Finished Coursework Links

FRONT COVER- http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B8XfLbpC-Y8jYWVhODlkNDMtYzY4OS00YjA4LThhMDItYTViNTEyMzQzYmU0&hl=en

CONTENTS- https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B8XfLbpC-Y8jNDI0MDU3MzQtNDgzMy00ZDQ1LWFlMDEtOGY3Nzc5NmYwZjll&hl=en

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD- https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B8XfLbpC-Y8jNDBkOTdkZTItYTdlNi00Y2FmLThkMTgtZjU5OWZlNjgyNzNh&hl=en

Blog 8- Planning and evaluation of the article

I read an article in 'Smash hits!' magazine to see what type of language they use throughout. The artice was about why smash hits is no longer publishing magazines. Throughout the article, it seemed that there were many criticisms that were being made of the magazine, and there was a lot of alliteration that was incorporated within the article. This suggests that it is of an informal nature, although it is still trying to get its point across and wants to show how dissapointed the company are that their magazine has failed and is no longer producing. The language used is of a chatty, often sarcastic nature, and it almost questions the reader as to why the magazine has failed to please its audience anymore.
It is noticeable that the article also covers many other issues such as obesity, and verges on political criticism for the failure of the magazine... And although this doesn't have any relevance to what they should be talking about, it suggests that there is a large amount of frustration about this problem with the magazine no longer publishing copies for its readers.
This magazine is evidently a review of 'Smash hits!' lifetime and it shows many pictures of previous covers, highlighting its successes. Also the tone of the article appears to be quite serious rather than humerous, although there is some sarcasm and wit in some of the paragraphs.

Blog 5- Fonts

I have been looking into many different fonts which I plan on using in my magazine. The site i used was http://www.dafont.com/ and it gave me a wide variety to choose from. It also allowed me to download the fonts and to edit them using photoshop and paint.
The type of fonts I am looking to use are ones that will work well with the pop theme of my magazine. I want fonts that will appeal to the younger generation, and so ideally I am looking for something curly, or a little bit outrageous.

This font was the first of my options. With a little bit of editing it has changed into more of the type of font I am looking for. I doubt that if I used this one I would incorporate the purple into it, but I would have to use a colour of some sort, depending on what my final colour scheme is. I like the style of this font as I think it would appeal to many teenagers, and fits in well with the 'POP' genre of my magazine.

This is another one of my options for my magazine title font. It has quite a quirky look to it and also it is still quite fun and funky, which is ideal when creating a cheesy pop magazine. Again if I were to use this font then I would have to make it a lot larger and change the colour to fit in with my colour scheme. This font is very girly which would work well with my magazine, as my target audience is mainly teenage girls. Although this is not one of my favourite choices, it is an option as I have not fully decided which font I will be using yet.

This font is called 'Billo Dream' and is one of my favourite options for the front cover title of my magazine. It is fun and appeals well to the idea of a pop magazine. The colouring would be edited to fit my colour scheme and it would also be made considerably bigger in order to really work as the title of my magazine.

Blog 4- Main Task Flat Plans

This was my initial design for my front cover. I decided to call my magazine "POP WORLD" as it is simple, and will be suitable for my target audience, which is teenagers. The tag line will have relevance to the title, and in this initial design I didn't really know what it was going to be. I plan to have a large image of a girl group named "ELECTRIC" on the front cover, as this is going to be the main sell of my magazine. I will also include articles such as this weeks chart and then fashion advice, kiss & tell and real life stories. This will all fit in well with the girly happy theme I will be promoting in my magazine. The colour scheme I plan to use (although not included in my flat plans) will be a mixture of pink and blue, as these colours work well with the pop theme. Although they contrast I think that a mixture of the two put together in a cheesy pop magazine will work well. It will also stand out to readers and will be appealing to people who like the pop genre of music. I plan to include many images of clothing and also around 3 or 4 photo's of actual 'celebrities' which will all relate to different articles. The barcode will be evident in the bottom right hand corner, with articles/ features scattered around the images so that my cover looks full and exciting.






This is my second flat plan of my front cover. It is a lot more detailed that the first, and it looks a lot more like I want my front cover to look like. The main sell "ELECTRIC" is very evident, along with the other articles, which all appear to have relevant pictures. This cover has the correct tag line which I plan to use for the final cover of my magazine "Your guide to the world of POP!" This tag line is ideal as it links into the title of my magazine, but is also simple and will be catchy to the reader. Although it has not been included, I will put the barcode in the bottom right hand corner. The main sell title "ELECTRIC" will be in a different font to the main title, as it will stand out more this way. Also the blue, silver and pink colour scheme will work well with this band as although they are pop, they have a little bit of difference in them as well. I plan to get all of the fonts I choose to use from www.dafont.com.

This is the contents page of my magazine. The CONTENTS will be larger than the pop worl font as it will be blatently obvious that way. The tag line will be included on the contents page, along with some simple pictures, and one photo of the main sell. This photo will simply be a smaller verison of the one on the double page spread, as it will be easier. However, I may end up taking a better photo which I may put on the contents, it just depends which one I like the most. I plan to have simple images for the rest of the pictures in my contents page, as it will be difficult to get so many photo's for this page. The contents font will match the one on the front cover, as this will add to the theme of the magazine. The colour scheme will probably be either very similar or the same for the contents page, otherwise it will look out of place and slightly odd. The page numbers and other fonts on this page will be a sans serif font, as this is informal and my magzine isn't really meant to be formal, it is simply for teenagers who like reading about pop and celebrities. This magazine may be seen as very feminine, but that is ideally the look that I will be going for.


This is the double page spread article I plan to use for my magazine. It will be all about the band "ELECTRIC" who will feature on the front cover, and be a feature on the contents page. The title will be in the same font that is used on the main cover, and also it will be the same colour. So this title depends on whichever colour scheme I use. There will be an image of the band in the centre, with writing all around it. This is so that the image stands out to the reader, especially people who are flicking through the magazine thinking about buying it. The text will be in time format, as I plan to do my article on "a day on tour with ELECTRIC". I will start at the beginning of the day and work my way towarda a gig, and then what happens when it finishes. I will also include a small advert at the bottom, promoting the bands new single. This is so that it has relevance to the bands current musical status and so that any readers who like the look of them can know what their single is called and if/ when it is out.

Preliminary Task Flat Plans

This is the cover that I plan to have for my college magazine.
It doesn'e have any colour on it at the moment, as I plan to include this when I make my cover. Ideally I would have liked to include a bit more detail in my flat plans, but I didn't really allocate myself enough time to do so. I would like to have this design, as it is simple and also it will allow me to include a large image of someone in the centre. To make my cover stand out I plan to use a failry bright colour scheme, and keeping in theme with the Freshers party I am definitely considering a read, blue and white colour scheme. My articles will be relevant to everything that comes with the starting of college, including some things for the new students. My tag line will be simple but effective; Whats going on in YOUR college!?. This is so that it catches the eye, and is remembered, but also it is simple and not easy to forget.

This is my contents page flat plan. For this I want it to be simple, so that there isn't too much reading involved, and also it is precise and to the point. I plan to have two images. One of the main sell, the Freshers party, and the second being of another big article for the magazine. The pages will simply be numbered down the sides, so that the reader can see exactly which is on each page. Again, I haven't included a colour scheme in my plan as it wasn't something I had any idea about, so I plan to follow the same scheme as the front cover; which will hopefully be a red, blue and white colour scheme.

Evaluation Preliminary Task

I thought that the preliminary task was quite good. It was simple, but at the same time there was a few challenges that and skills that I had to use. I found the software quite easy to use, although I did have a few problems with certain things, such as aligning my text and matching colours perfectly to eachother. I was quite pleased with my magazine cover as it had everything that I wanted it to include, but I found that the photo I used made the background hard to match text colours with, so in future when I do my main coursework task I will need to make sure I pick a background image that has a good colour to match to my text. The only thing I wasn't happy with was my contents page. It looked boring as it was a plain white background, and the text came out a funny colour even though I tried to make sure it was an exact match to that I had used on my front cover. Overall I think that the preliminary task was a good introduction to the software and I think that it will be a good use of knew knowledge to complete the main coursework task.

Blog 3- Analysis of existing magazines

Magazine covers
From one look at this magazine cover you can get an image and idea of who would read it. The mast head is in a sparkly pink font, which will apply mainly to girls and with its signature font, this cover will be recognised by many people. The font is very curly, which fits in with the style of the music, and has connotations of a very light, happy mood which is what the magazine is most probably wanting to show. There is a lot of colour presented on the magazine cover, and the contrasting pink and purple really stands out to the reader, in particular the '56 hot buys" article. This article combines both images and words to show things which a young teenager might be interested in and which will be another thing that will lure a reader into purchasing this particular magazine. Another thing that caught my eye was the bright yellow near the bottom of the magazine. This block of bright colour distracts the reader from the obvious articles and it highlights a whole new area of the magazine. I noticed that all of the dramatic and/or more serious articles advertised on the front of the magazine are in the yellow font, which suggests that this is adding some risk and excitement to the very happy jolly feel of the magazine. The language used is very child friendly, as are the images, with this particular cover using the High School Musical stars, who appeal directly to children and teenagers, who are the most likely target audience for this magazine. This image is very positive as all of the stars are smiling and looking directly into the camera, almost inviting the reader and appearing very welcome for people to look at and this combined with the bright colour scheme will be an attraction for potential buyers of this magazine. The line underneath this picture of the cast jumps out of the page, as it refers to the reader directly. 'You're a STAR!' suggests that the reader is literally famous, and the exclamation mark which is dotted with a star refers directly back to this statement, and the pink background colour again links in with the title and the feminine theme to the whole magazine.

This is the second magazine in my genre that I have chosen to analyse is Smash Hits! Again this magazine cover follows a colour scheme, although this one appears to be more masculine than the top of the pops cover (above). The two main stand out colours are yellow and blue, although black and white is used effectively in the mast head and some of the features on the cover. The very minimal amounts of pink are used to draw the readers eye into particular headings. Eg WIN!, which has a particularly intriguing sense to it as it suggests that you need to read more to find out. It is also very eye catching as it contrasts with the yellow colour which is next to it, meaning that it stands out even more.
The font used throughout the cover of the magazine is more masculine and that with the combination of male dominancy in the pictures and colours suggests that this magazine is more of a unisex magazine than top of the pops. The images used on this magazine are also very positive, but they are of a more mature fashion and not just people that appeal directly to younger children. In particular the main image shows a member of 'Son Of Dork' and if you didn't like this band then you may not be immediately attracted to this magazine. The member is again looking directly into the camera and using a cheeky grin which I expect would attract many girl readers as well as boys. The font used to express the title 'SON OF DORK' is in very large capitals, on the front of the guy's t shirt, so this could be both a featured article for the magazine and an oppurtunity to advertise the band itself. The bright yellow colour is incorprated all over the front cover, and by using this combined colour scheme it makes the magazine seem friendly, inviting and cheerful without looking messy and untidy. The article in the top right hand corner within a pannel of blue "Louis' X Factor Gossip!" is covering over part of the mast head for the magazine suggesting that it is really important and that it should be seen without anyything blocking its view. Finally, this magazine looks slightly more mature than the other one so this suggests that it could be for slightly older teenagers possibly age 13+, instead of the younger children as this is what the cover portrays.

Contents Page
This contents page has many features which would stand out to the reader. Firstly the main heading "Welcome" is written in a very pink, girly font and the pink colour is continued down the rest of the contents page, combined with very subtle pastel colours to compliment and comply with the 'girly' theme.
There is some information about the magazine producers, down the side of the magazine and this has their typical font/ logo at the top enabling the reader to keep recognising the magazine.
The pictures would appeal to girls more so than boys as they are representing articles about clothes/ fashion, celebritiy interviews, competitions and stereotypically a girls favourite thing, a good looking celebrity interview, probably about what his dream girl is etc. All of the photo's used in this contents page use a close up shot where the subject is looking directly into the eyes of the reader, and all of the numbers in the corner correspond to the colour scheme which is evident on the whole page.
This magazine's contents page would be very good research to use and i plan on referring to it for ideas when i create my contents page in my project.

Double Page Spread
This double page spread has all of the things that make a good pop magazine. Firstly, it has a girly colour scheme which would appeal to a female target audience and would also appeal to a wider age range (11-15 years) as it has a combination of both a girly colour scheme as well as an article about many celebrities. The main image links to the title in the way that the girl is gasping and the mast head reads "DOLLS DRAMA!" linking the two together with the clever use of the facial expression. Again as I saw on a previous cover of 'top of the pops' there is a bright yellow colour used to divert the readers eyes to all over the page, and this extreme contrast of colours gives the page an energetic feel.
This is a very useful double page spread, and when it comes to making mine I will most probably use this one and a few others to research what I would like to do with my double page spread article.

Blog 2- Target Audience

This grid shows the results from the NRS readership survey from July 2008- June 2009. It shows a list of general magazines. The headings at the top state the ages of people who read them and in the appropriate column (the highlighted one) it shows my choice magazine and it shows how many men, women, and the ages who read them. From this chart you can see that the majority of people who read top of the pops magazine are females, and hardly any males read it. In particular, people who are over 45, don't read this magazine, with only 0.1% of the population reading it.








I have begun research into the pop magazine genre, and in particular 'Top Of The Pops'. From my research i have discovered that this magazine is generally for ages ranging from '11-15 years', with 87% of the readers being girls and just 13% being boys. I got this information from the top of the pops advertising website; http://www.bbcmagazinesadvertising.com/Magazines/Top_Of_The_Pops.html
I think that in order for your magazine to be a success you need to make sure that you feature articles that would appeal to people of that particular age group. so for my magazine I will have to do some research into the type of things that 11- 15 year olds would want to read in a pop magazine. To find this I will probably ask my younger sister, as she is 13 years old and she knows the type of things people her age would like to read. Also I will read as many recent pop magazines as I can so that I can get some ideas of what to feature in my magazine and what sort of articles I could consider for my double page spread.
In terms of the demographics for this magazine I don't really think that you can give it a socio- economic classification as it is more of a childrens magazine. However I think that you can say that these type of magazines wouldn't be the type that the 'A' class (high rankning professionals such as doctors and lawyers) would want their children reading, as stereotypically you would expect that they would want them reading something more intellectual. Simply because it is a childrens magazine, I am struggling to see how I could pass and socio- economic judgement, but if it was completely necessary I would say that it is more likely that the B-D classes would read this magazine as it does require some reading and it is certainatly not the type of magazine a pensioner would pick up in a shop and consider buying.
In terms of psychographics I believe that it is more likely that 'Mainstreamers' would read this magazine as it appeals to many types of people and it includes people and issues that most people would know about and be familiar with, and this would suggest that this would be the type of magazine for average children who like pop music, boys and gossip. I also believe that it would appeal to succeeders, as these people don't like to flash the money they have, and it is possible that they would buy this instead of a more upper class magazine simply because they enjoy reading it and it interests them, instead of showing off how much money they have by purchasing a more affluent magazine.







The other magazine that i will be looking into is smash hits! This magazine was "which was essential reading for teenagers during its peak in the 1980s" and was immensely popular until it closed down in 2006, due to a huge decline in sales. This magazine is mainly aimed at kids and was described as a "much-loved mag for kids for 28 years." The two websites i used to obtain this information about the magazines were ;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4670000/newsid_4673300/4673300.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4673136.stm
Again with this magazine, making sure you hit the interests of the target audience right in the face is essential to success for the companies. This magazine is a little bit more alternative pop, compared to top of the pops, but it still uses similar features as part of its attraction for its target audience. To ensure that the magazine is successful the publishers and creators would have to select specific articles from a particular area of interest, and they most probably carried out surveys when deciding what to put in their magazines.
In terms of this magazine, I think that it is most likely to appeal to most readers. Similar to the 'top of the pops' magazine I believe that the high rankning professionals or 'A' class, wouldn't really want their children reading this magazine as it doesn't seem as intellectual as others they could get them to read, but I think that if they were well off and their children asked for it then they would get it, possibly because their parents have the money to do so. This suggests to me that people who are on benefits, and in the extreme cases, possibly don't have the money for anything but the essentials to live on each week, wouldn't get this magazine because they wouldn't have the funds to do so. Similarly to the 'top of the pops' magazine i believe that this magazine would appeal more to the 'B-D' classes.
Secondly I think that this magazine would again be for 'mainstreamers' rather than any of the other categories. This is because it again includes issues and celebrities that everyone is familiar with and the gossip which people will probably have read about, but would read again from a different perspective. This magazine probably doesn't appeal to individualists as it doesn't have anything that is completely different to everything else going on in society. Also it wouldn't appeal to aspirers as it isn't a magazine that would stand out as showing wealth or status so this would probably not even be looked at on the shelf and would be ignored for things such as 'Teen Vogue'. This magazine could possibly appeal to succeeders, as these children may enjoy the articles in this magazine and would buy this magazine because they enjoy and don't feel the need to flaunt their money.


To summarise the information i have researched i think that my average reader for the magazine I create will be female, and will be between 11 and 16 years of age. They will be into pop music and particularly celebrities, most obviously the ones who are in the media spotlight either all of or at the current time. I think that they will be the sort of people who have posters plastered all over their rooms and who are interested in reading all the 'gossip' about celebrities.

Blog 1- Introduction

For this task we have to create a few pages of a music magazine, namely a font cover, contents page and a double page spread with an article on it. I have chosen to do a magazine for people who are interested in Pop music, and i will use the tasks from my previous preliminary task to create this magazine and also develop them a bit further, using the programme's i used on my previous magazine cover and contents page.

Completed magazine cover and contents page

This is my completed cover for my magazine. I am pleased with the outcome of this as it has the image type i needed and also it has a large mast head which is in an unusual font so it will be appealing to people and will stand out from any others. I decided to use a blue and red color scheme to fit in with the theme of this months issue. My picture is a close up of someone and she is looking straight into the camera so the image connects with the reader. If i could change anything about my magazine it would be the background which the picture is on, as it was not easy to match color's to it and i had to end up putting white boxes behind my text so that it could be seen easily.








I am slightly disappointed with my contents page. It was meant to come out as a bright red, but instead the mast head is in a paler color. However, the font is consistent with the others and it keeps the same color scheme as the front cover. It looks quite boring and I would've like to be able to take some more photo's to make it look more interesting but I didn't really know what else I could put on it to make it look better and more like a proper contents page of a magazine.

My Front Cover Photos

For my front cover of my magazine i first had to go and take some photos which would be suitable. I took two and from there i had to decide which one would be the best for my front cover. The first image (on the left) that i took was quite good as the person was smiling, however as she had her tongue bar out i decided that this one probably wouldn't be best for the front cover, and i thought that it would be more appropriate to have a serious yet smiling picture.
Also my photography is clearly worse on the picture on the left as the backdrop is wonky in this shot and a part of the wall can be clearly seen. The picture on the right shows no part of the wall, is face on with the participant looking straight into the camera, with some artwork behind to give it a bit of life and a slight look into what is being done/ has been done at the college.

Abigail Elkins AS Media Preliminary Task

Introduction- We have been asked to design and complete a magazine about college life for our preliminary task. It will be for the students rather than the teachers, so my target audience will be ages 16-19. I will create this with 'Adobe InDesign CS2' in order to give my magazine a professional look. I have to use a picture of a person from the shoulders up for the front cover and it will feature adverts of up and coming events.