Possible images for my Preliminary Task

These images here were taken for my preliminary task for my front cover and for my contents, all of the images are the same they have just been transformed in photoshop for example the 1st one has been given a plain white background to focus in on the image, the second one i have kept the same to compare between the other and the finally the third image i have desaturated the image too make it black and white, i then filled in the blue line on the shirt and the yellow nike tick on the football boots to add colour and life to the image.

My Final magazine title (main task)

This my final magazine title i decided on From The Top but then transformed the title using Adobe Photoshop using effects for example a drop shadow, inner shadow, colour overlay, pattern overlay and satin. A lot of effects used on a small part but in my opinion one of the biggest parts in the magazine is the title, and i think the effects used makes the title look and modern stylish and i am very happy with the outcome.

Analysis of Q magazine inside pages

Analysis of Q magazine

Inside

How many pages are there?

172

How many pages of adverts?

44

Categories the products advertised into types.

The clear categories of the adverts in Q magazine are:

• · Album Releases
• · Car manufacturers for example Vauxhall
• · Men’s grooming products for example Braun Shavers
• · DVD retailers
• · Alcohol for example Stella Artois, vodka, Jack Daniels
• · Watches - Brietling.
• · Mobile Phones for example Blackberry
• · Headphones for example Bose
• · Royal Air Force
• · HMV
• · Empire magazine
• · Tours and gigs of famous bands
• · T – Shirts and toys

• Make a list of the feature/article topics in the magazine.
• · N – Dubz
• · MGMT
• · The Temper Trap
• · Kasabian
• · The Temper Trap
• · Awards Gallery (50 Best Albums)
• · Bon Jovi
• · Arctic Monkeys
• · Lilly Allen
• · Sonic Youth
• · The Winners Gallery
• · New Albums
• · Reviews
• · The essential tracks to download this summer

Categories the features/articles into types.

• · Music reviews
• · Album reviews
• · The history and general information of popular bands and artists

How many double page spreads are there? What are they about?

There are 31 double page spreads in this edition

of Q magazine.

They are about Q awards, music reviews, reviews on albums, general i

nformation and catching up with up and coming bands for example MGMT and The Temper Trap.

Are there any advertorials where it is not clear if something is an article or an advert, or a mixture of both?

There aren’t any advertorials in this magazine there is quite a significant difference between the two.

I got the main infroamtion from my own Q magazine that i bought, however you can also find out information on Q magazine.

After analysisng the Q maagzine i can make a judgement on the target audience for Q in my opinon it is the rich type who can afford luxuries i have this information from the adverts that are in Q for example the watches that are advertised is a Brietling watch ranging from £2000 and even picking out the alcohol the alcohol advertied is Jack Daniels which is roughly £60 so i think the adverts are cleverly used to reflect the chosen audience.

In my opinion the two biggest music selling magazines at the moment are Q and kerrang they review and analyse similar genres of music but with Kerrang mainly reviewing rock.

Below are the two maagzines in question Q on the right and Kerrang on the left, putting them side by side like this is a good way for me to see the similartites and diffrences both magazines use which makes them sell thousands of copys and be extremely popular and then i can take similar conventions and transfer them into my magazine.

The heading of course is extremely important for any magazine with that the first pieec of the magazine that the target audience view. Kerrang is known for a loud mouth heavey metal magazine and i think their title reflects it dramatically with it being an onomatopia for a person striking an electric guitar. The effects and therfore the layout on the title are very interesting and reflect Kerrangs music genre with thin white lines cutting through the heading. In my opinion the Kerrang is acting like a window or a pane of glass and the rockstar life style associated with Kerrang has smashed it and it has shattered! On the other hand Q magazine have gone for a diffrent syle of heading theres is smaller more sophisticated and is located only in the top left hand corner, the colours are also interesting using simple yet effective colours to hook the audiences attention!

Q magazine - The cover

Magazine analysis of Q magazine - December 2009

The title why is it called that? What does the title connote?

The title of the magazine I am analysing is called Q; it stands for Q the music a common term in music producing and for DJs around the world.

The masthead/title – analyse.

The title is located in the top left corner with a bright eye catching deep red background and the clean crisp white large Q located in the centre. It is a standard classic font, which appeals to all audiences. The large white Q has a serif style to it with curly edges where possible it takes up roughly an eighth of the page.

Is there a strapline? Analyse it.

There is no strapline on Q magazine

What is the main image? Analyse the facial expression, direction of gaze, body language, clothing etc. How does this reach out towards the ideal reader identified above?

The main image on the front cover is the only image on the cover it is the band the Arctic Monkeys. The picture itself is actually in black and white giving it a hint of classical features and possibly how they grew up. The lead singer Alex Turner is holding the Q music award but it is in gold and is the only colour on the main picture drawing the reader’s attention to the success in this category. Q have singled out the only colour on the front page as gold because winning anything in gold means you are at the top of your game and your the best currently in that catergory it is also an iconic symbol of success. The facial expression of the band members are that they are calm and relaxed, they are also facing head on to the camera looking directly at the audience making you feel part of the band and sharing this wonderful experience with the Arctic Monkeys. The body language gives out a lot of signals for example all of the band members have their hands in their pockets emphasising the fact they are chilled out and relaxed which gives a casual effect which they hope to reflect on to the target audience. The clothing again is casual and relaxed they are not making an effect for example in suits, they are wearing there clothes and will not change for anyone, specifically they are wearing skinny jeans, coats and T – shirts and the footwear is mainly plimsolls. I think this picture is extremely clever in reaching out towards the ideal reader with similar clothes and how they are act giving off their chilled out and relaxed persona of living life which appeals to a lot of the targeted readers.

What other images appear on the cover? Why?

No other images appear on the cover. I think Q have decided to use only the one image on the front cover because they dont want to detract the success from the Arctic monkeys winning this gold prestigious award!

What content is promoted by the cover lines?

The cover lines of course promote the main stories inside the magazine, for example “50 best albums of 2009”, and the winners are… MUSE/LILLY ALLEN/ THE SPECIALS/ ROBRT PLANT/ LADY GAGA/ U2/ SPANAU BALLET/ KASABIAN/ SONIC YOUTH/ MR HUDSON & more, ARTIC MONKEYS on growing up the hard way, Oasis last days: the inside story, Robbie Williams: Album Verdict. Two starplines stand out to me to be very popualr with buyers and a unique selling point to the magazine they are "Oasis last days" and "Robbie williams album verdict". Oasis is one of the biggest bands in the history of music with number one singles and sell out tours happening regualrly for them so for Q to find out why they broke up and what the last days were like between each other is a huge story and one that many people will buy the magazine just to read about that! The other cover line that i am interested in is "Robbie williams album verdict" this worldwide superstar has been reviewed by Q and exclusively by Q, the words used are also interesting selling points for example the word "verdict" gives off the impression to me that Q are in charge and the authority lives with them when making reviews!

Naming my magazine

I found this task fairly hard it was difficult choosing the right name to fit the purpose of my magazine. To get inspiration for my name i visited many music websites and many music magazine websites including Q, and NME to get musical terms, in the end i had a large amount of names to choose from as you can see, in the end i decided on From The Top with the abbreviation above it FTT. There were many decisions for why i didn't choose the other titles, for example Bass, lyric, fresh, battle, fly, tempo and backspin. I decided against these names because they targeted the wrong audience in my opinion, those names in my opinion are targeted at hip hop, wrap and drum and bass genres of music, other names like Turn it up, Vision, Smooth, Entertain, Track and Lyric were pointless they didn't fit into any music genre and didn't relate to my type of magazine, Rock and Roll was simpley too extreme rock for my magazine. FTT fitted my magazine very well.

Brief

Preliminary exercise: Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate your grasp of DTP.

I had an idea for my front cover as soon as the brief was read out to us, i wanted to make the pictures the main focus to grab the audiences straight away with the main influence being my brother the football star with an exclusive interview inside.

The images like i said were an important part of my magazine i wanted a hard working student on the front cover to represent the ethos of this hard working school and to inspire other students. Sport is a large part of the school with football, rugby and cricket all played here so i wanted my other image to represent the sporting side of the school with my brother posing as the year 9 captain to influence and inspire others to join in at rugby and football.

My main issue with my photo of my brother starring as the year 9 football captain is the background i took the picture with a plain white wall behind him when i should of chosen a more sporting background for example a football pitch, goals posts or rugby posts i have learnt by this mistake and now understand how big the effect of the background has on the picture.

The cover lines were also an important part of my magazine helping the audience truly understand what is involved in the magazine, i wanted to cover all ages but specifically year 7s, i thought the cover line about the year 7s "tips for year 7 how to settle i

n with ease" was truly effective making them feel with ease and comfortable with there new surroundings and also targeting the 6th form.

Contents page:

I wanted to keep the contents page f the same style as my front cover for example using the same font for my clear contents heading at the top of the page and using similar colours to keep that house style running throughout.

The pictures on this document again were very important to me i wanted the readers to know what the stories were about before reading any text, so again i went for the theme of two hardworking students and my brother posing as the the year 9 captain, i had an issue on the picture of the two students with there being too much glare on the camera so i changed where they were sitting and lowered the blind slightly and the problem was resolved.

In the build up to making this contents page i analyzed other contents pages and i noticed that they change the font on the contents for different sections so i decided on this as well i used four different fonts for four different sections i think the main benefit of this is so the readers can establish what genre of the magazine they are reading just by looking at the font whether it is sport, year 7 or revision tips.