Producing Magazine Layouts C

Unit 14: Digital Magazine Production

Producing Magazine Layouts

C: Produce magazine layouts in the codes and conventions of a genre

Generating ideas

To generate ideas for my magazine layouts, I researched into popular and common music magazines that were well known and aimed at my chosen target audience, I identified the common codes and conventions companies have used in their magazine covers and double page spread’s to draw the readers attention and have used it in my final designs.

Identifying the target audience

The genre I have chosen to create my magazine layout around is music, the music genre of magazine is very popular amongst the young target audience, after conducting research into my target audience which included secondary and primary research, I wanted to create a layout the resembled the well known genre of indie rock.

producing trial layouts

While creating my magazine, I made several trail layouts to see which one I preferred, such as different codes and conventions. This included changes to the font and font size, the width of the borders and different ways the images can be edited. I reviewed my ideas and selected a final layout I preferred best after justifying my decisions on the way my overall magazine looked in relation to the music audience, entertaining and informing purpose and the platform my magazine was going to be proposed.

When producing the magazine layouts, you will need to:

Take into consideration the needs of the specified target audience, to identify my target audience through the layout of my magazine. I want it to be appealing so the audience will want to buy it, I will do this buy making the cover stand out against the other music magazines on the market. The platform I am trying to reach is the teenagers and young adults who appreciate and enjoy indie rock, the audience needs to easily be identified by looking at the cover. While reviewing my page layouts the readability needs to be simple, this makes the text is easy to read which is appropriate to appeal to the youth adult audience,

consider your genre’s magazine codes and conventions

I considered my genres magazine codes and conventions by using common music magazines as inspiration for my own. The company in considered includes NME and Q, both well known for indie rock and appealing to the young adult audience. The codes and conventions they use are similar, such as simple colour scheme palettes and dominant main images, their logos are placed on the top left of the page so it is eye catching. While producing my magazine layouts, I took all the elements used into consideration for my own.

Consider page layout principles when designing page layouts, such as composition, balance and white space

when designing my page layouts, I had to consider the variables I will use, this included composition. Balancing a composition involves having to arrange both the positive elements and negative space so no area of the design overpowers the other areas. In my double page spread and cover I used composition to balance my images and text so the page didn’t seem busy. I used simple colours black and white so it is easy to read but still eye eye-catching. To balance the white space, I used borders. The benefits of using composition and balancing my layout means everything works together and fits together in a seamless whole

Experiment with typography, colour, and decorative elements

When creating my magazine layouts, I experimented with various elements such as how to edit the photo differently. I used Photoshop to manipulate the images by changing the contrast and brightness of the photo till it looks suitable for my magazine cover and double page spread. 

I also experimented with types of typography, I changed the headlines many times to see what looked best on my layout, such as the size and the text itself I used the website font space to find the style I want to use on my layout. 

I used music genre magazines to help me create a colour palate for my magazine. I wanted my magazine to appeal to my target audience, I wanted the colours to match the photos I used without over powering the layout. Since black and white are contrasting colours, I found that using these matches the whole house style of my magazine since as the font style and the photo.

From research I discovered music magazines such as NME don’t use as many decorative elements to attract the audience, but in fact use the dominant image as the main focal point and centre of visual interest, I took inspiration from this and didn’t use many sell lines, just a simple headline, sub line and barcode

Use margins or bleed/ shorten or expand copy to fit

when creating my layout, I expanded and cropped my images till I decided on how I wanted my magazine to look, when adding my article into my double page spread I wanted the text to fit on the right side of the fame and to fit the length of the photo I used, I did this by expanding the text, making it easier to read and fitting the page. 

Justify all of the aesthetic, technical and production decisions involved in producing the magazine layouts

The decisions involved with producing my magazine layouts includes why I decided to use the used in my final layout, I contacted a photography company to specialises in music gigs, after researching into the music genre target audience, I discovered attending gigs is popular, I also wanted to write about local bands, hoping to appeal to teens in the area, the photo I used in the front cover is taken at one of their performances, I liked the way the photo looked and thought it was very eye catching. I wanted to keep the house style of the double page spread simple, I used the black and white text to correspond the photo. 

The text I used is the same throughout the cover and double page since I wanted all text to be the same. The headlines for both layouts appeals to the indie rock genre of music I’m trying to appeal towards. I added page numbers in the bottom corners of the double page spread to signify that it is two pages.