Mood Board

  

This is my mood board which contains a lot of images and fonts which are taken from women's magazines to display a feminine image. There are lots of feminine colours used, e.g. pinks and purples which are all chosen to appeal to the intended female audience, I will use these to influence me when I design my magazine as I feel that the interesting fonts used are effective and would work well to attract attention of the young female audience that i want to appeal to.

The images used work well to attract attention as the poses are interesting and unique which makes them stand out and I feel that they would work well to make them stand out on the shelf,

Preliminary Task- Contents Page

Here is the mock up of my contents page:



The design of the contents page is very simple and easy to understand. Down the left hand side the contents are clearly listed along with the page number so that readers can easily locate the article they wish to read.
I have chosen to put an image of the college in the top right corner of the contents page to make it more appealing and it is relevant to what the magazine is about.
Finally, I positioned the college mission statement in the bottom right corner so that students are aware of it and will stick by it.

Preliminary Task- Front Cover

Here is the finished design of my front cover:



I chose to call my magazine 'SMC Monthly Magazine' as this straight away lets people know what the magazine is about and how often it is published. I thought that using a blue coloured font would be appropriate as it matches the college's signature colour, and the use of a yellow background is to make it uni-sex, therefore appealing to both a male and female audience. The font that I chose to use is quite rounded and informal, again to make it suitable for the target audience.
The large image of the college student used is to fit within the targets of the preliminary task, but it also catches the eye of the reader as it clearly stands out on the page. I have left the front page quite bare, with only a couple of bullet points to give the reader an idea of what is inside. I think that when I make my music magazine I will include a few more features on the front page to make it more attractive to the audience, and by giving them a hint as to what is inside is likely to make them want to purchase the magazine.
I have given hints as to what is inside the magazine by listing them in bullet points on the left hand side. This is designed to give clues to the reader of the contents so that they will hopefully be interested and want to purchase the magazine.
I have chosen to price my magazine at £0.99 as seeing as the audience are all students they will not be able to afford an expensive magazine. Also by having a low price for my magazine, this is likely to make the magazine more appealing.

Feedback 23.3.09

Kerri, YOu need to upload your prelim task and evaluate it please. Good work on questionnaire and Smash Hits. You've clearly worked hard here - keep this up! You should by now be producing your own magazine, so you need to finish the planning asap. Upload your mood boards, sketches etx then you can take your photos and get in to production.

(Mrs Abell)

Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task I had to design a college magazine aimed at college students. It had to include a medium close up image of a college student to go on the front page. Here is the design of my front page:



Here is my finished preliminary task front cover:

Questionnaire

I created a questionnaire which I gave out to 10 girls aged between 12 and 16. Here are the results:

1. Are you interested in pop music? Yes : 9 No : 1
2. Would you ever purchase a pop music magazine? Yes: 8 No : 2
3. Do you listen to the charts? Yes : 8 No : 2
4. Have you ever been to a pop concert? Yes : 7 No : 3
5. Do you watch music channels on TV? Yes : 8 No : 2

Looking at the results it is clear that the majority of girls that completed the questionnaire are interested in pop music and would be interested in purchasing a pop music magazine. I think that this proves that there is a large gap in the market for this genre of music. Most of the people asked also listened to the charts which shows that they have an interest in this specific genre of music, and some of then had also been to pop concerts which I believe shows that young girls are likely to be interested in my magazine.  

Music Magazine Research

At present there are already lots of music magazines available on the market. However, I feel that there is a big gap in the market for a pop music magazine aimed at a younger audience since the axe of SmashHits magazine. 

This is an example of the type of magazine that I want to create. The clever combination of colour choice and curvy fonts used   clearly indicates that this magazine is aimed at a female audience. Also the different shades of pink used make it quite eye-catching which will help to make it stand out from the others when it is sat on a shelf.

The front cover of this magazine is quite busy, giving lots of information as to what is inside. There are lots of images with text so it is hard to identify which is the main image and story of the magazine. I think for my magazine I won't use as many images on the front cover  so that the reader is clearly aware of the main story inside, but I will use text to inform the reader of interesting features inside.

This font cover also advertises things that are not related to music but will still be especially appealing for a young female audience. For example, '19 red carpet looks you'll love' is likely to attract the attention of a young girl, although it is not music related. I think that I will use this idea when creating my music magazine as I think that it will be effective in attracting the attention of young girls, and it may even attract girls that are not interested in music, but want to read the article. 

Initial Ideas

Initial ideas for my magazine:

• I am going to create a pop music magazine aimed at teenage girls between the ages of 12-16. There is currently a gap in the market for this genre of music magazine due to SmashHits being axed a few years ago.
• the magazine will feature interviews with current pop stars and bands as well as upcoming acts to try to inspire young people. Also there will be reviews on newly released albums and singles to keep the readers up to date on current music.
•  It will also have features on the current Top 40 Chart so that readers are aware of the newest music and will also include games and quizzes to make it more appealing to a younger audience.
• as the magazine is aimed at young girls I will use lots of bright colours to attract their attention, especially lots of pink to make it more feminine. I will also try to make the magazine more unique by using an interesting layout to differentiate it from other magazines already available on the market.