Meeting the Client Brief [U3: M4, D1]

Learning outcome 4: (u3) Be able to carry out post-production techniques and processes for a media product to a client brief. [M4,D1]

Bonanza magazine was created for 'The London Magazine' with the goal of creating a 'new online and print based music magazine for North London'. I believe what I have created a magazine befitting of the brief; that holds a lot of deeper meaning and interesting concepts from a seemingly untapped market.

The concept of Bonanza is to break down the lyrics from difficult to comprehend or controversial music, opposed to focusing on one genre, each edition focuses on different genre, with British artists who grew up in North London primarily featured, which links to the requirement of a 'North London' based magazine, as well as it being music based. The client asked me to make the first edition of a new magazine, so I decided to make the first edition 'Indie Pop' as the genre has began to increase in popularity within North London and it's known for its darker, controversial lyrics.

Stylistically on the cover and double-page-spread, which I was asked to produce by the client, I wanted the magazine to have a simplistic style that's easily changeable around genres, due to the magazines nature. So I used simplistic Sans serif fonts and bold colours to fit the 'vibrant' aspect the client was looking for. My colour scheme was pink, yellow and turquoise for serval reasons. The colours are easily changeable for whichever genre we do, so we stay on brand, the colours don't change, but the tone and hue do. So the pink can become a red and the yellow into a mustard for more male orientated genres like rock. But as this specific design is Indie Pop, I chose pink as it's used a lot in indie pop album covers, but it also connotes warmth and love, as does yellow, being used to complement the pink and connote warmth and positive emotion. This contrasts the darker themes in the indie songs, so that readers aren't deterred from reading the magazine. The turquoise is used as a complementary colour to the pink, allowing it to stand out as a cool tone amongst warm. This could be metaphorically a symbol of the indie pop genre, with the grungy pop aesthetic of pinks and yellows, but the cold, darker lyrics and meanings behind the songs. In the background of the double page spread, I created a geometric pattern using the box tool and lines, the filling it with the paint bucket tool. This was to fit the aesthetic of the indie pop genre and to fill the blank space of the plan yellow background. 

More specifically with the fonts, the sans serif typeface allows for an easy reading experience both online, as the client wanted a online format, and in print. So I chose Andale mono as having an easy to read font was important, as my article has a lot of written information, thus I had to use a very small font for the body copy. For the headline on the main article I used a drop shadow to add more visual interest and to add an eerie glow of green to the song name, befitting of its dark nature. For the masthead on the cover, my models head overlaps the texts slightly, but not enough to mask all the letters. This is a common convention used in magazines like SFX who cover the F to appear like the word 'sex' in order to sell more, however, other companies like Billboard use this method too for aesthetical purposes. I wanted to implement this technique as it looks impressive and as the magazine grows in popularity, more of the mast head can be covered as the brand will be recognisable. I used a thinner font, sanseriffic, for the cover lines so that it contrasted, but still complemented the bolder masthead font of Modern Sans Serif 7.

I was required to make my own original content for this magazine, as well as document the process of preproduction, production and post production. For my own original content I took all my own photos, as well as wrote the article, breaking down the song 'Death with Dignity'. I took over 20 photos with my model so that I had a clear range and variety for both my cover and double page spread. I chose a male artist as Indie Pop fans are primarily female, and women tend to like male artists for the sex appeal, so my model did a range of  masculine poses, highlighting the shoulders, neck and eyes. I chose this specific model for his blue eyes and had him wear a blue shirt for the photoshoot. This was to appear cool and cold against the pinks and yellows. On the cover I changed the colour of his blue shirt to turquoise using the multiply edit on low opacity, this allowed for consistency of colour scheme and meant he could stand out as a cold figure, with deeply routed emotional intent in his songs. The blue tones and shades also meant he appeared more masculine on a very effeminate cover, which is why I made the background of the front cover black, as to not over power the contrast of warm and cool tones. On the double page spread, I decided to use the image halfling his face. This is represent duality of men, how men have to appear masculine, like the model does on the cover, but there is an emotional side to them that struggles with expression. This reflects the song 'Death with Dignity' nicely as the lyrics speech about a man who struggles to cope with the loss of his mother and goes on an emotional journey. The halved face also allowed for attention to be brought to his eyes, highlighting the coldness in his eyes and contrasting the yellow warm background. As for documentation of my process, I have written notes and essays online for the whole process, as well as my PowerPoints, hand drawn designs, and video evidence of the pitch, which I was required to do for the client.

I wanted to create an easy reading experience. While creating both my double page spread and front cover I had an issue with layout. I attempted to follow my original designs with the layout of text and boxes, but it didn't match the codes and conventions of traditional magazine covers. To combat this, for the front cover I moved the text so it formed around the model and paragraphed it using a single line graphic. This made the front cover look neat and streamline and allowed the viewers eye to travel easily across the magazine. I also changed some of words into the pink, yellow or green colours so that key phrases and words stood out and popped, a common convention of magazines. For the double page spread out the lyrics across both pages, which made reading them a hassle. So I moved all the lyrics to one page and halved one of the body copy boxes so I had three in total. This made reading the page easier as you can look back to one area to find the next verse being discussed in the article. 

The article broke down the song lyrics to a lesser known Indie Pop song 'Death with Dignity'. I sat and listened to the lyrics on repeat and read through them several times. I broke down each line and each verse in my body copy, having the verses of the song on the side of the page. Looking back, the page feels over crowded, despite my efforts to rearrange it. If I were to do this again, I would try to write less for the body copy so that the font could be bigger and I would have more room for photos. One aspect of the double page spread that I really like is the digital element. The client wanted an 'online' aspect to the magazine, so on both the cover and double page I have a footer with Bonanza's website link, as well as a twitter handle on the cover. This allows for Bonanza magazine to have a large online presence, which will attract the young adult target audience. As I have a young adult audience an online presence is key, it also means they have less disposable income, so my magazine costs £3.50 which is cheaper than most high end music magazines, so the price is affordable for my target market. My main unique selling point revolves around this online presence, so I implemented a QR on each page that takes the reader to a Spotify playlist, containing the songs featured in the magazine. This enables readers to listen to the song while reading about the lyrics meaning. This appeals to my teenage and young adult audience, as the majority of that age range use Spotify

Furthermore, I believe the magazine I have created for my client fits the brief, has an interesting concept, follows the music scene of North London artists and follows the codes and conventions of the indie genre. I followed urge client requirements by having a North London artist featured, using bright colours, having a digital influence and making my own content. I stuck closely to the style of my genre, taking inspiration from album covers. I also made a concept not explored within print media, and make it relatable to my teenage / young adult target audience through the use of design and digital elements. 


I exported both my double page spread and front cover as a JPEG, as the brief requested.