Category: Component 1

My Masthead Ideas

These were my different trials of mastheads for my R&B magazine ‘Motion’. I wanted to have a range of ideas to see what best suited my genre. I spent a while altering sizes, spacing colours etc. I decided to keep it black and white to stand out and avoid clashing with other colours I will be including. I tried to use some fonts that appear relaxed and laid back, this ties into my genre which is very cool and casual. I have kept AIDA in mind, this means Attract, Interest, Desire, Action. My masthead needs to be eye-catching and bold to attract my audience. If the font is too small then it will not catch attention and will be much harder to read. It should be attractive, an easy to read font with clear lettering will be much more popular. If the design is done well and goes with my genre, it will make the cover look well produced and interest the reader. This creates a desire to read on and find out more about my magazine.

My Final Masthead

I chose this masthead to go on the cover my magazine when it comes to producing it. I chose this because it stands out and is easy to read. As it is representing my brand and the genre I have chosen, it needs to be memorable and unique. The typical conventions of R&B connote the ideas of relaxation, uniqueness, youthfulness, coolness etc. So I chose this font as I think it represents these things.

Please click on the photo to see the full moodboard.

This is my ‘Magazine Moodboard’. This will be a source of inspiration for when I am designing and thinking of how I want to do my photoshoot. I noticed that there were some recurring colours in the album covers, photoshoots, red carpet looks etc. Below are the main colours that I have seen worn by R&B artists or included in their work, it is very vibrant and colourful generally.

Colour Scheme

Reflection

This task has been very very useful as it has helped develop my understanding of the genre and its typical conventions e.g. bright colours, tattoos, jewellery, bandanas, crop tops etc. These all represent the people as R&B artists and we can figure this out just by looking at them. The audience will have certain expectations when they see my magazine is about R&B, they will expect specific styles, certainly topics about music, new songs/artists etc. There should also be connotations and meanings included in my brand. For example, the clothing worn in a photoshoot should give off a particular vibe and era. A relaxed outfit such as baggy jeans, crop top, and a jacket (which is popular in ’90s R&B) connotes the idea of casualness and youth. It is relatable and helps people who dress like this feel represented, their personal identity is reinforced.

Focusing Forward

Now that I am focusing forward, I will consider how I can incorporate these typical conventions into my own work. I will regularly refer back to my mood board to keep in mind who my target audience is, what colour scheme to stick to, and how I can encompass the fashion and aesthetics into my own photoshoots.

Star Image

(Change slide to see slide 2).

This is a slideshow about Ariana Grande’s star image. I researched Grande’s image and how she is portrayed by the media. I have found that every celebrity has something called the ‘paradox of the star’. This means they are presented as either ordinary or extraordinary. These two things contradict themselves and it is easy to tell which one they’re being shown as.

For example, in the first slide, she is shown wearing expensive and luxurious clothing, she is in the spotlight. These images have denotations of a girl wearing fine clothing, but they connote the ideas of wealth, fame, desire etc. This is done to show she is a high-profile figure who is extraordinary. These pictures have the typical conventions of a red carpet photo shoot. We can see glamourous makeup, tidy hair, and stunning dresses. These things instantly help us recognize she is someone extraordinary and is called the repertoire of elements. In the second side however, we see a different side to her. There are pictures of her in comfortable and casual clothing. This feels similar and makes her seem much more normal and down to earth. We feel as though we can relate to this and this makes us like her more. She is also shown doing large amounts of charity work for others, again we see her as compassionate, selfless, and caring. These attributes are often rare in celebrities. These images represent her as ordinary.

How I want my star to appear

These are a few images to display how I would like my star to appear on the cover of my magazine ‘Motion’. I looked for female R&B artists with a particular sense of fashion that I would like to incorporate into my work. I wanted to find empowering poses that I could direct my star to try out.

 

I did some research about my chosen genre (R&B), specifically my target audience. I used ‘Yougov.com’ to research the characteristics, demographics and psychographics of a typical fan. I used Frank Ocean,  SZA and Jorja Smith to find out more about stereotypical R&B fans. The information told me about demographics such as gender, education and age. Psychographics are also very important. Their political opinions, hobbies, style, music taste and beliefs to name a few are all aspects that identify them.

Jorja Smith

 

SZA

 

Frank Ocean

It is important to understand your audience so that they don’t reject your content or it’s ideas. The reception theory talks about how the producer encodes something with a preferred meaning in hope that the audience will decode/understand it. If a reader does not relate to the content or enjoy it, this is called oppositional reading. You need to know about what your audience on average will enjoy so that you can cater to this when producing something.

Below is a dating profile I created as if I was Olivia, an R&B fan. I used it to include some of the typical attributes of a fan. I spoke about her likes and dislikes, talents, music taste, where she lives and what she couldn’t live without. These things I listed helped give a brief idea of who she is and her lifestyle as a whole. The mention of her political opinions is important as we can get an idea of her morals and what she thinks is right. I would describe Olivia and others in the R&B community to be a ‘Struggling Single’, an ‘Individualist’ and a ‘Reformer’ when referencing to psychographics.

Firstly, we had to choose a music genre for our magazine, I chose R&B. Then we came up with a name for my magazine, mine is called ‘Motion’. After this, we had to create a word cloud of all terms and ideas related to the magazine/genre. This will help us later on when creating our magazine, we will have a guideline of what the genre is all about and how to incorporate it relevantly. See mine below:

Word Cloud

These words relate to not only the genre but also the magazine conventions I will include when designing my own brand (the contents and purpose). These adjectives such as energetic, youthful, cool and vibrant all bring the genre to mind for me. I also included ‘fashion’ as the genre is quite heavily related to clothing, style of makeup and aesthetics. Some of these words I have used will help me when it comes to writing my mission statement, they will give me an idea of what to aim towards whilst still making it my own. However, I did not realize my magazine name had to be included in the WordCloud, so if I were to do this again I would be sure to do this. My unique selling point is that my magazine will be very varied, I will include music, style, entertainment e.g. quizzes. I will also include style tips and fashion to reinforce the reader’s personal identity.

Mission Statement

‘Here at Motion, we want to show just how amazing this music really is. We want to appeal to all, showing different artists, fashion, the hottest songs and more! You’ll fall in love with R&B after just one read of our energetic and youthful magazine. You’ll also be totally up to date with the latest songs, concerts, and interviews with your favourite artists. But we don’t just want you to love what we do, we want you to relate to it! Grab a magazine and learn more about what we offer such as style tips, ‘Top10’s’ and more!’

For this task, we had to choose a magazine cover and analyse it. I spoke about the audience demographics, psychographics, and then also decoded the text. This magazine is specifically about Pride 2020 and music, and so presumably the target audience is people in the LGBTQ+ community and teenagers (Gen-Z) particularly.

We did this to further our knowledge and skills in technical design conventions, these are the elements that help make up a magazine cover. It was also really helpful as I have learned how to analyse a text and connote ideas from features like fonts, colours, images, mastheads and, cover lines. These things all help define the magazine and makes it unique. The colours should be attractive and eyecatching to draw in its audience. The cover lines should also be brief, but interesting and easy to read, if they are dreary and irrelevant it will not attract the reader.

The production of my magazine will be benefitted as I have learned many things during this task, which are all relevant to producing my front cover. I have learned about demographics and psychographics, these are all related to the audience that is consuming the magazine. Demographics talk about things such as their age, gender, class etc. Whereas psychographics are about the person’s interests, political beliefs, opinions, and lifestyles to name a few. I will now be able to figure out who my target audience is and how I can appeal to them using appropriate colours, images, ideas and main cover stars to hook them in.

In pairs, we were given a magazine cover to annotate the technical conventions included. Some typicalitys of these are:

• Masthead – This is the title of the magazine. It is arguably the most important design feature as it immediately makes the magazine identifiable; the audience will know what it is straight away.
• Cover Lines – Short pieces of information that give a brief idea into what the magazine will include.
• Main Cover Star – Main person pictured.
• Plug – Something to entice the audience e.g. a prize.
• Barcode – What is scanned so it can be purchased.

These features are all fairly universal and are used in most high-profile magazines such as Vogue and Glamour.  In this cover, the Main Cover Star is actually covering some of the Masthead, but this is not an issue as it is a well-known title that will still be recognized.  The Main Cover Line also helps establish an important part of the magazine and offers a small segment that entices the reader, this increases sales as it makes them want to read more. A Pug is also included, usually in the top right or left corner, it is a visual way of promoting something such as a prize. This also gives other businesses an opportunity to advertise themselves, so this feature supports more than one company/brand. The purpose of these is to catch the reader’s eye, it gives them another reason to consider buying the magazine.

It’s really important to understand what the purpose of these technical conventions is and why they are used. They create a basic layout of the magazine cover that has been used worldwide in magazine production because it works. They all work together to make an easy-to-read and informative cover that should entice the audience into reading more. Aspects such as the Main Cover Line and other Cover lines that typically go down the side of the page will help establish the target audience with the stories and people written about. People will glance at these and know whether or not it will interest them. I will be able to use this information when creating my own magazine as I know what is successful and makes a well-produced cover.