Blog 4 - Flat Plans.

Flat Plans.

Front page.

The first flat plan i drew of my front page i ditched. The pictures i chose to put on it were from concerts. Images that i have taken off musicians involving artists like Boyzone, Leon Jackson and JLS but when scanning the photos onto the computer, they didn't match up to the standard of what is needed on a pop magazine.

After deciding that the flat plan wouldn't work, i created a fresh. This including pictures of my friends, Aiden Hawkins, Dan Meegan, Angela Carella, Lee Dearling, Kayleigh Sell, Connor Samuels and Karim Martin. When creating this on the computer, i found that it was difficult to include everything on InDesign. So i drew a similiar flat plan but rearranged it. Spacing it out a bit better. Unfortunatley the two other images that were meant to go across the line, didn't turn out so good. With the images gone, it was able to paste the writing on it alot better and also, the image behind the line didn't look so good. So that needed to be re-done. Being able to rearrange it, i was able to make the page look more appealing.

I shortened the circle which holds Miss Brollys face in, otherwise it would have been nearly the same size as Dustin Russo (Dan's) head and that wouldn't have attracted the audience as it seems to be trying to be the main story. Also the circle wouldn't be able to be spaced around. Shortening it down has made it a lot neater and clearer to the audience.

I feel as though changing this front page has improved because its not all cramped together. Its got small spaces which allows it to look affective which would instantly attract the attention of the target audience. Originally the small box on the left would have had the names printed around the border but when i placed the names around it on the computer, it didn't look that good.

The pictures at the bottom of the front page would have been there but the images taken did not fit in well there.

The background image, i chose to have large and fit most of the cover, this being similiar to the magazines i analysed in the previous blog.

Having a fresh face of a 'Good looking' male on the front page appeals to the audience it is targetted too. Not only this but the headlines appeal to the audience also. 'Dustin reveals his sensitive side.' - 'I prefer girls to ask me out.' - 'Robert Pattinson - sexiest man alive?' - 'Huge Miley poster inside.' These stories are what attracts teenage girls. Being interested in the celebrities romance's, or checking out stories of Robert Pattinson, because after Twilight, there obsessed with him and agree that he's 'sexy'. The stories i have included on my front page are similiar to the stories expected on pop magazines.

Drawing the flat plans beforehand made creating the final piece much easier as i had an idea to what it would be. Analysing the front cover, contents page and double page spread of of a pop magazine has helped me to understand what is expected in Pop magazines.

I did not decide on which fonts to use when drawing the flat plans. I knew what sort of font the title would be but that was it. The title had been set to being bubble writing as this is what appeals to the audience i am targetting it too. The other fonts were to be decided when browsing Dafont.com.

The language i have used on this front page is informal. This is because it appeals to the audience which i am targetting it too. Examples from my magazine;

'I prefer girls to ask me out - Dustin Russo'

'Cheryl fights for this love.'

'What Selena Gomez really thinks about Nick Jonas.'

'Robert Pattinson - Sexiest man alive?'

On this front page i have decided to use Dan Meegan as the main image. I decided to get photographs of him because he suits the main role of what is expected for the models on the front page.

Originally i was going to use Connor Sandalls but the picture quality didn't turn out very well and the background did not fit properly for my front page. So, i ended up using Dan which had the perfect image.

I found using Connors image bottom left fitted in well. It makes the magazine more interesting especially as pop magazines consist of plenty of images. Images are one of the main aspects of a pop magazine. They appeal to the younger generation which makes them want to purchase the magazine and read on to the stories of them.

The creation of Miss Brolly came when i was searching on 'Google' for an image of people jumping, so i could draw a jumping person on my double page flat plan. I came across an image of a business man jumping with an umbrella. This gave me the idea of having a 'Pretend' celebrity jumping with an umbrella. I thought as though this would appeal to the audience that i have targetted it too. I was thinking about placing her centre right but i changed my mind when creating the contents page on InDesign. I thought of a name for the image (jumping with Umbrella) and soon came to a conclusion. Umbrellas have the nickname Brolly and i thought placing miss at the start of it makes it so much better. The image changed to what it would be. Instead having Angela (Miss Brolly) jumping, i just had her holding an umbrella. I DID take a photograph of her jumping but it didn't fit well on the contents page.

Anyhow, i cut one of the photographs i took of her and placed her face into a circle. This was to divide that story from the rest of the other stories that is on the front page.

Other stories consist of celebrity gossip, fun, freebies etc. These are also able to appeal to the target audience which i have targetted my magazine too.

I did not decide on what clothing would be worn until the pictures were actually taken. Making sure that they wore t-shirts that are not branded with innapropriate material. Also making sure that the clothes made them stand out more.

Included on my front page;

* Barcode.

* Date.

* Expiry Date.

* Price.

* Issue number.

* Tagline.

My magazine consists of eighty pages. Including advertisement.

Demographics -

Age range: 12-16 years olds. (teenagers)

Gender: Female.

Class: Middle Class.

Nationality: British.

Main Sells:

'Dustin Russo - Dustin reveals his sensitive side. I prefer girls to ask me out.'

'Miss Brolly plans for the future.'

'What Selena Gomez really thinks about Nick Jonas.'

Flat Plans.

Contents page.

Originally i decided to use a picture of Angela (Miss Brolly) jumping with an umbrella on the contents page but when designing it on the computer, i changed my mind. So instead i still used an image of her but holding an umbrella and the image being of her from the waist up. I chose the other two images to be placed on the contents page so there were more images to be shown which appeals more to the audience.

I felt as though this contents page should have a border to make the page stand out more. I was contemplating to which colours to use and soon settling it with a colour which connects to the front page colours. I had decided to use stars on this page and when i found a font which had stars on, i knew it was perfect for what i needed.

Originally i was going to use more than two images for the side column but i had to cut one away due to needing to write everything which was needed on this page.

I wasn't quite sure how many pages were needed to be included in my magazine, so i just wrote so many as i could think of including the headlines from the front page.

I made sure that the list of headlines in the contents page were layed out seperatley, as in the pop magazines, they miss out the advertisements. My magazine consists of eighty pages. Analysing a contents page from a magazine has helped me out quite alot because it has shown me what is expected on a contents page and what makes it appeal to the target audience.

I originally didn't think about fonts for the contents page. I had a faint idea to what fonts i may use but didn't confirm it. I wanted it suitable for the audience i am targetting my magazine too.

The images i used are of:

* Aiden Hawkins.

* Kayleigh Sell.

* Angela Carrella.

What i included on my contents;

* Title.

* Contents list.

* Introduction.

* Contact address.

* Contact email.

* Contact phone number.

Demographics -

Age range: 12-16 years old. (teenagers)

Gender: Female.

Class: Middle class.

Nationality: British.

Psychographics -

* Celebrity.

* Fun.

* Charity.

* Real life.

* Fashion.

Flat plans.

Double page spread.

With my first flat plan i had originally decided to use Connor Sandalls image on the left page. The title and interview would have been on the other side. When uploading the images, i had to change my mind. The picture quality wasn't up to the standards of what was expected and so, ruined the double page spread. So i redrew the flat plan but differently. Including a border and allowing the layout to be spaced out neatly and clearly.

I had a faint idea to which fonts i would be using on this double page spread. The title would be bold and clear. The interviewers lines would be different to the answer to make them divide from the other comments. Division between Questions and answers.

Included on this page:

* Introduction.

* Competition.

* Contact details.

* Small slogan to go with the story. 'The latest star in pop!'

The images i used for my final piece was of Karim Martin. I thought that he was ideal for the double page because he's young and good looking. These advantages which attract the females.

When creating this on the computer, i knew that there was two spaces which needed to be filled. So when creating it on InDesign, i filled the first space with a different picture of Karim and the second space i included more writing. A quotation from the interview.

Demographics -

Age Range: 12-16 years old (teenagers)

Gender: Female.

Class: Middle class.

Nationality: British.