My Final Front Cover

My Finished Front Cover...

Front Page Conventions...

Edited Main Image Steps

Original...

New with editing...

In order to make my pop magazine seem more appealing and 'perfect' I decided to use my main image and try and edit parts of it.
To create my new edited look, I decided to change two of the girls tops colours from black to a red/purple so it looks more happy and positive. I did this by using Photoshop. First of all I used the 'Polygonal Lasso Tool' and outlined the top so I could have a neat finish. Once I had outlined the top, I decided to fill in the tops by using the 'Paint Bucket Tool'. Both of these tools can be seen under this paragraph.

To whiten the teeth I used the 'Lasso Tool' so I could get an accurate outline of the teeth shape, I used this edit on all the girls to make them appear more flawless. Once I had created an outline around the teeth, I clicked on Colour > Properties and then altered the Hue and Saturation to find a nice, natural white colour.I also used the same technique to apply a lip stick look to make them appear more bright. All of these tools can be seen under this paragraph.

To make sure the girls had flawless skin, I removed spots and blemishes using the 'Spot Healing Brush Tool' I find this very easy to use and enjoy using it when I can see the difference and progress that has being made. I just clicked on where the spots where on the face and it made them disappear. I used this website (http://www.practicalphotoshopmag.com/) to learn how to use the Spot Healing Brush Tool correctly. This tool can be seen under this paragraph.

Photos For My Front Cover/DPS

Google Mock Ups

I created three different magazine front cover mock ups to get ideas for how I am going to design my own front cover. I found different images from the internet and laid out each magazine differently. 

This was my first attempt at a mock up, I am not particularly keen on the black colour as I think it stands out too much and appears more dominant. I think I should have chosen a lighter colour to go with the dark pink. Although I do like the light pink background as it goes well with the masthead.

This was my second attempt at a mock up. I prefer it a lot more than my first one as I like the way I have set this one out, especially the way I have laid out the main feature story and also included a quote. I also like the skyline and the fact I have included a picture too.

This was my third attempt at a mock up. This is my favourite front cover as I like the colours that I chose to use. I also like how I have displayed the main feature story. Although if I was to create it again, I would try and make up more space so that I could include more feature stories to make the front cover appear more 'busy'.

Plan To Produce My Front Cover

Week 1

• Google Mock Ups (designing my headline, cover lines, prizes, mast head etc.) x3
• Start taking my images for my front cover

Week 2

• Start taking my images for my front cover, at least 4 original images (20 different approaches)

Week 3

• Constructing my front cover

Week 4

• Constructing my front cover

Week 5

• Deadline; 19th December

Week 6

• Exam week

The Design of My Masthead

The Name of My Magazine

The name I have chosen for my pop magazine is; Party Pop. I have chosen this name as it is a short, quick, snappy title and is easy to understand/say. The fact my title also has alliteration, I believe this makes it stand out more as both the words seem to go well together and because they're so short, it works. 

My Audience

In order to figure out who I should be aiming my magazine at, I created a survey using SurveyMonkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com). I very much enjoyed using this technology as it was a lot of fun to create and it's also interesting in which the way you actually create the survey etc. and how many types of options there is. In the end I collected 20 responses from both male and females. I created 10 different questions based on ideas for my future pop magazine, from asking the public their favourite singer/brand to their favourite clothing brand in order to gain knowledge on who I will be creating my magazine for and what I should actually include within it. I have presented my analyzed results below.

The Price Of My Magazine

The price of my chosen magazine; We Love Pop, is issued at £2.99 per magazine. I think this is a reasonable price for what you get from the magazine; discounts, occasional freebies, many feature stories and a lot to read. Egmont UK is the publisher of We Love Pop and they have many other magazines in which they sell. These sell for similar prices such as £3.99 for the Go Girl magazine which is the same genre (Pop magazine) as We Love Pop.

Magazine Representing My Chosen Music Genre

                               

                           
                                   
                 

                                    
 

                                    

UK Top 40 Singles Chart Comparing To My Music Genre

I looked up the UK Top 40 Chart on the BBC Radio 1 website to see actually how much of the chart is based on Pop. From researching it and finding out, I realised that actually a big 40% of the UK Chart is actually Pop genre. This shows that the majority of chart music is actually Pop, proving how popular it is in the UK.

LIIAR Analysis of Front Page, Contents Page and DPS.

LIIAR Analysis – ONE music magazine from your genre.

LIIAR analysis of front page, contents page and DPS.

L – Media Language x3 (Front cover, contents page & double page spread)
I – Institution (Publishing company)
I – Ideology (Values & Beliefs) (Pop – trendy & fashion orientated)
A – Audience (We Love Pop/Top Of The Pops media pack.pdf)
R – Representation (do the pics look fun, who are they trying to appeal too, who are they attracting to) union j all look happy and work together better as a group)

 We Love Pop - Front Cover

Media Language

On this magazine front cover, there are many different conventions just as there would be on any other magazine. We can see there is a mast head which says 'We Love Pop'. This is the title of the magazine, it's wrote up in a bold, black font and also appears on a tilt to make it more interesting for the audience. There is many different feature stories such as the 'Ed Sheeran answers your problems' 'Union J Bags o' larks' 'Liam ahoy! Wahey! Payno's romantic vacay' and then there is a main feature story '50 moments that shocked our socks off'. We know this is the main feature story as it appears in larger text than the rest of the feature stories. The main image also compliments this as the celebrities are all showing a shocked emotion, which makes the reader believe that the moments must be really shocking. There is a footer which is obviously located at the bottom of the magazine. Finally, there is the bar code, issue number and price which is located at the side of the front cover.

We Love Pop - Contents Page

Media Language

We can see the name of the magazine which is located at the top right of the contents page. There is a large mast head at the top of the page which says 'We love this...' which is showing that the magazine love the stories in this issue and is making you believe that you will love them too. We can see some of the front covers feature stories and also many more which will intrigue the reader and make them want to read on. There is also feature stories which have pictures to accompany them and small captions underneath. At the bottom of the contents page, we can also see the 'Hot posters!' which were advertised on the front page, this makes the audience want to buy the magazine more knowing they get pictures of their favourite celebrities. Their website is also shown in the bottom right of the page in case the reader would rather look at the magazine online. 

We Love Pop - Double Page Spread

Media Language

On the double page spread we can see a large, clear mast head, which introduces us to what the page is going to be about (an interview). There are many different photos with small captions describing what is happening in the picture, each picture is different which gives the audience more to look at. There are plugs in the centre of the columns to tell us what they are saying in their interview.

Institution 

We Love Pop is published by the company; Egmont UK. This company was founded in Denmark but now also bases itself in the UK. It's a worldwide company and publishes media in more than 30 countries and has 6,400 employees.This company also produces many other magazines for younger people, such as; Barbie, Toxic, Disney Infinity, Hello Kitty, Fireman Sam. They also produce another Pop Genre Magazine which is called 'Go Girl'. This magazine is pretty similar to We Love Pop, although on the Egmont UK website, it is stated that Go Girl's audience is for 7 and over (7-12) and then We Love Pop is more aimed at teens. Go Girl sells at £3.99, whereas We Love Pop sells at £2.99 per issue. 

Ideology

Pop is always trendy and usually fashion orientated. On magazines such as We Love Pop we're bound to see bright, bold colours which catches the readers eye and makes the magazine appear more busy. Because there are loud colours used such as pinks, yellows, oranges, this shows it is targeted at a younger audience.

Audience
As I have written in my above paragraphs, the audience for We Love Pop is aimed at the younger generation, teens. We know it's aimed at teens by looking at the front cover of the magazine, there are older celebrities as the main images, more 'grown up' feature stories shown and 'autumn trends', the clothing shown looks as though it suits older children, rather than younger. Even the colours used show that the magazine is not targeted for older people. as it looks more fun, manic and doesn't appear as serious as other music genre magazines.

Representation
The use of the images are very important in magazines, especially when trying to aim at your target audience. The images used in this magazine show a lot of happy emotion, they're presented as though they are having fun whilst having their picture taken. None of the pictures are intentionally taken to be posey, but to be shown as if they are just casual. We Love Pop have used the images of these celebrities because they appeal to younger people which is also their target audience, therefore this will make them want to buy the magazine more. On the double page spread interview with Union J, the pictures have been taken to show that they are all happy and they couldn't be without each other. They are being shown that they work great as a group.

Three Magazine Conventions Analysis

Music Magazines Within My Genre

My Music Magazine Genre

For my music magazine, I have chosen the music genre; Pop, I have chosen this music genre because it's the genre I like the most and am most interested in. I also seem to know a lot more about it than any other genre which should make it easier to complete my assignment. Some examples of existing pop artists include; Katy Perry, One Direction, Nicki Minaj, Jessie J, Union J, Little Mix. All of these artists I have chosen to show below in my mood boards I have created. Pop communicate with their audience by choosing colours, styles, trends etc. that match the audience they are aiming their music at. Usually fast, bouncy, happy songs are created by the artists.

Below I decided to create two mood boards, one representing existing artists and another one showing colours and text which represent the genre in itself.