School Magazine Contents Page

School Magazine Logo design

This can relate to school life and many students opinions on school, as the phrase ‘SCHOOL’S OUT’ will capture pupils attention as it suggests it is time out of education, however they will be reflecting on their school and learning as a whole, gathering new useful information when reading.

School Magazine Introduction

Before i design and complete my music magazine, i need to practice using DTP. My preliminary exercise is to use DTP and an image manipulation program to produce the front page of a new school/college magazine. This will have to feature a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid out text and a masthead. Additionally i will produce a mock-up layout of the contents page.

Investigating two magazines currently on sale in Britain

http://www.qthemusic.com/

Choice Two: Q Music Magazine
Introduction
Q is a monthly magazine dedicated to music. It has been the best selling music magazine since 1986. With the magazine at its best, it has expanded in different directions, producing Q radio, TV, Qthemusic.com and especially the famous Q awards.

Regular Features and content of Q
Q music contains the latest information regarding new music releases, music compilations live concert reviews and TV and radio reviews. These reviews use a star rating system. Many issues of the magazine are devoted to interviews with popular musical artists.
The most well know content in the magazine is the many lists they contain in each issue. These vary from 100 greatest albums to 100 greatest pop artists.
A usual feature is the Q50, which regularly lists the top 50 essential tracks of the month.

Publishing Institutions of Q
Q is published monthly by a company called Bauer consumer media.
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/About
Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Publishing Group; Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Bauer Publishing Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 230 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations.

Typical Reader Profile
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Q
Open minded experience seekers, the Q audience don’t define themselves by the music they listen to. Music is an important passion, but their love of music will never be to the detriment of their other passions, such as film, sport and comedy.

Layout and trademarks- including forms and conventions
For the front cover, Q has many conventions and norms.
The logo is always placed in the left hand corner which is a magazine icon and only changes on a few occasions (being special editions). The slogan ‘The UK’s biggest music magazine’ is usually placed at the top of the cover in bold writing.
Another convention is the list of artists on the cover. In every issue you will see highlighted the main artists which will be reviewed, question or advertised. This is similar to other magazines of different genres.
The other main convention of Q is the image on the cover; it usually overlaps text and regularly covers part of the logo.
There is normally an advert showing you what list is in the magazine. It is usually circular and one or two words and bolder and highlighted to stand out.

Does Q reflect the values of its audience?
Q does reflect the values of its audience, it contains all the latest information regarding music including; new songs, albums, reviews, concerts and artists. It exceeds the reader’s expectations regarding the magazine due to all of the content in every single issue. The reader and audience are rarely unsatisfied as the magazine is still growing with the number of reader’s increasing. The magazine itself never looses sight of their task and aims, as many other magazines seem to fade away from the overall title. Each issue is very similar but it is the content which makes it such an impressive magazine.

Investigating two magazines currently on sale in Britain

http://www.empireonline.com/magazine/

Choice one: Empire Film Magazine
Introduction
Empire is the UK’s biggest movie magazine published monthly. Since the first issue debuted in 1989, it has consistently outsold all of its market rivals. As this magazine keeps growing and gaining more readers, it has expanded in many ways, including organizing the famous Empire Awards, which are voted by the readers of this film magazine.

Regular Features and content of Empire
Similarly to many other film magazines, Empire contains latest movie news, images, reviews and previews. What makes Empire more popular than other film magazines is the content, as it goes into huge amounts of detail and depth in its articles. Its reviews and description of mainstream films are very detailed in text and imagery, for those film fanatics.
It also contains a regular top 10 list, which features Empire’s top ten examples of something related to film. For example, 10 best shootout scenes, or 10 best chase scenes. These types of features encourage the readers to write in if they disagree with the outcomes.
Celebrity Mastermind is another regular as it asks celebrities questions about the films they were in or they directed. Most of these are at the top of their career in the film industry. The most know regular feature is the Masterpiece section, which is a double page text on any film. These are selected by Empire and can be from any genre of film.

Editors of Empire
Overall, Empire Magazine has had eight editors in its history. The list includes: Barry Mclheney, Phil Thomas, Andrew Collins, Mark Salisbury, Ian Nathan, Colin Kennedy, Mark Dinning and even Stephen Spielberg (guest edited the 20th anniversary issue, June 2009).

Publishing Institutions of Empire
Empire is published monthly by a company called Bauer consumer media.
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/About
Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Publishing Group; Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Bauer Publishing Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 230 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations.

Typical Reader Profile
The typical Empire reader is male, has a well paid occupation and lifestyle, and is a film fanatical and cinema bound. He is interested in the detail of film and beyond the movies themselves.

Layout and trademarks- including forms and conventions
For the front cover, Empire has many conventions and norms.
The date and price are commonly situated above the ‘M’ of the Masthead. The website is placed underneath; this is a common convention for this particular magazine.
Another convention is the barcode, as it is regularly sideways and not normally at the bottom of the cover like many magazines of all genres.

The other main convention of Empire is the main image, as it usually is coming out over certain text, especially the title. With most Empire magazines you can rarely see the entire title.
‘First look’ shows it is exclusive to this magazine; this is regularly used in each issue. It makes the audience want to read it.

Does Empire reflect the values of its audience?
Empire does reflect the values of its audience, as they (the audience) expect to find latest film reviews, news and images. People who tend to read this particular magazine are real film fans and are very enthusiastic, therefore want everything in detail. They will also discover latest news on the people behind the films, including directors, and even personal information regarding actors and actresses. The reason Empire is one of the biggest magazines in Britain is due to the fact that it gives the reader’s and the audience what they want, and more. With every issue the reader will feel satisfied and will look forward to the next month. Empire magazine goes beyond the film fanatic’s expectations.

Introduction

My main task is to design and create using DTP (Desk Top Publisher) a front page, contents page and a double page spread of a new music magazine. Leading up to the finished product, i will research and evaluate different magazines as well as completing designs which show my understanding of layout, imagery, appearence and colour. I will be doing this project individually therefore all the work will be my own.