Project Monitoring 3rd- 9th

This week I have managed to complete my article for 'The Subliminal Band' in addition to this I have managed to make a successful amount of progress on the DPS as well. Due to the design I am now having to create an extra page for the article, this is because I don't have enough room for the rest of my article and images across two pages. This gives me a few of things to think about;

1. The article positively adds extra content to my product, therefore this will boost the popularity and entertainment aspects of my magazine when read by my audience.
2. This will will require extra work, this again could be a problem when keeping to a production schedule overall. I will have to put extra time into the pages when I have chance.
3. It will take away any advertisement space that will be the funding towards my magazine's production and distribution. Therefore I may lose slight profit which doesn't help when using a free to view strategy.

I planned to make a start on my next DPS this week which I now cant do as I need to spend extra time finishing 'The Subliminal Band' DPS off. This is my progress so far;

For next week I need to make sure this DPS is up to standard and ready for me to move on to my next DPS. 

Font Research

This research will allow me to improve the visual aspect of my articles as it improves the likeability of my audience. By asking my readers which ones they prefer I am able to gain insight on the best possible look when approaching my product. I will be asking both female and male readers for an un-biased opinion.

The following texts are going to be trialed with feedback for my ‘band’ article.

Text 1 ‘Plane Crash’:




Text 2 ‘Stardots’:




Text 3 ‘Distorted’:






Feedback:

Andrew Boylan – “I prefer the first font as the solid black with a grainy effect gives it a bold look that links to bands, the second is good yet it isn’t bold enough. I feel the third text’s arrows look out of place.”

Phoebe Atkinson – “I prefer the top font as it is a lot bolder than the others and reminds me of white paint splattered across it.”

 

Feedback 3 – “It relates to an alternative style of music, looking bold and carries a great image.”

The following texts are going to be trialed with feedback for my ‘A Taste of Teesside’ article.

Text 1 ‘Fibography’:




Text 2 ‘Adventure’:

Text 3 ‘Tattoo Shop’:

Feedback:

Phoebe Atkinson – “The Last one holds a lot of character to the font, relating to food more than any of the others.”

Feedback 2 – “I like both the second and third font because they hold stylish characteristics, the second font is nicely angled and the third has some nice shapes added in.”

Andrew Boylan - "The third font is strongly my favourite as it brings out a fun feel to the words and it's visually pleasing."

Conclusion:

After this research I have decided to go with the ‘Plane Crash’ to situate in my band article. For ‘The Taste of Teesside’ I have decided to go with the third font, ‘Tattoo Shop’. This is all relevant to my audience feedback.

Treatment

Operational. A cultural magazine, a magazine that’s gritty, politically growing and amongst the most interesting music involved in the North East. It covers a wide range of ideas and discussions that would take hold of a young adult concerning their well being in Britain’s society today. It takes on aspects of governmental educational plans and music visionaries that attract a niche market of ‘thinkers’. It is different to most magazines and holds in-depth views of a slight biased opinion giving a backbone to Britain’s younger generations.

Print Advertising Treatment/Proposal

Product name: OPERATIONAL

Client: Northern Echo

Project completion date:  24^th February

Branding Objectives

What is the genre of your magazine? What are you informing your audience about? How will it branded? What are the connotations of your branding decisions? What are the connotations of the magazine’s name?

Branding  Operational offers readers’ entertainment through knowledge and information driven on often thought about questions that relate to their future. It doesn’t just hold insight of what’s going on today but rather takes hold of the discussion on the ethical side to the stories and articles include. It dives into inspirational events, people and music that makes up the culture of our society, the very bindings that hold what’s left that is truly to live for. A realistic world is trying to answer the question ‘What am I to do in life?’ especially for a younger generation and Operational takes this personally. It lives for dreams and inspires people to be motivated with what they really would like do. Everyone is very caught up with money and a materialistic life, yet Operational pushes away from this to make sure readers are striving for what makes them happy.  It will be recognised through a bold, stamped masthead that reverts to the name itself; its here to cause movement, it’s here with a purpose and the word Operational holds connotations of this. The font used will be HARABARA and in uppercase letter, the audience will link it to other popular cultural magazines’ san-serif typefaces such as Huck magazine. It even links to companies of purpose and activity (skateboarding, surfing, music, art.) Things people don’t get enough of. The font is quirky yet bold; it holds a familiar edge that is powerful in its simple form. The colour will be black and orange, black representing a bold stamp on society and orange to hold connotations of hot flames burning a positive outlook and relating to the heated ‘touchy’ subjects involved with our articles.  This links to a youthful audience of a cheeky, un-deterred audience that isn’t afraid to speak their say. It will be stamped next to the page number on every page; this is a useful technique to imprint the brand in the readers’ minds, reinforcing it.

Audience communication objectives

Who is your audience? Identify: tribe, socioeconomics, age, gender split.

The Target Audience for Operational is mainly for students aged 18 to 24 taking the future aspects in life seriously, preferably those wanting to get the most out of life away from that average 9:00 – 5:00 job. Although the subjects included will interest a wide range of people it will perhaps interest those who are more intellectual and defiant to debating and hold their own opinions. In terms of tribes it would be a mixture of Young Alts and Creatives. Sophisticated, fashionable and definitely have a desired career in mind, their hobby is a passion and even a way of life. Sociability means a lot to them, so parties and nights out involve a fun way of life and most definitely having something to talk about. Socioeconomically they may be working on a budget but they wouldn’t fall under the rule of thumb from their parents meaning life is what you make of it. Yet falling under their parents they would be in a C1C2B segment. My magazine won’t be targeting one sex but both, the brand are there to state and welcome every opinion. Operational is definitely out there when comparing magazines in its market, its not business but productive. Young adults want to feel a part of something and with this product I feel I can give this to them.

Overview
Description of front cover and contents page Content. Imagery to be deployed: metaphorical, ideal, window to the future self	The front cover will feature a gritty looking teenager that reflects on the articles inside. Jack will be the link between the audience and the initial insight they should gain from the visual. Shot in the upper third of the cover it will drag in any readers that come across the product. He has a stern look faced with anger that shows off action and purpose in the magazine, which can be regarded as Operation itself. In a way the image will contrast the information inside, the publication is ‘For’ the younger generation, not ‘Against’ therefore by showing an image of a young mob type it inflicts the point I will be trying to get across to my audience in the article. This works oppositely to the feeling an image of the future self would supposedly create which gives the magazine breadth and a sense of imagination. I want readers to not become this person I have set on the front of the cover; this may also help apply the minds of an older secondary audience also. Parents and older peers would not want their children or younger generations to become this ‘mob’ type stated on the front therefore making the inside information very much valid for those with an opinion. It links in with the title. ‘Operational’ has movement and sets something in the reader’s head, it commands them to set movement in themselves and that they can learn something from the information inside. This links in with the turning point in a young persons life, socioeconomically the audience can relate their lives to the on going situations around them (the magazine heads for a lower demographic) yet the audience will want to strive for something more in their life.  Main headline ‘Chewy Grittish’ Society’ is the same title as the article inside. It is a play on word that bounces of the title ‘A Truly British Society’. This uses sarcasm and again makes a point on how Britain is doing socially. It again links to the image itself. It will be written in a serif font almost the same a New Times Roman, this is suggesting Britain is stuck in the past with this outdated text. The layout will be rather simple and consistent holding sell-lines on the left and the main image further towards the right hand side. No other images will be placed on the front cover other than a large cross in the left hand bottom that will be detonating an emergency.
Double Page 1 Title, content and article type	‘A Chewy Grittish Society’. This article will the most in depth and meaningful piece to my magazine. It approaches views on the way British cultures works and the way it has repercussions from governmental systems such as the police force and educational methods. The layout will include facts and figures from the start of the London riots; it supports reasons for and against why It happened and how things should have been dealt with differently. This engages the audience’s opinion of the recorded event that will still be talked about today. It will be lengthy and entertaining, holding pictures of the riots will give enough for my audience to look at. The images will give a sense of realism; ideally it will put reality into perspective for my reader and hopefully put them off of the violence and abusiveness that attacked society on the week of the riots. The images are very active therefore entertaining the audience further will be of a successful motive. I won’t take the images themselves, as the riots aren’t present, therefore I will produce already taken photographs with consent of the photographer. The image incorporates the article that is set after the miniature timeline (prior-information). The article itself will be presented very confidently showing many different aspects and underlying motives to why, how and what happened when the riots occurred. The information will constantly keep the reader back tracking to the presented image as it punches out of the page. - Another main focal point to the magazine will situate around the title. This will be in the font of Sanchez Regular, a slightly outdated looking text that reminds me of writing from an old typewriter. This shape holds denotations of war and conflict that will be linked to the riots.  I will also be using the font, Chocolate Box to help break up the two parts of the article. This holds the same aspects of a serif fonts but it looks as though someone has taken time to hand write the letters. The structure of the article will be laid out sensitively for the reader’s eyes, images on the left page and articles on the right. More so underneath the title will be a small set of sentences that grip the reader with initial meaning to the article and my presentation of the information that will conform to an ideal structure. The colours will be of black and orange, which are the main in-house colours to the magazine itself. The main feature of the magazine is this article therefore the colours will represent riots and help link to the front-page image of a young thug. The orange will be done for branding purposes, as this is the set colour to OPERATIONAL.
Double Page 2 Title, content and article type	‘The Subliminal Band’ This article documents the career of Keiran and his band, Ocean Avenue. The title Subliminal stands for the underlying motives that pushed them into the York club scene of music, underlying information is the gritty entertainment that situates my magazine’s unique selling point. This is for an audience concerning those who want a career in the music industry. It entertains readers by inspiring them to reach and work for their dreams. It does this by laying out the way Keiran managed to make his career successful through preservation and confidence in him, this relates to my audience’s life values and the reason why they will be reading my magazine. It has information on how the government made cuts (again this adds to the overall views the magazine holds) to his music course and how he managed to work through these hard times to become successful. This article opens the reader’s mind giving them realistic judgment on how a career can be presented through making things happen.  The article won’t be too lengthy or heavy on the reader, by this it will hold entertaining paragraphs that indulge with the way Keiran is as a person and the feeling we get from him through the interview. This makes the reader feel a part of the magazine as if they are at home with the story. The images will include one large photograph of Keiran set outside of a studio environment, this highlights the fact my magazine isn’t going for any ‘made-up’ stylistics. If it is set out in a pub or park it makes the reader feel as though he/she is the same as Keiran, I don’t want them to feel inadequate. The article will also hold images of their live performances; this gives the article a nice contrast for my reader to aspire towards. It shows his life as a person and his life as a full time entertainer. More so It again adds to the overall feel of the article. The title will be in a San Serif font, ‘plane crash’. This text will be bold, modern and hold a rough/raw band style around it. This fits in perfectly to my readers and the band Ocean Avenue who play a genre of rock music. This text also has plenty of positive feedback, which again adds to my audience’s needs. All of the article will be written in Sanchez Regular, this is the same text used in my previous article – ‘Chewy Grittish’ Society’ and holds aspects of articles written in popular music magazines such as NME. The structure of the article will be laid out around the images. As I am trying to contrast his life as a person and an entertainer I shall be basing text in an Interview/Story style. This won’t big him up as something truly untouchable, nor will it make him any less admirable than he already is to my audience. This helps add to the overall feel of the magazine that I am trying to create; one of which is very down to earth. Colours will be based around his main portrait image; this gives the whole article a homely feel and makes it relative to the audience. I want my audience to back track to this image. Orange again will be included as this is a part of my in house design and also gives connotations of warmth, easing my audience into the magazine further.
Double page  3 Title, content and article type	‘A Taste Of Teesside’. This article is based closer to my female target audience and the culture magazine I want to create. Food of the Northeast was a great article to put into my project especially when catering for a Northern-Echo client. It is an article that also could appeal to a secondary target audience of an older demographic and most definitely caters for people at university. A Chicken Parmo’ is very un healthy yet most definitely one of the North’s favorite take-away’. I feel that if I base a story around the dish I will be setting the mood slightly lighter when in comparison to my other moody articles. This gives the magazine a more fun feel that isn’t serious at all. This helps me break through to my audience more and gives them further reasons to be any additional magazines that will come to them in the future. Students love to be creative and with this article I will be including the ingredients and recipe to create HEALTHY parmesan. This will most definitely appeal to students wanting to watch their weight, especially after the Christmas months. I feel this way I can target towards women, as I want them to feel included when reading previous articles. I feel political views and heavy rock bands will sway my magazine to be rather masculine so this article will surely help break that down without putting off my male target audience, both genders being very creative. The title is alliterated around the ‘Parmo’s’ origin; this will also grab the attention of any readers seeing the sell-line on the front. As I am naming the region people from the Northeast will want to find out more as they feel comfortable reading something new if it is established towards them. The title will be placed in a font called ‘Tattoo Shop’; I came across this text will an exciting feel to it. It’s fun bold and comical, which again gives the article a lighter feel when compared to the rest of the magazine. The font also holds denotations of a ‘Western Cowboy’ sign, this will hopefully make the reader feel slightly adventurous and give them a push to make the recipe inside the article. The article will be written in a Sanchez Regular font, this again adds to that other house feel the magazine holds, this won’t let the article fall to far from the tree.

Distribution objectives

Regional or national? Circulation: how many and why this number? Outlets and rationale: Pricing: premium, mid or free to view? Why? Print quality: Discuss print finishing, magazine size, and paper quality. Number of pages. Advertising to content ratio

Operational is a magazine sold in the North East, as it is linked to the Northern Echo, but has hopes to perhaps become a national magazine one-day. I will be producing 19000 copies for my first edition of the magazine; these will be distributed around Darlington’s main colleges. It is a free to view magazine which will be placed straight into my audiences hands, as I have a certain target audience the age demographic is perfect when situated around the colleges. The finish on the print will be to a regular standard, nothing too shabby that will put my audience off. There will be 16 pages with 5 of them essential advertisement pages, this will be combined in the regular and featured articles.

Visual Aesthetics
Story control Objectives	I will be placing the articles in this order; Chewy Grittish Society The Subliminal Band A Taste of Teesside. I will start with ‘A Chewy Grittish society because this is the main article. It holds a big bulk of content and I feel it sets the tone for the whole idea of the magazine. It is definitely a good read; yet if my audience sees it they can always come back to it as they know it is there. ‘The Subliminal Band’ will come next as I feel it is a good bridge between the first and third article. It holds aspects of governmental issues yet it’s a part of a creative arty genre, this therefore will be a very productive read for both of my aimed tribes. As it isn’t as heavy as the previous article I feel it will let my reader feel at ease, it lets them think about previous issues yet it inspires them at the same time pushing them onto being creative when reading my final article. ‘A Taste of Teesside’ will come last as it is very light hearted and comical. It makes the readers feel at home. By putting this article last the reader will finish the magazine with a positive opinion when thinking about ‘OPERATIONAL’ overall and it lets them remember it last. With this strategy I feel my audience won’t forget the magazine and will definitely come back for more in the near future.
Image content objectives	The front cover image will be used to pull in my audience. The style of my ‘thug’ imaged on the front will draw in male and female viewers. This is because the magazine isn’t set out like any other. It concludes the titles revolving around ‘Riots’ and helps set the tone for my article surrounding my band interview. The front image will be taken in the studio with ‘Butterfly’ lighting and an upward tilt. This puts him in the upper-third giving off an intimidating pose. This gives readers a reason to find out more and the emotional feeling I am trying to create with my magazine. Positively readers will want to see more images of the riots, which I have included in my articles. Each article will be specifically placed and taken for the articles at hand, none in which will be out of place. Therefore I have gained consent of actual images taken at the riots; this gives my article a greater professional tone. Images for my band article will situate in two sets, one of Keiran outside of his band life and another of him entertaining a live gig. The outside photograph will help conclude his life and relate to the ‘average Joe’ reading my magazine. It also helps set a feeling of friendship, I as the writer, have with him. The image plays well with the audience, especially if they aren’t completely musical orientated like a lot of my audience will be. Images of his live set help the readers feel the atmosphere his band creates, especially when gaining one on one photos with all the lighting effects that are included with a live set. This means readers will relate to him with the previous images and also aspire to be like him. The live images will also link excitement to the article, as I will be giving the readers insight to the bands performance. ‘A Taste of Teesside’ will hold images of a freshly cooked ‘Parmo’ as I want the readers to feel as though making one would be a great idea. This article is very creative and outside the box therefore the image needs to be picturesque. I also have a photo shoot idea to take pictures of a male model smudging parmo across their face. Although this sounds extreme as most take-away’s are bought when students are on nights out. This image will relate to the audience as my target audience is aimed towards the age of university students therefore drunken times will have occurred in their life. Smudge Parmo makes the audience feel as though the model may be drunk.
Language Control Objectives	All of my articles will be written in a third person narrative. This is to engage the audience in a certain way that lets them relate to my opinion as a writer and engages them with the sourced information especially as it stars with a ‘shocking’ introduction. With different articles I will use different tones in my writing; this will also help influence the different styles I aim to achieve. For my ‘Chewy Grittish Society’ article the language used will be sophisticated with short/blunt sentencing. This influences the reader to feel how strongly I do about the story and the sentences will ensure tension with the reader. Furthermore this style of writing will produce a more serious tone. The article will use a very strong sarcastic tone of voice, almost to a style of arrogance suggesting the writer thinks in a very biased way. Hectoring may be used when considering the people are being subjective to a personal opinion. The text to image ratio will be averagely half, possibly including slightly more text – yet this isn’t a heavy amount of writing. For my second article ‘The Subliminal Band’ I will be situating the story around my interview. This means I will be using plenty of quotation marks that will most definitely pull the reader into the article as it is a form of relation between the reader and the person being interviewed. The tone will be casual and friendly as it sets the mood between the writer and the person being interviewed, this gives it an exciting style of writing. Readers will be entertained by the feeling coming from the article. The narrative will jump from first and third person. First person will show textual comments from the interview and third person will set the mood, explain the action and help show the reader the main scene that the interview was set in. As the interview will be set in a pub the reader will acknowledge many adjectives that help set up an image in the readers mind, this will also help distinguish the two different types of images in the article. It will also relate them to any pictures taken at the interview and dragging the reader in further with the expressionisms that are combined with textual and actual imagery. ‘The Taste of Teeside’ will be a feature written in a very positive manor including lots of casual humor.
Colour control objectives	Colours will change depending on the article. For the front cover I will be producing a dark black background with white and orange sell-lines. This is to have a connotation of bright fire burning on a dark background, this links with the riot themed article inside and the modeled ‘thug’ on the front. More so these colours fit the in-house design I am trying to achieve. The article ‘Chewy Grittish Society’ Also holds influences of these colours, as the pictures in the article are full of fire, this is very orange. The colour will then link the readers mind to the article, them and magazine altogether. These colours are fairly neutral and they don’t segregate my male and female readers. The ‘Subliminal Band’ article will feature dark red and white, along with any lighter reds and blacks to highlight certain aspects of my article. These colours are hot and help link in with the all-male band, this could work as slight sex appeal to any female readers. I do not attempt to use these colours in order to put off my male audience, as the article is very masculine in terms of content. The colours simple run off from the orange in previous articles and feels as though it acts as a mutual ground for all my readers. ‘A Taste of Teeside’ will situate around the colour yellow. This shows connotations of sunshine that can be related to happiness. Furthermore the colour is next to red and orange in the colour pallet. It also works very well with black writing on a white background. Yellow is very mutual between when considering a male and female audience, yet it is just a bit lighter which works well with the happier style of writing I am aiming for with this article. It also stands out when compared to the darker articles prior to this one.
Typography objectives	Typography will improve the visual aesthetics of my product in many ways. I aim to change fonts and titles depending on the genre of the article, this way I can relate the visuals to the information. The font used for my front cover mast head will be HARABARA and in uppercase letter, the audience will link it to other popular cultural magazines’ san-serif typefaces such as Huck magazine. It even links to companies of purpose and activity (skateboarding, surfing, music, art.) Things people don’t get enough of. The font is quirky yet bold; it holds a familiar edge that is powerful in its simple form. ‘Chewy Grittish Society’ will hold san serif fonts, which seem as a less modern approach to my writing. This is because the article is about how our government is set in their old ways to do with laws and approaches on social events that reflect on our community. Typing in Sanchez Regular and having can see sub-titles in Chocolate Box, the reflection between the too is considerably stronger than if I used a sans serif font. Sanchez Regular replicates the typing of a typewriter, which makes the audience assume that it’s in a previous outdated style. The title of the article is also written in this font to give readers an initial impact of this. The Chocolate Box font achieves a hand written effect, which again is the opposite of modernism. ‘The Subliminal Band’ will use a raw splashed text called plane crash. This links in heavily with my overall band image. It’s bold and outstanding which makes it a great title font; this helps to create tension with other text boxes and kickers that surround it. I will be using new fonts for my textual paragraphs; this is to give my magazine a modern feel to it. The text Bodoni MT Black will be easy to read. It creates contrast as it’s a serif font, and my title is in a sans serif style. The serif style relates and links towards the rest of my magazine articles. ‘A Taste of Teeside’ will be titled and represented by the text Tattoo Shop. This is a fun text that’s added to the humored style of my article. I will be typing in the font Mistress, this helps add femininity to my article helping add to the unisex style of my magazine altogether.
Layout objectives	I plan to keep all of my articles arranged in a very similar way. This includes having a main image on the left and involving any smaller images to the right hand side along with my main article. On the left page I can place in any quotes or small paragraphs underneath my main image. This helps to create tension between the style and meaning of the article along with the main image. By creating all of my articles in the same way it helps push towards the in house style I will be aiming for that really attracts my audience.

Project Monitoring 27th-2nd

This week I successfully updated my blog and re mastered my layout for 'The Subliminal Band' article. This included the new pictures I managed to take of the band, which eventfully made additional progress to my project. This is because I failed to make the deadline I had set myself to finish the photographs in the previous week.  

 

From this photography session I have managed to pick out an edit a final one that has been placed into my DPS project. This initial picture has allowed me to make a lot of good progress on my DPS and enabled me to be creative in different ways giving me extra aspects on how to finish this piece at a professional standard. 

 

Some problems have occurred due to the satisfactory progress of my DPS, I’m not too keen on some of the ideas I have been trying out and I have to be careful that I don't spend too long on an individual one. A contingency plan for this would be to follow my in-house design, which involves a photograph on the left page and an article on the right hand page. 

 

For the continuing week I will be finishing off this DPS, start my new 'A Taste of Teeside' DPS and update my blog with further research and article plans.