Evolution of my contents page

My original plan was to do a double page spread for my contents page, but I soon had to change this due to some of my photos going missing putting me behind in my schedule of getting everything done.

 This was the first draft of my contents page. It included a blocky outline and was well organised but lacked pazas and other wise was boring.











This was the second draft  of my contents, it become a bit more creative and interesting with more colours but at this point the photos vanished and I did not have enough to complete it.

This is my contents page now its more creative and makes better use of space as well as using a more creative colour scheme all together a big improvement over my other versions.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Target audience research on my drafts of my front cover, contents and DPS

Can you identify the music genre from the front cover? please write it below

• Music techniques
• Techniques
• Techniques & teaching 
• Music tech
• Technology
• Music guidance

Is synergy created between the pages? How?

• Not really
• Non 
• No
• Slightly with the use of the blue colour but not massvely
• Not really
• No

Are there iconic, symbolic or indexical signs? What are they?

• The use of lots of instruments
• Lots of instruments
• Instruments they are different and varied 
• Images of instruments on each page 
• Lots of instruments
• Instruments

What do you think the TA is? Age? Gender? Ethnicity? Sexuality?

• 20 - 40 both
• 20 - 30 both
• 16 - 20 both
• 18 - 25 all genders
• 16-20 all
• 16 - 21

What representations are created

• Ukulele
• The use of images of instruments a cross all the pages give the genre away 
• Ukulele. multiple instruments
• Instruments
• Talented player 
• Musician

Is the language formal, informal or a Mixture?

• Formal
• Formal
• Formal
• Formal
• Mixture
• Formal

Is there anything missing? anything you would like to see added? Are there changes you think should be made? 

• The price
• Price and to undo the erasing on the masthead, just leave it behind the model 
• Add the price and remove the weird erased part of the masthead around Lauren's head as she looks like she's wearing a tiny hat
• Add columns, get rid of the fedora , love the model its young and suits the TA
• Do not like the fedora and i am not to sure on the positioning of the joys of music abit cheesy 

Evolution of my front cover

                This was my original image after some photo shop colour changes to her blouse.

This is my first draft of my front cover after i had added features to it, the paritial  erasing of the mast head was to create a image of lauren being the main star and well known. The magazine at this stage needed to improve on colour schemes and the spacing and contents which was on it.

The third draft of my magazine  greatly improved on all of these issues mentioned above and brought in text wrapping and a better colour scheme and organised format for the whole page. The page still did not have enough content but was a step in the write direction.










This magazine was a great improvement overall and brought in a lot more content making the page 'look a lot more busy' and organised. However the erasing of the mast head made it look like the model was wearing a little hat something which my target audience did not like.







This out of all my drafts i feel is my favourite as the colour scheme has a lot more synergy throught the front cover and looks more aesthetic as well as getting rid of the little hat.

Evolution of my DPS

My first draft of my DPS to the left was a bit repetitive in nature hen it came to its style and didn't make the best use of available space. The notes i was given were to improve on my pop art and to make better use of my space.

My second draft to the right i believe makes better use of the space and does improve on the pop art making the style and colouring more unique and eye grabbing. The font also follows this trend and becomes more unique.

This is my current DPS, the layout and coloums are greatly improved and altogether looks a lot more aesthetically pleasing. Thus use of blue throughout all my pages now creates synergy something it was lacking before hand.

My DPS article

Lauren started making YouTube videos early in 2014 for her own amusement. These video’s were how to play the ukulele but she never thought that it would gain a following of wanna-be play ukulele players. Her How to play tutorials and covers of popular songs gained hundreds of thousands of views. She is  now starting to include other instruments into her arsenal of music with her latest cover of Taylor swift on her signature red guitar receiving almost a million hits.

Today we are sitting down with Lauren or Music woman Lauren (by her YouTube persona) and asking her about her signature instrument the ukulele.

 Why do you start playing?

Why did I start playing?, At 15 I'd been playing a variety of instruments for a while; saxophone, clarinet and piano and I had dabbled in a few others, but I had never ventured into the strings section of the instrumental world. As a singer, I thought it would be great to be able to play an instrument that I could practice singing with and also play independently. Whilst the obvious choice was the guitar, I decided to steer clear of the cliche choice for now  and go for something a little different, something that would stand apart from the rest. That something was a ukulele. After a month or so of saving my wages, I bought myself my first ukulele. Nothing special, just a cheap, beginners Uke. At first, it felt strange not having to press keys or blow into the instrument I was playing, but after a rocky period in the first month I got the ball rolling and fell in love with the quaint and gorgeous instrument that is the Ukulele.

What would you say are the top 4 chords you need to play a song on the ukulele?

Lauren told us that the top 4 most important chords were C, F, G and A minor. She stated to us that with these 4 chords you could easily play almost any song as most songs it turned out were wrote around these 4 chords.

We asked Lauren for the top 3 tips for any person just learning this funky little instrument, she told us.

"There are quite a few of these “Top  3 Tips” out there. I’ll try to add something to that with my own personal Top 3 Tips for beginning ukulele players. When I bought my first ukulele I was completely unprepared,  I’ll try to give you some really useful tips that will give you a jump start when you begin playing the ukulele."

1. Get a decent ukulele.

This is the most important one of all when you are serious about wanting to learn how to play the ukulele. There are a few good ukuleles in the £100 range, but you can be sure that an ukulele under £50 is not fantastic. The main issue you will have is that it won’t be able to stay in tune. I speak from experience here. I bought a £45 “Harley Benton” soprano once and it couldn’t keep the E string in tune for even one strum. So be warned!

2. Have fun!

The ukulele is a fun instrument. Some may call the ukulele a toy, so what?, Toys are fun to play with!, It’s a true instrument and you can do wonderful things with it. Don’t make the mistake by thinking that it is an easy instrument, you will need to practice a lot to master it, but even when you only know the basics it is already so much fun! Enjoy playing it and without knowing, you will improve each and every day.

3. First things first, the basics

When looking on YouTube and other websites you will quickly learn that amazing things can be done with the ukulele, but like every skill in life you’ll need to learn the basics first. Don’t try to play some big fancy tab when you are just starting out, learn your chords instead. Start with the majors, minors and then go on with bar chords.

I think it was Marc Bolan who said

'The day you stop practising [your instrument] is the day you will stop playing music, and the day you will stop loving music'"

You can find lessons on how to play the ukulele by visiting Lauren's YouTube channel Music Woman Lauren where you can find her ukulele lessons where you can learn anything from the Beetles to Red Hot Chilli Peppers or her covers of popular songs which make you jealous from how talented she is.

Drafts of my front cover

Draft one                                                                                          Draft two

Draft one is blocky and dosen't make good use of colour schemes as well as being rough around the edges and not using the space well.

Draft two however makes better use of colour schemes and is a major improvement to draft one . It makes good use of the space but is a little too dark to appeal to my TA.

Contents page drafts

Version One

My first draft of my contents page was very basic, blocky and boring. It also had very limited writing on it as well when a normal contents page has 800+ words on it.

Version Two

Version two of my draft added colour, puffs and more text with images this gives it the impression of a more aesthetically pleasing product. The colour cordination goes well together making nice to look at as well as the different fonts being used.

Rejection of images from my recent photo shoot

These are the images which did not make the final cut of my image selection process, mainly due to the fact that some parts where not shown in the photo and the fact that some parts of the background peaked out in the photo.

Selection of images from my recent photo shoot

I decided to select these images to use in my magazine as the actual shots all have their own individual strengths.

• The shot shows chemistry between the models which is normally not reflected in the photos making them visually appealing to the viewer
• The shot has the rule of thirds applied to them meaning that they are balanced and aesthetically pleasing to the viewer
• The models clothing matches throughout with the black theme which is symbolic sign of alot of different meanings but I fell the one that is truly reflected is the mystery like what genre of music would they play

My contents page so far

This is the initial layout of my contents page. The main thing i like about is the layout of it as i find it appealing and aesthetically pleasing.

Model issues

Lately I have been finding I have been having issues trying to secure a model for photo shoot, In one particular case I have re arranged twice but it hasn't seemed to work out as the first time he had a hospital appointment and now suffered from the car breaking down. I have done everything I have meant to have done such as handing a photo shoot plan to him to make sure it worked out well but enough wining time to find a new model.

My magazine title

My magazine title from Jshepherd1460

Rough draft of my contents

Draft of my front cover

Photo shoot plan 2

Photo shoot plan 1

Target audience survey results

After I had collected all of the results from my target audience question-are one fault I straight away noticed was how I had asked a few to many open questions which really does make it hard to collect and analyse the data gathered.

Total asked= 24

1) What instrument would you want to learn out of these options?

Guitar :9

Drums :8

Bass

Piano :4

Other ( Stated below) 

Accordion :1

French horn :1

Harp :1

2) Which mast head do you prefer?

 :8

:4

:12







3) Do you like competitions where you can win free stuff?

 Yes  ( Everyone put yes ) 
No


4) Do you find bad language offensive?

Yes : 5
No  :17
Sometimes :2


5) Do you prefer males or females on the front cover?

Males  : 5
Females  : 4
Don't Bothered :16

6) Do you like it when there are ads in magazines?

Yes : 13
No : 5
Not Bothered : 6

7) Do you like it of before an interview there is background information given?

Yes : 19
No: 4
Not Bothered : 1


8) Would a free download interest you if offered?

Yes: 23
No:
Not Bothered: 1

9) Do you prefer a weekly or monthly magazine?

Weekly: 5
Monthly: 19

10) Would an article that helped you learn an instrument interest you?

Yes: 17
No: 5
Not Bothered: 2


11) What articles do you expect in a magazine that focuses on instruments?

Reviews of instruments: 12
Success story's of how people found fame: 5
Price guides for buying instruments: 7


12) What makes you want to buy a magazine

Recognisable contents on the front cover: 8
A good front cover: 4
The artist: 12

Target audience analysis part 2

Target audience analysis from Jshepherd1460

Target audience analysis

http://prezi.com/dtrs6wjwrftm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

How research has informed my planning and creativity

How my research had influenced me!

Front cover

• This has influenced me by giving me ideas on how I could apply banners to my front cover, and how to make them effective. It has given me ideas on page layout.

• This has given me ideas on what colour schemes would help me draw the viewers attention to a certain part of my magazine and has also given more ideas on how I can use puff's.

• 
  

DPS

• This gave me ideas on how I should pose me model for my DPS and also what kind of shots I should aim for when it comes to the photo shoots.

• This has influenced me as it has given my ideas on how I can pose my model’s when it comes to shooting my DPS, as well as ideas for how i can lay out my page.

• This has given me on ideas of what i can add to the page of my DPS and how to make better use of the space such as the layout and suggested gear tab which I like a lot.

CONTENTS PAGE

•  This has influenced my creativity and ideas for my magazine contents page as it         has showed me a very aesthetically pleasing layout and idea for font and a colour scheme as well as some codes and conventions that I should be aware of for when I create my contents page of my music magazine such as a image on the contents page of the cover model.

• This influenced me as it gave me ideas of what I could do to advertise my DPS in my contents and ideas for how to layout my text and showed me how effective a good colour scheme. There are many features, i think it would help planning to actually look closely at the types of features and content.

• This influenced me as it gave me ideas of what I could do to advertise my DPS in my contents and ideas for how to layout my text and showed me how effective a good colour scheme. There are many features, i think it would help planning to actually look closely at the types of features and content.

A lot of my research has influenced the way I look at the photography for a magazine and has also influenced how I would make use of the more subtle features like puff’s and the layouts to reach my intended effect on the viewer. 

Research: Feature contents page 5

This is the contents page from an issue of future music from February of 2009


The masthead 
The masthead for this contents page is located in the top left hand corner, it is placed over the top of a large photo advertising the DPS because its over this photo and in a white background it creates a contrast in colours and makes it stand out to the viewers eyes.

The puffs
There are two puffs used on the contents page of this issue. A puff serves the purpose traditionally of promoting things inside the magazine but another accepted use of puffs which is starting to become a convention is to use them to advertise things.

One puff is used to show the viewer at a glance what are the articles advertised on the front cover and what pages they are on this is to simplify the process of negotiating the contents page as since this issue gave tutorials on software some people may only buy it for that. The other Puff advertised the freebie that came with this issue if the magazine and since it is a DVD the logo they associated with it shows it very well anchoring what it could be.

The layout
The layout of the contents page is split into two pages which follows convention. On the right hand side of the double page contents, the text is arranged into four columns which has the red, white colour scheme which is a very aesthetically pleasing combo to the human eye.

The page numbers are in bold and take up the majority of their space next to their description of the article the again as I have stated is to simplify the processes of finding articles in the magazine. It is well defined and straight away from the get go you know where to turn such as on this page if you turn to page 50 you will find cubase tips.

Advertising the DPS
The content's page also by convention has to advertise the DPS. This issue does it by having the left page in the double page content be solely dedicated to it by having a photo of the subject of the DPS fill it. This informs he viewer straight away what its about and also provides a cover line to inform the reader and try to entices them to read about Chris Lake and his favourite techniques. Blumler and katz stated the the only reason people read something to gain information and this definitely supports this theory.


How this influenced me  

This influenced me as it gave me ideas of what I could do to advertise my DPS in my contents and ideas for how to layout my text and showed me how effective a good colour scheme.There are many features, i think it would help planning to actually look closely at the types of features and content.

Research: DPS rhythm 3

This is a DPS from an issue of rhythm which dates back to September of 2012

Text
The text is layed out in 5 columns across the page around the bottom. The text makes use of casual domain register. It is written in a domain as they are speaking the language of drummers "Axxi ommer models" this is as they are appealing to that audience who knows and cares about drumming. This is good as most likely by using the language they are they will attract the audience they are after but in a less positive light their audience is significantly smaller because if this as not everyone plays the drum.

Puffs
The puffs used in this DPS are used to promote the gear they are promoting in this issue this follows the convention of what a puff is used for which is to advertise things and to promote features such as the best gear available.

The other puffs are used in the bottom of the DPS'S right hand corner to advertise things that they suggest would complement their gear they are promoting which happens to be ear phones and gibatar tuning. By suggesting the gear they give their magazine that one stop feel business want were just by using their service you get everything you need like suggestions and reviews by doing this it creates a one stop magazine and as a result a loyal audience.

Cover line 
The cover-line serves the purpose of summarising key points of the article at a glance and this DPS follows that convention " The note is fairly high pitched and contains elements of trashiness, but the overriding characteristic is one of smoothness". Straight away from this you can get the impression that these symbols and high hats there suggesting are quality items, this cantors to the people who quickly flick through before buying the issue as it could entice them to buy it so they can read the whole review of the gear and all of the issue.

Masthead
The masthead is in a serif font which makes it naturally eye grabbing as its the largest piece of text on the page. The first word of it is also in bold which highlights the brand of what their reviewing so when you turn the page to the DPS you know straight away that they are reviewing sabian symbols and high hats.

How this has influenced me
This has given me on ideas of what i can add to the page of my DPS and how to make better use of the space such as the layout and suggested gear tab which I like alot.

Research: Future music front cover 7

This is the front cover from the magazine future music. It is issue 2010 from February of 2009.

The masthead
The masthead is in a bold serif font and is the largest thing located on the page naturally drawing the viewers attention as the White masthead and by line "Technique and technology
for making music" provides a contrast to the mainly black background. This issue also breaks convention as it has the masthead and by line being partly covered by one of the key boards on the front cover.

The puffs
There is two puff located on the front cover of this issue in the bottom left hand corner. Traditionally the puff serves the purpose of advertising something and drawing the viewers attention through either colours or little icons.

This issue follows that convention of advertising through brightly coloured puff's  by having their " top technique" advertised in a bright red background . This draws attention as the background of the front cover is in a mono colour colour ( black and white). Blumler and Katz stated that people read magazines to gain information and that is exactly what is going on here in the puffs as is says "Unleash your track's inner swing full tutorial PLUS audio on DVD".



The banner 
The banner is located at the top of the cover and serves many purposes it lets the viewer know that freebies come with this magazine for example . This issue's banner  also breaks convention of a normal magazine as the main article is " In the studio with chris lake" so instead of having that advertised on the front cover it is advertised in the banner. Since the genre of the magazine is technical equipment the reviews of the gar comes first.

Other articles
There are multiple articles that are advertised on the front cover such as the exclusives and their in depth test of pro tools 8. These serve two purposes they work to advertise the issue but also try to grow the audience of the magazine, currently it is 18+ and designed for people who have an intrest in making music but by including articles such as reviews of software and tutorials  they can try to grow their audience it be more appealing to the everyday viewer.

The article advertisement  draw attention to themselves  through the colour schemes such as red and white and red and black. These colours provide a contrast and draw the viewers eyes.

How this has influenced me
This has given me ideas on what colour schemes would help me draw the viewers attention to a certain part of my magazine and has also given more ideas on how I can use puff's.

Research: Contents page rhythm 4

This is the contents page from the popular drumming magazine rhythm. It comes from issue from September 2011.

Puffs
There are two puffs located on this contents page, traditionally the puff serves the purpose of drawing the reader attention to something import through bright colours and images.

One of the puffs on this contents page serves the purpose of advertising a competition, it draws the viewers attention in other ways as well apart from the puff such as having a big blue piece of text in a serif font ( serif fonts being proven to draw attention).



The other puff on this contents serves the purpose of helping the viewer view the page as it states " In this month's RHYTHM" and then has a downwards arrow. This breaks convention as normally the puff is used to help make things stand out not direct the viewer to text.


The main article 

 It advertises the main article in a very good manner, apart from giving it a large chunk of the page and making it bigger than any other thing on the page. It also gives it a blue background on a white page which creates a contrast of colours so you eyes are naturally drawn to the blue background of the main advertised article.

It also advertises the main article as a they have given it a cover line " The Biffy Clyro powerhouse talks bad technique, unlikely odd-time hits and befriending his drum idols". This gives it a nice appeal to the article as it makes him seem more relatable to the everyday viewer as he met and is now friends with his idols.

The text 
The contents page's text is arranged into three colums on the bottom of the page which gives it a very simple but effective look to it. It also has coloured the different sections of the magazine by having features in a light blue, beat in a dark red and then drums lessons onwards in a light shade. This creates synergy to the front cover as all three of these colours were used on the cover creating a recurring colour scheme.


The articles follow's convention for this magazines genre as they have such features like a gear section which provides reviews of the latest gear and also sections like " Buyer's guide" which show you the essentials of what you have to buy.


Genre theorists
Dyer can be applied to this contents page photo of its main attraction and the cover line. Dyer believed in " A star is an image, not a real person" the photo shows Ben Johnston as a common person as that look supports the by line, However dyers theory is proven true by the cover line " Befriending his drum idols" this was written to make him see relatable and make the reader want to read about ben's story.

How this influenced me
This has given me ideas on how I could advertise my main article in the contents page as well as ideas for the colour scheme's and how to create synergy.

Team Rock LTD

Overview

Team rock Ltd is a very young company that did well in 2014. The magazines they own are 

• Classic rock
• Hammer
• Prog
• Blues

Their new feature is team rock +

                                  "TeamRock+

TeamRock+ is the new membership service from the makers of Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog and The Blues Magazine that gives you access to the full magazine content online. Choose a bundle option below and if it includes a physical magazine, select one from the range displayed subsequently."

Taken from: https://subscribe.teamrock.com/team-rock-plus/?prom=TTW1

My opinion

This shows how they are updating to the modern times as media is going towards the digital age over other forms of media be it print or other wise. They also don't have a technical equipment magazine meaning their would be a market for it in this company. They are also expanding from just rock and mental onwards as they have also started a blues magazine which means they would be open to the idea of a different magazine.