Project Proposal

     Ello, I am Jaiden Charles and below is my project proposal for media studies. I actually didn't plan on taking this class, but I honestly enjoy learning more about media, so I chose to stick with it. With me staying in the class I became friends with Devin Jimenez who is also my partner for our magazine product.

Me

Devin

    As I said before, we both chose to do a magazine. The genre specifically is a lifestyle magazine, but with two separate editions. I plan on doing a food edition with a feature article surrounding cooking and food related topics, Devin on the other hand greatly enjoys fashion, so his feature article is going to cover that and clothing.

    Our magazine's target audience would be focused geographically on people within the United States. Since we both speak English, we chose to just write the magazine in English to keep everything simple. The age of the audience would be teenagers to maybe early thirties. We are covering food, so food is a topic for anyone. All ages and all genders. Anyone can cook or have a love for it. 

    A social issue I want to touch up on surrounding food is the lack of nutrition education and healthy food. I want to get rid of the misconception that if it's made at home, it is automatically healthy. While yes it can be healthier than eating out in some cases, it doesn't necessarily mean it is entirely healthy for you. In my feature article, I would like to showcase a recipe of a balanced meal and give pointers on how to acquire healthy food items and create a balanced diet without breaking the bank. There's more to food than just eating.

    In terms of software, I plan on using InDesign since I am already familiar with the software. And plus, my teacher has experience with it, so if any issues arise, I can always ask her for some help on troubleshooting. As per hardware, I have a personal laptop that I use, and in order for me to really perfect my project, I plan on looking at magazines that are related to my topic for inspiration.

    With research of our magazine almost complete, planning is next. Since we are working together, Devin and I are going to need to check in periodically so that we aren't straying too far from the main theme, which is a lifestyle magazine. So, aspects of the magazine excluding the feature article should relate to lifestyle as a whole. Definitely would need to take a look at more examples to see how to best balance this approach.

Research: Target Audience

     Identifying the target audience of a lifestyle magazine is important, since they are the ones that really determine the overall look and theme of the magazine. So, you should consider who the audience is, since this characterizes what direction a lifestyle publication should take. 

    Most lifestyle magazines appeal to readers who are interested in improving parts of their daily lives. These include a wide variety of topics like fitness, fashion, home decor, travel, food, and wellness. And due to such broad categories, the topics for these magazines are usually broken up onto factors like age and income. 

  

    For example, a younger audience will typically read magazines focused more on social media, fast fashion, and trends. On the other hand, older audiences may focus more on health, finance, travel, and home. At times some magazines can include a variety of topics to keep their whole audience included.   

    Additionally, readers want to read lifestyle magazines that not only inspire but also give advice they can apply to their life. A home decor magazine can include an article on how someone could accessorize their living room to fit a certain theme. Another example would be a food magazine giving quick tips on a recipe to help seek a desired result.

     

    Overall, lifestyle magazines should reflect the life or ideas a reader wants to apply and accomplish. They should fit a certain theme in order to best appeal to their audience, after all their audience shapes the direction of the magazine. 

https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/media-news/

https://www.hearst.com/magazines

https://www.nielsen.com/insights/

https://www.warc.com/

Research Week 4: Advertisements

     Advertisements obviously have a significant impact on a magazine's tone, appearance, and main message, and their impact extends well beyond their physical presence. The majority of lifestyle magazines use ads to set the mood, reaffirm the themes, and direct readers to the values and passions the publication wishes to emphasize. Choosing the right ads is goes in hand with creating articles. The advertisements have to relate to the articles allowing magazine to flow better. Overall, it boosts reader enjoyment and gives the magazine more purpose.

    When considering the ways in which my own lifestyle magazine might be designed, one of the things that quickly becomes apparent is the need to ensure that the advertising included in the magazine ties in well with the concept of the lifestyle, itself. 

    After all, what use is a magazine claiming to be part of one style of living if the advertising within is random and does not fit in well with the rest of the magazine? For this reason, it is important to ensure that the choices made in terms of advertising are well aligned with both the tone and content of the magazine. This means thinking in terms of not only what the advertising actually sells, but also in terms of details around aesthetics and emotional content.

    For example, if a magazine focused on automotives, their advertisements would most likely feature new upcoming cars as well as their specs. 

    Advertisements play a huge role in the overall look and flow of a magazine. Depending on what you're trying to achieve would have an effect on the advertisements featured on it. For my lifestyle magazine, I greatly enjoy food. So, some food related ads. would be advertised.

Research: Inspiration from Lifestyle Magazines

     Obviously, I can do research on conventions and composition for all I would like, but I need to take a look at some established Lifestyle magazines for some inspiration. So below, I will be taking a look at different kinds of lifestyle magazines like fashion, health, beauty, food, and travel.

    Of course, we all know Vogue. One of the leading fashion lifestyle magazines we have currently. They are a widely known magazine and that is demonstrated from their cover page. Notice how it does not contain all of the conventions of a typical magazine cover. That is done on purpose. Primarily because Vogue is committed to maintain a more upscale quality. It focuses on minimalism to let the photography do the talking and the exclusion of supporting coverlines is due to their brand being so well known, buyers usually have an idea of what to expect inside. 

  Overall, Vogue really encapsulates the clean minimalistic look, however this would not work for every kind of magazine. Vogue is more photography than text focused, so let's look at another example. 

    

    I included a travel magazine for the reason of it including a lot more text on the cover page. There are lots of supporting coverlines and this is primarily because not every publication of a travel magazine will cover the same destinations. Including the coverlines gives buyers a better idea of what to expect when they purchase it. 

    To be truthful for my magazine I want to have a lifestyle magazine with a main article on food. And there is whole different research I have to do on food photography, but I digress. A cover page that includes supporting coverlines would be beneficial to give my audience a sense of the other lifestyle articles included in it without taking away from the main article of a food recipe I will create.

Research: Lifestyle Magazine Cover Page Conventions

     A good way to continue my research would be involving myself into the conventions of a lifestyle magazine. More specifically, I would like to focus on the cover page of one. Lifestyle magazines can be found almost anywhere such as bookstores, grocery stores, libraries, and even online. And they can cover a multitude of topics like home decor, travel, food, and fashion. All of which encapsulate the broad topic of "lifestyle." 

    

    Starting off we have the masthead, which is essentially the name of the magazine. It is representation of the brand.

    We have the main article; the main article can be found within the magazine and the main image on the cover page correlates with said article.

Off to the side you'll notice supporting coverlines and these are other articles that can be found within the magazine and are kept on the side to keep the focus on the main image.

    People typically judge a book by its cover, so the cover page has to be enticing. In order to accomplish this, puffs and plugs are utilized which are supporting coverlines placed within shapes to make them stand out even more. Additionally, it helps keep the overall look more organized and structured.

    Typically, at the bottom, the price and barcode will be displayed to allow the audience to see the price and purchasable.

    With this new info. I would be able to apply this to my own project and utilize the proper magazine conventions. Combining this with my research on page and image composition I would be able to solidify my understanding.

Research: Lifestyle Magazine (Page Composition)

     With a better understanding of photos, I now have to dive deeper into my genre of lifestyle. What I mean is that I need to grasp how I can get everything to flow on paper. So, let's begin studying the typical page composition of a lifestyle magazine.

    The cover page of a lifestyle magazine would typically include a high-quality image. Since I'm working with a partner, we are both doing lifestyle magazines, however I chose to go with a foodie edition. So, the cover page would feature a food item, and my feature article would be related to that dish, but the other pages would be that of any other lifestyle magazine whether that may be adverts for health & wellness or travel destinations.

An example of a cover page that I would go for

Although the font of the table of contents is small, while it is a food edition magazine it still includes other aspects of lifestyle such as home decor.

Another example

        

    Alright, now moving on to more so of how I should lay everything out. After a bit I found out layouts called "Full Spread" and "Double Spread". A full spread would contain an image with the title and caption on one page. Designed a bit more for fast-paced content, so would not be too beneficial for me. A double spread would be better as I would be able to include a picture of said dish for my feature article and include the recipe and some info.

An example of a double page spread with the image of the dish, some background info, and recipe with instructions.

    This was a relatively short one, but this is more so just a general idea of what I can expect to be working with. My next posts would be more technical and in depth on conventions surrounding these kinds of magazines as well as doing research on target audience.

Research: Lifestyle Magazine (Image Composition)

     With the narrowing down of the genre, I now want to take a look more into what exactly the conventions are of a photography magazine. 

    Image quality. The quality of these images can really elevate the authenticity of a magazine. I mean, no one wants to purchase a magazine and only to see blurry photos. Additionally, it's not necessarily a matter of just bringing down the authenticity of a magazine, but also when you look at these high-quality images you want to evoke the response of "wow" or something along those lines.

    Okay so you have the image quality now what? I asked myself simply just having a high-quality image doesn't make it "good".   So, I did a bit more research on compositional rules such as rule of thirds, leading lines, and foreground interest. 

Rule of Thirds, pretty straightforward. It divides the photo into nine parts, and you should place key subjects along the lines to offer a more balanced look. Overall, this is key as it would make the entire photo flow more easily adding to the aesthetic of my magazine.

    Leading lines, also quick they basically guide your eyes to the main subject from the foreground. These lines could be something like roads & rivers. Having a leading line creates more depth in the image and makes it more engaging for looker.

   

    Foreground is the bottom part of the frame of a photo. It creates depth and detail to the overall look, and definitely is something that I shouldn't overlook if I am looking for that "wow-factor" in my magazine.

    Okay, with figuring out the technicality of images I also need to figure out a way to have these images flow on paper. Because then again, this isn't a picture book it's a magazine. There will be captions and wording and graphics, so all of these components have to blend together.

https://iceland-photo-tours.com/articles/photography-techniques/rule-of-thirds-explained#:~:text=The%20concept%20of%20the%20Rule,elements%20where%20the%20lines%20intersect.

https://www.naturettl.com/composition-landscape-photography/#:~:text=Rule%20of%20Thirds&text=Generally%2C%20when%20following%20the%20Rule,me%20well%20over%20the%20years.