Timetable Organised

It has come to my attention that I am behind schedule for my coursework. To combat this and finish coursework on time I must organize my time efficiently, therefore I have conducted a timetable to work out how much time is allocated to study each subject at school and at home.

Criteria Grid for magazines

Double Page Spread Analysis : Mix Mag

Double Page Spread Semiotic Analysis : MixMag

This double page spread featured in MixMag is the main feature of the magazine, because it was promoted on the front page, as the CVI image was this DJ, the Black Madonna.

The majority of the left hand page is the picture of the black Madonna, with her hands in the air and sunglasses on. Black sunglasses and a black cloak convey an air of mystery, and the black colours themselves reinforce the black, white and silver brand identity of this magazine, which was previously explained on the front page and contents page semiotic analyses. 

The right hand page is the page in which the body of text is located. It is on small white, non-serif text. The text style is aligned left, whereas the body of text as a whole is featured in the centre of the page. On the top left of the page is a pull-quote from the article in white underlined text, significantly larger than the rest o the body of text, encased in quotation marks. This is a quote from The Black Madonna, which helps the audience to empathise with her and to really understand her more.

The background is again black which contrasts with the white text. This reinforces the brand's prominent black and white colour palette which in turn emphasises a powerful brand identity.

In the bottom left of the right page is small white text which shows where the jewellery on the the image is from, and the text is rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise. On the far right hand side is a section in which a columnist showcases some facts about a music venue.

MixMag Contents Page Analysis

Contents Page Semiotic Analysis : MixMag

The contents page reinforces the white and black colour palette featured on the afore-mentioned front page. This creates brand identity which increases customer satisfaction because they become more involved with the brand image. The background is a solid black shade, and the white text creates a stark contrast, therefore the white text is clear and easy to read and understand. 

The top of the page is a horizontally aligned silver rectangle, and inside it reads "JANUARY 2017" which shows what month this issue was released. On the right side of the rectangle is  " c o n t e n t s" in lower case silver font. This tells the audience that this is the contents page, in which they can find which article is found on what page.

The CVI for this page would be the image in the top right, with the caption "KHRIS COWLEY", which is an image that relates to an article featured later on in the magazine.

The contents are split into three sections. " Front" (which is on the left hand side, and features the articles found in the first section of the magazine), "Features" (which is in the centre of the page, and features the featured articles that are not recurring monthly, such as the front page artist The Black Madonna) and "Back (which is on the right hand side and features articles found in the latter stages of the magazine).

For each article on the page, the article title is written in a bold silver text, and a brief summary of what the article entails is shown below in a plain silver text. The recurring use of silver coloured text creates a subtle but effective medium between the black and whites used previously on the MixMag brand identity colour palette. The page number that relates to each article is found to the left of the article title and description, in a white text.

MixMag Front Cover Analysis

Front Cover Semiotic Analysis : MixMag

The centre of visual interest that is most prominent on the front page is the main image of "The Black Madonna" a DJ who is featured within the magazine. She weas a black cloak which contrasts with her gold bracelets and gold head decoration. The colour combination of black and gold have connotations of luxury and prestige, therefore suggesting that this magazine itself is premium and high quality, two characteristics that create a strong brand identity.

The masthead, which here is the title of the magazine, is at the top of the page, which is its usual conventional place, this is where it was in the Louder Than War magazine as well. The title reads "MixMag" which is the name of the magazine. It is in a non-serif white font which has connotations of purity, innocence and clean things. Therefore this masthead suggests that this magazine is pure and therefore one of a kind, unique.  The masthead is the largest font on the page.

Situated above the masthead is "dance music + club culture " which are the two main music genres featured in the magazine. This is shown on the front so that customers can see before they buy it whether or not they are interested in the genre on offer. People that like dance music and club culture would be inclined to purchase the magazine because it says so on the front. The text is lower case, non-serif, and gold, which reinforces the luxury theme introduced by the CVI image.

The gold on black colour palette continues on the right hand side, in which "The Black Madonna" is written in gold text, rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise. This is the name of the artist featured on the main image to the left of the text. This shows the audience what the name of her is, to provide context and give the audience a better understanding.

Above this is a gold square, which inside writes "THE DJ OF THE YEAR" in block capitals and white font. This relates to Black Madonna, and this in turn entices the audience to read the magazine because they want to read more about here, because she must be good if she had been proclaimed as the DJ of the year.

The barcode is in its conventional place in the bottom right of the page, which is also where it was on the Louder Than War music magazine that I previously researched. It is tilted 90 degrees anticlockwise. Below the barcode is the banner, on which the date of issue, price and website is shown. The inclusion of the website link is beneficial to the overall efficiency of the magazine because it promotes exchange, in which readers of MixMag can get in touch and react to the magazine on the internet.

On the left hand side of the page is a vertical white stripe 7cm in width. On here in small black, block capital text is the photographer of the main image's name, Uli Weber.

MixMag Target Audience Analysis

Target Audience Analysis for MixMag

Product Analysis

Price - £4.95

Advertisers - voidacoustics, blocks shape music, yolkax clothing, drum and bass annual 2017, awakenings festival, lost and found festival, hmv vinyl, native instrument machines, LTN beats, o2 music management, sonof8 music, mixon4 high performance hybrid controller.

Content - Big tunes, London's brand new 50,000 capacity venue, New artists, Scene / Clubs, Scene / Live, Scene / Festivals, The life, Sneaker love, Best of 2016, Hottest gear of 2016, Albums, Label focus, Dj history, Industry insider.

Market Segmentation:

Demographic - Nothing to indicate that this magazine is aimed at either gender, therefore it is unisex. Readers may be in the age bracket demographic of 18 -30 because this magazine's music genres are primarily dance music and club culture - two genres which are above the age of 16 (because you have to be 18+ to attend most clubs in the UK.

Geographic - This magazine is distributed internationally, because on the banner on the front page, there is a price for the UK and INT (International) . In the UK, this magazine would be presumably popular in all the major cities e.g.  London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds etc. because it is aimed towards those who like club culture, and all major cities have a dance scene.

Benefits - The target reader will read this magazine because they want to know more about the new and upcoming artists and albums from the dance music & club culture genre. The benefits are that they know more about upcoming events and festivals due to the advertisements listed previously.

Psychographic - Presumably still in university, as lots of people that study in university have prominent, outgoing social lives which usually involve clubbing and drinking. Rather mainstream, and might share a flat / apartment with friends because they can't afford an actual one.

Behaviouristic - More of a mainstream audience than the audience for Louder Than War. They follow the latest trends and don't want to go out of style, therefore they follow this magazine religiously in order to stay up to date on the latest artists, festivals and albums so that they can stay ahead of their peers. Would purchase the magazine monthly in order to satisfy their need to stay in the know and on top of trends. Spends time in clubs within major cities in the UK.

Survey Analysis of Magazine Survey

Survey analysis 1-3 from Sam Williams

Publishing House for MixMag

For MixMag the originial publisher was Disco Mix Club, who owned and distributed the magazine from 1983 until 1997, when it was bought out by the British Media Group EMAP. 

In 2003, after a noticeable falter in sales figures, the magazine was sold again to "Development Hell, a publishing house also responsible for "The Word" music magazine.

Publishers of Louder Than War

The publishing company for Louder Than War is "BIG CHEESE PUBLISHING LTD 2016" . There is not alot of information on the internet regarding this fairly elusive publishing house, however I have found out that they also published a magazine, aptly titled "Big Cheese Magazine", which stopped production in 2016.

This shows that once the Big Cheese magazine went bust, the publishing house turned their attention to producing another magazine, in the hopes of being more successful than their prior venture. This may turn out to be costly, as the magazine industry is dying.

Mix Mag - Brand Eye Analysis

Next Magazine : Mix Mag

The next magazine that I will be analyzing for the research and planning stage for the main task of this course, is MixMag magazine, January 2017 edition.

 

 

 

My Survey

I have now completed my survey, and uploaded it to SurveyMonkey. This is the link for my survey :

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7JDJTC8

Survey Aim

I will shortly begin constructing and distributing my survey. The purpose of it is to find out information from my target audience regarding the content and mode of address for my magazine.

I want to find out what content they enjoy, so that I can produce a magazine that is perfectly tailored towards a certain demographic audience. I also want to grasp an understanding of what the popular music genres currently are, so that I can ensure that my magazine will attract a large audience. The respondents of my survey, aka my target audience, will be within the age demographic of 13-24, or 'teenagers to young adults'.

To distribute my survey I will use surveymonkey because it is easy for respondents to answer questions because it is online and available on mobile phones. This means that they can answer questions when they are out and about, meaning I will garner more potential information. On surveymonkey, it is also straight-forward and helpful when compiling the data into graphs and charts to showcase my findings. I will only produce one survey because one survey is all I need to successfully acquire the desired information.

For ease of access and a higher respondent rate, I will use social media platforms such as twitter, whatsapp, snapchat etc. to promote my survey, because my target age demographic audience - teens to young adults - use these sites often.

Double Page Spread Analysis - Louder Than War

Double Page Spread Analysis - Louder Than War

This specific double page spread is about a band known as "Ocean Colour Scene". The layout and content of this article is conventional in terms of other existing double page spreads. The article is spread over two facing pages. Firstly, the main focal point, or the CVI (Centre of visual interest) is the image of the band members of ocean colour scene. This image takes over about 3/5 of the left hand page, and bleeds slightly into the right hand page. This shows that the image itself must be important and integral to the article itself. Without the image, the reader (assuming they had no prior knowledge of the band) would not be able to visualise who the interviewer was talking to / about. There is a caption in small white text rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise on the left hand side bottom corner of the featured image, which states the members of the photograph.

The headline of the article reads "Seasides and Freerides" which could relate to the band's name - ocean is synonymous with seasides, and freerides could convey how the band have had a free ride, or the opposite in fact, that their journey to success has been a struggle. The headline rhymes, which is catchy and stays in the reader's head, which means they think about it later in the day even when they're not reading the magazine anymore. The typography is in block capitals, and the I in "Seasides" bleeds down vertically and becomes the first R in "Freerides" which could symbolise a slide going downwards, which are common at seasides. The colour is a pale kind of yellow-green which is different to the colours used on the front page and contents page. This reinforces the idea that Louder Than War change their colour scheme throughout the progression of the magazine to keep readers engaged and stop them from being bored by the same colours each time. This same colour of green is used in drop caps, briefly on one word in the stand-first subheading, and on the filler on the right hand side. The typography also features drop shadow to make the letters stand out more, and makes it easier for it to attract the eyes of readers browsing through the pages.

Beneath the main image and headline is the stand-first, which is black text on white background, again in block capitals. The text size is bigger than the copy text size and smaller than the headline text size. The stand-first here is  useful because it provides some background context to who Ocean Colour Scene are by briefly stating "Celebrating their 20th anniversary of their breakthrough hit album Mosely Shoals". This tells the audience that this band are 20 years old, therefore established. They now also at least know one of their albums. Now they are able to read the article because they know the basics of who they are. Within the stand-first subheading, the editor reveals his name to be Ian Chaddock, therefore he did not announce his name using a byline, which is what conventionally happens. This reinforces the idea that this magazine is not wholly conventional. 

The first line of the copy (text of article) is not arranged as a kicker, in which the first line of text is in a bigger font size than the rest of the copy. This once again shows Louder Than War's lack of convention. However, the copy does start with a drop cap of the letter F, in the same yellow-green colour used for the headline. Another drop cap is also used in the 5th column on the letter F. There are 5 columns of copy, and the alleys between each column are approximately 0.5 centimetres each. The font of the copy isn't serif, therefore its rather soft, and easy to read. The text itself is flushed left, therefore its aligned to the left hand side of each column. This is the conventional way of writing bodies of text. 

On the far right hand side, bleeding down from the top is a large rectangle, the same green colour used throughout this page. It is a filler, to fill space that the body of text isn't taking up. This rectangle contains facts about Mosely Shoals, the band's breakthrough album. The top of this rectangle features a vinyl record, which reinforces genre, and the genre of this magazine is music. The name of the magazine is shown at the bottom of each page in small black writing, which is often conventional in magazines.

To conclude, these pages feature a conventional image that sets the scene for the article. The headline is reflective as a play of words on the band's name and their struggle on the journey to success. Musical terminology and imagery (vinyl record, album cover) repeatedly appear, reminding the audience of the genre, Music.

Louder Than War Contents Page Analysis

 Contents Page Analysis - Louder Than War

This is the contents regular page for Louder Than War magazine issue 7. The evident main colour scheme for this page is red and white, which contradicts the brand identity established on the front page, which was predominantly yellow and white. This shows that the magazine isn't afraid of switching up their brand to adjust to new scenarios. The red here has connotations of passion, strength and love. The strength relates back to the strong characteristics established from the masthead on the front page. The passion and love represent the somewhat agapeistic love that the editors, writers and most importantly the readers have for music, in particular, indie and punk music. The colour red is the most predominant colour featured on this page, as the somewhat disjointed border goes to show. The border of this page consists of one thick red line beside a thin red line that go around the contents of the contents page. However, the border does not go along the top like conventional borders do. Instead it bleeds straight into the top of the page - this shows that this magazine is not wholly conventional like others. This adds to the unique brand identity they have already established.

Unlike the front page, there is text here that isn't all in capital lettering. For the most part it is, its featured in "Contents" at the top and "Regular" beneath the images, however the descriptions for the pages themselves are in lower case. The main focal point of this page is the title "Contents" in the top left sector of the page. This informs the audience that this is the contents page, in which they will find the guide to where articles are throughout the magazine. This makes it easier for the reader to navigate and ultimately read it. "Contents" is in block capitals with a white font, which contrasts powerfully to the red background. The red horizontal rectangle bleeds into the left edge of the page. 

Beneath this title are 6 images of various artists / bands that are featured within the magazine. Each image has a page number circled on the bottom left, so as to guide the reader to the exact page that that artist / band is featured on. Some of the images, for example the image of Kristin Hersh in the top left, is listed in the contents list below, so any readers can understand what exactly the article is about, without even having to take their eyes off the page. This ease of access throughout the navigation of the magazine means readers will prefer it to others, and they could spread word to friends through word of mouth, therefore the magazine becomes more popular. Therefore it is important to make sure that the magazine is easily navigable.

The "Regular" title is the same as "Contents", in white block caps encased in a red horizontal rectangle. This repetition sticks in the readers' thoughts, meaning any time they see that sort of arrangement they know it is Louder Than War, thus creating a prominent brand identity. Beneath "Regular" are 7 subsections each describing individual articles within the magazine, which is the contents list. These are the regulars, meaning these are the articles that are found in every issue. Regulars are important because they promote customer loyalty, because readers may enjoy a certain regular, ergo purchase the magazine each month in order to not miss out on the part that they specifically enjoy. The text here is bow (black on white) because that is the easiest to read, and it is important that the audience can easily understand the text, because then there's more chance of them returning each month to purchase the magazine.

To conclude, the contents page differs in terms of colour from the front page, introducing the powerful colour of red to change things up, and keep the audience engaged. The border isn't complete, representing the uniqueness and risks that Louder Than War take.