technology

target reader.

Name : Emily Hawksby

Socio economic group - Middle Class

Age - 18

Gender - Female

Ethnicity - White British

Lifestyle - Currently in her last year of sixth form. Her future plans are to go into further education, she is interested in completing a degree in Theatre Studies at Guildford School Of Acting.

She is extremely passionate about music, interested in artists like Jessie J, Rihanna, Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran. At the weekends Emily likes to go out and socialise with friends - a popular girl.

Her look are important to her, she likes to dress well, however going out in 'lounge wear' doesn't phase her.

Where does she shop? Emily is into her fashion, shops like Topshop and Miss Selfridge are her favourite, as she likes to keep on top of her fashion. She genuinely likes to be different from others and isn't bothered if she wears something different, she likes to pull unique outfits off. Every year she attends the clothes show where she bargains clothes that are not found in normal shops.

Where does she go on holiday? Normally she goes Spain with her family, however due to being an adult she will be attending Ibiza this year with her friends. She would love to attend Dubai with her boyfriend, who is also very similar to Emily.

Drive? Emily has past her test, currently she is driving an old classic mini, her plans for the future is to purchase a new cream mini.

Food? She loves chocolate and fast food, eating un-healthy doesn't bother Emily as she  believes 'you only live life once'.

Hobby? Into acting, loves to go out with friends and especially going shopping regularly.

Film - Loves a good chick flick.

Sport - Not into sport. However likes to dance.

Animal - Would like a cute little dog, preferably a pug.

magazine fonts.

I thought it would be ideal to look upon fonts for magazine covers. The font used above is quite basic, the sans serif font is used on all parts of the text on the cover apart from the logo and the sell line. This makes the logo and the sell line stand out. Overall I think it would be a good idea when designing my magazine cover, to keep the same font.

magazine camera shots.

magazine titles

indie musicians.

Above is a few indie artists, even by looking at their images you can tell they are different and fit the indie genre. 

what is indie?

After a lot of thought about what genre I am interested in to portray through my music magazine, I ended up with the genre 'indie'.
I thought it would be helpful to do some research into the actual definition of indie music.

Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent; this may refer to

Independent record label, operates without major corporate funding
Independent music, subculture music that is independent of major producers

• Indie dance, a type of dance music rooted on indie rock and indie pop
• Indie pop a genre of alternative pop music
• Indie rock, a genre of alternative rock music

Research Methods

There are four types of Research Methods I am going to look at:

Primary
Primary research is collecting primary data, this is data the researcher themselves has discovered. There are numerous ways to gain primary data, such as questionnaires, interviews, textual analyses and focus groups. These techniques can be sent out using 'survey monkey', the internet and social networking sites.

Secondary
Secondary research is collecting secondary data, this is data that already exists. Secondary data can be found from the internet, census, books and newspapers.

Quantitative
The quantitative research technique is displayed in a numerical form and can be measured. Questionnaires with a multiple choice answer are a type of quantitative research technique as the answers can be measured and then be put into a graph or scale.

Qualitative
The qualitative research technique cannot be measured, unlike quantitative research. An example of a qualitative research technique is a focus group. Data is collected by observation from the researcher.

I am going to use mainly Primary and Secondary Research. It is important that I produce questionnaires, as it is vital that I found out my target audiences pleases. A questionnaire will help me conduct my magazine, and will be able to help me make decisions easier.
Secondary Research is also important, researching present music magazines will help with the design of my magazine, it will also help me follow the conventions of a music magazine.
I may use Quantitive research when I have the results of my questionnaire, a graph will be helpful as when looking at it I can visualise the results better.

tropes & memes.

Tropes are recurring elements. These are repeated over time and form a common convention. Tropes are closely related to memes. They are the building blocks of texts. Tropes are subject to revisionism, the rewriting of tropes.


A meme identifies ideas or beliefs that are transmitted from one person or group of people to another. The concept comes from an analogy: as genes transmit biological information, memes can be said to transmit idea and belief information.

history of NME.

brief history.

The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved towards a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 14 November 1952 edition. In the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. 

typical content.

The typical content of NME involves interesting articles about artists. During research I have noticed that on the front covers of NME there is a general phrase that is 'unusual'. Like the cover above 'I'm a psycho', it is an unusual quote that had come from the artist, this however draws the readers attention to buy the magazine as it adds interest. The magazine offers interviews from artists that are associated with the genre of the magazine. The colour schemes of NME are not conventional, they noticeably vary. The colour scheme above originates from the artists nail varnish, i think this is really clever and original. It emphasises that the design is important and they always consider the artist that they are promoting to tie in with the design. NME often advertises something free with the magazine, when the magazine was re designed NME offered a free coldplay vinyl, this highlights the fact that offering free things draws attention to the reader to purchase the magazine.

typical reader.

research from www.nrs.co.uk

total £253,000 copies brought weekly.

15 - 44 - this is not such a specific target audience £218,000 copies brought

45+ -  34,000 copies.

These figures shocked me slightly as i thought that the target audience for NME would be quite young, £34,000 copies brought by 45+ adults is a lot, this emphasises that NME is targets for a massive age range.

men - £167,000

women - £86,000

This shows that NME attracts more males to purchase the magazine rather than females.

magazine's housestyle.

The masthead 'NME' is always located on the top left of the magazine, it is always in the same font; which is bold and large so it is recognisable. A different image of the artist is placed on the front of the magazine with a quote from their interview, this interests the reader to purchase the magazine and read the interview. The cover is very busy, it offers names of different artists which are included in the content of the magazine and the colour scheme differs. 

Target Audience continued..

This is an example of a hip hop magazine cover. The hip hop genre is similar to rock, it is anti social and violence is presented. The image chosen for the magazine is the artist Eminem, he is extremely controversial. His stern facial expression and his body language reflects an aggressive tone. Looks are not seen as that important, however the artist is wearing a top that shows of his muscles, this shows that looks are considered in a way as not being as glamourous but looking hot. This could attract the target audience for girls. The colour scheme of this design is similar to the rock magazine, it is less harsh as the background is clear, this shows that the hip hop genre is not as aggressive.

Target Audience, Ideology and Representation.

Every magazine has a target audience, it is important that the design of the magazine appeals to the target audience. An ideology is a set of beliefs a person or group holds. The different genres of music have different ideologies, this will affect how they represent them self. The representations of people and the use of the design will reflect the ideology of the genre.

This is an example of a pop magazine front cover. The in - house style appeals to the target audience as it fits the conventions of it being pro social. Noticeably the cover is positive, it is anti - drugs and  doesn't represent anything as going against a pop convention. The cover is non violent, the image of the artist shows her smiling, this reflects the magazines positive attitude. The other picture shows 'one direction', this picture again represents them smiling, it is also used for the target audience as it attracts girls. The colours are vibrant which emphasises the target audience to be for a younger age.

The pop magazine also links in with the music, pop music is never too abrasive, swear words are unlikely and glamour is represented as being important. The font used on this cover is 'funky' this connotes the pop magazine to be fun and positive.

This is an example of a rock magazine. In contrast to the pop magazine, the design is anti social, the colours are noticeably extremely different, the scheme is very dark reflecting the red font to connote danger. The image of the popular artist 'cheryl cole', represents her as a provocative artist, which is against what she is normally presented as. The cover is very busy this could reflect an aggressive tone, that there is a lot of things going on. The usual ideology of a rock magazine is that the looks are not important, however with this design as Cheryl Cole is such a popular artist her looks are still presented, but not in a glamourous way. The font changes throughout the design, the size changes making the cover look 'harsh', the rude gesture fits into the convention of a rock design and fits well with the target audience.

contents page.

Above is my final contents page.
I have remained the title of the front cover and also kept the same font and size, this will show that I am happy with the title, also throughout research I noticed many magazines keep the same title for the contents page.
I set 'contents' as the sub line, this will show to the reader what to expect throughout the magazine. However, I never put a capital letter, this was because I wanted to set an informal tone as my target audience is for 16 - 18 year olds.
I underlined 'contents' with a light pink, I chose to add slight colour to the page as the background is plain white, I thought I needed a bit of colour to make it more interesting.
I made the page numbers bigger than the actual text, the reason for this was that I think it looks quite 'funky' and it also stands out for the reader to what page to go to.
The picture I chose was one I took when choosing the image for the front cover. I think this image that shows a student studying sets a formal tone.
The text below the image just gives a bit of detail to the reader to what the magazine will be about, this will reassure the reader.