USP is short for the phrase Unique Selling Point. A USP is a certain something in your magazine that differs it from the rest, that something that makes it a whole lot better. When making a magazine if you don't have a Unique Selling Point you are never going to hit the mainstream market, therefore meaning the magazine is not going to be a successful as what the producer thought. There are many things that can be classed as a unique selling point in a magazine. Some of which are the particular artist, band or group they feature on their front cover, the price of the magazine and what genre the magazine covers.
The Unique Selling point of my magazine will be that within the magazine I will cover a number of different genres to suit a number of audience's. This is because personally I don't just like one type of music, I tend to listen to a range of different artists and I know there is others like me out there. I think this type of magazine would work great and please many audience's.
After careful consideration I have decided that my magazine will not just cover a single genre. I am going to look at mixed genre's, this is because I feel there isn't enough magazines out there that look at more than one genre and reader's like myself would like to see more of it. This is because I don't like to listen to just one genre of music I tend to listen to a large range of music. There is obviously some obstacles that I am going to have to overcome such as the front cover. Normally on the front cover there is just one band or one artist pictured because they are only covering one genre. That artist pictured is the artist with the biggest news or the best story in that genre that week so then they get the picture on the front cover to advertise the story/news better. I am covering more than one genre and so I need to think how to overcome which artists to feature on the front cover. Some idea's I have thought of consist of merging artists together in the picture, or just picturing one artist but clearly advertising the other artists on the front page and make it clear that the news about them is inside. At the minute I feel that the second option on featuring one artist on the front and clearly advertising the rest sounds like the best idea. This is because if I start merging artists together on the front page it might become to busy and the front page will become confusing to the reader.
Monday, 22 November 2010
Preliminary Task
For my Preliminary Task, I have been set the task of making a college magazine. I am going to take a medium-close up shot of a student, this will be my main image on my front cover. I will also have to put a story line and a header with that to make my front cover look acceptable. On top of this front cover I will put together a contents page and a double page spread. This is all good practice as I will become more confident using all software to create a magazine and so will have no doubts when it comes to make my final magazine.
This is an image of the mock up front cover produced in my preliminary task. Firstly I took a photo of a girl in my class to put on my front cover as the main story. I then went through the process of cutting the background out of the image to leave me with just the body shot of the student. I had to think what background would work well with this image and decided to go with a plain blue. I thought the image would show up better on a blue background than on a black background for example. With these darker colour's in the background and picture I felt I needed a brighter colour for the text, I chose the colour yellow because I felt it showed up better on the background. The Main title of the magazine is in the biggest font so it is recognisable and sells the name of the magazine. I put the main headline about Jess in a bigger font and a different style of text to the rest this all adds up to attract the attention of the reader. all the other less important bits of information are written in a smaller font size and the same style of lettering.
I feel there are thing I could improve on this layout of the front cover, these consist of being more careful when cutting out the image. Looking back at the cut out image it looks rushed and so I will be careful not to make this same mistake when doing my real magazine front cover. There other problems with this front cover these consist of all the blank space that I didn't use up, the basic blue background which I think is a bit plain and lastly I have made a silly mistake in not checking my spelling as I spelt the word 'mountain' wrong.
This is a mock up of a contents page I drew up. Its a basic idea that came to mind when thinking what kind of layout to do. Its basic and plain but it shows all information that is needed on a contents page. Again looking at the picture of my contents page I feel it looks a bit rushed and untidy, this is a element of my work that i need to cut out and start being more careful when doing my work. I think when I come to do my actual contents page I will have the background as an image because looking at it like this it looks really plain. When I come to planning my contents page I think the best way go forward with it would be to look at a contents page in a magazine that I like and not copy it but take the layout and use it for inspiration when planning what i want the page to look like.
This is an image of the mock up front cover produced in my preliminary task. Firstly I took a photo of a girl in my class to put on my front cover as the main story. I then went through the process of cutting the background out of the image to leave me with just the body shot of the student. I had to think what background would work well with this image and decided to go with a plain blue. I thought the image would show up better on a blue background than on a black background for example. With these darker colour's in the background and picture I felt I needed a brighter colour for the text, I chose the colour yellow because I felt it showed up better on the background. The Main title of the magazine is in the biggest font so it is recognisable and sells the name of the magazine. I put the main headline about Jess in a bigger font and a different style of text to the rest this all adds up to attract the attention of the reader. all the other less important bits of information are written in a smaller font size and the same style of lettering.
I feel there are thing I could improve on this layout of the front cover, these consist of being more careful when cutting out the image. Looking back at the cut out image it looks rushed and so I will be careful not to make this same mistake when doing my real magazine front cover. There other problems with this front cover these consist of all the blank space that I didn't use up, the basic blue background which I think is a bit plain and lastly I have made a silly mistake in not checking my spelling as I spelt the word 'mountain' wrong.
This is a mock up of a contents page I drew up. Its a basic idea that came to mind when thinking what kind of layout to do. Its basic and plain but it shows all information that is needed on a contents page. Again looking at the picture of my contents page I feel it looks a bit rushed and untidy, this is a element of my work that i need to cut out and start being more careful when doing my work. I think when I come to do my actual contents page I will have the background as an image because looking at it like this it looks really plain. When I come to planning my contents page I think the best way go forward with it would be to look at a contents page in a magazine that I like and not copy it but take the layout and use it for inspiration when planning what i want the page to look like.
Initial Thoughts and Ideas.
I have several initial thoughts and ideas for what I can do for my music magazine. I have decided the genre I will cover is a current music genre. This is because I am interested in all different types of music and don't have one specific genre that I like better than another. I tend to like all kinds of music bar a few such as heavy rock/metal and what is called MC music.
These are two magazines that look at artists listed in the charts. These are both examples of what I look up to as the correct way to lay out my magazine front cover. This is because I am focusing on more than one artist and so I need to list a few artists on the front page, but then the picture will be of an artist that has recently achieved something or brought out a new song or album. In Q magazine Lilly Allen is situated on the front page, this is because within the magazine the big headline of the week is about her. On the front page it is her name that is in the biggest font and bold so most noticeable. Q magazine must have written a big story on Lilly Allen, so for any Lilly Allen fans this magazine would catch their eye first purely because of the front cover. Also on this front cover is listed in the top right corner three other bands that are featured inside the magazine, these are The Stone Roses, Oasis and U2. These three phrases are in a reasonable size font and all in bold so stand out very well and show the reader that there is stories to read about these bands too. In this particular edition of Q magazine it is advertised on the front cover that inside there is the 25 greatest rock movies, this is another bit of the front cover that will attract somebody to buy the magazine to find out what movies are in the top 25. Its arguable that the colour's on the front cover might not work but I think they go well together and the magazine stands out well. In Vibe magazine Usher is featured on the front cover he is placed on a runway background, this will have been done on purpose maybe because the news about him, a new upcoming song about this kind of scene or even just to put him in a scene that shows he is strong and a hero type figure. The title for the magazine is very clear in a big font and bold. Usher's and Soulja Boy's names are both seen on the front cover in a yellow bold font to stand out and attract the attention of the readers. Another piece of information situated on the front cover is 50 Crazy Celeb Tweets, this could also attract the reader to buy this magazine to find out what tweets have been posted and what has been said. The colour used is very attractive and will attract the eye of anyone looking at magazines, it give's the overall front page an exiting side to it and makes the reader want to read into the magazine.
These are two magazines that look at artists listed in the charts. These are both examples of what I look up to as the correct way to lay out my magazine front cover. This is because I am focusing on more than one artist and so I need to list a few artists on the front page, but then the picture will be of an artist that has recently achieved something or brought out a new song or album. In Q magazine Lilly Allen is situated on the front page, this is because within the magazine the big headline of the week is about her. On the front page it is her name that is in the biggest font and bold so most noticeable. Q magazine must have written a big story on Lilly Allen, so for any Lilly Allen fans this magazine would catch their eye first purely because of the front cover. Also on this front cover is listed in the top right corner three other bands that are featured inside the magazine, these are The Stone Roses, Oasis and U2. These three phrases are in a reasonable size font and all in bold so stand out very well and show the reader that there is stories to read about these bands too. In this particular edition of Q magazine it is advertised on the front cover that inside there is the 25 greatest rock movies, this is another bit of the front cover that will attract somebody to buy the magazine to find out what movies are in the top 25. Its arguable that the colour's on the front cover might not work but I think they go well together and the magazine stands out well. In Vibe magazine Usher is featured on the front cover he is placed on a runway background, this will have been done on purpose maybe because the news about him, a new upcoming song about this kind of scene or even just to put him in a scene that shows he is strong and a hero type figure. The title for the magazine is very clear in a big font and bold. Usher's and Soulja Boy's names are both seen on the front cover in a yellow bold font to stand out and attract the attention of the readers. Another piece of information situated on the front cover is 50 Crazy Celeb Tweets, this could also attract the reader to buy this magazine to find out what tweets have been posted and what has been said. The colour used is very attractive and will attract the eye of anyone looking at magazines, it give's the overall front page an exiting side to it and makes the reader want to read into the magazine.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Introduction to Project!
My name is Sam Walsh and I am an AS Media student.
For my AS Media project I have decided to create a music magazine consisting of a front cover, a contents page and double page spread article.
Within this project there has to be a minimum of 4 pages, the pictures I use have to be my own and finally the article has to be written myself.
I have chosen to do the music magazine purely because I have big interest in music.
For my AS Media project I have decided to create a music magazine consisting of a front cover, a contents page and double page spread article.
Within this project there has to be a minimum of 4 pages, the pictures I use have to be my own and finally the article has to be written myself.
I have chosen to do the music magazine purely because I have big interest in music.
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