The graphs showing my results

I asked 20 people the following questions and these are the results I got:

1. How often do you buy magazines? 

Once a week - 6

Once a fortnight - 4

Once a month - 7

Never - 3

2. What draws you to a magazine?

The front cover - 6

The people in it - 12 

Freebies - 1

Information - 1

3. Do you take the time to look at the contents page in a magazine?

Yes - 11

No - 9

4. Does the presentation of the page encourage you to read an article?

Yes - 9

No - 4

It doesn't matter - 7

5. Does it help if theres an attractive person on the front?

Yes - 20

No - 0

analysis of a DPS

DSCN1040
Originally uploaded by fernanderson

My analysis of an existing double page spread

Analysis of a contents page

DSCN1021
Originally uploaded by fernanderson

My analysis of an existing contents page

Overall my coursework was a success, it seemed daunting at first but I took it step by step and it worked out fine. In the process I have learnt a lot about magazines in general, publishing, research, stereotypes, marketing, photography and more.

I have definitely developed my Photoshop skills by doing this coursework; I wasn’t familiar with the program before I started studying Media so it took a while to get comfortable with it. It made the assignment a lot easier being able to work the program. I think everything went smoothly in terms of planning, however I could have done with a little more time to work on it. I only needed one model for my pictures so that wasn’t too difficult to achieve either.

When addressing my audience I considered the language, I kept it sounding quite professional with the exception of some colloquial language. I kept a fairly basic layout, very easy on the eye, not too much going on. I used very classy classic colours, to appeal to everyone and to keep it looking smart. I took photos of my friend to be on the front cover, contents page and double page spread, she fits the criteria very well as she is half south-African, I put her in a white vest and had her down and natural, if you see the magazine examples about and look at Bleeder and VIBE you can see that this is very common in R&B magazines. My double page spread is an interview with Ria Ritchie, who is the equivalent to someone like Beyonce, she is someone who would typically grace these types of magazines so it worked well.

. My R&B Magazines target audience is anyone from around age 15 and above, male and female. Inside my magazine, it could advertise tours, gigs and albums, ipods or even items of clothing such as trainers. I think my audience would be attractive to advertisers because there are a variety of products that can be sold in a magazine such as Pure R&B because R&B fans are everyday people, they are quite unpredictable they what they do and wear so a lot of products would appeal to them.

I think a publisher such as Bauer might distribute my magazine as they are now the largest in the UK. Bauer would be relevant because my magazine sticks to the conventions of a typical R&B magazine, which have large audiences. If my magazine had a niche audience I would go with a small publisher as it would benefit me more in terms of revenue. Bauer is so popular it would be a huge benefit having them publish your magazine, although it would be more expensive than a medium sized publisher such as Dennis.

In terms of representation, the demographics are quite unpredictable because these magazines don’t have a niche audience. R&B music is music that you can listen without being generalised into a social group, for example Kerrang! Readers are seen as radical, anti-establishment rebels who spend their time playing in punk bands, wearing black and piercing their faces. With R&B magazines, its audience are a little less obvious. However, the majority of people who enjoy this genre of music are usually of black origin, as the style of music originated from urban areas in countries such as Africa. In regards to psychographics, the music is quite mainstream and so are its followers. There is no certain dress code to show people that you listen to this sort of music, and if there was it would probably be t-shirt and jeans. Whereas if you are a Kerrang! Reader and listen to rock/punk/metal, what you wear generally says it all. Listening to R&B music doesn’t make a statement in the way that listening to rock music does, there’s no rebellion involved, there’s more freedom. It’s very much in touch with the real world.
The girl in my photos is wearing a simple white tank top, which backs up my ideas of there being no certain dress code. She looks very natural and beautiful in all of the pictures, she has no posed expression on her face but she is making direct eye contact to the camera, this gives a sense of intimacy to the reader, especially on the double page spread as the photo is very close-up on her face. The camera angle looks straight on at her at all times, it doesn’t look down on her making her look small and helpless and it doesn’t look up at her making her look big and powerful, it’s just real.
The language I have used is fairly formal, assuming that the audience are old enough to not need hip, colloquial language to find it interesting

1. For my coursework I created an R&B magazine called ‘Pure R&B’. I chose this name because it’s simple and to the point, you know exactly what the magazine entails and it’s very true to the genre of R&B. When studying R&B magazines I noticed a few things that all of them have in common. There’s usually a black girl on the front being portrayed as a sex symbol, which is due to the fact that this music genre originated in black countries. There is a lot of gold and black and the titles are usually in block lettering. They have quite a classy, expensive appearance and usually have a colour scheme that is not purely aimed at men or women.

I have followed the conventions of these magazines so that my audience understand it. The name of my magazine ‘Pure R&B’ is not dissimilar to ‘Hip Hop Soul’ and the font is bold and gold, also the image of the front of my magazine is could easily be found on the front of Bleeder, VIBE, FHM or Hip Hop Soul.
My front cover is fairly simple. I have the photo on the front stretched across the whole page as I noticed that a lot of R&B magazines did this, along with the bold, gold solid masthead. I used the date and email address as a strapline underneath the masthead in a smaller font and right-justified. I included left and right justified cover lines, but most of them I put on the left because they will be visible when they are organised on a shelf in a shop. I used a “Ria Ritchie – our R&B queen revealed!” as my main cover line, and this is placed at the bottom left hand corner of the magazine, in my research I found that it was common to have the main cover line near the bottom of the page. .
On the double-page spread the layout is very simple and tidy. The photo spreads over two pages although the subject is on the left page. The photo of the girl is a very close-up shot, this makes the interview feel a lot more intimate for the reader. The text is on the right hand page and consists of three left-justified columns. I have used fairly big gutters so that the text doesn’t look cramped together and messy. I used a drop-cap at the start of the text because it looks neat and professional, which was the look I was going for.
With the contents page, again, the photo fills the whole page. All of the next is left-justified and the text is white, which stands out on the dark purple and black background. The girl in the photo is more on the right hand side of the page, which I did deliberately so that there was space on the left to write my contents. I used quite small, delicate lettering for my contents page because is it is a little more detailed than the front cover. The text under the heading is all lower-case lettering, this makes the text look more tidy and dainty, which gives a look of sophistication. On the bottom right hand side of the page I used three pictures which indicate some of the other people featured in the magazine.

front cover rnb copy

front cover rnb copy
Originally uploaded by fernanderson

My analysis of my front cover

double page spread copy

double page spread copy
Originally uploaded by fernanderson

My analysis of my double page spread

r&b contents! copy

r&b contents! copy
Originally uploaded by fernanderson

My analysis of my contents page

My target audience research

R&B as a genre doesn't have an audience of a specific age, because it doesn't have a particular scene or lifestyle that comes with it. For example rock music is more aimed at teenagers because they go to gigs. The youngest age for this magazine is 16 years old and I think it would appeal to anyone above that age. It equally appeals to male and female, as there are a lot of R&B artists of both sexes.

My initial ideas

I followed through my initial idea for the magazine. I wanted to do an R&B Magazine with artists such as Beyonce on the cover and my final product turned out the way I expected. After researching R&B Magazines it came to my attention that these magazines are usually quite expensive looking, they usually have a black girl on the front and quite bold, simple writing.

blender

blender
Originally uploaded by fernanderson

my analysis of an existing blender magazine cover. click on the cover to read.

classic rock

classic rock
Originally uploaded by fernanderson

my analysis of the front cover of a classic rock magazine. click on the front cover to see my analysis.

mixmag

mixmag
Originally uploaded by fernanderson

this is a front cover of an existing magazine. click on the front cover to see my analysis!

front cover copy

front cover copy
Originally uploaded by fernanderson

front cover with analysis
I think my college magazine front cover appeals to it's target audience because it is colourful, fun, and has events in it which appeal to all students whether it be sports or music. I tried to use colours that would appeal to both sexes male and female so i used lots of red and blue and the typography is very varied as it has lots off different bubbly fonts. The image on the front cover is fun so we can see the magazine is imformal and quite chatty and gossipy. The photo is a medium shot and has a straight on angle, its all very much in focus and has a smooth film quality. The lighting is very natural as the photo was taken outside, i think this is very expressive of mood as we are smiling on the front cover! I think the photo is very suitable for the magazine and it looks very packed with gossip and news. However i think the layout could be better. I think because of the photo it was hard to put the text around the people on the front without going over their faces, so i had to put them in a sort of list down the left hand side, although this could make it easier on the eye.With the contents page i think it could be a lot more detailed to make it more exciting however i think with pictures in the boxes provided it could be quite effective and look busier. I used bright colours again to appeal to a teenage audience.I have gained a lot by this Preliminary Task, i didn't have any photoshop skills and now i feel quite confident with it. However i do feel if i was better at it i could have created a better magazine cover.

my college magazine

nus mag

nus mag
Originally uploaded by fernanderson

here is my analysis of a existing student magazine - click on it to read