Double page spread layout

I wanted some inspiration on layouts for double page spread interviews, so i looked around at different magazines and this type of layout was my favourite:

This double page spread it from 'We Love Pop', a monthly magazine for "pop loving teenagers". In this double page spread Rihanna is being interviewed, Rihanna is the type of artist I would also like to have in my magazine, so I thought this double page spread would be a good source of inspiration.

I like how the headline is something Rihanna says as it gives the reader a sneak peak of the interview but also makes them curious as to what else she said. Underneath the Masthead is a smaller strap line which summarises the interview, again this is a good technique to interest the reader.

I like how there is a question and answer interview and that the question is in a different colour making it easier to follow. The main thing I like about this page though is the layout of the pictures and text. The text is split up into columns and is separated by the two pictures of Rihanna, this gives a good mix of text and pictures. Having the main picture of Rihanna in between the two columns of texts means that the picture is centre and grabs your attention first. Also the picture of Rihanna and Nicki Minaj is one that they have taken themselves which adds a personal touch to the interview and shows Rihanna in a care free environment.

Lily Allen cover analyasis

This is a cover page for Billboard magazine, which is a magazine for young people who like popular chart music and famous music artists.

The cover artist is 'Lily Allen', which relates to the music genre of the magazine as she is a famous popular artist who has also won a brit award for her music. As the shot is a medium close up and fills most of the space it makes Lily stand out and grab the readers attention, as she is also using direct eye contact it helps her connect with the reader.

Lily Allen is wearing a white tank top , which is barely seen, this is done to make the main focus be on Lily Allens face. The make up used is very natural and her hair also looks undone giving the Lily Allens whole look a very natural feel. This suggests Allen isn't interested in the glitz and the glam like many artists, which makes her different and unique, this will make people want to read her interview to understand what shes about more.

The main cover image is framed by strap lines on both sides of the image which is a convention of magazines. The straps lines of the different articles which appear in the magazine are used to persuade people to buy the magazine.

The masthead, "Billboard" is in bold comic sans font which gives the effect of the magazine being playful and fun. Also the fact that the main cover image is cover part of the masthead suggests Billboard is such a well known magazine customers will recognise the magazine without seeing the whole masthead.

 

research ito artists

I decided that I would look into what type of at artists I would have on my front cover. Although we have to create our own artist/band I think it would be helpful to look at some artists to see how how the present themselves to give me some ideas. Also as we have to use original photography I looked at poses they do to give me some inspiration.
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fent  (born February 20, 1988), known as rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Rihanna's work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including five American Music Awards, eighteen Billboard Music Awards, two BRIT Awards and five Grammy Awards. She is a world famous artist who songs are a mix of R&B, pop, reggae, hip hop and dance. She often dominates the UK charts having had 7 UK number ones, and with 'Umbrella' she lasted 10 weeks at number one.
Rihanna is known for reinventing her style and image with every album, changing her personal appearance with several different hairstyles.She stated that when selecting her personal wardrobe, she takes risks with fashion and that she looks "for the most interesting silhouette or something that's a little off."Her appearance has landed her on Maxim's Hot 100 list and on FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World" the last six years, with her highest position being at number 6 on Maxim and at number 3 on FHM. So it is clear that Rihanna is not only famous because of her songs, her image plays a huge part and if I were to have her on my front cover I would have to make sure I represented her in way which is pleasing to the eye.                   



I like this image of Rihanna as i feel Glamour have presented her as being sexy yet glamorous which is how Rihanna trys to present herself as. The topless back makes her look sexy but is not too revealing and her hair and make up make her appear more glamorous as they are not over done. Rihanna has direct eye contact with the reader which helps her connect to them, I also like her pose as it allows her to maintain eye contact yet still show of her sexy side.

Bruno Mars
Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), better known by his stage name Bruno Mars, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer.  Bruno Mars won Best International Male Solo Artist at the 2012 BRIT Awards,sold 6 million albums, 40 million singles worldwide and has had 4 UK number ones. His music is noted for displaying a wide variety of styles and influences, and contains elements of many musical genres, although the most popular are pop, R&B and soul.
Bruno Mars is known for his quirky image and is know for his collection of hats. However he is not an artists that is seen in numerous headlines for his personal life as he is more focused on his music. If I were to interview Bruno Mars I would have to keep it based on his music and not his personal life unlike other artists which are quite open.

I like this image of Bruno Mars and think it would make a good cover image for a few different reasons. He is using direct eye contact which is a convention of a front cover image. Also his outfit is quite plain but also fresh and fashionable which reflects his personality as he likes to keep himself to him self but also has a cool, quirky side, its important that the magazine portrays an artists image right. In this picture he is also wearing a hat which is his signature look, so this adds to portraying his public image.

Pop Music

Ive decided that I want my magazine to be based on Pop music, which means music that is populare or mainstream music. My magazine will feature music that is currently populare, for example music that is feautured in the UK charts, as my magazine will be UK based.
I did some research into Pop music as it is essential i know the basics about Pop music in order for me to create a successfull magazine.
As a genre, pop music is very eclectic, often borrowing elements from other styles including urban, dance, rock, Latin and country. Pop music generally include short-to-medium length songs, written in a basic format, as well as repeated choruses, melodic tunes, and catchy hooks.
The following characteristics as typical of the pop music genre:

• an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than a niche market.
• an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, over live performances.
• a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments^.
• much pop music is intended to encourage dancing, or it uses dance-oriented beats or rhythms.

Magazines which could influence me:
Billboard Magazine - Billboard is an international newsweekly magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It includes todays most Populare artists, their cover stars range from Bruno Mars to Mumford and Sons.
Blender Magazine - This is an american based Pop magazine. Like Billboard, Blender features todays most well known artists and includes interviews, and all the latest news in the music industury.
Vibe Magazine - Although Vibe magazine predominantly features R&B and hip-hop music artists it gained its success to featuring a broader range of genres than its closest competitors. Vibe features some artists that I would feature in my magazine such as beyonce and drake as they are part of the UK's chart music.

Preliminary task

This is my preliminary task of a school magazine. I tryed to use the coventions of a magazine through out. The person in my cover image is using a direct mode of address as this is a convention of a magazine and it helps them connect with the audience. The other conventions I used are the bar code, mast head, date line and cover lines. I used the colour scheme black,red and grey as when I did my research I found out that my target audience wanted the school colours to be the colour scheme, for my magazine to be populare its important I listen to what my target audience want. Ive also used a pugg in one of my cover lines, "free NUS card" in order to entice people to get the magazine. The main cover line, "Head Girl Exclusive Interview", is a puff as its a an exclusive, again this is done to attract the reader and make them more inclined to read my magazine.
My school magazine is free as when I did my research it was clear that people would not pay for a school magazine so it seemed logical that in order to gain some readers my magazine had to be free.

This is my mock up of  a contents page. I have kept the colour scheme the same as the front cover to keep up the consistency as this makes it look more professional. Also I have used the twitter and facebook logo's to show the school can be found on these websites, and ive also put the school website on the page too, as I have noticed some magazines do this to promote the magazine, so this is another way of promoting the school.  Also I split my articles into three sections to make it easier for the reader to follow and find a particular article if needs be. I ensured that I used the same articles that are on my front cover in the 'On The Cover' section again to keep up the consistency. I came up with a few articles that I would include in my magazine and they are a mix of educational articles and non educition articles, the reason for this is that when I did my research my target audience said they would prefer a magazine which included a mix. I included a letter from Mr Foley as it will be a regular feature almost like an 'editors letter' you often see in magazines, this gives Mr Foley a chance to connect to the sixth form and people will want to read the magazine in order to see what he says this month.

Coverlines

In this magazine cover lady gaga is using direct eye contact to connect to the reader. I created the cover line for this magazine and decided that i would use two contrasting fonts to represent Lady Gaga's different persona's. Also the font for Lady Gaga is bolder as I wanted it to stand out as she is a wold famous artist and this will enourage people to buy the magazine.

 With this magazine I wanted to keep the cover line matching the house style, so i stayed with the red and white font. Also I used Marilyn Manson's logo as its a different way of advertising who the cover star is.

This magazine had a 'Big Brother' theme to it. Again I stayed with the house style as that thats imporant to make it look realistic. I also used a rhetorical question in the cover line in order to conect with the reader and get them thinkin

For this coverline I created a pun as the film is actually called ' They let the right one in' and i wanted to emphasise it wasnt a great film.  The problem with this cover line is that it is fairly small and to fit the conventions it should be larger in order to catch the viewers attention.


















Peer Assessment:
Good things - You have kept in with the colour scheme in all of your magazines, which is important in order to make the magazine look professional. Also you have choosen fonts which fit in with the style of the magazine, I especially like the 'lady gaga' font.
Improvements - For each of these magazines you have only done one cover line, to improve you could add some more cover lines that would fit in with the genre of magazine. I also agree with your comment that the 'Film X' magazine cover line should be larger as its smaller then convential cover lines.

Self Assessment
I agree that for each of the magazines to improve I could add some more coverlines, so I've came up with a few ideas of cover lines that would fit in with the genre of the magazine for each one:
M - "10 Must See Films", "Win £15 iTunes Voucher"
Pitch - "This Years Best Gigs"
Freedom - "Books For Creative Minds"
Film X - "Sinister Exlcusive", "Are you brave enough?"

Vibe double page spread

This double page spread is from Vibe magazine. I wanted to have a look at double page spreads to do with chart music as I before I had only really seen double page spreads from magazines such as Kerrang. When researching and looking at the layouts of different double pages, this one stood out to me.
The double page is split into thirds horizontally, with the top third being 7 different  images of Solange Knowles dancing across the back. I really like the colour scheme used here, the grey, black and blue really contrast well against eachother. The main image of Solange Knowles stands out as she is wearing bright clothes, which differs from the basic colour scheme, however as a whole this works really well. The use of the blue ' Solange Knowles' will indicate to the reader who it is, and most of the target audience would know that she is related to R&B superstar Beyonce Knowles, this would attract Beyonce as well as Solange fans.  The main things I liked about this magazine were the smaller images of Solange Knowles at the top. I think this gives the page some character and shows of Solange Knowles fun side.

Vibe ( R.kelly) analaysis

The title of the magazine is 'Vibe'. This magazine is niche magazine that is aimed at RnB and hip hop fans, the target audienceage ranges from 16-35. My magazine will have about the same readshiper age and will have some aspects of RnB and Hip Hop as they are part of chart music now, this is why I thought I would anayalse this magazine. The title 'vibe' is the word given to the feeling you get when listening to this genre of music.The title is very simple, which gives an almost laid back feel, which reflects alot of the music it is selling. The placement of the title at the top of the magazine is a common feature of magazines as it allows the potential customers to be drawn to the magazine. However it is unusual to have the cover stars name in such a big font above the mast head as it does draw attention away from the mast head, the reason for this may be that because R.kelly is such a big artist that it used as a marketing tool.

R.kelly is an international musical legend and is using the direct mode of address, to connect to the reader. R.kelly looks fed up, this is due to the speculation that was surrounding him at the time.

This also the anchorage text outlines the reasoning for R Kellys inclusion in the magazine, many R.Kelly fans will want to read his side to the story so will buy the magazine in order to do this as the case was hugely controversial. they also address an issue thats on the minds of many african american males. does success come at a price?  The aim of the magazine is to draw readers in that are interested in huge star stories like this one.