Morgan Gallagher

Q1.
I personally believe that my indie magazine conveys simple codes and
conventions of a magazine. By taking ideas from popular magazines such as Q,
NME and indie it was clear to see I should include things such as banners,
mastheads, feature stories and a bold outstanding image. As I discovered when
looking at other magazines, many indie magazines follow the basic codes and
conventions but in a way to appeal to their target audience by using bold
pictures to stand out and having a bold colour range, which in indie magazines
tend to be dark reds, blacks and blues.
I have made sure that when thinking about things such as typography, use of
colours, masthead and logos, that I select and codify them so that they are
appropriate and communicate my brand identity. As I had my rough designs and
different templates to help me, I didnt find it hard to choose colours which
complimented each other and still fit in with my brand identity. Also we were
asked to make an audience survey, asking questions about these conventions.
Therefore the feedback I got from the question what colours 3 work well
together. I was easy to select things such as colours and featuring stories.
However when it came to finding a typography for my masthead, I found it
extremely hard to find something that stands out and looks bold but still looks
appealing and fits with the genre of music I was catering for. Also, because I
wanted it to stand out I decided to separate the ID from the entity. The reason I
did this was because this can then be read as a very philosophical title. By
separating the word identity into I.D. and entity, my title mirrors a famous
philosophical proposition by Ren which demonstrates I think therefore I am
I.D. = me, my personality = I think
Entity = a thing that exists= I am
This fits well with my target audience as they see themselves as more
intellectual than a pop audience. The reason why I decided to call my magazine
Identity was because I felt that my target t audience could have something they
relate to. When deciding who my audience were I had to think about the different
ways we put people into social groups. I felt the connect of VAL was a good way
of deterring social group, through what people like and their attitudes to certain
things. I felt that the indie rock community like to feel that they are different and
find themselves as explorers. The term explorers means that my audience are as
being adventurous and would be likely to do more new things. and as my title is
very different it feel it will appeal. When I carried out my audience survey I asked
if people preferred going to gigs and concerts or just consuming their music
through an app such as YouTube. Most of the responses where that people
actually liked new experiences and going to festivals. Therefore it was clear to
see that I would be targeting my magazine at people who like exploring new
things

Morgan Gallagher
Q1.

The typography I used

throughout my
magazine, I tried to keep the same. I tried to select typography that was bold
and stood out as much as possible, and although not all of them were the same I
have selected fonts which I think reflect the style of magazine I have created.
Indie rock magazines tend to use block capitals and bold text to represent the
style of rock. This is also shown through the colours I have used to show the indie
side to the magazine and also rock. My target audience is an audience that seem
to like difference. I tried to create magazine that looks similar to other indie rock
magazines, but also tried to make it different from others. My magazine breaks a
lot of normal conventions, in order to fit in with my target demographic. For
example the images I have taken havent been air brushed of touched up to
create a hyper real image. Therefore this means I could risk the chance of it not
standing out when it comes to selling it. From the pictures above its clear to see
that I have formed my masthead to be formulaic and to follow the normal codes
and conventions of an indie rock magazine.

As I have created a magazine designed to appeal appeal to a niche audience,

initially, it might be hard to reach them. However, if I have loyal audience this
will not be a problem. A magazine called little white lies is a good example of a
magazine that is targeted at a small, niche audience and one that does not
follow normal codes and conventions, but is still very successful in what it caters
for. As I have realised over the course of research my target audience like
something that they can relate to and call their own. Therefore I dont think I
will have much of a struggle selling my magazine.

Morgan Gallagher
Q1.
My front page image that I have
used for my magazine fits with
basic codes and conventions of an
everyday music magazine. However
my main image and other images in
my magazine, I have not changed
the way the models look from when
the image was taken. I havent
airbrushed, nor touched up
anything to do with the models.
Although I did make the white
screen on my front cover image
brighter to stand out. Airbrushing is
a basic conventions within
magazine, this is because
magazines want their images to
look professional and sometimes
hyper real. However I have chosen
to challenge this convention as I
didnt want to create false
representations. However because I
used studio lighting, and adapted
the background it could be argued that ultimately my photos could be seen as
hyper real. I decided to pick this picture and use a white background so it would
be easier to edit featuring stories onto the background, and also use colours that
I wanted to. As I have use two females in my main pictures, I did not want them
to appear less superior compared to the male models. Another unconventional
element to my front page is that I decided to shot my image from a high angle.
Most magazines shot their images from an eye angle or shot from below. The
high angle of my photo suggests that my audience is of a higher status
compared to the band. This challenges the idea of celebrities being above us,
which is a rejection of convention. The use a picture of a band relates with the
theory of Maslows Hierarchy of needs. As my audience will look at this main
image and aspire to be like this band or look like this band and also having a
sense of belonging. Also the high angle shot links to Maslow as this image

Morgan Gallagher
Q1.
presents a aspirational image, which is more achievable. Other aspects that I
have included on my front cover such as my website, allow my target audience
to interact with my online magazines and create exchange.

Morgan Gallagher
Q1.
My feature stories and cover lines have the same font and colours, this is
because I didnt want it to look messy or different. I wanted the main stories to
stand out, so I used a bright red colour to catch the audience eye and is also
conventional for indie magazines. Although people may think this was boring and
less interesting, I didnt want my front cover to look messy and wanted the fonts
to be the same. This is because indie magazine tend to be less cluttered with
loads of information. Therefore by making this decisions I follow the codes and
conventions of an indie magazine. These colours and fonts were used again on
my contents page. My contents page links extremely closely to my font cover.
This is because I wanted a constant theme of colouring going through my
magazine. Therefore my audience would know that this is my magazine and to
follow my brand identity.

I have created my double page spread predominantly for my older targeted

audience. It is conventional and coded for an older audience, by the colours I
have used. Instead of carrying on my theme of red and black and grey, I decided
to change it to a bright orange and dark cream colour. Which challenges the
conventions of many magazines, as they like to have a constant flow of their
main colour scheme in order to keep their brand identity. My reason for changing
the colours is, when I carried out my focus groups of my templates it was clear to
see my audience liked different styles. Also the colours I have used links more
with the indie side of my magazine, and therefore is still attractive to my
audience. The main image takes up all the left hand side of the page which
follows a normal convention of any magazine. The image is of my male model
behind a cage. This relates the article as it talks about breaking free and
becoming someone different which is a representation of mise-en-scene. These
two pages are connected with each other by the use of colour and images as bot
share an orange and white colour scheme. I have used colloquial and informal
language, also my model is not looking at the audience which makes him seem
more thoughtful allows it to interact with the audience. These are things that
most magazines often do, therefore I have used conventions form other
magazines to help me sell my own.

I have created my double page

spread for the older audience of my
magazine. Although my double
page spread could be seen to be
boring, because of the use of
colours and the amount of writing.
To my target audience this would
appeal as they care more about
stories and the music rather than
what was going on around it. I also
wanted to create something
different o many double page

Morgan Gallagher
Q1.
spreads to appeal to my audience and therefore is understated in order to appeal
to a more intelligent audience

I found my contents page quite hard to construct at first, because I wasnt a

hundred percent sure how I wanted it to look. I knew all the different codes and
conventions to make a contents page. However, creating a contents page that is
attractive, and stands out and is easy to read was hard. By looking at different
examples of contents pages in other magazines I found that they all differed in
order to create a brand identity- the contents page could look like anything, as
long as the reader was able to navigate.

I settled for a contents page

that consisted of a big main
picture and other small
images, of some of the
feature stories. Also,
feature stories and regulars,
I wanted it to look neat and
be easy to navigate. All
images are added with a
page number and title to let
the reader navigate to the
pages. Ive added the
featured stories all in under
big red boxes and the regulars under a grey box, so that the page is semantically
split in a way that is recognisable and also simple to understand. My brand
identity is maintained in this page by the use of a logo, and the use of the same
colours. I approach my target audience, a more recent but common convention
of music magazines.