For my media coursework I created two magazine covers and a double page spread.
Textual Analysis
I started analysing different magazine covers such as Vogue, Nylon and Cosmopolitan. However, my main inspiration for my magazine covers was 1883. It's very cutting edge but actually very popular in Hollywood, often having current celebrities and stories. It also combined cinema with fashion and pop culture. My magazine has a film star discussing cinema but also a section pointing out the fashion of the piece. I really liked a cover of 'V' magazine that had Kristen Stewart on the front. The colours were very metallic and sultry but it wasn't overpowering. It looked very engaging and sophisticated, it really inspired my cover colours and the models choice of clothes. I decided to make my issue as Gothic issue, although this wasn't taken from another magazine, they have been a few cases where Vogue have released Halloween and anniversary covers. Because my magazine is alternative, it had to have a specific theme due to it not holding eye catching tabloid stories. In the uses and gratifications theory these magazines would be purely entertainment.
I modelled my magazine on an issue of 1883 magazine. The background is subtle and plain, the focus remains on the model. The cover line is 'Timeless' which is a vintage theme. Cover lines have the name and a small caption underneath to show what the article will be about.
The main model (Ellie Goulding) is looking directly ahead at the audience as to pull them in. She is dressed glamourously and is quite animated in her behaviour, and so this magazine probably appeals to the B,C social economic scale. There is no gossip or tabloid stories on the cover and so it appeals to a higher socio economic group. I wanted to achieve the same look.
The title '1883' is not covered up as it is not that well known although the editors wanted there to be an interesting font on the title so that viewers would remember it that way and eventually gain more readership, it is ordered in an interested way and people may start to remember it.
Ellie Goulding attracts early 20's who are fans of chart music, this makes it more of a C on the Socio Economic scale. Although she has started to branch out into high fashion and socialising with more important A-list celebrities. My pre-production
Questionnaire
I created a questionnaire which was completed by 10 people. I found this valuable as I gathered more information about what people actually looked for in a magazine. Some of the questions were related to occupation, gender and age.
I asked 'Would you buy a magazine just for the person on the cover?', 80% said yes. I made the star of the magazine an up and coming one as to draw more readers in. 50% were also in the 18-24 age group, it is more likely that young people associate themselves with fresh new faces. 60% said they would buy a magazine that was £2-3. I wanted to make the price higher due to the target audience but decided to stick to £3 due to the popularity of other similar price range magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour. An occupational question targeted 60% of students and so that cemented my idea to keep an affordable price range. The most popular genres of magazines were music, gossip, alternative and fashion. I incorporated all of these. I put music into the interview, fashion into the photos with a detailed list of the clothes used. The box of Hanna's new projects are a convention of gossip magazines and the layout is structured in an alternative way. The majority of people said that they would most likely buy a magazine if they liked the look of it and not whether it was weekly or monthly. Since it didn't really seem important I made the magazine monthly, a common convention of alternative and higher class magazines.
My production was a double page spread which had a story/interview with a new actress named 'Hanna Svertzen'. I wanted the contents to be intellectual and to be more suitable for an alternative magazine. It was made to look like a contemporary article in Vogue or Instyle.
The production page has a different image and is of a different genre, it's more skater than the cover theme. There is a 'what to catch Hanna in next' which is more of a convention of tabloid magazines. I wanted the reader to have a better knowledge of the actress and to promote her work. It also exaggerates the fact that she has a lot of projects coming up and that she is definitely up-and-coming. The background is a simple white and the font is eligible. The title is written in 'Young Frankenstein' font and is a quote directly from her 'embraced in arms of thorns'.
The double page is very simple and therefore does not bombard and overwhelm the reader with pointless art to make up for the lack of interview- which is common in contemporary magazines these days. The interview is fleshing out the actress and instead of taking an unbiased view; it wholly focussed and truthful. There is an element of everything in there. An embarrassing story, a discussion about hollywood, foreign films and music. This allows the reader to relate to the star and potentially become a fan if they weren't already. There isn't a lot of design in there and so it appeals more to the A-B demographic due to them reading more often.
There are some weaknesses. The interview is quite long and so the articles picture is not very large.
The layout was inspired by V magazine, the metallic greys lent itself to my work. On the first cover I had metallic grey and duck egg. The layout is quite simple and very understated. Although grey can have very dull/dreary connotations, I thought it made the cover more elegant and more professional. I used a different layout to most magazines by putting two colours together and separating them with a line. This made the cover more like a painting and more artistic. The model is in the centre of the cover and has an issue themed outfit on.
Images
I took inspiration from Vogue with the original photography. I didn't edit the photos to a massive extent, instead I thought I would leave them as they are. The images are mid shots and the clothes are black for the Gothic themed issue. The connotations are scary even Addams family-esque, maybe even an alluring 'darkness' feature. The colours work better with the minimalist background, it seemed very unfeminine and I used a rah-rough dress sense to support that. I wanted the images to look alternative but ones that wouldn't look out of place if they were presented on a Vogue cover; this would make the audience of the A-B demographic more susceptible to buy an issue.
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