Whats to come... (Organisation)

On Sunday i will finally take photographs for my magazine, before that  i will do another draft of a contents page as well as a page dedicated to one of the contents.

 The page i will dedicate to one of the contents was going to be a double page spread but i have decided to include an advert which will replace one of pages for a double page spread i have included one advert draft already and plan to include more in the near future.

Magazine Influences (Research into similar products)

I have researched into similar products that include cover-page factors for influence, these include catchy cover-lines with alliteration and creative typography/designs.

Hopefully from this research i can bring more creativity into my magazine

Cover-page draft review (Drafting and planning)

This is another draft preparing me for my final piece, improvement still needs to be done it will be done in time for the final draft, for example more unique cover fonts will be used and the magazine will be more creative because from this draft i have just stuck a picture on and placed font over it.

 I need to make the picture and font combine to create something unique and creative that'll attract people.

Cover-Page Draft (Drafting and planning)

Photo opportunities (Organisation)

In the next few i will be going on a trip to take photos of essential landscapes for my magazine These include:
Bullring Birmingham Library
St Phillip's Cathedral
St Chads Cathedral
 Centenary Square
 Bullring Bull and more...

Advertisement draft review (drafting and planning)

I believe that this draft is well presented it advertises a upcoming song contest in short and sweet fashion. Have i chosen the right colours to attract everyone and not a particular group? i believe so but in future drafts i need to be more certain on my colour choices because readers will completely ignore the advert if they believe the colour is aimed for them. I also have very limited information with just a link to a website for more information, next time shall add the date of contest and(or)venue of the event; something like that will make the advert that little more informative and successful.

Advertisement draft (Drafting and planning)

Advertisement Ideas (organisation)

For my magazine i plan to create an advert that attracts most of my readers, i believe adding a advert of a new restaurant or a drink will be the most likely in terms of interesting a large number of people of different ages and backgrounds

Photo Planning (Organisation)

Over the month i plan to take various photos suitable for my magazine, these will be photos of famous or popular landscapes in the city and items i view as suitable for graphical effects. These may include the following:

Cover-page ideas (Drafting an planning)

Most regional magazines feature a landscape within its region or town/city on the cover page, i had that idea on my draft but aerial shot is near impossible through original photography.

Possible alternatives include Selfridges, The Town hall or The Library having them combined into a photo collage would be great, but having one individual picture means that the main headline would have to be linked to the picture.

I don't have to follow the procedures of having a landscape cover photo, i could follow the Brummagem magazine route of having ancient pictures in a photoframe and in greyscale or could have picture of an item like a flat cap which has come back in fashion because of the peaky blinders series which is originated in Birmingham which is alone another possible topic.

Here are different types of regional magazines:
 

People featured in 'Talk of The Town' (organisation)

Although i have displayed drafts of my magazine that include celebrities and unoriginal photography this cannot be the case in my final piece; therefore i will have to take all photos myself of features whether it is a place or human.

When adding features to my magazine i do plan to have a band, place, event and other stuff featured, the magazine will be likewise to previous drafts but everything will be original photography.

In my next draft i will now include photo's that are able to be recreated, i did have an aerial shot of the city in one draft on the front cover but i will now come up with more realistic features.

Magazine Layouts (Research Into Similar Products)

Life in the Big City

The Quizzers

Free at last

Here are a few well designed magazine layouts, they are all unique in their own way and i believe looking at how magazines differ in layout; i can create my own unique touch to 'Talk Of The Town'.

Life In The City- This magazine appears to be a regional magazine of Birmingham also, hence the picture in the background of landscapes within the city. The thing i admire about this layout is how the picture fills the middle of both pages; spreading across the centre rather than being pushed to a corner. The background in the picture is yellow, the same yellow tone used as the double page spreads header; this shows you a relationship between the two conventions because as you first look the page the first two things you notice is the heading and then the picture. It guides you across the page also because the first thing you will see is 'Life in the Big City' followed a picture of the city which shows you what city the title is referring to.

The Quizzers- The magazine featuring this page has gone creative by putting a paragraph inside the giant Q which is part of the page-heading, because the heading is called the quizzers; i guess that's why there is a picture of people in a thinking pose. The background of this magazine is plain white and there is also numerous paragraphs compared to 'Life in the city'. This shows that 'The Quizzers' is for a more serious reader or older age group because they don't need to add colour and creative pictures to attract their readers. 

Free At Last- In terms of the plain white background 'The Quizzers' is similar to 'Free at last', 'Free at Last' go a bit more further though as the heading takes up a lot of space on the page, with text boxes covering pieces of the letters a creative outlook has been bought in.   

Advertisements (Research into similar products)

Adidas Predators

Coca Cola

Herbal essences

Nike Air Max 90

These adverts all have their own styles in order to attract viewers, the Adidas advert uses the term  "Every team needs a spark"in a font reflecting to the title because "Spark" is in a long and sharp type of format. The Adidas advert has fair amount of word on it meanwhile the Nike advert just has an advert title.

The Nike advert is focused more on the actual product without including much text, this advert tells you all you need to know; they're the Air Max 90's so if you like them buy them. The advert displays the trainers in three different colours to show you that there's more than enough colours to suit your style.

The Herbal Essences has detailed text, advertising a hair product requires more than just a picture to persuade to readers; you can't see smell and the smell is the most important thing for this product.

Coke advert has a simple quote " the coke side of life" the word Coke in the sentence stands out; it is placed in a Coca Cola bottle where it usually would be placed (and in the original font ), whilst the rest of the quote is in red. The effect of having the word Coke inside the bottle brings a connection between the brand and the bottle; it also helps you notice that the bottle is a Coca Cola bottle.

These adverts have their own ways of communicating with readers they have different techniques as expressed, i can use some of these techniques for future drafts or if i am adding an advert alongside my magazine.

BBC Radio West Midlands (Research into similar products)

BBC West Midlands is a local radio station for the West Midlands; it provides TV coverage for regional news and sport. As well as the West Midlands the station covers for North Warwickshire, Worcestershire as well as South Staffordshire. It was launched in 1970 and was originally known as BBC Radio Birmingham.

BBC West Midlands broadcasts at ‘The Mailbox’ in Birmingham city centre and has been since the deconstruction of its previous Pebble Mill studios in nearby Edgbaston.

The Radio is versatile in that it covers a range of topics, this includes sports talk and commentary usually for teams within its broadcasting region it was also hosts casual chat shows and plays music.

I believe BBC WM would be an ideal radio station for me to advertise my magazine on, the BBC alone is one of the largest Media Broadcasters in the world and attracts a range of ages and cultures; it has a number stations for different cultures and ages therefore it will already have a lot of respect from citizens and more people would tune into the main local BBC Radio Station (e.g. BBC WM) for news gossip etc.

The Mailbox

Pebble Mill Studios

Radio advert 2 review (drafting and planning)

This is advert is shorter than my first draft which is no bad thing as long as you get the point across. This second draft is far more professional than the initial one, telling you where you can buy it; it gives you restricted information on what is featured within the magazine which is good because it can make the listener want to find out more about the magazine and the only way to do that is by buying it.

I believe there is a bit of fun in this draft, but it doesn't become comical which is good because the main aim is to sell more than entertain; although it is good share a joke or two with the listener to make them like you more and maybe become biased and have a more positive view of the magazine your selling.

My Radio advert draft 2 (Drafting and planning)

(Narrator) Ladies and gentlemen the time has come, we bring you the big one, the local one, the cities one; we bring "Talk of Town" a brand new regional magazine that can talk for the country; Fortunately it is only talking for our city.

What are you into? sports?fashion? maybe you just want to study? "Talk of the town" can help you in all 3 aspects and many more. Talk of the town is officially out now and will available at your local news agents.

So what are yo waiting for? Go!

Radio Adverts (Research into similar products)

Radio Advert draft (review)

I believe the radio ad is entertaining and can be remembered because some of the sentences rhyme as well as being slightly funny. There is room for improvement though because although it rhymes and this funny it is way to comical and needs to been taken a bit more serious. The way i set it out the characters could be mistaken as being sarcastic and the features mentioned is not mind-blowing, it also won't interest enough consumers although it could be enough to attract some consumers.

I think the advert has enough humour but to improve i need more seriousness/ professionalism to go with it and since my target audience is pretty large it could be deemed as to immature for some radio listeners.

Radio advertisement draft (Drafting and Planning)

(script)

1: So what is the 'Talk the town'?

2:The magazine?

1: no its genuine question?

2: why are you asking me, why don't you just buy 'talk of the town' magazine. The magazine gives you all of the latest city gossip, you can catch up with the latest sport news, awards reviews and find your next pair of shoes in the monthly magazine. The magazine is a great educator in learning more about your city and its roots.

1. Thats great but...

2. but that's not it, you can also read through exclusive celebrity interviews and have your own student section you; meaning you can do revision work and talk with 'talk of the town'

1, Wouldn't i  look like a clown?

2. Not if you spread the word

1. Best get started then (running noise)

(silence)

2. Talk of the town coming to stores near you. Ta-raa

They'll be Radio ad (Organisation)

Talk of the town will have a radio ad to support itself, the ad will involve me promoting my magazine in a you unique but entertaining way, it won't just include a stereotypical persuasive speech; it'll have something to remember included and i am planning what that might be.

The reasons to have things included entertaining and remembered allow the magazine stand out from others. The problem i have with some radio adverts is that i can't spread its news to others because there is nothing to remember them by; Apart from the brand name and what the product is which isn't convincing

Talk of the town contents page review (Drafting and planning)

Talk of the town article review (Drafting and planning)

Cover-page draft review (Drafting and planning)

Talk of the down Article draft (Drafting and planning)

Contents-Page draft (Drafting and Planning)

Talk of the Town cover-page draft (Drafting and planning)

 This is a cover-page on how i want my magazine to mainly look like, the background is a aerial shot of the city; this background was edited into word as the 'cutout' artistic effect.                                        The colour as altered into a blueish font; i did this so that the text stood out and was more readable as well as being creative with the 'cutout' effect.

 I don't believe my headlines were as eye-catching in font nor wording as they could be, but this is something i can work on. This draft is unique and creative but i know i can go 2 steps further by making by headline more effective and by adding more creativity to catch the eye of someone and that is what successful magazines do.

Target age (Target audience)

Initially i wanted to make my target audience for all ages but thinking back it is hard to please everyone, it is like featuring a colour-in picture and local business advertising in the same magazine and they both target different ages. My magazines target age will be 18 to 24 year olds because i believe it is essential for this age group to learn more about your city which will help know more about what they want for future and what this city offers for them

Trajanus Bricks (Drafting and planning)

After some consideration i had to decide what font i needed to stick to for my masthead, i went with Trajanus Bricks as it is not to fancy but is still unique. I believe different fonts attract different groups of people, but i believe this font has No particular audience. ' I would say that 'Trajanus Bricks' has a historic 'medieval' look to it but that's relevant for a magazine about a city with a long historic past.

Potential Magazine Mastheads with Talk Of The Town (Drafting and Planning)

What i like about XXL Contents-page (Research into similar products)

Cover page draft (drafting and panning)

Here is a review of the sort of cover page i will go for, the artists picture as cover stars, as well as all the headings are all linked to Birmingham. Obviously the headlines will be more unique and creating in future; as well as the font which i publish types of fonts that i would go for.

Potential Magazine Headlines (Drafting and Planning)

Here i have included the sort of headings i would go for on my next magazine draft. The headings are obviously Birmingham orientated and include things from my research that inspired my post that fully focused on Birmingham.That is why i include headlines that feature Black Sabbath,second city derby and Walk of stars (Chicago is mentioned as it is a twin city).

Magazine cover-page styles (Research into similar products)

Magazine Components ( Research into similar products)

Survey monkey Quiz 1 distribution (Target Audience)

Blogger Tracker and response (Organisation)

This tracker had shown me that i need to post more on organisation and that is exactly what i have done, i need to post more general though as i am behind majority of the class.

Brummagem magazine (Research into similar products)

Brummagem is a local regional magazine for Birmingham, likewise to my upcoming magazine.         I was going to give my magazine this name before i found out about this magazine.

It is authored by Carl Chinn and has a unique cover-page with historic photos from the past of the cities people or buildings,because of the magazines unusual cover-page with 3 large pictures dominating space this makes me realise that i don't have to follow the traditional style magazines use; for example the magazines headings for the pictures are a lot smaller than most magazines will display there's. The pictures displayed on the cover-pages are always greyscale and i cant see what is inside the magazine but the cover-page is there to give you ideas and judging by Brummagems cover-page i believe the magazine have more ancient pictures, this magazine is predominantly focused on the past and doesn't really focus on current topics from what i have seen.

My magazine ( Talk Of The Town) will be opposite in that will mainly focus on the present and future but  Brummagems format does influence me to do my own type of cover-page and not carry out the traditional way.

Survey monkey preview (Target audience)

I already have learnt through the quiz i created at school what peoples general favourite types of magazines are and sport, fashion as well as music were popular topics. 

Now i want to know about what people think about the city, whether if it is positive or negative. This will influence what sort of headings, sub-headings, fonts etc. i can make for audience. I will use websites like SurveyMonkey to find out,or even do some other types of research.  

Photo Opportunities(Organisation)

In the near future i plan to go on a photo taking spree which will include taking photos of famous locations in Birmingham, It is important for me to take original photos because you can get the picture in your own angle which could suit a meaning coming from a page title. For example if a heading quoted "Raging Bull" i would take close up photo of the Bullring Bull which expresses and proves the Bull's emotions said by the heading.

Talk of Birmingham (Drafting and planning)

The following information is part of research that allows to know even more about the city the magazine will be based upon

Quiz Conclusion (drafting and planning)

Quiz Conclusion

To make my Quiz as fair as possible I attempted to quiz different types of people from a range of backgrounds, I have also made the genders of the participants equal with 7 females and 7 males as i want to make my magazine appeal to both genders.

My aim from this Quiz was to discover what i should add to my magazine and if there is a correlation to what particular genders and backgrounds prefer so i asked my participants questions like what is your favourite hobby? What types of magazines are more you more interested in out of the following? and What makes a regional magazine interesting?                                                                  There was a correlation in males picking sports/health as magazines they are more into, and females picking gossip and fashion magazines.

As for hobbies a range of boys and girls both picked sport and music, some participants had more than one opinion in some sections of the quiz for example one female picked music, partying and cooking as her favbourite hobbies.

Sport was the most popular topic from my quiz as most participants chose it as a hobby and chose sport/health as their favourite magazine type. Therefore i think sport should be a big topic in my magazine as it was the most popular in my quiz by far; secondly music and fashion.

Magazine Quiz Review (Target Audience/Organisation)