Masthead choices and reason behind the title

First of all, the reason behind my title of my magazine being pulse was because I wanted a name that would reflect the upbeat genre of R&B. I felt that pulse is very lively lexical choice, because when you think of pulse you think of beat which relates to music. Furthermore I also believe that the title will make my brand regconisable because it's very unique. I did research on this title and no one had previously done a professional magazine with this name. Below are the masthead style choices that I had to pick To pick my main font that would be my masthead I picked my top 5 choices and then asked peers for their opinion. This meant I got a wider perspective which would appeal to the audience in the long run.

Feedback from front cover

After asking peers to look at my first front cover outcomes some of the points made included:

• ‘I really like the positioning of the masthead and the picture but I think the writing could 
  be placed in different places.’
• ‘There is nothing I dislike about this design, but adding in face book and twitter icons would be beneficial to draw in your particular audience’
• ‘I love the colour scheme! And all the contents of the writing is relevant to the genre of music you have chosen. Maybe try adding in a smaller picture.’

Asking for feedback was really crucial for me to be able to move on from what I had previously created. Now I am going to go back to the front cover to see what improvements can be made.

Front cover first outcome

This is one of the edits I have done for my magazine where I have incorporated two pictures and overlapped them. This is something typically used on an album cover so I will add text on the picture and use this on my contents page which will make people want to read on.

This is my final outcome for my contents page which I will use to appeal to my target audience, I may also use a pull quote in order to entice the audience further.

Second Photo-shoot

Before moving on to creating my contents page, I had to do another photo-shoot with a different model to show variation within my magazine. To to this I used a male model representing a male solo artist which I think was a good choice as my previous pictures were of a female model. The print screen above shows you all the pictures I took during the photo-shoto. These pictures were taking from different angles and viewpoints in order to create the best outcomes possible, which are shown below in the second collage I made:

These are my best outcomes which I display a range of different shots which I will go on to edit in order to keep the identity and brand of my magazine consistent.

Double page spread mock ups

My double page spread mock ups all have contrasting layouts which is something that I will experiment with when it comes to designing my double page spreads. The top design is quite a simple typical double page spread, with the second and third double page spread defying the norms. The second two include multiple images which may make my double page spread more engaging drawing the audience in.

Contents page mock ups

These are my mock ups for my contents page which again all have contrasting layouts. On the layout below I chose to use 3 images drawing attention in, these images will be labelled with numbers so if people are interested in the image they can easily navigate their way to find the page. In addition to this I also want to use pull quotes as a way of creating a connection between the reader and the celebrity. I wanted to keep my contents pages simple but effective, keeping the audience engaged.

Front cover Mock ups

I have made three contrasting mock ups for my front cover which will guide me when designing my magazine. By varying and changing these mock ups I will be able to experiment with different designs when it comes to it. All three of my magazines contain similar attributes but in different positions, I want to be able to engage the audience and intrigue them which is why the main image takes up the majority of the page on all three mock ups. I have used aspects like flashers as a way to catch the readers attention.

 

Before and after front cover image

This is the image I took during the photoshoot which I have chosen to use as the front cover due to it being in taken mid shot, which is a good balance for the front cover. However to give my magazine more edge and to create my own brand I had to edit it, this meant I had to use previous photoshop skills to improve the picture substantially and make it look professional.

To create a brand for my R&B magazine, I wanted to first of all ensure that colour was a consistency throughout; to make this effect on the front cover I made the models lip pink as well as her nails, this is something that I have purposely done in advance in order to match it to the colour of the masthead. Even though pink can be interpreted as quite a girly I chose this colour as it is fun and energetic, similar to the genre I have chosen. 

In addition to this I also edited the background to make it white at the top which resulted in the picture having a professional outcome.

Possible final outcome

I chose this photo to be one of my final otucomes because I believe that the models pose, facial expression and body language all contribute to its success. After taking the pictures during half term I made moodboards of the pictures, previously displayed on the blog, and am now going through them to find the possible final outcomes. The photo above being one of my favourite successes.

I got some feedback for the picture shown in the screen print below, allowing me to reflect on what I have done well on and what I could improve.

Best outcomes

After going through all the pictures, I chose the best outcomes from my photo shoot.

After careful consideration I picked out the pictures that would compliment my genre of music the most. One of the key aspects I made sure I considered was the outfit choice of the model, if I went for something too bright then it would mean I would of had to use that colour as the colour scheme, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to keep a consistent brand. This is something that I have learned from the format research because it was clear each institute had carefully considered every attribute of the magazine.

Photoshoot

Before going ahead with my photo shoot, I had to decide on the genre I would be focusing on. To do this I did further research on my top two genres from form research, which were Rock and R&B. I looked at the sort of images needed and decided to try out R&B, to see what the pictures turned out like. After doing the photo shoot I was pleased with the professional outcomes as they really slotted in with the genre I had chosen. The pictures I took are shown below: 

The pictures above are all the pictures I have taken so far, I aim to go through this pictures and pick the best outcomes to suit my magazine.

Results from my survey

I wanted to ensure that my survey was filled out by a wide range of people, which is why I put it on social media like twitter, Facebook and Instagram. To get more attention to the link I asked friends to retweet my post which meant more and more people answered the survey, in total 26. The questions I asked varied but all will essentially guide me when creating my magazine.

The first question I asked was 'Do you read music magazines?' which allowed me to work out how many of the people answering my questions read magazines, even though there was 26.92% who said they didn't the majority did. 

I then asked a question in connection to the first one to determine how often the audience read a music magazine which left two answers being moderately often and occasionally both being 34%. This statistic suggests that these readers are ones that buy magazines weekly and monthly.

Then to see the audiences favourite genre, the top answers were R&B with 76%. This is something that has reassured me to pick R&B for my genre because it is something the audience enjoy meaning I will have a keen audience. Other comments included some people liking all types of genres. The survey allowing people to comment was really helpful because it meant they could give their own opinions instead of just ticking a box.

To help me with the context of my magazine I wanted to ask questions like this that found out what people like to see, the majority, 57%, agreed that prizes and competitions were an appealing aspect of a magazine. This is something I will plan to include in my own magazine to draw the audience in. 

In addition to this I wanted to find out what draws the audience to the front cover, the audiences top answers were main image and masthead, both visual aspects of the magazine.

A price is something that can straight away put someone off buying a magazine, so this question was crucial for me to see what my audience would be prepared to pay for my magazine, 52% said 1-2 pounds would be a reasonable price for a music magazine. This is something I will consider when pricing my magazine.

Colour is something that pays a crucial role in a any magazine, which is why I used this question to determine what colours I should used. Many people agreed that a bright colour would make the magazine fun and eye-catching.

My survey has allowed me and reassured me on what genre to pick, R&B. It also will contribute to what decisions to make when designing my magazine and I can now refer back to it when I am stuck. A lot of the answers I got varied but this was because the audience all had different opinions on their taste

This questionnaire will help me to plan my magazine because it has allowed me to understand what my target audience like and dislike. I will know what to incorporate in my magazine because my target audience have guided me. For example I know that they prefer the bright fun colours, so I now that my colour scheme will have to reflect this decision that they have helped me make. I therefore think that this questionaire has and will be beneficial to my planning because it has guided me on small attributes of the magazine that will allow me to make a successful ending product. 

Survey

Below is a link to the survey I have just created, please answer it so I can get feedback before designing my magazine

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CJVMXM8

I have also posted my surveys on new media like Facebook and twitter because it will give me a range of feedback from a range of people.

Further Research

Before  photo shoot I did further research which allowed me to make sure I appeal to my audience with the genre of R&B (Rhythm and blues):

Audience 

• Audience are something crucial to the media which became obvious to me during my format research because they are what shapes the magazine brand and design, without them there is no media. The audience make the profit because they are the ones who buy the magazine, so this is why the audience are something I will highly consider when designing my magazine. 
• There are two types of audience, one being a mass audience, also known as a 'broadcast audience', which are the people who are into mainstream media like soaps and sitcoms. On the other hand the other type of audience is niche, who are a small, select group of people but with a very unique interest.

To find my audience for the genre of R&B I previously did a mood-board which features artists and other magazines which fit in with this genre. The mood board made it clear to me that the audience are quite fun and are looking for a magazine with energy and creativity, something I would like to produce when creating my magazine.