Audience

The primary audience of my magazine will be pupils from the school. Pupils from the school are both male and female, aged 11-19. As the primary audience are the pupils, the magazine will have to be suitable for them and will need to be about school and things that interest teenagers. The secondary audience is teachers who work at the school, parents of pupils, parents of pupils wanting to join the school and people from the surrounding sutton area, who are both male and female aged 30+.

Preliminary Activity

As part of the Foundation Portfolio Coursework you must construct the front cover and contents page for a Plantsbrook School magazine.

• You must identify the conventions of these media products.
• You will identify who the audience will be.
• You must identify the type of content that would be included in this magazine.
• You must develop ideas for names for the magazine.
• You will develop ideas for the masthead for the magazine using Fireworks. 
• You will develop rough ideas for the products.
• You will plan a photo shoot.
• You will produce the products.

The deadline for this activity work is 4th October

Masthead Ideas

I made these masthead ideas suitable for the audience and they all follow a house-style, which is the school colours. This means that it will be suitable for the magazine front cover as they are related to school. Each of the mastheads are short which means they are easily memorable. 

Rough Draft of Front Cover

This is my rough draft of my front cover. I have included key conventions like a masthead, puff, headlines, coverlines and a banner. I have used the colours red, black and white, which follow the school housestyle, so it is easily recognisable. I have used a mixture of serif and sans-serif fonts as the magazine is catered to both adults- parents teacher etc. and children- pupils.

Front Cover Conventions

Masthead - The masthead is at the top, left side of the page and is the biggest text on the page. It is very eye catching, as it is in bold, red sans-serif font, so it is the first thing we see and it attracts the younger audience. 'NME' the title of the magazine so having it in a bold font at the top of the page makes it recognizable. The Masthead is short and dominant making it clear that it is the title.

Headlines - The headline 'Arctic Monkeys Reveal The Record That Changed My Life' is at the bottom of the picture. It is quite different as different types of font is used throughout the whole headline. The headline is the second biggest font on the page and 'Arctic Monkeys' is in red so it stands out and people see who the article is about. This will attract Arctic Monkeys fans.

Coverlines/features/articles - On the right and left side down the sides of the main image there is lists of other content in the magazine. The contents on the left is a list of other artists and the font is all in sans serif and the colour of the text alternates between blue and white, both colours that contrast against the background, so the text is bold. On the right there are three other featured articles that are in smaller font and red and black writing. As they're on the left and in a smaller font, this suggests that they are not as important as the other coverlines as the readers are drawn to the blue and white coverlines first because they are bigger and on the right side of the page.

Pull Quotes/Lure - On the one of the coverlines, on the right there is a pull quote "Blame me for Skrillex!". The quote is in red while the rest of the coverline is black. This is highlighting the quote. The quote lures readers to read the rest of the article inside.

Puff - Underneath the masthead 'NME' it says 'new musical express' which stands for NME. It is a lot smaller than the masthead and one of the only things on the page with serif font. This is probably because it is more formal than just 'NME' the abbreviation is more informal so it is in sans-serif font.

Serif Style Font - Serif font makes use of hooks, brackets and feet, it is traditional, formal and conservative. The puff 'New Musical Express' is in serif font as it's formal and not abbreviated. The word 'Plus' above the coverlines on the right is also in serif font. This is highlighting the coverlines underneath as it is different from the rest of the text on the page so it stands out.

Sans-Serif Style Font - Sans-serif font doesnt have hooks, brackets and feet, it's informal, modern and youthful. Most of the page is in a sans serif font. NME is targeted to people aged 16-25 who are into new music, so the sans serif font is suitable for the target audience who are younger.

Pug/Starbursts - There are two pugs one on top of another on the left of Alex Turners head. One is in a black banner shape and it says 'Record Store Day 2012' in white and red font so it stands out against the black background. The other one is in a red square and says 'The Ultimate Guide Every Release! All The Free Gigs Everything You Need To Know', it's in black and white writing and words are stacked on top of each other. This is so it's compact and looks highlighted against everything else on the page.

Layout - The layout is organised and well spaced as everything is placed around the central image occasionally overlapping it. It doesn't look cluttered as there isn't too much going on so its quite minimal. Everything that is similar is placed together e.g the coverlines are all together in one section.

House Style - The house style is consistent the colours red, white, black and blue are used throughout. The colours link in with the central image as Alex is wearing a black shirt with red and white embroidery and the record he is holding is red and black. No other colours are used so it looks professional, especially as the image matches the house style as well. The masthead is kept in the same place as all the rest of the magazines occasionally it changes colour, but the placing is always the same.

Visual Syntax - The masthead 'NME' it is the first thing we see as it is largest writing on the page, then the image, from the face and eyes down to the headline 'Arctic Monkeys' as it's bold and stands out against the black shirt Alex is wearing. From the headline we go up to the coverlines on the right then the pug/starbursts and lastly the coverlines on the left.

Straplines - The straplines are the three coverlines on the left of the page. They are in a much smaller font than the headline and are one of the last things we see on the page. This tells us that the straplines are a lot less important than the main headline.

Hook - The coverlines on the right are a list of artists and they are in a bold font, so people might see the name of an artist they like, so they'll be persuaded to buy the magazine.

Banner - There is a banner at the top of the page saying 'Exclusive Interview With Drake The Hip-Hop Megastar Speaks'. It is in black and red so it follows the house-style.

Photo - The image is central and is dominant so it is the focus of the page and everything else is based around the image. The image is a mid shot of Alex Turner dressed in a black shirt with red and white embroidery, holding a red and black record. This shows us that the colouring and house style is based around this image. He's looking at the camera which engages the reader and makes them want to buy the magazine because Alex looks good.

Masking - At the top of his head, the masthead is cut around the shape of his hair. This is another thing that shows the dominance of the picture and that everything, even the masthead, is less important than it.

Use of Colour - The colours are all contrasting and stick with the overall house-style and image. This attracts attention as it looks professional as everything matches and the contrasting colours highlight everything on the page.