Magazines have been with the public since 1731, however the magazine which was released in 1731 doesn't have the same conventions as a magazine now, the magazine which was released in 1731 was Gentlemans magazine. This magazine was a monthly edition and featured hand draw images, it however did not include any girls. It does not have any of the same conventions as a magazine that you would see in the shops now. However the Gentleman's Magazine changed with the times throughout its 200 years circulation.Housekeeping Magazine released their magazine in 1885, with some minor conventions as a magazine today, the content inside was about how to keep your husband happy, how to be a good housewife and all the typical jobs that would correspond with the times. A magazine which would have all the similar conventions as a magazine today was released in 1897, it included girls, but hand drawn, various article on royalty and it also talked about the position of women in society.A magazine released in 1955 would be more of a magazine that you would be able to look at and say thats a magazine in 2012 would be Marylyn, whose target audience was women, they included photos of celebrities and also an article on how to get a man. From 1955 to the 1960’s magazines changed with its content, mainly because the representation of women changed, they were started to be seen more than just a housewife, they were seen to have different roles, maybe not as equal as men but they were seen to have more roles.Nova realized this with its first issue in the 1960’s, now the representation of women was seen to be slim, have perfect teeth, perfect skin and also to be white. Health and Fitness magazines have been putting different athletes on the front cover, men women, black and white, but when vogue put a black model on the front of the cover for the first time in 1996 it was just seen differently. Arena had a breakthrough with how to get a bigger audience, Arena was a general lifestyle magazine for men and featured articles for men and included photos of men, but when they decided to put a young, slim, beautiful girl on the front of the cover, they realized that they had just made their circulation a lot bigger than usual.BBC Educational film about magazinesmagazine covers- inside cover7, 8, 11, 16, 20, 30, 36, 41, 45, 58, 60, 64.
Analysis
The first piece of content that draws my attention straight away is the repeated use of the pink typeface used in the masthead and cover lines. Straight away it tells me that this cover is based at a large female audience, as well as reflecting the artist in her own personal way. Because NME’s target audience is male to female, 65/35. NME’s reason for putting Rihanna on the front cover will attract a larger ratio of women, so with the pink typeface, it will grab a larger audience of females. The next content on the magazine cover that catches my attention is the main photograph of Rihanna, this is because she is the main cover star and it also explains to the audience why the text is pink, gets across a self image with colour. Also the photograph appeals to an audience as well, it shows Rihanna in a confident pose, with a background which is just plain to give Rihanna more emphasis and also all these aspects together make her seem independant and collected, something that the target audience can aspire to. Standing back and looking at the cover of the magazine, they have used a lot of white space but they have packed a lot of information minimalistically. They have done this by using as little words as they can and only one main image which isn't crowded. They are promising information on 10 artists, under the cover line ‘THE STATE OF MUSIC TODAY’, this takes up very little space and doesn't take away from the Rihanna article. The quote that NME has used of Rihanna’s interview is quite straight to the point to tell the audience its more of a personal and uncensored interview. Also the way the text is structured, upside down pyramid flows with the look of the front cover and the image of Rihanna going from out to in. The piece of information at the top right, ‘INTRODUCING THE NEW NME. 4 of 10 SPECIAL EDITION COVERS’ is seen standing back because its not what they want to be the main content of the magazine that draws your attention, but a part of the context that will make you want to buy the magazine, it will appeal to existing audience members, such as casual readers and also collectors of the magazine but also a new audience because humans as a collective like something new and special, something different. The photograph has been influenced by contextual matters, by using the gem studded parrot on Rihanna’s shoulder it implies that she is confident but it also represents her in who she is by what the parrot looks like and the pose, Glamourous but in a pose that suggests dominance and power.Overall the content of the magazine isn't very complicated in how it looks but it is complicated in how they have structured all the information. Also we can tell that it based more heavily at a female audience with the colours used and the artist used.The form of the magazine front cover is very controlling in where everything has been place, as a majority the front cover works together, however there is an element of the magazine that doesn't fit, that it is the small bit of writing ‘Toya’s World’ which stands out in a bad way, it doesn't fit with its two tone colour and style of font and also where it has been placed. It looks like it had to be added into the magazine last minute and was just slapped on where there space. Most of the text has either been left, right or centre justified except for the bit of text which is out of place, this creates a juxtaposition in the front cover of the magazine.Personally i like the look of this magazine, i find it all flows and fits together and the contrasting colours work very well together. If you took away the NME logo it doesn't scream music magazine straight away even though Rihanna is a music icon, mainly because she is also a fashion icon and women’s role model. The magazine cover is usually a representation of the artist or band on the front cover and this magazine cover is no exception, i feel like it is distinctively Rihanna. The magazine cover is meant to draw its target audience and i feel like this magazine cover has done that.
Current Practitioners- Kate Moross
One of the artists that i am looking at is involved in all different types of media, from promotion ideas for campaigns to creating her own style of fashion. She has been approached by massive companies to create their adverts and magazine covers. The companies vary from Cadbury, Guardian and Dunk. Looking at her work it all has a similar flow weather she is creating a magazine front cover or a t-shirt design, or logo designs. The context of her work has a similar theme with colours and shapes and also with the way it flows across the page in an unusual way. As you can tell by some of her work, her main attraction in her work is music and music idols. She does a lot for upcoming artists to get them notice and get them a unique and different personal image. However on the other hand she does do a lot for other companies, a more recognisable advert that she has done is the cadburys ‘Milky Creamy Yummy’. Her work is also quite simple and uses a lot of white space but it brings her work out more and emphasises it.“I never really plan it, just sit down in front of a blank page and go for it. I have never really been precious about my drawings, I just think of them as sketches and scraps of paper. That way they don't intimidate me, and I can't mess them up. I make mistakes all the time, but just try and work them back into the picture somehow. That's a great skill to learn as an illustrator, how to hide your mistakes, and make them into happy accidents. I sometimes work in pencil, but I use a light box to trace the pen version so I am starting on a clean sheet rather than drawing on the paper version. Just in case I need to start again, I still have my original sketch to trace from.”This is an answer to a question of how she starts to draw and how it turns out to the professional look. She doesn't just use one technique but a wide range of different techniques and equipment put together in one. A main way of how she gets her art to look that way is a range of processes. She starts with a blank piece of paper and starts to draw, she then takes it to her light box to give it a more clear and defined look, sometimes she will take her drawings into photoshop before illustrator to create an effect to her drawing that she could not do just by hand. She also uses photoshop a lot more when it comes to photography. Finally she takes her drawings into illustrator and can spend days on her computer making her drawings become her vision then changing them straight away because it doesn't flow to the way she imagined, and it keeps changing every second.Personally i like the style of Kate Moross, it make look very simple in the final product but all the effort and time that will go into each drawing, which will all be different but with her own personal touch that you will see repeated throughout all of them. Her work is very happy and flowing, it intrigues me and makes me want to carry on looking at it until you understand it, you have to look at every single segment of her work to see the whole picture, you can not miss out on missing a small drawing, it all works together in harmony. Also with her work you can tell she has an interest in triangles and font, this is repeated constantly in her work, this also makes me interested in her work of how she uses her own style and can incorporate in pretty much any style of genre.
Typography
Typography is everywhere in every different type of media, from adverts, websites, magazines, newspapers, leaflets, etc. The whole reason for typography is so it will look more appealing to the audience it is aimed at, and also emphasise the content of the magazine. Also the content on the type of media in which the specific typography is used, reflects the content of what's it about. What typography is, it is when every element comes together in harmony, The size, arrangement, point size, line length, leading and kerning or tracking. Typography in magazines has been a big part of promoting the magazine, they use typography in magazines to either convey a certain message to the reader, mood or theme. The way typography does in this in magazines is by using certain colour schemes, shapes and images. When looking at typography for my magazine title, i am looking for something that will both suit the style of the magazine as well as the professional and serious look that the target audience will be attracted to. So typography can either make a magazine what it is or make it what it is not, so the importance of typography is a big deal, it has to balance itself out with the size of each letter, and the way they all work together. A great example which has always had the perfect balance and has always worked is a worldwide well known brand, Coca Cola. It has been the same since 1885 with its curvature and fancy look, it works so well and it has worked for the company whilst on the other hand pepsi have changed their logo around 11 times to get the perfect balance of weight and style like coke. Typography is a drive of a product, magazine etc.Here is an example of how typography is used, this magazine front cover uses typography on the front cover to convey a mood for each genre of music, also how each different font feels like the genre its trying to get across. They also do this by using specific colours that represent the genre. The whole page is working together very well without any white space. Also they use known typography because the audience is familiar with the style of typography that goes with the genre of music.
Magazine Analysis
Whilst looking through a few different magazines I listed what they include in the magazine and how much it would take over the magazine. Straight away looking the magazines you can see that paid adverts are more dominant all the way through the magazine. On average paid adverts take up around 40% of the magazine, some magazines they might be more that 50% dominant and in others they might be less than 30%. Magazines make around 70% of their profits from the paid adverts in the magazines, so more adverts that are included in your magazine more overall profit your magazine will gain, however this does depend on the circulation and readership of the magazine. Higher the readership more companies will want their adverts in that magazines. So if you look at a well known and bought magazine such as NME, it has around 42% paid adverts, but because of this each advert space in the magazine will cost more than a less known magazine such as Country Gardens which has small niche market. The next Content in the magazine that is about half the amount of paid adverts is the features in the magazine, this is around 20%, the whole reason for this being the second biggest content is because this is one of the main reasons why you would buy the magazine. What would attract a new audience. The next would be the reviews which take up around 15% of the magazine, these are something extra for the reader, as a reader you the most out of your magazine so everything extra will want you to buy it more.
Content Page
This is a contents page of a music magazine, the one sided content page consists on a large image which covers the full page, however the image uses a lot of white space in the image, this exaggerates the image more. For the masthead they have used a big bold black font which stands out against the grey and contrasts against the pink. All the different colours give the content page layers and a more 3D feel. The way the eye looks across this page is from the middle bottom up to the top left of the page, across then down, the reason we do this is because the colour pink grabs our attention, then secondly to the big black writing, then to the smaller pink type. This is an example of how hierarchy is used within magazines.
Conclusion
In conclusion i have looked at a range of different magazines, and i think that my ideas for my final piece will reflect a section of different magazines, an example of this is that in the media magazines i like the layout which gives the magazine a more modern look to it and attracting to look at. So what i want to do for my final piece is use abit of everything and incorporate it into my final, but with a bit of original touch so i'm not just copying their magazines and that it looks like something different. What i have done and what i am going to do is look at each aspect of a magazine in more detail and refine my ideas so i can get the best out of it. My style of work that i am think about doing is going to be more unusual in magazines as they are generally computer generated, whilst what i am thinking about doing is using different textures and layers to give my magazine something different and unusual that would appeal to an audience, and also stand out on a rack of magazines.
No comments:
Post a Comment