Introduction:
For my digital magazine production I produced a high street womens winter fashion magazine. During this process I took on many production decisions and technical, activities, planning and minimise risks. My planning and decision making was produced and posted on my word press blog @elliebartlettmagazine.fashion. I overcame mistakes, risks and made positive changes to my magazine throughout the 6 week process.
Front cover:
Before creating my magazine in indesign i completed a sketch of what I was aiming for my front cover to look like at the end of the process. I had gathered several sell lines and got an idea from other magazines of what typical sell lines were shown. As the genre of my magazine is fashion i created most of my sell lines with the word ‘fashion’ in it to really show the reader that it is a fashion magazine. At the bottom of the magazine i used the sell line ‘new winter season fashion’ with fashion being in big bold writing. I then had added the essential parts like a barcode, a website link to which my audience can go online and read more, the date it came out and the price of my magazine. After I had designed my front cover I gained feedback from my peers of improvements and positive feedback. One point of feedback i got was to add one or two more sell lines in order to really catch the target audiences eye. From this feedback I added two more sell lines and rearranged what some of them said as they were too similar. This did make my magazine stand out more than it did. Another piece of constructive feedback was to enlarge my ‘Demure’ masthead so it takes up the whole width at the top. Enlarging my title on indesign made the page look a lot brighter and made my masthead stand out. Overall my magazine had good catchy sell lines that relate to the genre of my magazine and i added all the essentials to a magazine cover which was the barcode, price, title and any sort of social media platform that your audience can access.
Final product:
For my final front cover piece I changed each sell lines typography so each sell line can stand out from each other.I made significant words to the magazine to be red so they stand out to the audience in this case i made ‘holiday, christmas, 5 and power’ red. These words all show that my magazine is a Christmas winter magazine. For my image I have used a close up image of my model in which most fashion magazines do this. The use of the close up image makes the magazine stand out to the target audience and makes the cover look like a typical fashion magazine. I created my mathead to be widely spread across the top of the page in order for it to stand out more and beneath that place the month and year of when the magazine came out as people may only want specific seasonal outfits. I felt that this front cover was a success as I have created sell lines that really engage with the reader and tell them alot about what content will be in my double page spreads.
Double page spreads:
I looked at many double page spreads in order to get some ideas and again identify the typical look of a fashion double page spread. I went through significant changes within my double page spread process. My first sketch (1) of my DPS was very boring and did not look like it would be in a magazine. As you can see i only had one image on one of the DPS and the other DPS did not have the coulomb like text style which most magazine articles have. On the first double page spread i had very small box images which would not have been very clear to the audience however i rearranged it and used the same 3 images but enlarged them and placed them on the left side instead of the right. After receiving my feedback i changed the text in double page spread 1 into columns like how an article would be and include a large quote across the top of the right hand side so make the spread more exciting for the reader. After receiving feedback on double page spread 2 i added a photo onto the right side of the spread and created a title for the image on the left side page. When I had finished these double page spreads I decided to create a third one. I was going for a very simple and plain but modern and sophisticated look for example:
After looking at other magazines I found that on one side of the DPS would be an enlarged image and the other side a slogan, title, quote ect. After planning and decision making this is what i created.
Final products:
My article on DPS 1 was a description of one of the trendy outfits I chose for my model to wear as it is essential for my article to relate to the genre of my magazine. I also wrote in my article a perfect gift guide essential for my audience. I disused price ranges and the product itself. I thought talking about the outfit and products, where its from and price ranges ect would appeal to my audience as it makes it easier for them to find the items of clothing or accessories. On the left side i used a large long shot image of the outfit being described which is important that they can see the clothing on a model. Like most fashion magazines, I added a short list of what the product is and where it is from. For this image I added the white bold title ‘The winter look’. In order for my audience to access other monthly magazine and social media platforms i added a link to a socia;l media platform so they can see more outfit ideas.
For my final second double page spread i used a collage layout for my images as most teen magazines do this for more of a polaroid look. These images are not too small and are a reasonable size for my audience to see. Next to each of these images i have again short listed the items of clothing including the price and where it came from. In regards to my article it features the life of a school girl studying fashion and design at college. I included this in my article as i felt that it could inspire others when joining collage or possibly others could relate to it. I also included a large white quote that I think can be very inspiring to those who love fashion. Similar to my first double page spread i have added an account to a social media platform so my audience can see more of my fashion ideas.
For my final third double page spread i created a plain and modern double page spread. This spread consisted of one large image with the items of clothing that the model is wearing beside her and a plain black page with another inspiring quote.
Target audience and genre:
I hit and decided my choice of genre through a planning mind map. I discussed the connotations of magazine genres for example music, health, cosmetics, fashion,teen, sport and fitness. I came to the conclusion that with my target audience being 16-30 year old women, a fashion genre would appeal to them more and i also know more about fashion than other possible genres. I also created my own research and planning on how I can make parts of my fashion magazine appeal to my audience more. My research had trendy items of clothing that I should include in my magazine and colours that will appeal to my audience. My magazine appeals to my target audience due to my connotations of my magazine covers. Firstly for my front cover i chose a close up of my model which is a young girl, appealing to my audience more as my target audience are young women as well.
Initial proposal:
The institution I chose was Conde nast which is an American media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast. The company attract more than 84 million consumers in print, 366 million in digital and 384 million across social platforms including Allure, Architectural Digest, Ars Technica, Backchannel, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Epicurious, Glamour, GQ, Pitchfork, Self, Teen Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Wired. I have chosen Condé Nast to publish my magazine as it is very popular and well known for publishing high end magazine brands .
I would like to represent my magazine in a positive way as most magazine brands sexualise women in order to get an audience and gain more customers. I would like to represent my magazine by showing the different types of fashion you may see in today’s society that can be used as some women view and interpret fashion in their own ways so can appeal to many women. I would also like to present the idea that people can express themselves through fashion and show how they express fashion in their own way. I also find fashion magazines, websites and social media platforms very helpful for myself and interested in trying new things out so I will know exactly what my target audience wants.
I managed timing, personnel, creativity and finance using a weekly timetable over a 6 week time span. I grouped each task together being the most similar. I came to my decisions when creating a magazine through research into other magazine brands. I prepared for my magazine production by making a task list on which steps need to be completed in order to create the best magazine possible. This included for example analysing different masthead designs and identifying which ones are the norms when it comes to creating a magazine. Planning and doing research helped me to understand the connotations of magazines more and understand what an audience wants when creating your own magazine. Like with a fashion magazine, the audience wants to see unique and trendy outfits, outfit ideas, give details on where the outfit is from and the price of the item, interesting stories to read when out and about and seasonal outfit ranges.
I felt that my magazine went well and creating it was successful due to knowing what the target audience wants and what appeals to them. It is very important to know your readers. The content that you supply in your magazine is also very important because that is the main feature, people love reading interesting stories especially if they love fashion and are given a fashion based article. In this case this is what i supplied my readers with. The article I created was inspiring and gave tips to those who may want to start a fashion business. I felt that I dealt with problems along the way very reasonably. For example i gained a lot of feedback from my magazine about good and bad feedback. This meant I had room for improvement and that my magazine was not a magazine yet. This then resulted in me changing my magazine layout and design completely as it wasnt how i wanted it to look. After all of these changes I felt that my magazine looked like a real women’s fashion magazine.
However for future references, i would like to improve my ways of creating a magazine. One of my improvements will be creating an article more for my target audience and make sure it can appeal to each reader i target.
Ellie bartlett 