Introduction

Throughout the years magazines have included may different types of adverts, this is because every magazine appeals to a specific audience. In this task, I decided to look at current adverts for companies that I think my audience may have an interest in. Below are two adverts that I have chosen to include in my music magazine.

Chosen Adverts

Stone Island, is a brand that continues to attract a younger audience. I think that the consumers of my magazine will have an interest in this brand because so many of the stars throughout the magazine have been pictured wearing it many times. For example Santan Dave, J Hus, and AJ Tracey, to name a few, are constantly wearing the brand on their social media platforms.

Off-White and Nike are both recognised around the globe as being quality streetwear. I think my target audience would enjoy this product because the product is aimed at a similar audience as mine. Many rappers that feature in my magazine wear similar products, and I think my audience would like to be the same as the stars.

Reflection

In conclusion, I am happy with the two adverts that I have chosen. I think that I have considered the Stuart Hall theory, and made sure that I have considered an active audience. It was important to choose the right adverts because it needs to interest the audience, if they are not interested they will not buy the product. This means that the companies will not want their product in my magazine anymore.

This was an important for me to do because when I put my magazine into the Flipsnack it will look a lot more authentic. I needed to go back to my previous pieces of work to make sure that I knew exactly what my target audience was, this allowed me to choose the right magazine.

Below is my second draft of my double page spread:

Reflection:

After analyzing my first draft, I decided that I needed to change multiple things to make it look as good as it can and make it conventional.

I have changed the background of the text from white to orange, this is because I think that it made the text flow much better than it previously did. It is also much easier to read the text now compared to how it was in my first draft. However, I do not think that it looks as good as it could and may change it some more when I make my third draft.

The second thing that I needed to change was the way that my drop quote was facing. This way it is much easier for the readers to read.

Finally, I shortened where it said “To be continued”, to “Continued”. This looked much better on my magazine, and it looked much more authentic.

To Improve:

To improve my double page spread, I want to change the font of my article. Hopefully this will make it easier for the consumer to read, at the moment it is fairly hard to read unless you are close to the page. I also need to add an apostrophe at the end of “HARRIS” so that it is grammatically correct. Finally, in the article there is an error with the final arrow, therefore I would like to change this so it is a perfect read.

Below is my second draft of a contents page. After receiving a lot of feedback on my first draft I thought that I should use that to improve.

Reflection:

I think that this draft is much better than my first because it goes very well with my front cover. This is important in a music magazine because you want to create a recognisable brand. The design and colours have completely changed since my first draft, this is because I realised that it did not really reflect my genre. This draft includes all of the key conventions, which is important as it looks much more professional. I also changed the image because I thought that the first image was a bit too similar to my front cover. I added a quote next to the star to hook the consumers into reading that specific article.

In the future, I would like to add the cover stars name some around the image so people know who to look for when finding the page number. I am also going to add my logo somewhere on the contents page so that consumers become familiar with my branding. Finally I am going to add exclusive banners above the “cover stories” section, this may attract the consumers to my magazine because they know that is the only place they can read them.

Below is my second draft of my front cover:

Reflection:

In this draft, I decided that I wanted to completely change how it looked from my first. I decided to almost start over, this time making sure that I included all of the conventions needed for a rap magazine. Listed below are some of the major changes that I made.

• First of all I decided that I wanted to use a new image. I like the image that I used this time because it creates a talking point for the audience, it is unconventional to see a rapper holding a cup and saucer on the front of a rap magazine. The use of mise-en-scene is extremely important for the cover image and I think I used it well for this image.
• The second major thing that I decided to change was to change my masthead, previously my masthead was rather boring and did not do a great job of attracting the audience. I think that this masthead is much more appealing and links well with the other features on my front cover.
• I also changed my cover lines to make it seem more like a real music magazine. Beforehand, they would not do a great job of selling the magazine, which is ultimately the point of having them.
• I decided to add in a different pug, this time it was a preview of Elliott Harris’ new music album. I took the picture on our second photo shoot, and realised that it would work well as an album cover.

To Improve:

In my third draft I would like to change:

• Where the price, date and issue number is. At the moment I think they are in the wrong place.
• I am going to lower the cover lines on the left, this is because there is a big blue gap of the background that needs to be filled and at the moment it is very close to the masthead.
• Finally, I might also try to lower the masthead a little, this is so it is not covered at the top of the cover.