Preliminary Task: Brief

 'Initial Ideas' - Here are some of my ideas presented in different ways:

Here is my initial Ideas Plan that show the basic thoughts on what I want for my Student Magazine Cover. I used Inspiration 8 IE to create my diagram and edited the font, colours and added an image to add interest to the design. 

My Proposal: My ideas have been inspired from Nicola Roberts after 'google imaging' "Nicola Roberts Magazine Covers"

Her current and 'out there' approach to pop culture isn't over powering but connects to the contemporary culture of students today. Her take on fashion, makeup and hair was something that gave me style ideas for the cover star, plugs for cover lines and how I could pitch it to students.
For the Bullett cover the name jumped out to me like Notion did - simple and memorable and sounds current. Below are two inspirations that I have based my ideas on as example covers:

• My magazine is specifically aiming at College Students. I will show that I am aiming at a specific audience using a clear sense of genre and ideology. Using the Main Image to show the age (16 - 24) and the font to show that they are young. Block fonts and connotations of electronica music/DJ's theme (like a large house party) will appeal to a more modern, younger, trendy demographic. The simple layout and use of colour schemes will look appealing for students to read on-the-go and not feel they are being bombarded with information.
• My magazine will be an up-to-date theme of music, fashion, what's going on in the local areas (film, music, shopping - student sales, discounts and food etc) to appeal to their interests and what's 'relevant' to their everyday lives. It shall include some short reviews, minor celebrity interviews (internet famous people) and articles on technology they are used to using such as: social networking, technology and applications. I do not want it to have an overly 'college' base and more be about the age group with some important (and sometimes shocking) health articles that are aimed at them or their relations. It shouldn't feel student specific, but have aspects of educational basis from things like: motivational quotes from celebrities and entrepreneurs who have excelled in life and pose as good examples and role models to aspiring students in various subject fields. I want it to feature current and up-and-coming stars, photographers, rising artists (all areas) new exhibitions and galleries, undiscovered talents and facts about various employment industries.
• My ideas for cover lines are all going to be plugging what's inside the issue, I did have the idea of one largely centered to do with the cover star, but since seeing two interesting and catchy covers for two different magazines; I've wanted to explore the sleek design, I was inspired by Notion magazine and Bullett magazine.They will be mainly music, sexual health and star related and feature rhetorical questions to make the readers think and want to read the articles etc to answer their own personal questions. I want the cover to really connect to each reader by making the topics and themes unisex. So there is no gender target audience. (See picture examples above) these links have the style and 'arty' edge I want to aim for my magazine with a video to show visually what I mean: http://bullettmedia.com/about/ http://vimeo.com/45979203
• For my title I have decided to call it: Inside because it's short sharp and relates to everything 'inside' a students world: music, food, fashion - the whole world of a teenager. It's not a complicated name to remember and has a direct link to inside a teenagers brain. The following names I all rejected because as far as I am aware they are already magazine titles: In, Out, Motion, Living, Up, Lowdown, Count, Live, L, S, C, U, I
• I would want to use big block fonts, quite a lot of bold. Sans serif fonts to connect to a younger audience and for main feature pages that appeared every issue, using specialist designed fonts to look 'cool'. Some examples I found on the internet are below:

My favourite font is the 'A LOVE OF THUNDER' as I think it looks most appealing and most appropriate for standing out and grabbing a young audience. 

• My ideas for taglines I hadn't originally thought of but after internet research, I brainstormed some ideas: 

I haven't decided yet on which one I think will work best for my student magazine, until I have finished the design of the front cover. Once that has been completed I shall select which one jumps out to me as more appropriate.

• It will be published every three months, as the seasons change and the new college terms do. It doesn't over power the students with things to read (as they will have lots of coursework and exam revision to read anyway) and it allows significant change to occur that would lead to original and new articles etc. It would be available throughout the academic term until the next issue. The cover may have some iconography of seasons to reflect the change in weather and up-coming holidays etc, but the change will mainly be told through the articles and fashion shown in the imagery. Health and music will show what time of the year the magazine issue is as this socially changes with what things we concern ourselves with (e.g. in spring it's about hay-fever and medication, in summer skin cancer warnings (checking moles and sun lotion, hats and glasses etc.) and winter it's more for colds, flu and 'bugs'.) Music changes with what 'sounds' is more appropriate to listen to.
• My front cover will have a young cover star to promote the target age, if I had a team to work with I would use a photographer to take some posed location shots or studio shots and edit the effects to give it a modern look. I will be using a digital camera myself to take the photos for the cover. It will be a medium shot - I will aim from the knees up, to get most of the body in the photograph. I do not want the photograph to look to 'fake' as I want a down-to-earth and realistic looking model.
• Going from when in the year it would be published, if the first issue was from September to December (Autumn Term), the second issue was January to April (Spring Term), the third issue April to July (Summer Term) would mean it would be published three times a year.
• The cover dimensions would be 210 x 148 mm or 8.3 x 5.8 inches for an A5 magazine. I think an A5 magazine would be a more appropriate for a student magazine as it will be cheaper to mass produce due to the smaller sizing and being smaller means it's lighter and easier for students to carry around and fit into their crammed bags. It's a nicer size to handle and not having large A4 makes it less daunting or patronising to read as it's handy and travel friendly. However if I was unable to have A5, the A4 dimensions would be 297 x 210 mm or 11.7 x 8.3 inches.
• I would use lots of smaller images and some lighter shades of colour for the contents page. 

'Flat Plans' - Ideas and Inspirations for my Front Cover and Contents Page:

 Here is my first idea for my front page, presented as a flat plan which I create on an Apple Mac's 'Word Document'. I used shapes to create the black boxes and changed the font to the text.

Below is some inspirations for my contents page from existing music magazines I found on the internet: 

I like the layering and arrangement of the pages. The crowded but neat look is very appealing to a young audience as it reflects how they are and what they are into. Young people are into collages and building up collections of memories and I think these two examples show this.  I think the font choices are really well selected and it looks well co-ordinated with the rest of the text. The mixed size of images and 'busy' photography that's not studio posed gives it a teenager vibe.

  

Below is my Flat Plan for my contents page where I have used the above inspirations for the layering effect and the use of red, white and black as a colour scheme. I have used a purple triangle to look 'hipster' and the blue will be the main colour used the image. The light lime green background is not to over shadow the main design features that I have 'created' on Microsoft Word using shapes and Text Boxes.