Good and Bad Magazine Covers

Whilst doing research for my own magazine, I came across some really good examples of what a magazine should look like, and how well they would sell, but I also came across some really awful examples of published magazine covers filled with mistakes.

This first magazine cover was published with a photograph of Kristen Stewart. This has to be one of the worst magazine covers because of the way she's standing and her facial expressions make the magazine look dull and not very exciting. It may be easy to guess that this magazine might not have sold as many copies as one of their issues with a slightly more awake model on the front.

 The Glamour magazine is also such an obviously bad magazine cover because of the way the model has been photo shopped, if you look at the model's right leg, you can notice how it is much smaller than the left leg. This is something that I will have to keep in mind when doing my own magazine. If I need to edit my photograph in any way, I will try to do it subtly and not make publish any big mistakes that will make my cover look unprofessional.

However, there are many good examples of well made magazines that I've looked at to compare my magazine and use them as inspiration on how I should try to make mine.

For example, this cover of Angelina Jolie includes many of the typical magazine front cover features and the photograph suits the style of the magazine, as well as not having any edited mistakes left in the final published copy. The magazine also looks professional and the colour schemes all match. The black, white and grey give it a simplistic style, which is what I am aiming to produce for my magazine.

                                                                                          

Photo-shoot

For my first photo-shoot, I wanted to have a darker background so I could use the light from the street lamps as an effect. We visited a couple of locations, where I took some practise pictures for what I might want to use for the front cover as well as the double page spread. At the end of the shoot there were a couple of pictures I thought would be effective, one of them did end up to be on the front cover.
I also did another shoot with a lighter grey background. I found that I wanted my magazine's theme to be black and white, so I kept with taking pictures using that effect. I wanted the lighter pictures to show more of the models face, which compared to the darker images would have a good contrast. For the second photo-shoot, I used actors headshots as inspiration, and I wanted my model to be fully facing the camera, with nothing hiding her features.
After taking all of my pictures, I experimented with some colour filters, such as a blue effect and sepia, after doing so I found that the simple black and white ones were more effective and looked more professional. I took a couple of pictures only capturing my models eyes and half of her face because I wanted to experiment with slightly more unconventional styled pictures.
Although I really liked the pictures, after asking a few people it became clear that those type of pictures would not fit in with my genre of magazine.

 

Planning my Magazine

Before I start to make my final magazine pieces, I wanted to play around with a few ideas I had to see if they would work, and which software I would be able to use to give the best outcome.

Front Cover Ideas

Contents Page Ideas

 

 

Double Page Spread Ideas

Mood Boards + Research

Fonts

  

For the font, I was thinking about going for something that could found on other popular magazines. I preferred the bolder styles of font and I thought that if I were to use a more thinner font, I would use all capital letters in the title. By researching different font types, it has helped me to better understand the conventions of a magazine cover that is aimed at a mass audience and to choose the right font that would fit my genre of magazine.

Artist Genre

 

 

These are the kinds of artists that inspired what my model would look/be like. The fact that I had chosen a pop based magazine, I wanted to base my artist on well known chart singers, such as Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, all artists that would attract a younger audience. All of these singers are also mostly pop singers, which is what my artists would be similar to. This research also helped me to form content for my double page spread, by finding out what kind of questions these artists are asked and the way they go about answering them, helped me to put my questions together and to then form a response.

Location

 For the location, I wanted to visit mainly outdoor places so I could use a natural background without having to edit it. Even though many of the places I wanted to shoot looked nice. However from this research of different locations, it became clear to me that if I wanted to have the main focus of the magazine cover on my model, a noisy background would take away the effect of the model. For this reason I decided to still use an outdoor background, but in a way that it was subtle and would not take the audiences attention away from the model.

Music Magazine Covers

Many of the magazine front covers I researched were pop, or loosely based around pop culture. One thing that helped influence my final product is the way pop magazines layout their cover lines. I noticed that the main cover line would generally involve the biggest story (almost always about the featured music artist) and the other cover lines would give more insight into the rest of the magazine. One other thing from the research that helped my decisions on how to  make my front cover, was the position of the title. In my first magazine daft the title was a small size and spaced out, but after looking at other pop magazines, I realised a more effective and professional looking title would be bold and large, either in front of the model or behind.

Layout Ideas

Reader Profile

Demographics

Gender:                          Female
Age:                               17
ABC:                             C1/DE
Occupation:                   Student/Part time Job
Disposable Income:      £100
Education:                     Sixth Form/A Levels
                                      Media
                                      Politics
                                      English
                                      Psychology
Nationality:                   British

Psychographics

A "normal" 17 year old A level Sixth Form
student who is interested in music as well
as her hobbies such as photography and sports.
When she spends time alone, this person will
listen to mainstream pop music, but is open to
finding out about new artists other may not
have heard of. When she spends time with her
friends, they like to go to the cinema to watch
new movies or to the theatre to watch live
productions of well known performances.
She enjoys a lot of things to do with art and creativity.
She plays a few instruments and likes to paint
in her spare time, when she is not doing school work.

Likes: Good music and films, shopping,
playing instruments, spending time with friends,
CD collecting.

Dislikes: Racism, injustice, bad music
and films, people shouting in public.

                               

Magazine Questionnaire

Thinking about my magazine, I made a questionnaire to find out about what kind of features and components my target audience would want to see. I conducted 20 questions that would help to give me an idea on what I would put in my own magazine, and how I would construct it so that it would fit to the expectations of the readers.

 

Ages

After doing some research, the main age group I was focusing on were 15-19 year olds. However as I progressed in handing out the questionnaires, I found that the majority of the people answering my questions were 16 and 17 year olds. From the pie chart, I can see how out of the 21 people who filled

out my questionnaire, the majority were these to ages. This will now help me to focus on the kind of language, and way I will construct my magazine in order to appeal to the correct age range. 



 

 

Circulation

One thing I wanted to find out from my questionnaire, is how often people would want to buy my magazine. The reason I asked this question was because I would have an idea on how much content the magazine would need, for example, if I was updating the readers on the past week, month or year. Looking at the results of this question, it became clear that 10 people out of the 21 would be interested in buying the magazine monthly. From these results, I will be able to keep in mind that in the magazine, the content will be about music that has been around, or made an impact in the past month.

Magazine Genre

Another very important question I asked in my questionnaire was: What is your favourite music genre. By asking this question, it would help me to use the results from the age question and the results from this to put together the ideal magazine. After collecting the results from this question, I can see that "pop" is the most popular genre. Amongst the 21 people who filled out the questionnaire, 18 of them fell under the ages of 16 and 17, from this I can put together that the majority od people this age like to listen and read about pop music.

 

 

The Magazine Name

The last major question I wanted to ask was about what I could call my magazine. Out of the 4 options (Tune Magazine, Ballad, Key Magazine and Root Magazine) the most popular name for the magazine was "Ballad". Since over half of the people I asked chose this name, I have decided to consider using this as my title because it was the most liked and being one word, it will stand out and look good.

 

 

 Other Questions I asked

As well as these questions that I put into pie charts, I asked more that I believed would help me to put together my magazine. One question that I thought would be important to ask was "What would you want to see on the front cover?" The reason I asked this question was so I could decide how I could construct the front cover of the magazine. The most popular answer out of the options I gave, was a celebrity. This will help me to decide what kind of picture I want to put on the front of the magazine.

 

One other question I asked was about the layout. I wanted to know whether people liked the conventional magazine cover or wanted to see something more unconventional and different to what most magazines are like. The most frequent answer was conventional, this will help me to design the cover in a conventional way that most people are used to.

 

 

 

 

Magazine Logos and Titles

David Carson - Ray Gun Magazine

.

David Carson is best known for his designs for the front cover of the alternative music and lifestyle magazine Ray Gun in. The magazine sold over 70 issues from 1992 - 2000, featuring famous music icons such as: Oasis, Radiohead, Red Hot Chilly Peppers and Pearl Jam. One thing that would gain the attention of the public eye, would be how unconventional Carson's magazine covers were. His magazines explored a very abstract style. A lot of the time, most of the magazines were very hard to read.

Many of Carson's designs were different every time the magazine was published, and never had any of the same features. Looking at some of the front covers, we can see how the magazine doesn't include the typical features you would expect it to. For example, most covers wouldn't have any sort of cover lines or datelines. Another component that goes against the conventional magazine cover, is how in some of the magazines, Carson puts the barcode in different places, not always in the usual right hand bottom corner

 

    

Even though I do like how David Carson was able to design these Ray Gun covers, in a very non traditional way, I don't think I would try to make my music magazine cover this way. As David Carson was well known for his covers, it seems that he could design them however he liked, however if I tried to do the same thing, missing out all of the conventional features, I don't think the magazine would sell and be something people would immediately want to buy.

Representation

  Miss Representation

 

 

After looking at different magazines and exploring how men and women are represented, there is a clear difference. For example, we look at front covers of magazines and we can immediately see how the men are portrayed as strong, tough and macho, when women are pictured as gentle, but more often as objects. GQ is a well know respectable magazine, however we can see how the woman on the front are clearly photographed as a spectacle for men to look at. As there are so many other magazines that do the exactly the same thing, it's not a surprise that in 2011, 53% of thirteen year old girls are unhappy with their body, because they have an unrealistic idea of what women and girls should look like. Even women who are known for their respectable jobs in the world, such as politicians or news presenters, are still sexualised and are only talked about when referring to their clothing and appearance.

 

 

After watching the documentary "Miss Representation" it has become even more apparent to me how women are seen as objects, and something of much less value than a man. It's not a surprise to anyone that we today, live in an extremely patriarchal society. However after watching the documentary, what did come as a surprise to me was that, in 2011, only 16% of protagonists are women. Even then, the women in these movie roles are sexualised and are made to be desirable for a specifically male audience. Not even in children's movies are portrayed differently, but are still seen wearing a significantly small amount of clothing.

 

Facial Expressions - Marjorie Ferguson

In the 1980's Marjorie Ferguson identified four different ways in which women are shown in British magazines. Ferguson showed how magazine covers could be shown as: Chocolate Box, Invitational, Super Smiler and Romantic or Sexual.

 

The Chocolate Box

This cover is usually shown with the model with a closed mouth smile, and has used a full or three

quarter face to the camera.

The cover would normally try to project a feeling a warmth, as well as showing the model

with nothing but perfections. 

Invitational

This cover typically has a big emphasis on the eyes or the mouth of the model. Usually, the models

body will be turned away, but their face facing the camera. With this cover

there is a projected mood of mystery. The smile would often create a sense of sexuality

 

 

The Super-Smiler
It wouldn't be surprising to find a windswept model, showing a full tooth smile

with their chin up and a very aggressive "look my way" type of mood. 

 

Romantic or Sexual

This cover would normally include more than one person on the front, typically

a male and a female in a very sensual position. The models would not be smiling

and look. The models would have less clothing to seem "available"

The Male Gaze Theory

The idea of the Male Gaze Theory came about in 1970 by a woman named Laura Mulvey. Mulvey strongly argues that in film, women are only present for the masculine eye to be gazed at and objectified. Her idea suggests that in film, the camera would act as the eye of a heterosexual man who would want to show women the way men want to see them. 

Mulvey shows us that this can be shown as:
 

Men look at women

Women look at Women

Women look at other Women

In movies, there is no other way that women are shown apart from sexual characters, innocent characters, or the incredibly bitchy boss. In so many movies, you will find that whatever the genre of movie, if there is a young female character, the camera will just so happen to find itself positioned on the women's slightly clothed body for the rest of the movie, simply to make sure the men are happy. This has become so normal in our society that nothing about this theory is questioned, and since film was created no one in the directing career has changed the way we victimise women and put them in front of the camera to just be looked at.

 

 

For my magazine

After looking at how men and women are represented in the media, I can see how it can be difficult for editors to create work that will stand out in the market as well as producing a magazine that won't have to follow along the steps of a "typical magazine". For my magazine, I don't want to put out the same messages as all of the other magazines, that would only create false image for both girls and boys. If I were to have a woman on the front of my magazine cover, they wouldn't be presented in a way that is only desirable for men, but in a way that other women and girls will be able to relate to. I would want to show that women can be just as powerful as men, and maybe not use the typical functions of magazine covers such as Marjorie Ferguson's facial expressions, that would make women seen differently to men. I would want my magazine to be able to represent all kinds of people, and would not just use a white female who would attract the attention of white males. I want to make sure my magazine can appeal to any sort of ethnic group.

 

 

Preliminary Task

Evaluation

For my preliminary task, I made a magazine cover for the new sixth formers that began Southfield this year. My target audience for this magazine would be 16-19 year old boys and girls. The masthead for the magazine has different font sizes. The "Southfield" is written in a bigger font, so it should be the first thing that would get the attention of the audience. The masthead also includes the smaller words saying "sixth form" so the audience would be clear on the content of the magazine. All of the masthead is written in the same colour which stands out against the white background, all of this would be the first thing the reader would see. Also next to the masthead, I have put a date for the magazine.

A weakness of my magazine cover, is the fact that I haven't used capital letters at the beginning of my cover lines, which i think could have made the magazine look more formal and more powerful when being read. Also another weakness of the cover is that I have missed out an important feature of a magazine cover, the main cover line. I think I could have made the font of one of my cover lines bolder and a larger font so it would stand out more and catch the audiences eye. One positive of my cover is how the masthead is able to stand out clearly against the white background of the photograph, so it would be easy for the target audience to identify and want to read the magazine.

For my contents, I used the same colour schemes as the magazine cover. A weakness of my contents page is that it is quite simple, and might not be as encouraging for the target audience to carry on with the magazine. However, the contents page does include images from students around the school, which might motivate the readers to read the rest of the magazine, and maybe join the school sixth form.

In-groups & Out- groups

Social Identity Theory

Tajfel proposed: that the groups which people belonged to were an important source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us a sense of social identity: a sense of belonging to the social world. 

Some of these groups could have included social class, family or a football team.

In certain groups, members will try to improve and enhance their image so that their group can also be enhanced. Another way group members will increase their image is by acting intolerant towards other groups and discriminating them.

By acting in this way, naturally people become divided. The world of "us" and "them" comes into place and people are put into social groups. "in-groups" and "out-groups". The idea of social identification, is how people in these groups will act and behave, including opinions and attitudes which would be accepted as a norm in these particular groups.

 

Mods and Rockers

The mods and rockers were two British subcultures that were conflicting throughout early 1960s and 1970s. The Mods would often dress in tailor-made suits and wear Doc Martens and desert boots. Most Mods would listen to RnB music, as well as soul. Rockers were usually dressed in leather jackets and motor bike boots, also with turned up jeans. Rockers would listen to a lot of Rock n Roll. 

During the time of the mods and rockers, many fights broke out due to the dissimilarity and the social comparison. A famous conflict between the two social groups took place in Brighton(1964) on the beach, where physical fighting became severe. 

 

 

 

 

 

Magazine Analysis

This magazine cover uses a medium long shot of Angelina Jolie, making her the focus of the magazine, even overlapping the masthead. The colours in the background help to make the red of Jolie's dress, and the font to stand out. The function of this magazine is to give the audience article on lifestyle, fashion and celebrity culture. The word vogue means fashion. This would appeal to a certain demographic, such as young people are interested in fashion.

The 4 F's

Format

Format is the way that something is organised or set out

In a magazine this could include the way the magazine looks

for example, the logo, size of the magazine or cover lines.

The format will give the overall feel.

Formula

The formula (editorial content) is what is inside the magazine.

Formula will include the photographic styles, illustrations, 

the magazine departments and the articles.

Frame 

The frame is the kind of margins that are used. Some magazines

use different margin sizes, but other magazines might change

the margin size. Margins are usually used in a magazine for

consistency.

Function

In a magazine, the function is presenting the overall message

and aim.