Magazine cover research 1 cheryl 7

This is a front cover of a Q magazine with Cheryl Cole on the front.


This is the masthead of the cover. It is its main feature of each of the Q magazines. It stands out the most because it is large and has bright colours.



This is the headline of the cover. It is large and red to stand out and gives the sense of danger. It is used as a verb and an adjective, because it is describing her as she 'rocks' but also it is telling us that she is doing rock music so she 'rocks' as in playing rock music. It is also a buzz word to get people going, about her new genre style.

This is additional information added to the front cover to preview other articles inside the magazine and lure the audiences in. There is text that is highlighted to show that it is different from the other text. They use gutters to split up the text to make it stand out and easier for the audience to read.





They use a puff to advertise an inside story about John Lennon. This suggests that it is about a story from the past because John Lennon is dead.


This is a banner used to advertise the magazine. It is a strapline to make the audience want to read it, by saying that it is the 'biggest music magazine' in the UK which makes the audience think that it is very well known and popular.

The front cover has a centred image and is using Laura Mulvey's theory of 'the male gaze' except it is the other way round because it is trying to attract the male audiences. Also the image has been edited to make her image look better, it is edited by making her lips more red and her hair darker and wetter to make it more appealing. Further more the image has been focused on her face and blurred the background.
I think that also Richard Dyer's theory has been used because she is usually a pop and bright coloured musician, but for this magazine she has been portrayed as a dark and rocky musician.

How it has influenced my ideas and what I like

• The first thing that I like is the effects on the picture to make it look more appealing and effective.
• I like how the the headline is at the bottom and how it is used as a verb and an adjective, to appeal to the audience.
• I don't like how the picture is behind the masthead because it looks untidy and does not blend in well.
• I also like how the puff is in a different colour to make it stand out in the picture.  

Lily Allen Research 6

This is the work I did on Lily Allen. We analysed her front cover and discovered that she is not following the conventions her typical style. We learnt about the theory's of Julian McDougall, Laura Mulvey, Stuart Hall, Richard Dyer.

How this has influenced my ideas

• I like how her expression matches the headline of the magazine
• I like how she is all black to match her genre
• I like how the headline interacts with the picture

Research banners 1

Music banners from Morganbullock

 

How this has influenced my ideas

• Have a banner at the bottom of my front cover.
• Use banner to advertise.
• Use different colour text.
• Use a quote at the end of my banner.

Front cover analysis evaluation 1

Front cover analysis from Morganbullock

Music magazine cover 5

This is an Uncut magazine. It is in black and white which suggests that it is an old music artist because black and white is less modern. It uses a small banner at the top of the page, which is a pug to let the audience know what is inside. In my opinion, I don’t like how the image is so high up because the text goes across his head, which in my opinion should be the main focus of the image.  The magazine has a barcode on which shows that it has being bought and sold in shops.

Also inside this barcode is a dateline and a price tag.  The masthead is in a large font and in a different colour to make it stand out to the audience, also it is san serif. The colour scheme of this magazine is red, black, white, and orange. This suggests that they have gone for an old fashioned theme, but also added a bit of colour in to attract more modern audiences. The magazine also uses direct address, with the model looking into the camera. This follows Winships theory of ‘the gaze’ which is meant to attract the audience (in this case women) to him. I don’t think that his body has been edited because the hair on hid chest and armpit are untidy, so I think they have gone for a natural look.  The artist has long, wavy hair, which could be a code and an indexical sign for rock music, because rock artists are usually stereotyped as having long hair to ‘rock out’ with. It also has a buzz word “Legend of the Lizard King” which could relate to his theme/genre style of music, this could also be his slogan.

There is a puff at the top left of the cover, which could also be used as a sell line to audiences. This is also a graphic to promote the magazine to get people to buy it. There are also 8 cover stories on the front which could also be used as pugs. I think that the magazine is intended for a female audience, because he is naked on the front and is doing a pose to try and attract the women.

Ideas I got from this magazine

·      Use a barcode

·      Don’t have image so high up

·      Use a slogan

·      Use alliteration

·      Have a subheading

Magazine front cover 4

This is a music magazine front cover, with Eminem on it. This implies that he is the masthead of the magazine.  There is an interesting shadow on the masthead that works with the grey font. The headline links to the image, because the font that is used is like a signature ‘Eminem’ font, so it is a motivated sign because people recognise the font from previous Eminem album front covers also the magazine uses san serif font to make it clear to the audience. Also it uses a red font which signifies danger and Eminem is looking at the camera, to show his emotion to the audience and because Eminem is quite ‘gangster’ he needs to look tough in the picture to keep up his appearance and it also links to the masthead colour because he looks dangerous. The image is big and fills the page, also it comes in front of all of the text to suggest that he is the main topic of the magazine. The magazine uses a buzz phrase when it says “comes clean” which could mean 2 things, either that he is clean from drugs or that he is going to tell the truth. In this magazine it uses both in it, because he is telling the truth about his drug usage status. The picture is a mid-shot and it is a central image, again to show that he is the main feature of the magazine. I think the photograph has been manipulated, by making his muscles bigger, his arms more tanned, is skin more clean and his tattoos more detailed and appealing. The picture is clear and sharp but there isn’t anything in the background so it is clear.   

 The magazine uses a dateline. I know that it is blurred but it says  “June 2009” so that was the date that it was published. 

                          The image is in colour which shows that Eminem is more modern and could suggest that the music genre is also more modern. The model is wearing a black tank top, which links to his genre of ‘rap’ music because rap tends to be known as ‘street’ music and ‘gangster’ and gangsters are stereotyped to wear tank tops. Also the colour black signifies that his music is dark. The picture is taken in a studio, because there is nothing in the background, suggesting that it was just taken against a normal white wall. There is a necklace around his neck of the cross, according to Barthes, these signs are symbolic – the cross connotes religion however in this case, it works as an indexical sign with his tattoos and black t shirt to develop a harder street image. This could be interpreted that he is religious, which could appeal to the religious audiences however, his hard image appeals to an urban male target audience. .

This shows mode of address because it is asking the audience on their opinion.

This magazine supports the theory of Hodge and Kress because it uses typical magazine conventions, by using a large font to dominate the magazine cover; but also it agrees with Steve Neale because it does repeat the idea of a typical magazine front cover (picture, large font, subtext etc.) however it alters it to make it different, by adding different colours and different fonts, to make it more ‘fresh’ for the audience.  This also shows that the magazine is using conventions, because it uses typical magazine features.

How this research has influenced my  creativity

• ·      I will use different fonts in different colours that appeal to the target audience.
• ·      I will interact with the audience by adding a question or use direct address
• ·      I will add the date to my magazine
• ·      I will add bigger fonts for big headlines or stories.
• ·      I will also use symbolic signs

Music Magazine cover 2+3

This is my work on my first 2 magazines that I analysed.

Final contents page for college magazine

Completed college magazine front cover

Evaluation of Key Skills 1

So far I have learnt how to install photos from a camera into a mac, through usb. I have learnt how to edit photos on adobe and I used this to make my front cover of my magazine. I have made accounts on Prezi and updted my flickr accound with photos of my work. I have learnt how to publish pictures on Flickr and annotate them. I have learnt how to use a camera properly and what the buttons do. Also I have learnt how to put all of my work in 1 folder (this neatened up my desktop) also I have learnt how to save things to my desktop.

Evaluation of Preliminary task 1

I was happy with my front cover, because it was very creative and it looked like a typical cover of a magazine. The colours that I used were, red, yellow and white. I chose these colours because they go well together and they do not clash so it is clear to the public/audience. I like my masthead because it uses an unusual font, which makes it more catchy for the audience, and will make them more interested in buying it. I used a red font colour with a yellow background, so it would stand out. Also it is very large so it stands out to the audience and that they know that it is the headline. I have used 2 images on my front cover. The first one is the main headline, which is large and fills most of the page, and the second one is an inside story down at the bottom left corner of the page. The other stories that I had was that a 'student had won a trip to spain' and a money off offer for stationary. I chose these because I thought they are typical types of things that go on a front cover of a college magazine. Also I thought that they would relate to the headline as it is for a college magazine and one of them is a picture. If I did it again I would add extra features like a barcode, price, dateline and maybe add some effects to the image itself.

improved version of front cover

This is my improved version of my front cover. I have dragged everything down so it fills the page instead of having a big gap at the bottom. Also I have added pictures of the stationary to show the quality of the products that the customer can buy.

Research Lesson 4

In today's lesson i have managed to complete my front cover of my magazine. In it I went for the colour theme of red,yellow and grey because they bonded well and stood out from one another. I also completed my draft for my contents page and saved everything to my documents. I printed out my front cover so I can analyse it, which I have started.

Plan contents page

THIS IS MY CONTENTS PAGE DRAFT

FRONT COVER PLAN 1

THIS IS MY FINAL DESIGN FOR MY FRONT COVER.

lessons work research 3

Research Lesson 2

After the lesson I have learnt how to use flickr and how to make a magazine front cover on it. I learnt how to crop photos correctly, which also allowed me to get the right amount of the picture that I want. I have started on my magazine front cover and have managed to put the picture that I want on the front and I have started on the title/headline.

Magazine plan 1



 This is my contents page plan. I am going to have 2 pictures of main topics in my magazine in the bottom right, and top left corner.

This was my plan for my front cover of my magazine. I have the main topic large in the middle of the page, to show the audience that it is in fact the highlighted topic of the magazine. I have other advertisements down the side and other topics that will be in the magazine down the bottom. Also I have a bit of information for the audience of the types of subjects that will be inside, down the bottom. The pattern going around the headline, is meant to be like a flash, which relates to the topic of the magazine and the headline, because we are taking pictures and the headline has the word 'capturing' in which links to taking pictures.

Flickr posts plan 1

Target Audience Research-Photographs on Flickr-Screengrab

Worst 3 pics 1

These are my worst 3 photos. I think these are the worse because the picture quality was not as good as the others and they did not match my design as much as the others either.

Best 3 pics 1

These are my 3 best photos. I think these are the best because the picture quality is good and it matches my design the most. Also the lighting is perfect and the background is plain, which is what I wanted.

Lesson Research 1

What I learnt

In todays lesson I learnt about codes and expectations. I also learnt about genres and how genres are created. I believe that a genre of something is based on the public and the public and the producer, because the producer alters a films genre depending on what the public want. This is also the same opinion of Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress, who believed that genre is "typical forms of texts which link to the producer, consumer, topic, medium, manner and occasion". However I also learnt that sub genres were made to make the audiences more interested, for example rom-com's which is romantic comedies. This mixes 2 genres together to make the film more entertaining, and it can draw in more audiences as 2 genres are used.

Homework - Q analysis 1 (1)

This is a Q magazine about the music group Muse. This is targeted at teenagers/adults, because children's magazines usually have bright colours, which appeals to them more than adults. I know that this is a rock theme, because the guy on the front cover has a guitar, which is an indexical sign for rock. Also this has a lot of dark colours, which is also a indexical sign for rock music, because people usually think of dark colours and objects when it comes to rock. 

I like how the background interacts with the logo. As you can see, the guy on the front is swinging his guitar and the logo is cracked, which suggests that he has cracked it with the guitar. This makes the cover look more interesting and creative, which  makes it more appealing to audiences. I think they have put the texts in the corners of the pages, to make the image more visible to readers. Making the image more visible, indicates to the audience that its big story is about muse. However it also has their name in big letters on the front, making it clear to the reader. On the cover the magazine gives a little bit of information, to let the reader know the outline of the stories and make them want to read the full story.

Overall I think this magazine is for teenagers/adults and uses a lot of good, eye catching features to intrigue the reader.