In preparation for my magazine cover star photo shoot I took into account the importance of using mes-un-scene in order to take my photos in a way that will entice and interest my target audience. I represented mes-un-scene in my photos by dressing my model in a blazer, gold chunky jewelry, did her hair tied neatly back and with simplistic yet still glamorous make-up, and also took photos of her in different positions to fit the genre of pop and appeal to the demographics and psychographics of my audience.

I made a google slide of the images that I liked most from my cover shoot. I chose these images because I think the body language and facial expressions fits my genre, demographics and psychographics of my audience best. I also liked the lighting and plain light background making my model pop as she is the main focus on the front cover. I like the elegant and sophisticated look that my model represents as that is what will appeal to my target audience.

The layout of a magazine cover is an important part which will determine the popularity and success of your product. I researched different layouts, colour schemes and fonts of different brands of magazines and made a collage of the ones I liked and which would fit my genre best. Through researching I have come to the conclusion that I am going to make my magazine cover with simplistic themes, writing and colour on the star image while having a contrast and pop of colour in the masthead. Making the main focus on my star image and the brand of my magazine, therefore making it easily recognisable. Similar to the Vogue magazine of Rihanna and the Elle magazine of Billie Eilish, included in my slide above. I think this will make my magazine successful because my cover will not look overly chaotic with text but will still have the information my audience will be looking for. The purpose of the coloured masthead will make it more attractive, allowing it to be projected to my audience. I think this style of layout will fit perfectly for my genre as it will fit the age range and interests of my target audience.

The masthead is an important part of branding and selling your magazine. This component will determine the success and popularity of your magazine as it needs to be interesting and fitting enough to attract your target audience as it is the first thing they will see, making them decide if they want to invest in your product. I explored using different fonts and sizes of what my magazine will be called using InDesign. I experimented with different fonts of what I think will attract and interest my target audience and what will fit with my genre.

My Music Genre:

For my music magazine the genre I will be doing will be Pop/r&b. Some popular artists of the genre are Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Ariana Grande and Beyonce. My music magazine will be titled ‘Hitz’ and include a main cover star as well as all the conventions typically seen on pop magazine covers. I have created a word cloud to help the process of deciding my genre and have included the words that describe my genre. This will help me to understand my genre better and help everything come together easily.

Mission Statement:

‘We are a brand, but most of all a community, that believe in the power of diversity within the music industry. Millennial’s ethics are to promote our passions; creativity; colour and fashion. The pop community to us, is all about being able to express your creative individuality, while being part of something wider.’

In order to create successful media it is important to know the competition that you’re up against so that you can insure your target audience is given something different but the same. I now know what type of entertainment and information I should be providing in order to achieve a preferred reading for my target audience.

An important part of making media is how you present the model or artist to the target audience. I researched a famous artist who might appear in my music magazine. I researched social media, news items, cover stories, fan pages and headlines about Rihanna. I researched how the media texts and images represent the star image. I looked at the costumes, language, make up, colours and facial expressions to work out what the connotations of the artist are and from this it also told me the demographics and psychographics of the target audience.

Having researched the star image I now realize that my cover star has to have a really clear and overt image.

Gathering an overall idea of how I want my star to look and different features within my main images is very important in order to plan my next stages ahead. Creating a collage of images similar to the aim of my final photos has allowed me to see all the convections used within an image to create a meaning and fitting style to appeal to my target audience.

For my genre of pop/r&b I have chosen images which connote the genre and used convections similar to other magazines of this music. In the making of my photos I will consider the features in my costumes, makeup, hair styles and setting in order to connote meanings and represent my main star in a way that will interest my target audience and appeal to what they are looking for in media.

Researching into what I want my star to represent will help me to have a foundation for my photos and will guide me into recreating my model and has allowed me to plan ahead and choose all the convections carefully to fit into my genre.

I researched the demographics and psychographics of my target audience for my music magazine. I researched the pop artists: Rihanna, Alicia Keys and Adele. I used yougov.co.uk and looked at the most popular ages, gender and political opinions of the artist’s audience which I will then base my dating profile person on to fit and appeal to the specific target audience.

Creating a dating profile for the perfect audience member for my pop magazine has allowed me to understand all the demographics and psychographics of my target audience. I now know the age range, gender, likes and dislikes of my audience. This will allow me to construct my magazine in a way that will appeal and interest my target audience, making my magazine cover successful.

A good successful magazine cover consists of many design features. The main ones being: a masthead, cover lines, main cover line, main cover star, barcode, price, plug, pug insets and captions. These are all important features of a magazine cover for their own reasons. For example a masthead is important because it shows the brand of the magazine in big bold fonts, making it easy to identify to potential audience. We looked at a magazine cover and picked out all of design feature which that specific cover consisted of.

This will help me design my own magazine cover because I now know that it is important to understand the basic conventions and rules for a magazine cover.

The whole purpose of a magazine cover is to attract its target audience. As a designer of a magazine I will need to understand the demographics and the psychographics. I researched the billboard magazine and explored who the target audience would be and how the magazine had been designed to appeal to them. I looked at the colour pallet, images, language and fonts which suggested the demographics of the magazine which I found were young, free spirited individualists. For example the image is contemporary, energetic, youthful so therefore attracts that kind of audience.

This will help me to make my own magazine cover in the near future because I now understand that it is very important to research who your target audience may be and to design the cover to attract and fit the certain design that the demographics will be looking for.