Mia Wilson AS Media: 2015

Saturday 12 December 2015

Colours In Magazines

MIXMAG RL GRIME

Mixmags cover has a mixture of green, orange, pink, purple, blue but with the main colours of black, red and white.

Even though this seems to be a crazy amount of colour, the 5 grouped colours are used for small detail which brings colour to the dark page.

The main colours represent different things:

Black- is associated with power, fear, strength, authority, elegance, formality, death, evil and rebellion. black is a mysterious colour that is typically associated with the unknown or the negative. The colour black also affects the mind and body by helping to create an inconspicuous feeling.

Red- is energising and excites the emotions and motivates us to take action. Relates to sexuality and lust. Signifies leadership, determination, confidence and ambition

White- pure, "the colour of perfection", innocence, wholeness and completion. cleanliness and personified.

The photo is in black and white creating the person to blend into the black background. RL Grime seems to look mysterious with the dark lighting on the eyes and the placement of this hands; looks like he's up to something. The red gives him a sexy feel but the white creates a ying and yang feel of the powerful colours and the soft colour added; balance.

The title and name with the main cover lines are white, helping them to stand out from the black background. The tagline and coverlines are red which stands out aswell from the background and the coloured patterns breaks down the strength of the solid black. The colours all go well together as they are all bold strong colours not pastel etc

Overall the message I would get from these colours are that he is a mysterious guy as of the black and red colours used with a black and white effect but creative as of the bright colours.

These colours also stay throughout the magazine creating an organised repeat.

WIRE

Wire's cover has a mixture of pink, blue, black and white. They all play a role in the cover, the white is the background/base of magazine.

The black is the colour of her hair and the title and coverlines which help stand out from the opposed colour.

The pink is the title/ lines on her top and blue is the strip on top of the page and her clothing.

The fact that the model is wearing 3 of the four colours used in the magazine makes the photo blend/ fit in much better.

Black and white are in the same group; monochrome, whereas the light pink and blue are in the same group; pastel colours.

These pastel and basic colours help create a calm feel and relaxing tone to the magazine.

The main colours represent different things:

Black- is associated with power, fear, strength, authority, elegance, formality, death, evil and rebellion.

White- pure, "the colour of perfection", innocence, wholeness and completion. cleanliness and personified.

Pink- a delicate colour that means sweet, nice, playful, cute, romantic, charming, feminine, and tenderness, is associated with bubble gum, flowers, babies, little girls, cotton candy, and sweetness. The colour pink is the colour of universal love of oneself and of others.

Blue- This is a colour that seeks peace and tranquility above everything else, promoting both physical and mental relaxation.

It reduces stress, creating a sense of calmness, relaxation and order

Pastel- pastel colours are the family of colours which have high value and low to intermediate saturation.

These colours repeat throughout the magazine creating an organised feel and also the majority of the pages has a white background with black writing helping the cover and magazine be the same.

The colours used on the inside of the magazine are all soft colours which is the same as the pink and blue pastel colours on the front of the magazine

Thursday 10 December 2015

Formative blog feedback - Miss Hunter

Mia, your blog is looking good.

So far:

WWW: You understand the conventions of a magazine and I can see that you have used them in the preliminary task. Your ideas are often engaging and thoughtful. You add lots of detail to your work and present it carefully.

EBI: Push yourself to catch up with the best students in the class. You are capable of achieving highly on this coursework, but at the moment some extra effort is needed, otherwise you will have to rush your own magazine.

Next steps:

Write a language analysis post, looking at the language on the cover AND inside a magazine.
Case study of a magazine of your choice - front cover analysis, contents page analysis, double page spread analysis, colour (throughout the magazine) analysis.

Monday 26 October 2015

Editor's Letter Analysis

Seventeen Magazine Editors Letter

The editor of Seventeen magazine has a direct link with the reader. She makes the reader feel like they are a part of the experience. It feels more like a conversation is going on between you and the editor rather than you just reading the letter creating a bond between the two/ friendship. The way she successfully does this is firstly by introducing the whole page with “hi from ann”. It contains no capitals for the name suggesting that she doesn't want to give herself any priority and importance over the reader.

Also, throughout the letter she uses direct language, such as

“Help make your life amazing! You have big dreams and we want you to achieve every single on of them

“Help you make the best choices for your body : so you can feel your absolute best each day

Which makes the reader feel important as it makes the editor seem to care about you and your well being making you feel happier and better. It also draws you in as the direct language makes you feel like the editor is directly talking to you instead of genuinely talking to a crowd and making you just a part of the crowd. The highlighted words she put in her letter emphasise the main focus in the sentence and draws your eyes to that particular part. Also, the use of “never, real, amazing”- enhances the importance of the word in a different technique than highlighting it; makes it seem more formal as of the italic font.

The editor states that the “best part of this gig? [is] reading your messages”. Which makes the reader feel like they are helping the writer as well as the writer helping them.

It is quite personal as its letting you into her life and knowing what she likes to do and want she enjoys best.

The writing of this letter is mostly informal e.g.

There is no capital at the beginning of the sentence and the name “hi from ann”.

She uses abbreviation for Facebook; FB, which is rarely used in formal and professional writing and also “gig” which is a slang word for a live performance.

Followed by the use of the words “awesome, shebang, amazing”. Which aren't really formal like words. The informal language helps you relax while reading it and not feel that it’s too serious which makes you discover that the target audience would be based on teenagers/young adults with a normal status and class.

There’s a lot of use of “!” which emphasises the sentence/ word and makes it more exciting. With a variety of long and short sentences.

The editor ends the letter with “XOXO, -A” Which makes the reader feel like the editor is a friend as you tend to send x’s to friends. The Initial is there as the readers know her name as she states it at the beginning of the letter;the reader is now personal with her.

The target audience would be teenage girls to young women. We know this as of the colours used on the page (Pinks). Also, the main focus of the letter is about young woman bodies which is in the interest of women. The first image is of the editor which is a young woman. This fits in well with the page as the target audience is the same as the writer

The other 2 images on this page are of the same teenager with the photo shopped differences to show girls that they don't do crazy adjustments to the body as every type of shape and size is perfect. The two images are the main focus of what the letter is actually about.

At the end the editor says “Listen carefully to you” for the readers’ opinion on the magazine which suggests that they care about your opinions and what you have to say.

The highlighted sentence makes it stand out and makes it become a main focus on the page.

Cleo Magazine Editors Letter

The editor of Cleo Magazine uses direct address and makes the reader feel like her friend. The way she successfully does this is by firstly stating “Your friend Sarah xx”. The obvious ‘your friend’ makes the reader learn that the editor refers to her readers as friends not just readers which helps build a relationship between the two. Also “The story might shock you a little” contains “you” which is a direct address helping the reader interact with the letter more.

The editor uses a rhetorical question at the beginning and right at the end. This is to make the reader answer the primary question that the questioner wanted him to answer in the first place. The purpose would be to make a person realize something, without actually telling them. This helps the reader connect more with the letter as the editor is asking you the question. The rhetorical question “What do you think? Anyone want to join me?” Uses direct address as well and makes you interact with the magazine more with both language techniques used. The writing is formal which suggests the target audience would be for adults.

“For a magazine girl” she talks about dieting and exercise which is the main focus of the letter. This suggests that her target audience is women as this is a main focus in women’s lives and she also states “mid-year solution” highlighting the adult target audience.

The image of her is also related to the target audience as she's a woman which helps you interact with the letter more as its coming from someone like yourself. The writer is very realistic stating things such as her “aiming to go to the gym four times a week, but [her feeling] totally righteous if [she] gets there just once” This helps connect to the audience as its not fake, she is being real/realistic. She helps us also have an insight in her life with her telling us a story about her child hood about her weight which is quite a personal memory. The colour theme is blue which is the same theme on the cover of the magazine for that month.

School Magazine Editors Letter

Sunday 18 October 2015

School Magazine Cover And Contents Page

The photo I used was of a student in-front of a school poster/banner stating “Hampstead school” - “Learning together, Achieving together”.

The title I chose was “The Student” with one student on the front to emphasise the title.I made the title the only font that was white to draw the eye to it more whilst keeping the title the same font (Bi Bi) as the writing on the banner to help it fit in.

I feel “The Student” makes the reader feel welcome and directed as they are a student as well.

The colours I chose were red, white & grey as that is the colour theme of the school.

I changed the font on the rest of the writing (Helvetica) to give it a different importance. By picking the tagline “Do you want to strive to be the best you can” was a really catchy slogan and would draw the students attention to the magazine as every student is having an education to have a better future.

I put the main feature in red to give it more importance compared to the other features highlighting that its the main one.Tagline and Main feature are both in bold.

The questions in the coverlines makes the reader think for the answer. Also the coverline “Did your work make it on the best work of the week page” makes the reader want to find out if its work actually made it in the magazine. The coverlines were smaller than the main coverline to highlight the priority of the main coverline.

The price and date are in the bottom right corner in a light grey which makes it stand out as of the dark blue behind it.

With the contents page I kept the same layout as the front page (with the top grey shape and logo on top) and had the same colour theme as the title page and school theme. With “Contents”& “Features” I kept it in the same font (Bi Bi) as the schools font to help it fit in and look more professional.

I made the numbers of the pages a different colour (red which goes with school theme colours) to make it stand out.

The 5 pictures I took bring brightness to the page and help represent the school.

I decided to make a collage of the photos and keep them the same size with no main image as each picture is important and non needed a priority on the page. I kept the layout organised and simple to help the reader get round the magazine easier and better.

I kept what was in the magazine a different font (Helvetica) to make it more clearer.