While, I appreciate this isn’t going to be marked, for the purposes of presentation, having an extra page in the magazine will help make the Flipsnack platform work better. It is important for magazines to promote branded products as it makes it more conventional, most magazines have specific adverts designed to entice and interest their target audience.
The first advert I have chosen is simplistic and I like it because I feel as though the colour scheme used will attract my psychographics and demographics. The contrast of the colours yellow and pink give it quite a youth feel, which is perfect because many of my demographics are teens and young adults. I also decided to choose ‘converse’ as the brand to promote, because this brand is commonly associated with the typical ‘indie’ style and will appeal to mostly teenage girls who are reading this. The tagline ‘designed to help push the boundaries’ is significant to this genre and my demographics because indie is often seen as being ‘alternative’ and ‘different’, often having fans who are wanting to rebel, and a lot of my psychographics are alternative, therefore the idea of ‘pushing boundaries’ with shoes, would appeal to them.
The second advert I have chosen is promoting ‘beats headphones’, and I picked this as I felt it was the perfect thing to advertise in a music magazine because I can pretty much assume all of the consumers are going to be interested in music. Specifically, I like this advert because Billie Eilish is seen in it and she is an icon in the indie-pop community. Billie Eilish has a huge fandom full of young teenage girls, who look up to her, and since young teenage girls make up a large proportion of my demographics, this advert is very well suited. While, beats can usually be quite costly, the issue date of my magazine is November, so this gives people the opportunity to ask for it for Christmas.
As displayed above here is the second draft of my double page spread. Despite preferring this version of my DPS, I have made some changes that I am not 100% sure about. For example, I can’t tell if I like the additional transparent box I put behind Charlie M’s name in the title
What is new?
The transparent pink box behind Charlie M’s name in the title
I’ve changed the font used in the paragraphs
Added boxes behind the paragraphs to make it more legible
Changed where I positioned Charlie M’s quote, changed the font, colour, text size and placed it in a box to make it stand out more
Added a page number
What is next?
Change the font of the page number to ensure it is the same font as I’ve used on the other page numbers in my magazine
Move the circle that I have put Charlie M’s quote in, further back so you cannot see the outline of the circle in the top corner
Fill any empty spaces on the second page
Read through my article, fix any spelling mistakes and put any quotations in bold
Here is my second draft of my front cover. Even though I am very happy with the way I have designed this I still feel as though there is quite a few changes I need to add.
What’s is new?
Added new fonts, rather than only using two for the entire front cover
Added another pug and changed the way I displayed my pugs
Changed the position of the model
Changed the sizing and font of the plugs to make them stand out and easier to read
What is next?
Re-cut out the image of my model , refine their hair and edit her makeup
As shown above, this is my second draft of my contents page. I decided that I didn’t enjoy the layout of my first front cover so I changed quite a few things.
What is new?
I changed the background to black
I added borders around the edges
I changed the size and colour of the ‘Contents’ title, made it glow and centred it in order to make it stand out more
I changed the image of the model
I used a variety of fonts instead of just using one font for the entire page
What is next?
Centre the writing in the boxes
Check the page number aligns with the other page numbers in the magazine
Rising indie pop star Charlotte Matthew’s abrupt road to stardom
It all started a few months ago when 20 year old Charlotte Matthew chose to audition for the X Factor. This life changing decision left Charlotte with attention like she has never seen before.
Growing up Charlotte was an only child with alcoholic parents. This meant Charlotte was constantly in and out of unstable foster homes, which led to her running away a lot. However, Charlotte was not a problematic child like you may expect, instead she describes her younger self as the “quiet girl who often sat alone in the corner with her head in a book”. During the time Charlotte would spend alone whilst running away she told us that she enjoyed listening to indie music on her ipod. Charlotte was often made to live with her Grandma and it was while doing so her Grandma’s boyfriend introduced her to this indie-pop genre. It was during these runaway adventures that Charlotte took the indie-pop music she was so inspired by and started writing her own songs.
With all this sudden fame it even seems she has got a stalker on the loose and a blood relative too. Yes that’s right, in a recent interview we did with Charlotte she expressed her concerns saying “After ending all contact with my biological parents in my early teens my mum heard about my recent fame and has contacted me multiple times begging for money. I didn’t think much of it and just ignored these emails until she found my new address and was caught standing outside my door for hours banging on it and demanding money”. Charlotte also told us how her own mother was threatening that she would leak her address and due to this is currently in the process of getting a restraining order.
It seems Charlotte went many years trying to avoid any attention from everyone, so what inspired her to perform on national television? Simply, friends along with finally feeling confident enough in herself encouraged her to go to her first audition. Charlotte spoke to us on this subject telling us “Getting used to the amount of attention I am now receiving, is the most difficult part. Let alone dealing with all the hate that comes along with it”. Although it seems like Charlotte has been getting a lot of love on social media platforms she has also received a bundle of hate on twitter as people are discovering her old tweets talking about controversial things such as mental health and eating disorders.
Despite Charlotte’s challenging childhood she has still made a successful name for herself and seems to have already found a loyal and trustworthy fan base. She told us her favourite thing about all this fame is having so many people she feels she can relate to on a spiritual level and she gave us an exclusive glimpse of what she might be producing in the future, telling us only “i hope soon i can create something more than just music, something that can help my supporters through a hard time”.
Written by Annabelle Webb
My MP3 recording of first draft:
After listening to my recording I have decided to make the following changes:
The stand-first was too wordy, so I cut it shorter by adding a question. This engages the reader more than a statement would.
In my first draft I repeated lots of words, so I made sure in my final draft to think of any different synonyms
Fix any spelling mistakes
Final Draft:
Rising indie pop star Charlie M’s stellar road to stardom
Who Is Charlie M and why is her name suddenly everywhere? It all started a few months ago when 20 year old Charlotte Matthew chose to audition for the X Factor. This life changing decision left Charlotte with attention like she has never seen before.
Growing up Charlotte was an only child with alcoholic parents. This meant Charlotte was constantly in and out of unstable foster homes, which led to her running away a lot. However, Charlotte was not a problematic child like you may expect, instead she describes her younger self as the, “quiet girl who often sat alone in the corner with her head in a book”. During the time Charlotte would spend alone whilst running away she told us that she enjoyed listening to indie music on her ipod. Charlotte was often made to live with her Grandma and it was while doing so her Grandma’s boyfriend introduced her to this indie-pop genre. It was during these runaway adventures that Charlotte took the indie-pop music she was so inspired by and started writing her own songs.
With all this sudden fame it even seems she has got a stalker on the loose and a blood relative too. Yes that’s right, in a recent interview we did with Charlotte she expressed her concerns saying “After ending all contact with my biological parents in my early teens my mum heard about my recent fame and has contacted me multiple times begging for money. I didn’t think much of it and just ignored these emails until she found my new address and was caught standing outside my door for hours banging on it and demanding money”. Charlotte also told us how her own mother was threatening that she would leak her address and due to this is currently in the process of getting a restraining order.
It seems Charlotte went many years trying to avoid any attention from everyone, so what inspired her to perform on national television? Simply, friends along with finally feeling confident enough in herself encouraged her to go to her first audition. Charlotte spoke to us on this subject telling us, “Getting used to the amount of attention I am now receiving, is the most difficult part. Let alone dealing with all the hate that comes along with it”. Although it seems like Charlotte has been getting a lot of love on social media platforms she has also received a bundle of hate on twitter as people are discovering her old tweets talking about controversial things such as mental health and eating disorders.
Despite Charlotte’s challenging childhood she has still made a successful name for herself and seems to have already found a loyal and trustworthy fan base. She told us her favourite thing about all this fame is having so many people she feels she can relate to on a spiritual level and she gave us an exclusive glimpse of what she might be producing in the future, telling us only “I hope soon I can create something more than just music, something that can help my supporters through a hard time”.
The font I’ve used in the title- this is my favourite design convention because it is unique and stands out. The floral pattern fits in with my indie theme.
The vinyl’s- I like these because the name of my magazine is ‘Vinyl’ and vinyl’s are commonly used for indie music.
The colour scheme- The colours I’ve used across the spread co-ordinate quite well and compliment each other.
What I need to improve:
How I have spaced out the vinyl’s– they are unevenly spread out and it looks unprofessional.
Change the font I’ve used in the bottom two paragraphs- the font I used isn’t supported by InDesign, so you can’t see simple things such as quotation marks. It is also hard to read.
Check for spelling mistakes
Add lines between the bottom two paragraph- it will look more professional and separate them completely
As seen above, these are the photos from my second photoshoot which I will be using in my double page spread for my magazine.
In order to create authentic Indie vibes, I chose to take these photos in a background where there were steps so I could capture shots from all angles. Overall, I am satisfied with the photos I’ve taken, however I feel as though because my camera died during the shoot, I was not able to take enough photos as I need in order to give me a larger, varied selection. Next time I do a photoshoot I will have to take more photos on my phone if my camera dies again.
My favourite photos that I captured were these and will end up using one of the two:
The text that I am analysing is Maverick ‘Celebrating the wildcards who’ve inspired cult worship’, written by author Dorian Lynskey. This article has been dated back to September 2017.
Evidence of the journalistic technique 5 Whys and an H can be seen through-out the article, for example ‘When’ has been used describe the story about a negotiating deal and ‘why’ can be seen when Lynskey is talking about James Lavelle reassessing his past and asking himself why he makes music.
The structure of this article is a biography and I can tell this because Lynskey is talking in third person about Lavelle. This page of the spread has been laid out into 4 main sections of text and one of which is written in bold writing above the three other columns. Most of this page has been covered by James Lavelle’s name, which is effective because it is big and bold meaning it will catch attention to any of his fans and the target audience. The fact one section below his name is also written in bold is informative because it gives the readers a glimpse of what will be found inside the article.
In all honestly I cannot feel much of the Journalists presence through this article, however this is probably because it is written in third person, therefore there is not much need for Lynskey to talk about himself because his job is to inform the audience about Lavelle. The impact of this being written in third person rather than first is huge because it is a non-biased perspective and only key-points about Lavelle’s life have been talked about. There is a clear introduction which can be seen written in bigger font, however there is no conclusion to finish the article.
The general tone of this article seems quite relaxed because the journalist has freely written curse words, an example can be found through the line “a fucking amazing night”. This could also express Lynskey as being fearless and tells us he is not afraid to break any taboos. This tone relates this genre of Electronic trip-hop because that style is alternative, much like the writing style the journalist has portrayed.
To conclude, Lynksey represents Lavelle as being a free-spoken and exciting person, who is not afraid to break social norms. The journalist has also structured this article very well because it gets across the desired message and is displayed so it is easy enough to read while still looking interesting.
Focusing forward, this task will help me in order to create my own double page spread because I feel as though I have gained a better understanding to be able to hook and intrigue my target audience. When creating my own I will take into consideration the design conventions used here and possibly copy the layout.
