Research: Kerrang magazine deconstruction

This is an issue of the rock magazine Kerrang from the early 90’s and it features Motley Crue bassist, Nikki Sixx on the cover. The masthead of the magazine reads ‘KERRANG’ in big, bright, bold and fuzzy letters. It immediately catches your eye and it matches with the whole rock genre of the magazine. The main image is Nikki and he is bright green and seems to be shouting with his mouth wide open, this suggests he is loud, enthusiastic and outspoken. He has also been painted or digitally colored in green, this also catches our eye and makes us think why is he colored in green, his personality? Or just for effect? And on his jest reads ‘Vince’ with a large ban symbol over it, Vince is his former bandmate so we can infer from this sly dig at Vince that there is   some form of turmoil within the band and this will make us want to pick up the magazine and read the article. The magazine cover itself despite the main image is very eye catching and there are many things on here that jump out at you. The article heading, “WORLD EXCLUSIVE! MOTLEY CRUE! THE NAKED TRUTH!” sits next to the main image in bright white bold letters an jumps out at us, it seems very loud with all the exclamation marks and when I read it in my head it seems to shout. Also the heading “BLACKMORE GOES BONKERS” is clearly visible when you see the front cover due to its bold yellow writing, this appeals to us because of the word bonkers, we want to read on and find out what made him bonkers. And it is even more appealing because it is a celebrity or someone famous in the music business. The background of the front cover is red and red connotes anger, hate, rebellion and loud, so this matches with the rock theme of the magazine and goes well with the rebellious Nikki Sixx featured on the cover.

Research: Magazine genres

Rock Music:

Rock music has been popular for many years and still goes strong today, some may argue that though. But it it no doubt that rock magazines are still swept of shelves religiously each week. The most appealing thing about a rock magazine is all of the genre’s and sub genre’s, you can get so many different bands, cultures and content in a rock magazine due to its wide and varied content. But with my music magazine I would like to concentrate one a specific type of rock music, particularly 70’s and 80’s rock. This is because it makes it easier to create a target audience.

The target audience for my Rock magazine:

Age: 16-50

Race: White

Gender: Male + Female

Hobbies: Interested in music, uses social networking and electronic devices. (I-pad, I-phone, Laptops etc)

Pros:

• Lots of content to use.
• Can appeal to a wide range of people.

Cons:

• Restricted to a certain time in music.
• Many of these bands not around anymore.
• Could be recycled news due to bands retiring and getting old.

Pop music:

Pop music is like rock, in the sense that there are many different types of pop music. Many different artists could be classed as pop. Pop was originally big in 50’s America and it was an abbreviation for ‘popular music’ but like i said, it now has many sub genres like synth-pop, rock-pop and many more. This could be a good thing though because of how it can relate to many different sub genres and artists it may appeal to more people, but again you should try and stick to one genre / sub-genre so you can create a specific target market.

Pros:

• Pop still popular, limitless new news.
• Appeals to a wide audience.
• Many artists to choose from.

Cons:

• Target audience will be very limited e.g girls, teenage.
• Many other pop magazines being published.
• Tough, competitive market.

Research: Using Pixlr

Today I used pixlr for the first time. I plan on using it when creating my music magazine so I can alter and edit my photos, here is my first attempt. I have altered the saturation and brightness, but also made minor adjustments to the faces like darkening the lips and around the eyes to give it a dark vibe. The photo on the bottom was before pixlr and the photo on-top is after pixlr.

Prelim: Preliminary work, reasoning, explanation and evaluation.

For my preliminary work i created two pages for the school magazine. The front cover and the contents page. I used all of my own ideas and content. The images I used I took myself, I went around the school grounds inside and out taking them and I had permission to take photos of the content and people in the photos.

In order to create the magazine I conducted questionnaires and asked people what makes a good school magazine. We asked multiple teachers what content they would like inside, would they like the questions to be conducted by students, what colour scheme would they like and just general content. I also asked fellow students what they would like inside, after all they are the people who are most likely to read it along with parents. Also I'm trying to keep it readable for all ages, keep it smart and simple but still appealing. Obviously the quality of the photos and the work will be better in the real project, because this is just the preliminary work to show how much i have improved and what I have learned.

I believe that the preliminary work I have completed is a very good starting point to base my real work off and I am looking forward to expanding my ideas and using new software to create my school magazine.

Prelim: Contents page

Prelim: My Magazine cover

Prelim: Questionnaire

Questionnaire:

1)      What kind of colour scheme would you like?

A: Clear and consistent colours.

A: Nice bright colours

A: Stick with the school colours.

2)      What kind of articles would you like?

A: Something about reading, we are trying to get the pupils to read for pleasure. Also current affairs, not just CBA news, but news from Corby and everywhere else.

A: Student success stories.

A: The school senate, GCSE results.

3)      Would you rather have real writers, or students writing the columns and articles?

A: I think it would be good to have student articles, it gets them more involved and may get the other students to read it.

4)      Should the front cover be professional/ formal or informal to show its run by the students?

A: A more formal looking cover looks smarter and represents the school better, but you don’t want it to look so serious that it intimidates readers.

A: Yeah definitely student articles.

5)      What kind of images should be in it?

A:Images relating to the topic of the article or page, no celebrity photos, photos of students and the school.

6)      What general content should be included?

A: general student work, showing the good aspects of students work like art or a good story.

A: Student, a page to show and celebrate students good work.

7)      Informal or formal content?

A: A bit of both, maybe towards the back have a more informal section.

A: Formal, but not so much that you bore the students.

A: Formal, it’s a senior school. Not a primary school.

Prelim: My Magazine Preliminary

I believe it takes a number of things in order to make an appealing and successful school magazine. Firstly the cover should be smart, and in some way be promoting the school. For example if there are two students on the front their uniform should be exactly to the school code. Top buttons done up, ties by the top button, shirt tucked in and the real uniform. After all they are representing the school and you want to send off the positive message.

Also the cover as-well as the inside of the magazine should be bright, colourful and eye catching, but staying smart and simple at the same time. You don’t want a magazine that is black and white or very dull colours, you want one with vibrant, bright colours so it catches your eye and has a more positive look about it. And on the front cover should be relatable headlines that students or parents can relate too and will be interested in, for example the other magazines I have read have relatable articles and story headlines on the cover. For example “GCSE Stress” and “DECREASE your workload” so for students who read this, in this case GCSE students, they can relate to this and will want to pick up the magazine and read this article. Also the word decrease was in big capital red letters because it was the command word of the article and it was supposed to catch your eye, and it really works.

I also think it would be a good idea to have interviews in the magazine, with teachers and students. This is a good idea because people will read this and hear first-hand what the school like because they are the ones who experience it every day and I’m sure people would be interested to see what people really think of the school.

 Names for my school magazine:

·         CBA Today

·         CBA Piper

·         The Academy View

As-well as coming up with ideas for a name I also thought of some articles or features I would like to include in my magazine. Like I previously mentioned, I would like to include interviews with teachers and students, they are the people who experience life in the school first-hand every-day and it would be interesting to see what they have to say about the school. There would also be a lot of interesting questions to ask the head teacher, Mr Henrys. I would also like to have an achievements page, I believe the hard workers in the school who do not get the credit they deserve or the recognition should be featured on this page as role models to others, also it is a good promotion for the school for when people read it. This kind of ties in with the interview idea, but I would like to create a page were we ask students and teachers a specific question each week/month and get there answer and put it in the paper, like a question to do with the school or current affairs, something that has been in the news recently. And another thing I thought would be a good idea is to have a “Peoples page” where people good ask the magazine editors to put an post/article in the magazine for them, this page is for anyone in the school and it can include anything. A good piece of artwork, a good story, a joke or a problem they have within the school.

Prelim: Wilmo Weekly Magazine Deconstruction

This is the magazine for the Wilmo School. This cover looks very cheap and just thrown together in my opinion, but the way they have coloured the font is very smart. The subheadings and titles they have included on the cover are relatable for students, like “Maximise your concentration”, “Decrease your workload” and “3 easy steps to a healthier mind”, these are all problems that students have and this magazine would relate to their issues. Also they have coloured the headings with the command words in red because they want it to stand out. Like “MAXIMISE your concentration” is in capital, bright, bold, red letters because they want you to see it first and because it is urgent, and red represents importance and urgency. But the masthead seems very cheap to me and isn’t very clear, the black squiggles inside the font make it harder to read and there is just a general clash of colours throughout the whole cover. 

Prelim: CHS Magazine Deconstruction

This is the CHS magazine. As you can see it features a female student on the front so straight away we know it is aimed at students. It also features lots of bright colours which immediately catch your eye. Also there are many different sub-headings on the cover page which students can relate to, and this is why they have featured them on the front. For example the title “GCSE RESULTS: why we’re the best” is good because GCSE students can relate to it. “New to school?” is also relatable because many students will be worried about starting at school and they could relate to this and find sanctuary in others people’s views. And “Teenage stress” another relatable heading, teenagers who are stressing out and worrying can relate to this also. So the CHS school have tried to make this magazine as relatable as possible with all of the subheadings and also tried to make it eye catching and appealing with the bright colours and big bright, bold font.