Prototype magazine cover

I created two 'mock ups' of a front cover to gather my ideas and to see if they would work effectively  I hope to use something like this for my final front cover (obviously with a photo taken by me). I used inspiration from other magazines for things such as the layout to make it look as professional as possible. 

Obviously, before even started creating a front cover I had to decide on a genre of music and a target audience which I want my magazine to appeal to. In the end, I decided on Indie as I think it would allow me to have a calm and in-a-way retro look which is what I wanted. I also chose for my target audience to be 15-32 as i think this type of genre is most popular between these ages.

For the name of my magazine I came up with a short list including possible names such as; Pure, Shadows, Vague and Unica (unique in a different language). I opted for 'PURE' as I thought it represents the type of music and genre I am aiming for as Indie singers are often not as 'auto tuned' as lets say pop artists etc giving them a purer sounding voice and tone. However, this is subject to change throughout the process of creating my final cover!

Adding to this, the overall 'colour' of the magazine was crucial as it had to link with the genre. I made the image have a subtle colour as I didn't want the image to be seen as 'brightly coloured' as it may go against the genre and be seen as 'Pop' rather that Indie. 

However, for my second draft the most drastic change was the idea that I used colour for the font and used the font I used for the title in some of the sell lines. The idea for using the same font came from the need for a house style and I thought an obvious way to promote this would be to have the same font running throughout. I also like the colours as they all have an 'urban' feel and I feel that they compliment the genre by this. 


After re-evaluating both front covers, many things have stood out to me that I will consider/change when making my next draft. Immediately, I dislike the 'TM' sign next to the name as when I looked back at my cover I think it gives it a cliche/amateur look hence why it was removed on my second draft. I would also make the name of the magazine smaller so it did not cover the artists face or I would make sure I take a picture with a big enough margin between the face of the model and the edge of the page to allow my logo to fit in without disrupting the image.

Active vs Passive theory

The Active audience theory argues that media audiences dont just receive information passively but are often unconsciously actively engaged and make sense of the message within their personal and social contexts. Decoding of a media message may be influenced by such things including values, family background, beliefs and culture.

Reading 

Preferred reading/dominant ready

The 'intended' reading of the text

-The simpsons is a program appropriate for all ages. With the show revolving around a nuclear family type ( married parents and blood related children , pets etc) the programme is family friendly. It uses current issues and trends with a twist to add comedy to everyday lives. Through the main characters never changing age , image etc and remaining the central characters in the text the program is made to remain current and to appear as though it is a 'classic'.

Oppositional reader

your dislike/disagree with the preferred reading

- Although the Simpsons is made to appear as though it is directed at a family based audience catering to audience members of all ages and racial backgrounds etc , it simply reflects the bias of the westernised world and elite. It reinforces gender differences in a derogative manner and undermines the role of women through the low status of Marge in the family. It also reinforcenegative stereotypes of ethnic groups for example those of an Asian background simply portraying asian men to be shop keepers and asian wives to have large numbers of kids which is not nececerily the reality. Thus making it inapropriate for younger viewers .

Negotiated reading

you dislike and like different aspects

-Although the Simpsons can in general be positively recieved by all audience types it could be argued that at times it takes realistic and current storylines too far and over exagerates them to the point where they can no longer allow audience members to gain personal gratifications from viewing the text .

Encoding/decoding model

Contemporary semioticians refer to the creation and interpretation of texts as 'encoding' and 'decoding' respectively. 

In 1973, Stuart Hall published a paper entitled 'Encoding/decoding'. This had a major influence on cultural studies, the essay challenges popular assumptions on how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed proposing a new theory of communication.

Uses and gratification theory

Uses and gratifications theory (UGT) is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience centered approach to understanding mass communication.

Diverging from other media effect theories that question "what do media do to people?", UGT focuses on "what do people do with media?"

Technology

 
I will use many different resources when creating my magazine from the camera for taking the photos to the editing software I will use.

Firstly, I will use an iPhone 5 take my photos for the front cover and double page spread. I will then upload them to either to an Apple Mac Laptop or a Samsung laptop at school. I will use an iPhone 5 camera as I have easy access to one and a clear photo is given.I mainly add to my blog on a Samsung laptop but when at home I use an Apple laptop, because of this, picking an editing software is going to have to suit both makes of laptop. For my preliminary, I used 'pages' on an Apple Mac however I didnt like this software so I have decided to use 'Ipiccy' which can be accessed on a PC and a Apple laptop to edit my . Adding to this, for my double page spread I will probably use word or pages on the mac to get a split page.

Mood Board

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I created this mood board to portray some of the ideas I have already come up with and give a sense of the feel I will be aiming for.
Firstly in the middle of the collage are some potential texts which I may aim to use for my magazine cover. I feel that they fit the concept and style which I am aiming for. 
Also, the pictures of the field have inspired me to use fields as my setting and backdrop (as i handy have fields just outside of my garden.) I think this setting will give my picture a unique and calm feel which I want to aim for. Adding to this, I want to somehow incorporate balloons into my image as i think they again suit my genre and give a fun, cool looks to the image. 
As you can see, I want to use a girl model in my photo as I can the include ideas from the male gaze etc.

Genre

Whilst deciding my genre it is crucial to look at excisting magazines of all different artists to give me an idea of where I could go with the genre I choose.
As you can see, they all have different aspects to them including the colour palet, font and overall house style.

Audience

Genre 2