Feedback

Still no work added to this blog, Ashba? I am very disappointed that you have not made any more progress. This needs to be improved for our return in January. As well as being up to date with research and planning, you also need to have written your article and taken all your photos.

Feedback

Ashba - this is developing too slowly! There is still too much that needs to be done and you should be nearing the end of the planning phase... You must work really hard to raise this from a  minimal/basic level of research to something more substantial. You still haven't analysed front covers etc.

Please can you use my comments to work on this over the holidays to improve this.

Can you also use labels to organise your blog posts - research, planning, production...

RnB/ Hiphop BillBoard Top 40 Chart..

1. Can't Be Friends

Trey Songs

2. No Hands

  Waka Flocka Flame Featuring Roscoe Dash & Wal

3. Aston Martin Music

  Rick Ross Ft Drake & Chrisette Mistele

4. Deuces

Chris Brown Ft Tyga & Kevin Mccall

5. Whip My Hair

  Willow

6. Right Thru Me

  Niki Minaj

7.Right Above it

 Drake Ft Lil Wayne

8.What's My Name?

  Rihanna Ft Drake

9. Lay it Down                                                    

  Lloyd

10.Bottom Up

Treys Songz Ft Niki Minaj

11. Love All Over Me

Monica

12. Black And Yeloow

Wiz Khalifa

13. Make A Movie

  Twista Featuring Chris Brown

14. I'm Doing Me

 Fantasia

15. All I want Is You

 Miguel Featuring J.Cole

16. You Are

  Charlie Wilson

17. Sometimes I cry

  Eric Benet

18. One in A Million

  Ne-Yo

19. There Goes My Baby

  Usher

20. Holding You Down

   Jazmine Sullivan

21. Champagne Life

  Ne-Yo

22. When A Women Love

    R Kelly

23. Miss Me

  Drake Featuring Lil Wayne 

24. Fancy 

   Drake Featuring T.I & Swiss Beats 

25. Love Like This 

   Donnell Jones 

26. Gone Already

 Faith Evans

27. NO BS 

  Chris Brown 

28. Love You No More 

  Diddy- Dirty Money Ft Drake

29. Un-Thinkable 

  Alicia Keys 

30. Biltersweet 

    Fantasia 

31. Runaway

  Kanye West Ft Pusha J 

32. Share My Life

    Kem

33. Finding My Way Back 

  Jaheim  

34. Fall For Your Type

   Jamie Foxx Featuring Drake

35. Why Would You Stay

    Kem

36. Making Love To The Money

   Gucci Mane

37. Hot Tottie

    Usher Featuring Jay-Z

38. Make It Rain

    Travis Porter

39. Rap Song

   T-Pain Ft Rick Ross

40. Pretty Girl Rock

    Keri Hilson

I have researched the top 40 RnB/ Hip hop Billboard chart which is present above. This will help me to shape my artist into what the audience would like it to be with it's own unique style. Also it demonstrates what kind of music people enjoy listening to. RnB/ Hip hop is still a mainstream genre that consists of a large audience so my music magazine does not have as many risks than a niche genre which only captivates a small audience. My target audience is the young teenage category. This fits perfectly with it, as the majority of artist on this chart are young, fun teenagers or young adults.

Many artists are quite new to the industry, along with the traditional artist which are the leaders of this music genre. Willow Smith released her debut single " Whip my hair" on 26th October 2010 reaching to fifth position on this chart; success achieved by the young artist who is known the be "Baby Rihanna". Another artist that gained five remarkable positions with debut singles is Drake. His singles are featuring well qualified artist such as Lil Wayne known as King of Hip hop. Along with Rihanna, T.I and Jamie Fox. A female solo artist that has a unique style to her music is Niki Minaj. She came at sixth position with her debut single "Right thru me"; this shows a sensitive side of Niki then the normal fun, funky side of her. My target audience can relate to these artists and influence them as they are from the same age category.

Research Feedback

Ashba

You have very little research on here yet and must work hard over the next week to improve this situation. Use the grid in the yellow booklet to work out what you need to do. You have some basic research here but it needs more depth and there needs to be more of it. You also need to get your contents page loaded into the prelim task post to complete this task ASAP.

Preliminary Task; Front Cover

This is the front cover of my college magazine. 

I believe it is attractive and fun rather than boring. Also the colours; yellow blue and red show a feeling of excitement which brings together the magazine. This should be present as the magazine celebrates success of the students and the achievements that the college has made. The target audience for this magazine can be divided between two groups which are students and parents, not just the parents. It is at a good standard, providing relevant information to the reader.  The mid-shot photograph is placed in the middle of the cover. The student's attitude in the photograph represents she is pleased and happy. Also the body language shows that is pleased with herself. It is inviting the reader as looking straight at them. It will intrigue the reader into finding out what the students achievement is. They are many different fonts that are used which brings captivated emotions into the cover. Subsequently, I have used a competition to engage young readers from the age group of 16 to 19 year old, as they have more enthusiasm to be involved in competition.
A skill that I have achieved in the course of making this cover is cutting out the picture which includes using photo shot. This was a program that I had never come across before so a need more practise before undertaking my actual magazine.

However, they are several things that I would change such as using catchy phrases which can draw the reader's attentions. Additionally I would consider using a professional font that allow me to be competitive in the magazine industry, as the number of fonts that are used make the cover look disorganised and crude. The Front cover is the give away of the magazine saw that has to be up to standard, otherwise readers will leave yours and pick a  higher quality one. Also readers should feel the magazine is value for money which contains a considerable amount of information but reader friendly; pictures accompany the text. Even though the colours are cheerful and bring happiness to the page but I would consider capitalising colours that would invite readers to the magazine not draw them away as they may feel its childish and targeted at a younger age group. The bottom end of the magazine is used to post competitions. Whereas I posted my as a heading which was wrong saw I am going to change that when making my actual magazine.

Content Page

This is my preliminary mock up page for my content page for a college magazine. I have developed my ideas further by producing a content page for this magazine. This will help me when I am planning my actual magazine. I have structured the layout of the context page which suggests professionalism along with neatness. Whereas if things were placed in a random selection it would result in the reader getting confused. The background color of my content page is yellow. The heading that consist of the largest font on the page will bring the page out. Also the sub-titles suggest all the topics that will be included in the magazine. This is a good way to split information into sections. It makes it easier for reader to conceive whether would like to purchase it or not. The font size would be smaller than the heading but larger than the explanatory text. The color of the font would be red; this would make the font stand out from the rest. Further more, below the sub-titles I have included explanatory text that explain what the topic may contain. This should he sharp and accurate as it will grab the readers attention but not give away all the story that the article is based upon. The font size for this would be a normal, readable size and the color would be blue,  keeping to the theme.  On this page I have added several pictures. The reason for this is that readers enjoy taking look at pictures and would interest them to go more depth were that picture was taken. The main picture; student standing in a formal outfit that it taking over the third half of the page brings atmosphere into the page. It's like someone standing looking directly at the reader inviting them into the magazine. The six other pictures hat are present show student's studying, trip to new york and lastly when the student representative speaks out. To conclude the pictures sub-headings are required to en-show the reader understands the reasoning behind them.

On the hand, they are many things that can be improved on my content page, for instance the background color is highly bright, as it is yellow. This will irritate the readers eyes after a certain time, leading to no purchase of the magazine. The content page is the next biggest factor that encourages the reader to purchase the product so has to be eye- catching. I believe all the colors being put together on the page will clash and confuse the reader and not allow them to read on. Also the large number of pictures may distract the reader from the text, as they may think they is no point buying the magazine when I have seen most the pictures. Lastly one more criticism that could be constructed is the heading it should be in the middle of the page, not thrown in the corner which may look like a sub-title just in a larger font.

Overall I believe the magazine has come to a success as it's the first time. I have developed my skills and have learnt more skills that will contribute to my actual magazine. For my my magazine I think I'm going blend both dark and bright colors together rather than having it too bright or dull. Pictures attract my attention when I'm reading a magazine so I will include couple as both female and males enjoy looking down at a pretty women. Finally I am going to produce a questionnaire that i will give to number of people from my target market and look at what they'd like to see in the magazine. The feedback will allow me to  produce a magazine that will be different from the mainstream one's but still keep to what the audience wants to see.

Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task I am producing a front cover for a college magazine; this will consist of taking a mid-shot photograph of a student with one main headline that will be based around a student's achievement. As well as, a few other headlines that will bring together other subjects that taking place in the college. Along with this I am also producing a content page which will be designed as a mock-up. This will be hand done and scanned on to my blog. This is a good practice before I make my actual project as I will improve my skills by coming across certain problems that could have occurred during my final piece.

Codes and Conventions of a music magazine..

Codes and Conventions are the key parts of a music magazine's success. They are different type's of codes and conventions to support different type of magazines. Some require more than others. On the front cover a virtual code and convention is an image of the artist; this is mainly a mid-shot demonstrating the style of the artist. This will hook the audience on to purchasing the product. Also every magazine requires a main story which can be related to the artist on the font cover. As well as this, you can present quotes in a bold font on the front cover which will interest the audience into reading the interview. A colour theme should be used to display the connection between the cover, content page and the double page article. Every page should look organised and professional. To give the audience an idea on what the image is about captions are needed. Bar codes suggest the latest issue and the price.

Front Cover

This cover is from a leading music magazine called "Vibe". The name is short, snappy and relates to the genre of music is appeals to. The background of the cover is two toned as it is darker on the ends and comes in lighter in the middle. This is different from the normal one base backgrounds in other magazines. It is very creative and gives a lot of emphasis to the artist on the cover. The way Ciara is posing along with facial impressions shows she's being seductive and inviting the reader into the magazine. The theme is yellow, white, light and dark blue. Further more, the sub-titles have been written in bright colours to attract attention.  The colour combination of the theme comprises of bright and dark colours; this is to emphasise the wordings in bright colours whilst having the background in the darker colours.

The different coloured fonts and sizes draws the readers attention and encourages them to purchase the magazine. Ciara's costume; a simple black stylish dress blends in with the background which is appealing as black brings out her figure, without clashing in with the sub-headings. One of the sub- headings is based as a rhetorical question which is "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me." This indicates that the targeted audience are males as it questions on how their ideal girlfriend should be.

Contents Page

This content page is from the magazine "Vibe" from the October issue. This cover is simple but sexy at the same time. The front cover has a mixture of three colours; starting at the top with a dark black coming down the page with a grey turning into a white at the bottom. The colour theme of this page are black, grey and white. these colours compliment each other resulting in a eye-catching content page. The Font varies in the heading, sub-titles and in the explanatory text. The heading consists of a block font, filled with white. Also the letters are piled on top each other. This is based on a black background. The Sub- title has a feminine font that is in black as one of the title's is "Fashion". The explanatory text is bold explaining in more dept what that age will contain of, along with the name of the photograph and the stylist of the picture. The model is an artist is called Ciara. The way she is posing is provocative and flirtatious as she is revealing most of her figure and the position of her leg gives the reader an a tempting irresistible impression. The females will be influenced by her behaviour whereas the males will attractive by it. Her costume is grey which fits in nicely with the font cover, as well as the dark coloured heels. However one thing that could improve this page is the size of the font as it may not be reader friendly. Additionally it could contain more photographs showing what going to be happening in other pages in the magazine.

Double article

This is a double page article of a music magazine. The heading is a quote taken from the artist's interview. " People think am an attention seeker, but I'm just honest". She is trying demolish this public image that she has been put with. This is a good way to summarise what the article is going to about. Also the Heading font is clear and catchy, attracting the readers attention along with putting her views across. The white backgrounds allows the rest of the contents on the page.  The capital letter's emphasise an important point. Lily Allen's picture has taken up the other side of the page. Her body structure and attitude is inviting the reader into the article as she is looking directly at the reader. Her costume is informal as she is wearing a checked shirt. This gives the reader a message that you don't have to be inspired by the way an artists presents themselves to read an article. The explanatory text under the quote heading is in an italic font explaining what Lilly Allen meant by this quote. The words that are important are stated in red. The journalist language is casual and chatty acknowledge it to be reader friendly. 

Intial thoughts and Ideas

For my magazine I have several ideas which I am going to take considerable amount of time developing them. As my aim is to produce a magazine that is different from the mainstream ones, but still keep to the codes and coventions as that is the way to produce a successful magazine. My artist would be female singer with a good sense of fashion; an icon for teenage girls and young women to follow. Along with this, male's would treasure the beauty and fall in love with the photographs. I believe the title of the magazine plays a huge role in sales as it has to be relivant to the magazine.The magazine 'Vibe' is an inspiration to me as it has the same target market and genres as the magazine I am aiming to produce. Also the name 'Vibe' gives you sense of the genre music and immediately recognise it is a music magazine. The colours that I am considering to use are red, black, white and grey. The theme will run through the three pieces, this will represent that the pieces are together not individual. For the font I will use few styles as I would like the cover to be attractive not boring. The cover will contain a mid- shot of  my artist looking striaght forward; eye contact with the consumer.

This cover is appealing as the white background is drawing attention to the colourful, attractive fonts and the artist in the middle is posing with attitude. The black top of the atist fits in with the theme which brings the cover together. The title is slightly covered with the head of the artist as it is showing power. The font colour and size has been change through out the cover. This shwos creativity and keeps the reader captured along with interested to read further. The Sharp deep bright colours such as red, white, grey and black suggest a sense of power.This theme has excellent variety of textures. Overall it is a well presented cover as they is no negatives that could be critised.

Introduction

My name is Ashba Yasin. I am currently an AS Media student. For my project I have chosen to do the print which is based on a music magazine.This consists of a front cover, content page and lastly a double page article based on journalism. I believe by taking on print comparatively than film will enable me to demonstrate my skills porficiently. Music takes great part in my life and the experienced i have gained as a reader will help me through this task. The genre that I enjoy listening to is R&B and Hip hop;as my magazine will be based on.The target market for these magazines are mainly teenagers and young adults.