Initial ideas

For my magazine I want to create a high quality magazine, that is a regional magazine with topics and features of surfing, tattooing and lifestyle. I want a traditional but unique design to my magazine that fits in with my target audience. My target audience is a young majority male audience, however females too with the ages of 18-30. The class of my audience will be from a C2 to a B class audience. This means my magazine will be aimed at a young audience, which will go well with my genre of magazine, and also a class that has disposable income. This means I will have a reliable audience that is willing to spend money on my magazine, and also has disposable income to take part in the topics my magazine features, such as: surfing and tattoos. To the right and left are some of the examples of magazines design features I wish to cover.













For my website I would like a traditional style too, I want to include a simple but high quality design that will fit into my choice of genre. I would like a very simple, but unique design which fits into the design of my magazine. I want to create a constant style throughout which ensures my products are easily recognisable and attached. I have included some examples of the type of design I would like to base my website on. For my billboard I want to focus that on a high quality surf shot, that will attract my target audience as it includes the topics they like. I would also like to include high quality images and possibly a video on my website, that is related to the different topics I am including and the genre.

Technological advances

In recent years the development of equipment and technology, has made the type of products I am creating (magazine, billboard and website) a lot more advanced and in many ways simple. The improvement of equipment such as cameras and lenses, have meant that photos can be taken digitally and also of a much higher quality, the camera I am using is a Cannon EOS 600D. This ensures when I am taking my shots for my products I can get high quality images. Also the lenses I use have a great impact on how well I can take shots for example to get high quality surf images, I will be using a high standard lense: Tamron sp 150-600mm. These will ensure that my images are up to a high, professional standard, and will look good. Something that is becoming more and more popular in todays society is reading magazines online and having digital copies instead of hard copies. This means the magazines are easily obtainable, accessible and can be easily stored, making them increasing popular. This is what makes my products even better as I will be creating a billboard to advertise my magazine, as well as having a website which shows how my magazine is different and more up to date with the social change of magazine and products. After using the different camera and lenses I then will be using software to edit and create my products, this will provide a professional edge. The software I am using will be Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Indesign, I will be using photoshop to edit my photos and create my magazine products and InDesign to create a high quality website.

Institutional research

Within my research of regional magazines, there are different institutions that fit in within the magazines. For example the locations, are people involved producing, editing etc. I am creating a regional magazine therefore I will need to research other regional magazines. I am researching Cornwall Today which is the UKs most popular regional magazine, not only that it was won numerous awards. The people involved in producing Cornwall Today such as the editor, publisher etc. In this instance the editor of Cornwall Today is Kirstie Newton and along side her is deputy editor Viki Wilson. There are also your editorial assistants Rebecca Bentley. The magazine overall is published by DC Media. The magazine is also printed and bound by PCP LTD.  However the company will have to have agreements and contracts for the photos they use, the local areas they go to they'll need permission for. The magazine also has interviews with celebrities such as Rick Stein. For all of this they will need contracts, agreements and permission to do this. This will also be the same for my magazine, I will need permission to go to certain areas, and also if I take photos of brands I will need permission due to certain laws such as: copyright laws.
To regulate my magazine I will use the IPSO who regulate magazines in the UK. The IPSO will regulate my magazine and Cornwall Todays magazine, as they are the main regulators in the UK, and magazines have to meet certain rules and regulations to be published. This can be many different things such as the editors code, which all magazine must follow. This could be from child protection to crime being featured or mistreated.

Historical research

Magazine publication goes back all the way to the 17th century, when literacy and philosophy magazine was published in Germany 1663. Then in London 1731, their was the first general-inters magazine. Then in 1842, The Illustrated London News was the first illustrated magazine. This is just an example of how times have changed and adapted, also the success of magazines. In Britain the oldest consumer magazine is The Scots Magazine, which is still being published today it was first published in 1739.
Their are trends in all these magazines, they all have the same aim. This is to attract an audience and produce a magazine with topics to keep the reader interested. Even though back when magazines were produced there was limited topics and magazines themselves. Whereas today, you can pretty much have a magazine on any genre you wish. Another point to make is know-how technology is tying in with magazines. There are magazine websites and also now digital magazines when you can get copies of your magazines digitally. Magazines can be identified by their different budgets for example there are clear differences with magazines by the quality of the magazine, the images, the language used and also the genre. For example TV and gossip magazines, tend to have a quiet low budget. Whereas you can look at magazines such as Rolling Stone, which has a much more, high quality look and value. However all magazines do tend to follow the same conventions, with the images that attract their target audience and common features on a magazine such as big bold masthead, colour schemes etc.
My genre of magazine is a regional magazine, these have changed in many ways as they adapt to trends and what is going on in that region. For example Cornwall Life, is a magazine that produces topics on the events and views of Cornwall. However if there are different events and new trends in Cornwall, the magazine adapts to this. The magazine however does have an overall theme and style that it stays traditional to. It has a very traditional style in the sense that it fits with traditional Cornish culture. The images, the fonts and the style all have similar that relates Cornish heritage, the pictures of the beaches, harbours and families on the front represents Cornwall as a whole, as its one of the most popular tourist destinations.

Introduction to brief

Task 1: Introduction to brief

The magazine I have chosen to create is a magazine that is aimed at a younger audience, but is a regional magazine on lifestyle and surfing. I want to produce a magazine that features topics and information that is catered for a young audience. The topics I wish to include are:

·      Surfing

·      Vintage clothing stores

·      Tattoo conventions

·      Lifestyle such as: food, drink and different locations.

I want to ensure that my magazine has a design to it that provides a simple but vintage look, which is what a younger audience that likes these topics, would be particularly interested in.

I am also going to produce a website that caters to my audience, I am going to include surfing photos and possibly videos, tattoo videos and complete coverage of a tattoo convention. The website will be uniquely designed, that my young audience will enjoy and want. I am also going to include shoots of vintage barbers and clothing shops, also food possibly, which will cater for the type of media I want to create for my audience. Finally, I am also going to create a billboard. It is most likely that the billboard I am going to create will have a surf theme to it, I need to get some really good high quality shots, and analyse which one is best for the billboard.
Overall I want to create three high quality products, that fit the conventions of a regional magazine, website and billboard. However it has been more adapted to my choice of topics which are listed above, the three products will have a distinctive high quality design, look and feel to them. I would overall like to have a unique set of products which caters for my target audience.