Kizzy's Foundation Portfolio;

In creating my music magazine, House Party, I tried to stick to typical conventions of magazines but also tried to challenge them and make it unique in any possible way to make it stand out from other magazines. On the front cover, the title block is split in two, ‘House’ being on the left and ‘Party’ smaller and just under on the right. Usually, title blocks for magazines are in one standard colour but I decided to use a gradient and merge two colours together. The colours fit with the theme of the magazine and I also feel that it represents the colourful and lively sound of House Music. Hopefully the target audience will recognise and identify this. Typical features of a magazine are included such as a barcode, puffs and anchorage text. I feel these needed to be included as if they were not, it would be so rebellious that it could no longer be classified as a magazine. A house style is consistent, complimentary colours are used throughout and the fonts don’t vary much. Too much variation would make the magazine look too busy and put customers off. I think my central image challenges conventions because although there is a direct mode of address, the artist is not situated in the centre of the magazine. Also a busy graffiti background is used unlike the typical white or block colours that are used as backgrounds on other magazines. I also used the buzz word ‘Free’ in a typical yellow star, this is a convention that is highly recognised and readers will automatically be drawn to it as they recognise it easily.

As my magazine is focused on one particular genre of music, it is aimed at people that are into dance music and the lifestyle revolved around it. The target audience are people of both genders between the ages of 16-25, this is due to the fact that these are the main ages of people that go clubbing and would have access to the music and club scene. The title of the magazine makes the genre easily identifiable and so do the puffs, they are relevant to the music genre. The puffs mention well known dance music artists, events and news. Also, a free mix CD is included and advertised on the cover, this is a feature that dance music magazine, Mixmag also has. Lovers of dance music will be attracted to this. The artist in the central image is dressed in a way the readers can relate to and identify with the genre of house music. A sense of belonging is created by the way she is dressed and the setting of the photo (sitting on the pavement). The artist is a young girl which will appeal to the target audience as they will be of similar ages. I think I have represented these social groups in a positive light, the feature article explains how this interlectual, determined young woman from South London is making a name for herself in the music industry and trying to make changes for the better.

I have already researched media institutions and it would seem that the most appropriate company to distribute my magazine would be ‘Development Hell’. They currently publish two magazines (one is a dance music magazine) and own a clubbing social network site. They would be most experienced in this genre of music and seeing as they only distribute two other magazines means that more time and effort will be spent on the individual magazines. As this publishing company is already associated with a well known dance music magazine, this could attract customers and regular readers to the new magazine. Although this does seem like the ideal choice, I am not whether they would be able to distribute my magazine as they are only a small company and lose some profit from the mix cds they attach to the magazine Mixmag.

I think there is a gap in the market for my magazine because although there is a magazine that caters to the genre of dance music, there isn’t enough magazines that do. Magazines and online magazines that cater for this type of music are rare and hard to find. I attracted my audience by using a bright colourful house theme that would catch their eye if they saw it on the stall. Through my research I realised that people would much rather purchase a magazine if it had freebies or giveaways. So I took this idea on board and decided to offer a free mix CD with the magazine. I made this visible by placing an image of the CD cover on the front and attached a yellow star exclaiming ‘Free Mix CD’ as to catch the eye of any possible customers.

Whilst making my magazine, there were two main aspects that were vital in order to complete it. I used Photoshop to create my publication and a blog to publish my work. I had never used Photoshop before so I had to learn basic things pretty quickly before learning how to do more difficult and advanced things. I learnt simple tasks like resizing font, changing colours, creating backgrounds, cropping, inserting etc. I also had to learn how to manipulate and edit photos, for example, changing contrasts and brightness, creating shadows, blurring, using magnetic lasso to cut pictures out etc. Without this knowledge the magazine would not look as professional and would look very basic. The blog was used as a way to post work, share information, receive feedback and gather resources that would be useful to the magazine. I was able to create a poll and have my classmates vote as to which title block would be the most appropriate, this was useful as it was a fast and efficient way to research into making my magazine. Also by using Blogger, I found it easier to keep track of all my work that needed completion and it kept all my work tidy and up to date.

When I look back at the preliminary task, it is obvious that I have learnt a lot on the way. For my magazine I organised a photo shoot with my friends, told her the appropriate clothing to wear and found a setting to take the photos in. I had recently seen a photo shoot done by Shea Soul (a funky house artist) and it was set in front of graffiti. This gave me the inspiration to have the shoot with graffiti. Once I had my photos I edited them and manipulated them as was necessary. The research of other magazines came in very useful as I gained ideas an knowledge of the conventions of a typical magazine and also used my own initiative. I now know how to design layouts for a magazine and attempt at making the final designs. I have also learnt how to attract customers through research, polls and questionnaires.