Progression of Contents Page

1) The image I have chosen was not wide enough for me to place the students on the left side of the page to give me space for the contents, therefore I decided to move the image to the left and made the image smaller.

2) I then extended the right side of the image to fill up the space and used the same shade of blue to fill in the white area.

3) Two rectangles are created with drop shadows to create a nicer backdrop for the text, meanwhile the opacity is set to 30% to allow the image to still be visible.

4) I then added the title of 'December' with the font 'Jonze & Jozing', keeping to the theme of the front cover I have also used 'WhisperADream' as the font for the contents.

Progression of Magazine Cover

1) I began with a simple photo of two students standing in front of a form of art structure inside college, I have chosen this photo as the front cover image because it clearly shows how happy the students are to be in college.

2) The masthead is then created with the font "Jonze & Jozing", enhanced with drop shadow and stroke to create depth.

3) By erasing part of the masthead, it makes it seem like the student is in front of it, allowing the masthead to become part of the image meaning it will blend in with the photo and look as realistic as possible. I have also added a green parallelogram as banner and set the opacity to 60% for a softer look.

4) I have tried to put "The Christmas Edition" as the cover line on top of the green banner, however it seems too crowded so I changed it. The colour of the font is red with white outline, which are colours associated with Christmas along with the green banner. As if that is not enough, I decided to create even more of a festive cover with the fonts 'ChristmasEve' and 'PWChristmasfont'. With "Special Chritmas Edition", the readers will believe that this is an extraordinary edition which will interest them.

5) I then added the taglines on the sides of the cover, which will intrigue the readers to pick it up and browse through. The font I used is 'WhisperADream', which looks handwritten and casual so it will not intimidate the readers. The dark blue outline of the font not only will make the words stand out, it is also a similar colour to the student's jacket which takes up a big part of the image, this will allow the taglines to look as if it was part of the image. By using different sizes on the tagline, it shows the importance of certain words which will capture the reader's attention immediately. 

6) Finally I have added the small but essential details such as the date and the logo of the magazine, as well as the college name and the barcode. The use of plugs and puffs will gain the attention of readers, allowing them to know they have a chance to "Win an iPad".

Photos for Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page

 

Here are some photos I have taken for the front cover and the contents page of my college magazine, I wanted to capture student's life around college therefore these photos show signs of friendships as well as students being hard working.

Preliminary Task: Brief

Initial Ideas

Target audience: Students between the ages of 16 - 19

Content: Latest news of events around the college, enrichments and clubs, places to eat around/near the college, student's artwork

Ideas for cover lines: Jingle bell rocks / Christmas bizzar

Title: Latitude, Chronicle,

Font: Jonze & Jonzing

Season published: Winter - Christmas edition

Front cover image: Students around college, probably in courtyard cafe or outdoor

Frequency of publication: Once a half term

Dimensions of cover: A5 (Not too big but small enough to carry in bag to read anytime)

Images/colour on contents page: Photo slightly blurred under the contents, main colour of the photo, likely to be blue and green

Flat plans

These are my flat plans for the front cover and contents page.

Proposal

This college magazine is aimed at college students between the ages of 16 - 19 who study at South Downs. I have decided to go with the name 'Chronicle' because it means a chronological record of events, which can be related to the college as students will eventually go through a series of events during their time here at South Downs. Furthermore, this magazine will also include the events coming up during the term therefore it is perfectly compatible with the title 'Chronicle'. In addition, 'Chronicle' was the name of a film about three high school friends gaining superpowers and their bond was tested as they embrace their darker sides. This can be suggestively relates to students at South Downs because as they are growing up, they will be facing many difficulties in friendship and in college work, therefore it will be partially similar to the storyline of the film.

As mentioned earlier, 'Chronicle' will include dates of events coming up in the following half term, such as college trips, holidays, special events, this is act as a reminder for students of what is happening in the half term in case they forget. The contents of 'Chronicle' will also include a list of good standard University, information on the latest enrichments and clubs, up-coming events in and around college, such as local Christmas parties and charity events. Furthermore, it will provides places to eat around college so the lunch hours can be spent by exploring different type of foods.

Before I settled with the title of 'Chronicle', I thought about naming this college magazine 'Latitude', not only does it rhyme with 'attitude' which links to students with attitudes, it also have a connection with the world and it is somewhat cosmopolitan like. However, I have decided to use 'Chronicle' since that word has more connections with students.

My front cover of the college magazine will be a portrait photo of two students standing together in front of a hanging art piece while sporting a nice smile, this will be able to promote the college magazine because it shows how happy the students are to be in college and also showcases the art structures around college. As for the content's page image, I decided to go for a photo of the two students standing outdoor in the lovely weather showing the South Downs college logo on the building behind them.

I have considered a few fonts for the masthead, which are "Jonze & jozing", "Plane crash" and "Rough typewriter". "Jonze & jozing" was the first font I have found that I thought would be suitable ,

"Rough typewriter" would be a great font because it is the typical traditional font from years ago when schools used typewriter, the fact that the font is not straight will make the college magazine seems casual and laid back.

This issue will be a special Christmas edition, with it's contents to include ideas of Christmas presents for friends and families because many students will most likely be struggling with both idea and money wise. I have came up with a few ideas for cover lines to go along with the Christmas issue, the first one being "Jingle bell rock", not only is it a popular phrase used during the Christmas season, it is also the name of a well known Christmas song which will bring the readers associate it with this festive season. My second idea for the cover line is "Merry Christmas HO HO HO", this is a very straight forward phrase as a tagline because it is generally used by everyone to greet each other. The last cover line idea is "The special Christmas edition" This will attract the reader's attention because they will believe that it is an exclusive edition so they will definitely read it.

As magazines are now available is different sizes, I have decided to go with A5 as it is not too big yet small enough to carry in bags, therefore it is compatible meaning students can read it wherever, whenever. This magazine will be published once every half term in order to keep the students up to date on events around the college.

Research and Planning, Task Five

AS Media Coursework: Skills Audit

Using a computer

	YES	NO
Are you confident on a PC?	/
Can you insert text and image into a Word document?	/
Can you find relevant documents and articles on the internet?	/
Can you find images of different sizes on the internet?	/
Have you ever used a Mac?	/
On a Mac, do you know how to open an application?	/
On a Mac, do you know how to cut & paste text?	/
On a Mac, do you know how to copy images from the internet?	/
Do you know how to scan images into a Mac?	/
Do you know how to upload photographs to a Mac?	/
Do you know how to Bluetooth files?		/
Are you confident using Powerpoint?	/
Do you currently have a Blog?	/
Do you know how to burn data to a disc?	/
Do you know how to upload files to email or a Blog?	/

Taking Photographs

	YES	NO
Do you have your own digital camera?	/
Does your mobile phone have a camera?	/
Do you know how to take photographs in B&W?	/

Using Applications

	YES	NO
Have you ever used Photoshop?	/
Have you ever used InDesign?		/
Are you able to crop an image?	/
Are you able to apply any special effects to an image?	/

Research and Planning, Task Four

IPC Media is a leading consumer magazine and British digital publisher with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. IPC creates content for multiple platforms, across print, online, nobile, tablets and events with more than 60 iconic media brands. IPC Media engage with an astonishing amount of 26m UK adults, which is almost two thirds of UK women and nearly 50% of UK men. Their award winning portfolio of websites even reaches over 25 million uses globally every month.

Created in 1968, five years after the merging of UK's three leading magazine publishers - George Newnes, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications by the creation of a parent company called the International Publishing Corporation (IPC), IPC was reorganized into six division:
- IPC Newspaper
  (including The People and The Sun, also the Daily mirror and Sunday Pictorial)
- IPC Magazines
  (consumer magazines and comics)
- IPC Trade and Technical
  (specialist magazines, later known as IPC Business Press Ltd.)
- IPC Books
  (all book publishing)
- IPC Printing
  (all non-newspaper printing operations)
- IPC New Products
  (launching pad for products which used new technology)

Some of the important history of IPC Media includes:
The launch of Woman's Own's in 1932, the first full-colour magazine at the cost of 2d, it's first issue was promoted with a free cover-mounted gift - three skeins of wool with every copy. During the war in 1940s, IPC's women's weeklies kept up with the morale of Britain's women and supplying an essential information service on behalf of the Government, which the covers are now regarded as classic works of art. 1963 was one of the most important year for IPC Media as the formation of the International Publishing Corporation took place, bringing the three rival magazine companies together. In 1970, IPC was acquired by the Reed Group to form the giant global corporation, Reed International. Within the same decade, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were welcomed by IPC to it's King's Reach Tower HQ while HRH drops in on Horse & Hound, Country Life, Woman and Woman's Own. Later on in the 1988, the formation of European Magazines Ltd was announced, launching the UK edition of the international title Marie Claire. A decade later, IPC Magazine was sold to Cinven for £860m which was one of the largest management buyouts in UK history. As we reach a new millennium, IPC Magazines was renamed IPC Media, creating a new strategy based on being a brand-centric business. Look was launched in February 2007 by IPC Connect, which was the first glossy high street fashion and celebrity style weekly magazine in the UK, also known as the biggest ever lauch in IPC's history. Recently in January 2010, IPC Media restructured around three key audience groups: men, mass-market women and up-mark women.


IPC has been associated with all types of magazine and a wide range of target audiences over the years. Following are some popular and recognizable examples:
- Country Life
  It is an quintessential English magazine with comments in depth on a wide variety of subjects which includes architecture, gardening, the countryside, schools and wildlife. It's target audience are mainly ones who live the real country house lifestyle, likely to be men between the ages of 40+.
- Amateur Gardening
  This is currently the best-selling weekly gardening magazine in the UK with supports by expert opinion and tips from some of gardening's most influential exponents. This magazine is aimed at ones who are interested in growing as it covers a wide rang of horticultural interests. which means the target audience will most likely to be mainly women between the ages of 45 to 60.
- Woman's Own
  From the title of the magazine, it clearly shows the target audiences are woman, likely to be housewives who are over 40 years old. This magazine reaches over 600,000 engaged women every week and it mirrors the readers' lives and encourages them to be fantastic, it champions health, wellbring and value. Real women's stories are included throughout the magazine so that the target audience will feel related, it also provides discounts and deals from a variety of brands which is perfect for housewives.
- NME
  It is the longest published and most respected music weekly magazine in the world which reaches over 1.1 million music fans between the ages of 16-24 every week. It entertains it's readers with the most exciting and authoritative coverage of the very best in the latest news in the music industry.

IPC might be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine because not only has it build up great reputations throughout the years, it also has the experience of publishing a music magazine - NME, which was well respected and gather millions of music fans. Therefore IPC will be certain of which type of advertisements and what type of articles will attract the majority of music fans. I have came to the conclusion after researching IPC Media that the sort of genres of music/types of magazines IPC is likely to publish are punk rock, goth and metal. Seeing as that was the genre of their famous and well respected music weekly magazine, it is quite likely for them to follow the path as they have a large amount of audience already in the UK. Although the chance of IPC Media to publish a mainstream music magazine can not be disregard seeing as they are quite likely to attract a large amount of audience too with their tremendous reputation.

Alternative publishers like Bauer will also be appropriate for a new music magazine. Similar to IPC Media, Bauer has also established a considerable reputation and has an enormous amount of readers all over the world. The worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week. Bauer also has the experience of publishing a punk rock music magazine, which is currently the world's biggest selling weekly rock magazine. Due to Kerrang's popularity, a TV programme was created named the Kerrang! TV, it specialises in Rock Music and contains music videos which are open scheduled with text requests from their playlist.


http://www.ipcmedia.com/
http://www.ipcmedia.com/about/companyhistory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPC_media

Research and Planning, Task Three

- Cosmo Girl
- Bliss
- Shout
- YM
- Teen Vogue

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

Magazines are widely available for anyone at any age, but to what extent should they be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer? One of the main issues that the public is concerned about is that the articles in magazines these days offer information that is thought to be too mature for their target audience, which might lead them to follow the articles and attempt to change themselves by following the information in the magazines.

Many say that magazines should be held responsible for the social ramifications because the influence of them on teenagers are clearly visible. Within the five of the teenage magazines that I have studied, the elements of beauty and fashion and even relationships are clearly noticeable, yet the target audience for the five magazines are between the age of 12 to 16. YM magazine even crossed the line with the tagline of "Friends with benefits", seeing as the legal age for sexual intercourse is 16, which is only twenty percent of the target audience. The magazines are said to have led the teenagers to think that they will have to look their best all the time. On the front of the YM magazine, it also mentioned how to "get sexy, shiny hair", are such words like 'sexy' even suitable to be associated with teenagers? Due to articles like these, teenage girls feel like they have to modify their image to feel normal and fit into the society. The fact that the models on the front covers are all famous celebrities who are photo-shopped to have flawless skin and slender figures pressures the target audience to feel like they must make themselves as good looking as the celebrities. Even know teenage girls know that the models were airbrushed, they would still aim to achieve looking beautiful in order to feel that they are accepted in the society by spending money on expensive skin products, going on diets which might eventually lead to anorexia - a detestable eating disorder that is popular amongst teenage girls. The colour pink can be seen on all 5 of the magazine covers, it is a colour that associateswith girls at any age, which clearly shows the target audience for these magazines, Furthermore, although these magazines are all obviously representing girls, teenage boys are also represented from the many articles on tips and advices on relationship with boys. The tagline in Shout magazine of "What lads really think!" creates stereotype on teenage boys, which the article is most likely to represent only a small proportion of them. Surely all relationships are different and incomparable, so why should there be articles like that which not only create steorotypes on boys but also make girls appear shallow?

However, a few people argue that the magazines should not be held responsible for the influence it has on teenagers. Although magazines are said to have a negative effect on teenage girls, it is the reader's own decision to make the purchase. Magazines are said not to be the cause of the social ramifications, but the influence instead. I believe magazines should be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer to a certain extent. In order to create a more suitable magazine for teenage girls, I think there should be a minimal amount of articles that relates to sex, but more articles on staying safe at parties and outings.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/4990907/Teen-magazines-are-sexualising-readers-says-watchdog.html
http://voices.yahoo.com/popular-teen-magazines-their-possible-effect-on-35176.html?cat=25

Research and Planning, Task Two (2)

Magazine Cover Analysis

  The chosen magazine cover is the September issue of ‘Company’. The name of the magazine is clearly visible as the masthead in a coral pink shade which is a colour associated with females between the ages of 16 to 25; this clearly shows which group of target audience this magazine is made for. With the simplicity of the “Bebas Neus” as the font of the masthead, this big, easily readable and recognisable font shows sophistication which will allow the target audience to pick up this magazine once they take a glance at the cover. Not only can the fresh colour of coral pink be found on masthead, it is also the predominant colour which is seen throughout the front cover along with black and lilac, this colour scheme keeps the magazine uniformed and professionally looking, which will appeal to the target audience as they would also feel polished.

  There are a couple of small parts on the magazine cover which cannot be disregarded, which are the dateline and the price. The dateline can be found on every magazine cover as it allows the audience to see when this magazine was released, and if it was newly released, they would most likely to buy it in order to keep up to date with the latest news in the magazine. The price is also a very important matter that should be placed on the front of every magazine because it shows how much this magazine costs; they generally keep it at the same price for every issue to prevent confusion for the target audience. ‘Company’ is sold at the price of two pounds each, which will attract the target audience because it is rather cheap and the group of target audience will most likely to have at least a sum of two pounds coins lying around.

  There are taglines to show what is in the magazine, this will appeal to the target audience as they allow them to know the main contents of the magazine and some special articles that will be in the magazine and also the insight of them, if the taglines are interesting enough, the target audience will want buy the magazine. The taglines have a consistent font used in every issue of ‘Company’; this also allows the magazine to be easily recognisable.

  The eye-catching puffs and plugs are placed around the front cover to highlight some of the interesting articles that will attract the target audience. In this case, “summer street style” is not only placed on the left third of the magazine that will be the first thing they see when they pull this out from horizontal shelving, it also clearly indicates what will be main articles in this issue of ‘Company’. This leads the audience to be intrigued to read on and therefore buy the magazine.

  Last but not least, the main image of Whitney Port makes up at least fifty percent of the front cover; she is a celebrity who has gained popularity recently, this will appeal to the audience as they will feel like they need to know about the latest news on this new celebrity, which brings them to purchase this magazine.