Planning: My website Plan

This is an plan of what my website could look like when made in addition to my magazine front covers. I have done the research needed to do my magazine website plan that will help me.

Website:

This is a simple plan of what I would like my website to like when you first reach the homepage. By researching other websites it has helped me know what I might add in mine.

Firstly, I have added the masthead in the top left corner as this is mostly the same in other websites. I have placed where I would like a search bar and my social media links. Then I would add a subscribe box so I can advertise my magazine.

I have placed where my main feature and off leads for when you reach the homepage. Then I have wrote below what I will add when you would scroll down further down the website after the main feature and off leads.

Research: Website layouts for entertainment magazines

Here are some example websites from entertainment magazines. This is to give me an idea how different companies decide to represent their magazine and keep their brand identity.

Firstly, looking at these websites and other websites I now have some  ideas of how to plan mine on what is best to attract people to view the website.

Firstly, I have noticed that most websites have their masthead in the top left hand corner. This is always the same and never changes for their brand identity. These website have a clear navigation bar that will get you to different areas in the website. Also, on some websites the navigation bar follows down with you when you are scrolling.

Next, is social media links. Some websites are different with these as they sometimes but them right down the bottom of the homepage or some websites put them at the right top corner of the website so its easily to view and you can see this straight away. Some company websites also advertise a offer at the top of their homepage for the magazines. This is a way to attract customers to buy that magazine if they advertise it well.

Finally, entertainment magazine websites use large images to advertise the main feature of that day just like in a front cover of a magazine. Then if you scroll past the main feature the websites might have columns or rows to advertise other main feature. The further down you go they just use text or much smaller pictures to advertise other things.

Planning: Issue 2 Front cover and Contents

Here is a simple plan made on publisher that I might want my magazine to look like these are first ideas that I might want to do.

Front Cover:

This is the plan for the 2nd issue of my magazine.

Firstly, I decided that I would keep the bullet points of whats going to be in the magazine above the masthead. I have kept the masthead the same place. Kept the puffs and just moved them to different places. Also, for the off lead and main feature they are the opposite way round. 

The reason for the theme of going back to college is because this is the august magazine. And in that time of the month students are buying all the equipment to go back. This is the reason why I choose this sort of theme. This links to the Ta of being 16-25 as well.

The reason I have chosen these colours as august is the sort of time when summer is ending ready to go into the autumn term. For this reason I have added like the light green and blue in the masthead for summer and then added the orange to creep in the autumn ready look for the magazine. 

Contents:

This is the plan for my 2nd issue of my contents for my magazine. When researching magazines I have noticed contents pages roughly stay the same so that people reading the magazine contents already know where them headings are. 

Firstly, I have changed my contents colour to match my masthead colour. Again a this is a plan I am not sure if I want this bigger and more across the top. 

Next, I have kept the same layout with my features. Although this time I have shown an example of how I might put the numbers of the feature in the picture. This makes it more simple and I feel stand out more. For other features I have kept that diamond shape as bullet points to know where the other features are. 

I am not too sure if to change the colour or not as the puffs and the diamond bullet points are the same colour as the contents in issue 1.

Planning: Issue 1 Front cover and Contents

Here is a simple plan made on publisher that I might want my magazine to look like these are first ideas that I might want to do.

Front cover:

This is the plan for the front cover of my magazine. This will be the first issue of the magazine.

Firstly, I have learned when researching magazines that they are mostly stood on shelf in supermarkets. Then looking at magazines I noticed some put whats going to be in the magazine above the masthead. This will be to attract customers to the magazine so the best features need to be in that section. I have decided to take this idea and use it it my first issue of my magazine.

Next, when I have been researching magazines I noticed a lot of magazines use puffs. I noticed they stand out really well to the customer. Companies also use bold colours in order to show the puff off. I took this idea and used a light green colour to advertise the price and that it is a new magazine. As this is a plan i may change where these puffs are or the colour of them.

Next is the masthead. I decided on a tech sort of style font. This adds to my genre of my magazine. I decided to have it across the top as this will stand out more than in the top left hand corner which is in some magazines. I would like my main featured picture to be large. As this is a plan I am not sure if I will still use this photo or position this photo somewhere else. I would like my off lead to the side where it will have different listed features that is in the magazine and images next to them to represent what i am talking about. I am not yet sure on font or size yet for this.

Finally, I have also done the common things that are in a magazines. This being the bar code, issue date, issue number. 

Contents:

This is my plan of my contents page of my first issue. I have researched different magazines to see how they represent their contents pages. As this is a plan I am not sure if I am sticking with this layout.

Firstly I have put the word contents in the top left hand corner. This has the same font as the masthead to keep with the brand identity.  I am not sure if to keep it that small or stretch it more bigger across the top. At the top middle I have the issue number and month of the issue. 

Next, I have added the puffs. I am not sure if I want to keep these at all or change the colour of them to more lighter red. These puffs are to advertise the main features and the other features in the magazine. 

The main part of the contents is my features. I have Shown the top 5 features. I may put more of these to add more images but not sure yet. These are evenly spaced expect the 1st feature as this will be the top main feature of the magazine. This excluding the main cover. I have added diamond shapes which will have the page number inside. I am not fully sure if I will keep these shapes or just put the page number in the photo in a bold text. When researching magazines I have seen both styles. 

Research: Puffs in magazines

Puffs:

These are different style of puffs that are used in a magazine. They use simple words to attract customers to by the magazine as if they see  something interesting inside you will want to read more. So I will definitely using one of these. They also use bold colours to contrast to attract customers more if the magazine is on a shelf.

Research: Masthead fonts

Masthead Fonts

These are some masthead ideas I might use for my magazine:

These are some of mastheads that I might use. Some mastheads use capital letters and some magazines use a lower case font. They use quite bold font to stand out. I do like the "Tech" masthead where it is square blocks as it gives it a tech feel which I like. This goes with the theory of signs and signfiers as you want to give a meaning that people will give a  interpretation off. Also, the theory of Neale with repetition and difference so that people will know the brand identity of the magazine when it is released.

Research: Gender in magazines

Gender representations in other magazines:

Female

This is stereotypical represented for a female to purchase this magazine. It has a pink background. This is typically young female colour. You have a female celebrity at a medium shot adding to a female representation of this magazine. You have the added extras of women's clothes that you can buy to get the look. This also makes women want to look like the celebrity by her looks and wears.

As I want to have both male and female genders in my magazine I will be taking this idea of the female magazine. I could take the idea of dressing up with a women's look. Or using the pink background as a font. As tech is normally a male look using these ideas will add the female look of using tech.








Male:

This is stereotypical represented for a male's to purchase this magazine. It uses a long shot of a male guitarist. That breaks convention by not looking into camera. The generally would be represent for younger males that enjoy music in the way to look like him and hoe to get his style. This has a much plainer background so this doesn't really represent anyone. Also, with the extra's they advertise in the magazine being more male stereotypical things like tattoos etc.

As I want to have both male and female genders in my magazine I will be taking this idea of the male magazine. I could take the ideas of they look.  As stereotypical males are more into tech the style and font and the wear he is dressed can be added into my magazine.









Other Gender:




This is stereo-typically represented as a more modern transgender feature on this TV guide. This is as the main feature is about an lezbien women. This medium close up portrays this well by putting her in the foreground and how she is dressed is more stereotypical manly than they would dress at that time. This is a contrast to the more stereotypical women in the background of what she wears and how delicate it is.

I could take the idea in this magazine for my magazine by using a different gendered person and how they are dressed and portrayed in a way so people know that they are of a different gender. As this is a old drama show I can take to much from it but deferinatly can tell how different she is shown.

Research: Launch of 1st issue magazine

1st issue of magazine

This magazine of How it Works is the first issue. 1st issue magazines are not really much different to normal magazines. They have a puff with the word "New." They have a sell line "The magazine that feeds minds." As there new magazine. I will be using this in my new magazine I create.

Extras on the magazine I like is the masthead as I like the font. With the gear and cogs on it to add to their brand identity.

They have lots of pictures to show what's in the new magazine. They have lots of contrasting colours and I like the added detail of science having a orange logo. Environment being green. Etc