Question One

How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

Designing my magazine• When designing my magazine I had to take into consideration the codes and conventions of other magazines from my chosen or similar genres, and magazines in general. I looked in particular at other RnB/Pop music magazines, and especially at one called VIBE. VIBE magazine is a highly successful RnB mag which I feel has a cool and urban style. It includes artists that I would use, designs I feel are appropriate and effective, and also has add-in topics such as fashion (which I chose I was going to add to my magazine) so it fit really well as something I could use for inspiration.

• VIBE magazine in particular was significantly similar to my magazine, but mine covered a more female audience (as I felt this is what the industry was lacking). I felt the layout of the magazine pages worked well, they were quite minimalistic on some, yet crammed pack with words and detail in others. Although I liked the individual pages as they were, I felt they didn’t work together that well. For these reasons I decided to go not fully minimalist, and not fully crammed, and met some where in the middle as I had an example of how well it would work (or an example of what wouldn’t work).

• The photography techniques of VIBE were also very interesting. They showed the models (who were always artists, and mainly well known and popular ones) as many things, such as cool, edgy, unique to attractive, sexy and fashionable. I took multiple photos, some with musical props and some without and I have to say I preferred the photos without them. I was glad when I noticed how in VIBE photographs the artists hardly, if ever, actually had a piece of music apparatus or equipment like microphones or a guitar for instance (which supported my idea). I feel this is not only so there is a soul focus on the artist them selves, but also because in this particular genre the artists themselves very rarely play the instruments themselves and often use sounds made in a studio, DJ’s or pre recorded tracks. For this reason having musical props were not as necessary. I liked this set up also because it meant a less cluttered page, and gave more ground for variations of poses and stances etc.

Other Music Magazines

• Here are some music magazines that match my magazine genre (Rnb/Pop/HipHop).

I used a colour which was bold and attractive to my audience (red) which connotes passion, relating to my readers love for music. Plus the colour is quite strong and bold, which means it is not only eye catching but fits in with the image of the model and the fact that she looks independent and fierce. I took into consideration other ideas too, such as how the colour fit in with the styling and worked well with the leopard print.

Here is an example of a VIBE magazine cover with Chris Brown. I loved the way the contents of the magazine were in list form down the side of the page, and felt it worked well and looked attractive too. The colours on the page were consistent (with white and green) and mirrored this with the black and red. I used the large mast head, but rather than having it beneath the image, I had it on top so it was easier to read to passers by, and just felt it looked better.• Although I used a similar style I used a more glamorous theme, which relates and is more appealing to females. The

model is in a statement position, and is placed in a central position. This is because it is important for the text to now over power the image, and for it to still stand out and catch the eyes of the audience. Plus, the cover is one of the major selling points of the magazine, and with this model (who so to speak is actually a celebrity guest to the mag) it would be a mistake to cover her up. I feel I made the person in my image look fierce, and fashionable. Female buyers will be attracted to this as they may aspire to be that way, with confidence and style. The fashion on the image may also draw in readers – leopard print is very popular this season, therefore it will call out to those who see it.

• Overall, I feel the layout of my magazine fits the style and genre of music I was going for, and has an urban and cool feel about it. My magazine is modelled off not only music magazines, but magazines for females such as cosmopolitan and company as this was the target audience I was going for, and the magazines in question are well known and popular for women and girls. However I did use the influence of VIBE magazine which is a well known R&B and hip-hop magazine, but includes gadgets, fashion and style too.

• Here is my magazine article/double page spread. I needed to make sure that the pages looked cool and fresh, and matched the urban feel of my magazine. Not only this, but I had to ensure it appealed to females too, which I addressed with interesting colours and a variety of fonts. The graphic pattern reflected my ideas, and gives it a modern and funky style. I particularly like the first page, with the bold cursive font standing out to readers and in a way reflecting the artist. I thought that placing the photograph on top of the writing gave an individual edge to the page and the variation of photography and poses of the model showed off my camera skills. I felt that the images had to reflect females interests, such as fashion as well as music, hence my use of in style ideas (block colour and printed patterns). As my artists does not actually play any instruments herself when performing, due to the style of music, I chose not to add any music apparatus in the photographs. The simple font in the actual article is the same text as the cover, and some parts of the contents page. I felt this was important as there was a hint of consistency in the design and kept it looking neater and more professional.

• When designing this article I took a look at other magazines articles such as cosmopolitan/company, VIBE and Vanity Fair When looking at these articles I noticed that they all had a pretty consistent theme, with the large title with the persons name or topic idea, then an image of the person/topic too. Further more the writing lay out was generally in the three-column set up (which I took on board). I feel my article met the general conventions of magazine articles in the genre of music and attraction to females, and in my opinion it worked well.

• With my contents page, I tried to use my college magazine contents page as a model as I felt it was effective, but I wanted to make it look more professional. To do this I added bands of colour, and blocked the images together. Not only did this look neater and more organised, it made it easier to read and understand. I kept the general colour consistency going throughout the pages, so felt it was important to carry it onto the contents page. I looked at different magazine covers to see what they included. When looking at cosmopolitan there was variations of text, font, titles, colours and images. Although I know this is a highly successful magazine I did feel that this page in particular was a little messy, and had a bit too much going on. I looked further into the idea and saw that vibe had an extremely different style all together. Rather then having lots of photographs on different topics the page generally consisted of one large modelled photograph which was used as a background. Other than that, the page was rather minimalist with a consistent colour used throughout and no other major aspects. I thought this worked very well and looked appealing, but didn’t think it would work well for my magazine.

• I decided to merge them both together, I used four photographs which were blocked together, and then listed the page numbers below these. My aim was to keep the page not busy and not minimalistic, but a place in between. The colours behind the titles kept the theme going from my cover page, as did the text which I also used on the front. I used the page number box idea from my college magazine but felt it was unnecessary to use the multiple colours. And finally, the topics on my page were based upon ideas from other magazines too, such as VIBE with its bits of fashion and life stories of celebrities.