contents page I looked at in my preliminary task.

Analysis - Q Magazine Contents Page

Target Audience

The primary target audience of Q Magazine is working-class (social grades C1-E) people aged between 20-35, of both genders. Both genders are being portrayed in the images. The issues of representation raised by this contents page are class and Marxism.

Layout

In this layout example, the main image is to the upper right, with a secondary image in the lower middle area, inside the review section. Along the left-hand side there is a list of features, and below that, in the bottom-left corner, there is a list of articles that always appear, every month.

Colour

The three main colours used in this front page are white, black and red. These colours contrast very well, and are the standard colours of this magazine. Unlike the front covers and contents page I have analysed, the images featured do not feature these colours as the primary colours, although this may be because Q has a set colour scheme, and the other magazines I have looked at do not.

Imagery

The main image shows the band the Courteeners standing on a hilltop. This is a full body shot of the entire band, as opposed to the close-up and mid shots of a single person commonly used on front covers. They are all wearing fairly basic casual clothes, with printed t-shirts and jeans being the common clothing worn. This is representative of what is actually worn by the target audience on an average day, because they would not be overly bothered with dressing smartly, because there is no need. The secondary image shows a woman leaning against a pillar, presumably one of Q’s main reviewers. She is wearing a smart-looking business suit, and therefore is presumably supposed to be more of a representation of the middle-class, who are likely to wear such clothes on a regular basis.

Typography/Text

The text used here is almost all in one of the three main colours used on this contents page, and in standard fonts, as opposed to the more stylistic fonts used in other contents pages. Amongst the star vehicles mentioned are Oasis and the Courteeners, who both appeal more to the older generation.

Conclusion

Overall, this contents page shows all of the common conventions of a music magazine contents page. I feel that it is effective, and I am likely to base my own contents page on a very similar design.

Analysis - Billboard Front Cover, March 21 2009

Target Audience

The primary target audience of Billboard magazine is working-class (social grade C1-E) black men aged between 15 and 35. The secondary target audience is working-class white older men, aged between 25 and 45.

Masthead

The masthead of Billboard magazine does not stand out very much, being positioned behind the head of the artist on the front cover, and being styled to blend in with the background. This could imply that the artist is more important than the magazine, and that the magazine is not important compared to the music.

Layout

This magazine features almost all of the common conventions of the music magazine, including a bar code, which is not featured on the other magazine front cover I have analysed. Teasers appear on both sides of the image. One common feature repeated across the magazine is the use of circles across the front cover, including the circles which contain a list of several teasers, the coloured circles inside the o, a, and d of the name Billboard, and the circular glasses and watch worn by Flo Rida.

Colour

The main three colours used on the front cover are blue, green and grey. This carries on to the photo of Flo Rida, where he can be seen wearing a green shirt and blue jeans, in the same shade as the circles on the masthead.

Imagery

There is only one photo featured on the front cover, that of the main featured artist and star vehicle, Flo Rida. He is sat in a calming and neutral stance, with his arms leaning forwards to more fully show the tattoos across his forearms. The tattoos could connote that he is unhappy with his standard body image, and feels that he needs to change himself. However, the image seems to be going against the stereotypical image of a rapper, because his clothes do not look like the stereotypical rapper's fashion, which is supposed to be baggy sportswear and lots of jewellery. Instead, his fashion seems more like the style of clothing worn by those in the secondary target audience. The calming stance also goes against the stereotype of a rapper, because rap is normally a very aggressive and fast-paced music genre.

Typography/Text

The fonts used are more standard fonts, similar to the basic fonts on Microsoft Word. This suggests that the magazine is aimed more towards the older generation, who are less interested in the modern and stylish fonts, preferring something they can clearly read. Amongst the names of star vehicles mentioned in the teasers are U2 and Jamie Foxx. While not quite appealing to the primary target audience, these names would appeal to the secondary target audience, who are more likely to listen to such musicians.

Conclusion

Overall, this magazine mostly appeals to the target audience, with one main problem with its appeal; the majority of the artists mentioned on the front cover do not appeal very well to the primary target audience.

Analysis - RWD Front Cover Issue 100

Target Audience

The main target audience for RWD magazine is working-class (social graded between C1 and E) black men aged between 15-30, who are the main target audience for the rap genre of music, which is the main genre covered by this magazine. All of the conventions on the cover are targeted towards representation of this group and their needs.

Masthead

The masthead of RWD magazine is barely seen, with the majority of the masthead hidden behind the main image. This is a commonly-seen convention of music magazines, possibly implying that the musician is bigger and more important than the magazine itself. The font used for the masthead is modern and technological, and appeals well to the target audience, who must be able to use a computer fairly well to download it.

Layout

The style of the magazine shows the front cover, with the artist featured, Tinie Tempah, tearing through the front, which also shows an image of him. This follows Hall’s theory about youth, that they enjoy ripping, tearing and destroying things for fun. There is no bar code or price tag on the front cover, however this is a download-only magazine, and therefore a price tag and bar code would not be needed. To the right of the main image, a short list of other artists are shown, as teasers for the articles inside.

Colour

The main two colours featured are white and pale blue, with black being a spot colour. This continues onto the main image as well, with his clothes being coloured white and blue. This connotes that a male target audience is the desired target audience, because these are two colours that they enjoy.

Imagery

There is one main photo on the front, of the featured artist and star vehicle, Tinie Tempah. However, the photo has been taken to make it look as though he is tearing through the image. This is a metaphor to show how he has been “tearing up” the official charts. It also follows Hall’s theory about the youth being vandals, and how they will do anything, legal or illegal, in order to have fun. It is a close-up image, in order to get more emphasis on him. Overall, this image connotes that the magazine will accurately represent black men aged between 15 and 30 because the person being shown is supposed to be the same as them, even trying to dress similarly to how the working class are supposed to dress, and he performs the music that they enjoy listening to.

Typography/Text

Much of the text shown is in rather youthful, graffiti-style fonts, that all seem more appealing to the target audience. Names mentioned in the teaser along the side as featured artists in the magazine include names such as Wiley and P Diddy, two very well-known artists who act as star vehicles. This would help to bring in fans of these artists, and also shows that this magazine is trying to appeal to people from both the UK and the US, as P Diddy is an American rapper, whereas Wiley is a British rapper.

Conclusion

Overall, I would say that this music magazine follows the majority of the conventions of the front cover of magazines, and is an accurate representation of what appeals to the target audience, as well as a fairly accurate representation of the audience themselves.

Main Task

I have now finished my preliminary task, and am now moving on to the main task - to design a music magazine's front cover, contents page and double-page spread. I will start by analysing the common conventions that appear in a music magazine front cover and contents page.

Prelim Evaluation

As Bentley states, the creative process is; "The making of the new through the rearranging of the old." I used this in my product by looking at the common conventions of magazines, before I started to plan my own contents and cover page. I started by looking at the existing Bodmin College magazine, and concluded that it was not very good because it did not appeal to the target audience and followed very few of the common conventions of magazines. Because of this, I challenged the current conventions in the making of my magazine, and tried to resemble the magazine styles that my target audience said appealed to them in my SurveyMonkey. My target audience preferred the style of Empire magazine, so I followed some of the conventions displayed there, such as only having one central image, adding a strapline and the inclusion of a quote from the main headline in my contents page to represent their needs in my target audience. However, I did break some of the conventions because my magazine was from a different genre and I wanted to be original. One of the conventions I broke was the lack of a price tag, bar code and issue number.

My media product represents the social group of youth. According to Hall, youth are all troublemakers primarily concerned with having fun. My headline for my College magazine follows this, as it is about a student being named Rapper of the Year. Rap music is notorious for being aggressive and violent, concerned mainly with drugs, sex and alcohol. Therefore, a story about a student making rap music would follow Hall’s theory. However, the other two stories featured on the front cover disrupt Hall’s theory, as they show the students to be more hard-working, being about victories in sports and guidelines for students planning to go to university.

I managed to attract my audience by hosting a SurveyMonkey to discover what the audience thought was fitting for a College magazine. I published this survey to both Facebook and Twitter, to gather a wide range of responses from my target audience. The responses I received then had a major effect on the design of my final product.

I have learned more about how to use Photoshop and similar programs in this preliminary task, because I was not very good at using it before the task, and now I feel more competent at using it. I have also learned a lot more about how to effectively use Blogger and SurveyMonkey in this project.

I think that my analysis of the magazine front cover, and my suggestions of what could be improved went well. I intend to further improve my ability at using Photoshop before I complete my final product, because I feel that my work on Photoshop was not as good as the rest of my work. I also feel that I should improve my ability at taking photos, as many of the photos I planned to use came out worse than I intended.

Prelim College Magazine - Front Cover and Contents

Images I did not use on my cover/contents

I chose not to use this image because the image came out blurry and out of focus, due to me moving while taking the photo.

I chose not to use this image because both of our faces had terrible expressions when the photo was taken, and therefore it has not been used.

I chose not to use this image because the flash was on when the photo was taken, and therefore the reflections of the rest of the group can be seen on the surface of the trophy cabinet.

Images I used on my cover/contents

I chose to use this image on my front cover because it is a good medium shot. After editing the image to remove the background, I used this image.

I chose to use this image with relation to the article in the magazine about how there is a wide variety of new books present in the library, one of which can be seen here being read by a student.

I chose to use this image for the article in the magazine referring to the results and changes to the Sports Academies, showing a student next to the former shirt of an ex-student who went on to be a professional athlete.

Flat Plans

Front Cover

Contents

Target Audience Profiling

The target audience of my College magazine is the students, of both genders. They are aged between 11 and 19, and they fit between the NRS social grades C1 and E.

The secondary target audience of my College magazine is the teachers, and the parents/carers of the students. They are aged 20+, and the majority fit between the NRS social grades of C1 and E.