Production Post 18

As I am going to be starting to create my magazine soon and I have the name of the magazine, I thought it would be a good idea to see some fonts that I may use for my masthead, so now I have an idea of what font will be used as the masthead. I chose code bold as my font for my masthead as I believe it has a distinctive look about it; this will make people who see the font automatically link it with Slick magazine as it has a clear brand image. 

Masthead Ideas

These are some fonts I am thinking of using for my masthead. I have chosen to use just writing than a logo as I have done my research on music magazines and I believe it looks better and more professional with a simple masthead, rather than a big unusual one. I have tried to pick fonts that compliment the name of the magazine, which is 'Slick'; in other words  it mean cool/smooth.

Production Post 17

I have completed my image ideas that is created in prezi; it has helped me understand and know how I can represent my genre (R&B) through the images on my magazine e.g. male stands straight on at the camera, looks deep into the lens with a serious face expression wearing a big coat.

Image Ideas

image idea on Prezi

These are my image ideas that I would like to re-create with my model, Bradley. I was inspired by many of the pictures I found, from where the image was taken to what the artists are wearing. The image of Trey Songz planted a seed in my mind that for my outside photo shoot Bradley and I will go up to london and have the photo shoot in busy London; not only will it make the image look good however it will also represent Bradley as he is a London boy. Also the image of chris brown with his big black jacket inspired me as the collar on his jacket sticking up gives an affect that makes him look 'flashy' and 'cocky'. This is the image that I want Bradley to portray as R&B stars do come across that they have these attributes. 

Production Post 16

Recently I have been planning the content that will be appearing in my magazine and what my main feature will be about. My main feature is an article about Bradley Moore and how he has made a recovery from being shot and he talks to us about his new album. I have also planned many of the other articles that will feature in my magazine, all these articles will be mentioned in the contents page. 

Contents Ideas

                1.           Bradley Moore - ‘how I came back to the top’ Brad is Back

·    This article will be about how ‘brad is back’ from hospital. The article will involve an interview with the man him self, about how he got into hospital and how he recovered so quickly to release his latest album in time.

·     First double-paged spread will be only 300 words on it and a picture of Bradley’s face with smoke from a cigar coming out of it. The smoke that will be coming out of his mouth will form in to words saying ‘Brad is Back’

·     The second double-paged spread will be the rest of the article with Bradley’s face half in the light, half in the shade. This connotates how brad has come from a dark place, and there is a dark side to him.

      2.           History of contemporary R&B

              -When contemporary music started

             

              -Top 10 best songs:

·     Ignition- R-kelly

·     End of the road- Boyz II men

·     Slow down- Bobby Valentino

·     Love in this club- Usher

·     Pon de replay- Rhianna

·     Smack that- Akon

·     I wanna love you- Akon

·     Kiss kiss- Chris Brown

·     Goldigger- Kanye West

·     Over- Drake

3.    How to win tickets to go and watch Jessie J

4.         Nicki minaj - ‘why I made the drastic change’ + poster of her ‘drastic change’

5.         Akon- ‘find out what akon is doing now days’

6.         *Special feature* Ne-yo joins the editing team!

7.         Concerts coming up

8.         Latest albums

9.         Beyonce VS Rhianna

10.         Dress the Jay-Z way?

11.     Drake “I’m the biggest the world has ever seen”

12.  Albums coming out in 2013

13.  Artists on the horizon

14.  R&B festival

15.  King of R&B

16.  Reviews

Production Post 15

I have also completed a sell lines which are the articles that will be displayed on the front cover. I have chosen carefully which articles I believe should be on the front cover as if the customers see famous names and interesting articles they will want to purchase and read the magazine. 

Sell Lines

My main sale lines will be displayed on the front cover of the magazine, the main most important stories  are always on the front cover as this will attract the audience. The sale lines are:

• Drake hits London - I have chosen this artist as one of my main sale lines as Drake is one of the biggest R&B/Hip Hop artist at this moment in time. This will draw in the audience as he has a huge fan base who will want to by the magazine purely for Drake featuring in Slick. 
• Greatest R&B Hits - I chose to feature this as not only does this make it clear to the audience that this is an R&B magazine however as an R&B fan I believe people will be interested to see what songs would be mentioned.
• Beyonce vs Rhianna - These two artists are well known world wide and have millions have of fans. These two singers are most probably the most iconic, popular females in the R&B genre; this again is another very strong feature in the magazine that can produce customers simply by telling the audience that these two artists are featuring in it. People also like to see these two artists compared as there has always been a debate about who is better/more successful. 
• Brad is Back - This is my main article in my magazine that will include information about Bradley's come back from being shot and how he released his album on time. The wording of the article is very catchy, this will again attract the audience as this will be in big writing across the front cover. 

Production Post 14

I  also completed was deciding on the colour theme of my magazine, after researching the meanings of colours and other music magazine theme colours, I chose purple. I believe this task again helped me a lot as when it comes starting to create my magazine I will already know which colours I will be using.
          After completing both of these tasks I knew which colours I will be using and the name of my magazine; so I then mixed the two together with the colour of the text purple and with words that link with Slick.

Colour

The colour theme I have decided to use for my magazine is going to be purple and white. I chose purple and white as they look good together, and are also very strong, vibrant colours. I believe these colours have certain connotations of R&B; I first of all started researching the meanings of colours it mentioned that purple is a romantic colour which is very much like certain R&B music as lyrics in songs do refer to love and feelings that are usually refereed to females. Red also has strong links with R&B as it shows passion, however, red is a very common colour in music magazines and I preferred to have a unique magazine from the colour theme to what it contains. I have also chosen to have a lot of white in my magazine as I believe white is a very plain and simple colour that allows the magazine to portray a look of simplicity and pleasantness; white is also portrayed as a fresh and clean colour which is very much like my magazine as it going to be a 'smooth' magazine. I decided to use a unique theme colour that no other music magazine has; I believe that people remember original items that are different to anything else; if Slick magazine is different people would prefer to purchase Slick rather than an average magazine that is similar to the rest. 

Production Post 13

Recently I completed a task that has made the planning of the magazine easier, I decided on a name for my magazine, after I completed my brainstorm then a selection of names I decided to call my magazine 'Slick'. As the name is one of the most important details for a magazine as the name of a magazine is the thing people remember, if it isn't a catchy name it won't succeed. So this task was a very important task as it could be one of the main reasons why my magazine isn't going to be good.

Name Ideas

Mood Board on Prezi

I produced a brain storm in prezi of all the words that I think of when I hear the word 'music'. I wanted this to help me think of a suitable word for the name of my magazine and I believed that this was the best way to develop some ideas. Out of the whole brainstorm the one word that appealed to me was 'smooth'. I then elaborated on the word in the prezi above to get a final word for my magaizne.

name ideas on Prezi


This is a prezi that has some name ideas. The words are linked with 'Smooth' which produced some good names I could use as my magazine name. The word that I believe will most likely be my magazine name is Slick, thus why it is at the top of the mountain. 

Production Post 12

I have also completed a mood-board, this is a board, which is full of pictures that have inspired me and helped me understand how I want my models to look and what they need to wear. For example it did not acknowledge me that my model should wear sunglasses; however after I researched picture related to R&B I realised that a lot of artists in this genre wear sun glasses in photos. 

Mood Board

Mood Board

This moodboard is a collection of the types of pictures that I would like my magazine to contain. As you have most probably noticed the theme is of R&B artists, R&B is going to be the genre of my magazine and for me to get the audience to notice that it is a R&B magazine I have to produce a picture very much like the ones in the mood board e.g. white background, model looks deep into the camera, expression on their face is serious.

Production Post 11

The task I have completed recently was my proposal. This explains what my magazine will contain, what my pictures will be like, the mood of my magazine e.g. laid back, information biased, heavy reading etc. This was a big improvement for me to understand what my magazine will be like and how it will be presented to the audience. It also focuses on my target audience which is good as I will know what to put in my magazine e.g. as I now know that my magazine will most probably be male dominated the content to my magazine has to be aimed more at males; for instance instead of having a poster of a male in the magazine have a free download as a male is more likely to be interested in a free download than a poster of a male singer. 

Proposal

This is my proposal, it helped me plan my magazine. It contains information about my type of magazine, content, mood, unique features, marketing methods, target audience and key images. This was the first part of my planning which really started to shape my magazine and help me understand the main features that will be in my magazine. 

Production Post 10

Recently I have gathered enough information from my surveys to have a clear understanding on what my target audience want to see in my magazine. This has helped me a tremendous amount with some decisions that I will have to make when creating the content in my magazine, for instance when I asked what type of article I should create, 72% said gossip, which will help me when it comes to the time I need to write my article. These surveys are really helpful as it will give the consumers what they want in my magazine e.g. free downloads, an app etc.

Audience Survey Results

If you could pick one magazine to enter the market, what genre would you want it to be?

R&B - 100%

hip hop - 0%

pop - 0%

rock - 0%

soul - 0%

as you can see people believe that the music magazine market is missing a genre, and by the votes it clearly shows that it is missing an R&B magazine; considerably because it is one of the most popular music genres. the result of this question gave me the confidence to go through a create an R&B magazine.

what colour schemes do you think suit an R&B magazine?

red&white - 0%

blue&purple - 81%

orange&white - 9%

orange&black - 9%

after seeing the results for which colour scheme looks good i decided to partly listen to the votes as i chose to use the colours purple and white, instead of purple and blue. i believed that these colurs will help to portray my magazines genre. 

how do you consume magazines?

online - 18%

hard copy - 9%

app - 72%

as most people have shown that they consumer magazines through their smart phones via apps, i have decided that i will create an app that allows people to buy the magazine on app store, however we will also have a hard copy as every magazine has hard copy editions.

do you have a smartphone?

yes - 100%

no - 0%

as you can see the target audience of my magazine who also took part in the survey all have smart phones which means they can use the app for my magazine.  

what would you say is a fair price for a mothly magazine?

less than £3 - 9%

£3 - 18%

£4 - 72%

£5 - 0%

£6 - 0%

more than £6 - 0%

as my target audience have taken the survey, i now know what price i should sell my magazine at which is important as if i priced the product the wrong price then i would most probably not get that much business.


which magazine name is most appealing to you?

slick - 81%
jam - 0%
suave - 0%
chill - 0%
smooth - 18%

the results from the question clearly show that 'slick' is the best name for an R&B magazine with 81% of people voting for that name, it ALSO represents the genre well, SO I HAVE DECIDED to use the name slick.
what features would you most be interested in reading?

interviews - 9%
news - 9%
gossip - 72%
information - 9%

the result of this question really helped me decide what type of article i should create as i wasnt sure on what my target audience would like to read. however 72% of the voters said that they want to read about gossip; so i will create an article which is mainly gossip about the musicians life.

which freebies would you prefer?

poster - 9%
downloads - 54%
cd - 0%
gig tickets - 36%

these results were the first that have mixed OPINION as some say free downloads, and some say free gig tickets. what i have decided to do is give one free download away with evry magazine sold in every edition, and in certain editions there will also be a couple of tickets to win. 

what article are you most looking forward to reading?

how bradley got to the top of the charts - 80%
history of contemporary r&B - 20%
gossip, news, promotions - 0%

after seeing the results of this question i was adamant and sure that i would create an article about BRadley moore. i believe that this was the most popular article to read as in the previous question when i asked what type of article would you like to read, they voted for gossip; and the article about bradley is about his life and how he has got back on top of the charts. 

what R&B artist would you like to see in the 'history of contemporary R&B' article?

usher - 66%
r kelly - 8%
ne-yo - 8%
boyz II men - 16%

with the respond from the question it seemed as if people had mixed feelings on who they would have liked to read about. this made me CURIOUS and think that i should'nt do an aricle about the history of contemporary R&B as its hard to know which artists to include; also because on the earlier question only 20% wanted to read the article about THE HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY R&B.

Production Post 9

I have recently completed the 'Audience profile' task which is information about my 'target audience' and who I am going to aim the magazine at. My understanding of who is going to be reading my magazine and what these people are interested in has developed, this has helped me have a clearer understanding on what my magazine should contain e.g. instead of talking about a rock festival in my magazine, I will talk about the concerts that will be in the UK in the up coming months/year. 

Audience Profile

audience profile by

Production Post 8

I have put some simple multiple choice questions on the side of my blog as part of my quantitative data, this will allow me to get a clearer view on some of the topics that are in the magazine. I have also created a questionnaire that involved people opinions on some things, this is part of my qualitative research. This will allow me to understand what readers will demand/want.

Production Post 7

The second piece of research I completed was my existing mastheads research, this helped me decide how my masthead will be laid out e.g. across the top of my magazine, down the side, top left hand corner etc. After viewing all the options of mastheads I decided to have it going across the top however closer to the left.

Existing Mastheads

Production Post 6

I have recently completed my existing names. This has widened my knowledge and changed my ideas of the names of my magazines. I have realised that the most well known magazines have catchy and short names which allows the audience to remember the magazine. After I completed this research I decided my magazine name will be called 'Slick'.

Existing Names

Production Post 5

I have recently completed my main planning of my magazine and have a much better understanding on how the general information about my magazine. I have done this through Code and conventions, representation, audiences and institution. All these tasks have helped me know certain information about my magazine such as; what my main article will contain, how I will make it clear that my magazine is a R&B magazine, prices that will be charged, and how I will get the magazine noticed by my target audience. All of these tasks were the first step to creating my magazine and shaping it.

Institution

Firstly the pricing of the magazine is the most important, after researching the average prices of monthly music magazines I have decided for the pricing of the magazine to be £4.00. I believe that the pricing is affordable; however if people subscribe they will get a discount.

If customers do a 6-month subscription it will cost them £12.00 and if they get a 12-month subscription it will cost them £20.00. I believe these prices are very reasonable price if you compare them to other magazines subscriber’s prices.

The app will be available on all smart phone app stores for £0.69, which is the average price of an app. This app will hold and be able to do the same things as our website will do however in mobile form. This will help get the magazine more publicity and for fans, 60% of household in the UK have Internet access which is roughly 32 million people.

Audience

My magazine will be aimed at R&B fans as this will be the genre of my magazine, I will not try to recruit new fans of the magazine, as you can’t make people change their taste in music. However due to R&B being such a phenomenal genre it will be bought by many people.




May fans of the magazine will want to buy my magazine due to a few reasons. One reason is because they might be attracted to the fact they are getting a free poster with the magazine; some people thrive on the fact that they get free gifts when they purchase a product. They could also want to buy it as my magazine is going to feature famous musicians, or there could be one singer that is featuring in the magazine which would entice certain people to purchase it. I also believe R&B is a very popular music genre this alone will attract the audience. Finally, as mentioned earlier, because R&B has a large amount of fans they might buy the product as they see it as a collectors item.




The audience will be able to see my magazine news and reviews through social networking websites, such as: Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. There will also be a magazine that can be bought which will be the main thing to produce money.

Representation

One of the main ways of representing a magazines genre is through the images it has on its cover and also the images it contains; this will be one of the ways to present R&B as there are certain images that will be recognized by the audience.




The Grammy awards has a particular category for best R&B song, this will also be presented in my magazine, as the Grammy awards is a big and exclusive award. The actual title of the award will again represent the genre of the magazine; the articles featuring in the magazine should make it clear to the reader what type of genre the magazine is.




There will also be information on venues that some artists are playing at, these artists will obviously be R&B singers. They tend to perform in big arenas such as the ‘O2 arena’ as they have a large fan base and a lot of demand for their tickets.




My model Bradley will also be wearing the stereotypical clothing that a hip hop/R&B artist would wear, which will consist of white trainers, jeans/chinos and a big black heavy jacket. Bradley will also be standing in certain postures and have expressions on his face that portrays him as a cocky and flashy type of character; this is exactly how most R&B artists are displayed.




The reason behind choosing purple as my theme colour is because it is an original colour, and from the research I have done there is no other music magazine that uses purple as their theme colour. I also believe that it suits the genre of R&B as purple is a very strong and vibrant colour.