Magazine Name      

     I wanted to give my magazine a name that the target audience would understand easily. Teenagers are more likely to pick up a magazine with a name that tells them what the magazine is about straight away, rather than picking up a magazine that has a deep meaning. Pop is the genre I chose my for my magazine. The word being so short has many advantages because I can add it in to other words. I came up with a number of different names for my magazine such as ‘Pop-tastic’ (coming from the word fantastic), Pop-a-licious, Pop magic, Pop-sane but the name that I felt would work best was ‘POP-A-HOLIC’. This name straight away made me think ‘addicted to pop’. I felt this would work well as this also clearly highlights who the target audience for this magazine are- the people who love pop music. This word sounds like the word ‘alcoholic’ which is not positive, but the magazine name flips the meaning and makes the word positive.

 

Flat Plan for Front cover, Contents page and Double page spread.

            After looking at some pop magazines, I realised that a lot of them were similar in some ways. For example, I noticed that most pop magazines had a mid-shot of the artist that is featured in their magazine. As I want to make my magazine as realistic as possible, I tried my best to stick to the themes normally used but at the same time also make it interesting somehow. One of the main pop magazines I looked at was ‘We Love Pop’ magazine and the cover with the artist Cher Lloyd caught my attention most. This was because her body language was different to the other artists I had seen on magazines and this gives her a unique look. Also the magazine cover was very colourful in a controlled way and I felt this also kept me, as a member of the audience interested. In comparison to other types of magazines, I realised that the pop magazines were more courageous when it came to using colours. They used unusual colours to make their magazine different from other magazines. In a very similar way, I decided to make red the main colour. The logo for my magazine is red lips, and this has been used a few times in my flat plans. The bright red lips would also be used on my artist because it would then be like they’re almost representing my magazine and it will work well together (almost becoming a theme).  Although this may not be very clear on my front cover I have played around with the magazine name too. As this is aimed at young adults/ teen agers, the idea of ‘bubble gum’ has been used for the word ‘Pop’. This also goes with the word pop because bubble gum makes a ‘pop’ sound when it bursts. The main information will be bold and therefore this will catch the audience’s attention first e.g. the artists name and the magazine name. Another thing I noticed when analysing a few pop magazines is that the main artist used generally looks right into the camera, giving the ‘eye contact’ effect. The idea of the artist holding a lolly pop also plays with the name of the magazine (‘pop’) and also links well with the idea of the target audience being young people. 

When the word ‘Contents page’ comes up, people think of a page with ‘Contents Page’ written at the top of it, and then the name of pages with numbers underneath, but I wanted my contents page to stand out so I decided to give it a different unique look. I stuck with the theme of ‘red’. The colour red has been used near the title ‘CONTENTS’, on some letters in the word ‘CONTENTS’, with the artists lips (again linking to the idea of it being the logo of the magazine) and as a frame for the images on the other half of the contents page itself. This keeps the magazine consistent and allows the theme to flow easily. The different images on the other half of the page will include something that will help the audience to understand what they’re going to find in the magazine. The artist is now standing with bubble gum in their mouth, linking back to the name of the magazine and the genre of music the magazine is about.

            My double page spread will be an interview of the main artist. I played around with the normal idea of how an interview would be laid out and instead of laying it out normally one by one, I played around with the lay out and positioned the questions in different ways. This could again reflect the ‘playful’ nature of young people (target audience) and therefore they might prefer this look. I wanted to position my artist in a different way. Generally the artists are placed in the left/bottom left, right/bottom right corner of the page but I decided that to make my magazine different I would place my artist right in the centre. This could also show that all of the information is about them and so the artist is standing in the middle. The artists name will be bold, and this will catch the audience’s attention straight away. Although I am still not exactly sure what the quote will be, I thought it could be a quote reflecting their personality, the journey they have been through in order to get where they are in their life or it could be the lyrics in their songs etc.

Shot List

 Shot List

Here is the shotlist including a list of shots that may be used in my magazine. The shotlist incluses images I may use on my front cover, contents page and my double page spread. I have also added the 'action', typeof shot' and 'FX' of each shot on the shot list.

Typical Reader Profile

    My name is Kim and I’m 16 years old. My best friend’s name is Rihanna and we both love music. I have two younger sisters and we live with our parents. In my spare time, I watch TV and enjoy watching programs about my favourite artists. My room in full of posters, t-shirts with my favourite artists pictures, books about them etc. I love Justin Bieber, Rihanna, One Direction, Jessie J. I also have many CD's in my room. I love reading magazines such as ‘We love Pop’. I have many posters of pop artists in my room. My favourite subjects are Music, Art and Media studies. In my free time, I watch TV or sit in my room, draw my favourite celebrities and play loud music. I also enjoy going out with my friends, mainly because we are so similar and they also like the same things I like. For example they listen to the same type of music I listen to.

My Questionnaire

As I decided I would aim my magazine at individuals around my age, I wanted to know more about them. The questionnaire I created allowed me to gather more information about my target audience’s interests and what they generally look for in a magazine. The questions I included in my questionnaire were;

1) How old are you?
2) Who are your top 5 artists?
3) What 2 colours do you generally like most? If these colours were used on a magazine, would this attract you?
4) What genre of music interests you most?
5) What do you like to read about most in a magazine; celebrity gossip, music industry news, latest fashion tips, upcoming artists, gigs, tours, posters etc.
6) Who is your favourite celebrity?
7) What magazines do you normally buy?
8) Would you buy a magazine because it contains a poster you want?
9) What interests you most in a magazine?
I chose these questions because I wanted to gather a wide range of information that could help me construct my magazine. As I had decided my target audience would be young people (not exactly sure buy most probably girls), I decided that it would be best if I handed out the questionnaire to individuals with in Norbury Manor. This meant that the questionnaire was being answered by individuals from the age of 12-18, because year 7’s to 13 answered the question.
•The results helped me gain a wider understanding of what individuals within this age range look for and expect from a magazine. I focused more on the females that took these questionnaires. I found a range of results but a lot of what I found was what I expected. Individuals from the younger years more commonly wrote down answers such as ‘Cher Lloyd, Justin Bieber, One Direction’ and most of the younger aged individuals chose Pop as the genre of music they’re most interested in. They also chose more stereotypically girly colours such as ‘pink, purple, red, orange, baby blue’. Many said that the gossip about their favourite celebrities and interviews interested them the most. Older aged individuals generally bought magazines.
The answers of older individuals were a lot more different. Not as many were interested in pop magazines and instead some were also interested in genres such as rock, hip hop, RnB etc. They were a lot more dissimilar. This made me think about whether my idea would really work well or not. Instead, I could make my pop magazine different to other pop magazines. I could keep the normal theme in pop magazines but with an edge. I am still not exactly sure how I would do this but it could for example be the type of artist I write about.

Planning
From the very beginning, I thought felt pop would be a good genre for my magazine. I thought of some ideas that my magazine will consist of. The reason I felt pop would be the best genre for my magazine is because I wanted to aim the magazine at individuals around my age. The main reason for this was that most probably I would have similar interests to individuals of my age. This would help me design a better magazine as i am more likely to know the basic themes for example, that are normally used on pop magazines.

Deconstructing a Magazine- We Love Pop