LO2: Production schedule

 Need to do:

- visualisation diagrams

- LO2 visual styles and themes moodboard 

- Proposal; purpose, form, content, target audience (audience profile)

(schedule on powerpoint)

LO2: Font styles and graphics' (finish next Thursday)

LO2: Photoshoot plans (finish next Thursday)

Unit 3 LO1: Mindmap of Ideas 1 & 2

Mindmap of Ideas: 1

Topics I enjoy: music (mixed), animals (dogs), the outdoors. Suitable magazines include pop or rock magazines (focused on music and celebrities based on those genres), pet or dog based magazines (for animal owncrs or those who enjoy that type of content), specific magazines centered around natures & the outdoors (i.e Outdoor Life is a good example)

Reasons for 1st Choice: Will be able to make use of specific locations in Sheffield to appeal to the local area, and show a dog breed that is common in the area (springer spaniels). 

Preferred Genre: Dogs / Pets

Possible Model: Myself & my dogs

Mindmap of Ideas: 2

Notes: Possible names for the home-dog variant included The Kennel, which ended up being chosen.

LO1: Masthead Moodboards - Sample Materials & Visualisation

- Colours

The masthead designs that I have collected seem to split into three themes; pastel colours that appear to be more fun and friendly, sharp & saturated colours which give the reader a professional feel, and black or white mastheads that stand out or highlight a specific word in the name. These styles can vary and be mixed together; though the choices of reds, yellow or blues seem to be the most popular. Out of the group, the orange of Dogs Monthly and both the blue and pastel green BARk mastheads stand out the most among the crowd of reds and pink. Going for individuality rather than going with the popular colours would help the magazine stand out more and feel different - it feels like a niche local magazine rather than an imitation of the paid ones. Due to the actual content of the magazines, the colours are varied and gender-neutral, appealing to a wide range of dog owners rather than a specific one - though pastels may be aimed towards younger audiences as it seems more friendly and inviting.

Going for a softer/gentler theme for the magazine would match it's genre (focused around caring for dogs in the home); therefore using pastels would be the best way forward. The specific colour used will need to match with the picture used on the cover; this could make or break the design otherwise. My target audience is younger, themed around families and how they can look after their dogs; so avoiding an intimidating masthead is crucial.

- Fonts

Looking at the fonts on the mastheads, it's clear that the use of serifs and sans serifs usually connotate professionalism vs informality; both edition DOG, Dogs Today and BARk make the use of serif fonts in order to give across an experienced and informative effect. On the other hand, moderndog, YourPet and dogster all take the inspiration of a tabloid newspaper, using their bouncy or otherwise smooth fonts to gain the audience's attention through the chaos. It's clear that capital letters do not always fall in line with the professionalism vs informality themes, as YourPet is designed with entertainment in mind while BARk is overall clean and neat. The fonts that stand out the most is actually both dogster and YourPet: dogster includes curls and bounces that go against the usual Arial-like fonts, while YourPet incorporates cute animal themes (a fish for the o, and an animal print for the e) which makes it especially attracting. 

Using YourPet's capitalization and unique stylistic choices in its font may help make my brand more recognisable and cuter - as I plan to call the masthead some varying degree of "The Kennel", I could choose to avoid the use of serif fonts and incorporate kennel-themed designs to appeal to a younger and more casual audience.

- Housestyle

The mastheads and actual covers of the magazines are designed to match together. Depending on the magazine, they may make use of contrasting colours such as a blue masthead and red details, or they may follow through with a specific coloured theme entirely. Designing my housestyle and masthead with children and families in mind, I plan to take inspiration from the studied mastheads in order to create a fitting design that will catch their eye and keep the magazine fun.

The shades of colour I would like to experiment with are pastels; specifically variations of oranges, blues and greens. However, orange may not be fitting for the magazine; amber connotates warning or danger, and therefore might end up being intimidating unless the shade is specifically picked out. Blues and greens connotate the outdoor weather such as skies and grass, and are typically used for products and stories aimed for children. 

Although these font examples were created using the name design of "THE Kennel", I still want to consider them as options for the piece. Although most dog magazines use Arial, that's because it works; it's rounded but bold enough to stand out as the masthead. Posterama is also round, but lacks the boldness that could be effective. Therefore, I'll try to look at a different range of fonts.

As for the capitalisation, I want to experiment with both lowercase and uppercase letters to see which would be most family-friendly; making the masthead font too formal could negatively contrast with the informal style. If designed like YourPet, it may be able to work out.

I have to be aware that the masthead needs to be designed with a light background in mind; if the pastel is too light, it may not work.

Using the BARk masthead's shade of green and the rounded Arial font as a base, I went through a different selection of colours that I could use. I can see that example 0 is used on a darker background, so despite the fact that it's difficult to see here, it's as clear as day on the actual magazine. This may mean that if I want to use any of the selected colours without darkening them, I will need to edit the cover accordingly.

Looking over the shades themselves, a few of them stand out in particular - example 1, 6 and 7. Example 1 is clearly green, but it isn't too bold like the second example or as strangely-hued as the one after that. It's pleasing to the eye; example 6 and 7 also have the same effect. They're both appealing and definitely fitting for a younger audience. Although I never considered using a pinkish-purple colour for the magazine, example 6 actually stands out the most out of the whole set; it's unique, bright enough to go on any background, and a purple-pink theme for the magazine would have a positive connotation and could fit with lavenders. My choice on whether I want to use blues or purples is torn, so I may choose to change it depending on the cover theme; most dog magazines change the colours around 

I still feel like capitalizing The Kennel would be the best option; looking at new fonts that go against what I initially suggested can give a different viewpoint.

Although I have been using Arial Rounded as a base point for my masthead font, Arial Black seems to be the most effective for the job. It's a bold font with rounded edges that keeps to a snug style, so it's clear to see on the magazine and can be easily read no matter the brightness of the cover. The last two fonts fall short due to how thin they are; they aren't easy to see, so they won't be eye-catching enough for audiences to notice. Fonts like Gill Sans are too compact which feels enclosing, even though the magazine is supposed to be open and comfortable - meanwhile Cooper Black's serif font wouldn't be as appealing to children.

Adding to the Arial Black font, it would be possible to add a dog-themed design to the masthead; although the font itself may seem silly, if added correctly, it could be an interesting idea. Other ideas include adding a kennel, pawprints or dog toys. 

Upon further attempts at sketching out the design, I've decided how I would like to add the dog-bone theme - at the end of the word kennel, I want to add a bone with a red-pink bow. It should seem cute to children and gives a small logo that makes the title stand out.

Visualisations:

Cover:

visualisation cover

Contents:

visualisation contents

DPS: screenshot

Unit 3: Codes & Conventions notes (notes)

Masthead is the name and logo of the magazine. Establishes the brand, genre and target audience of the magazine. House style (a magazine's distinctive design that distinguishes it from its competitors) helps the masthead; it includes the colours, usually no more than three, and two types of fonts (serif which has little bars (serifs) and sans-serif).

Include the font style used and the connotations (usually modern and easy to read - how is it linked to the genre).

Sell Lines - Text on the cover that helps sell the magazine to the audience, which represents a slogan. No more than three words. "How does the sell line of the magazine fit the genre?"

Cover Lines - insight into the other articles in the magazine. What do your examples say? How do they fit the connotations of the magazine's genre and target audience?

Main Cover Image - main image on the front page. A medium close-up is usually used; if it is a different shot type, it breaks conventions, and say why that might be the case. Represents the main article in that issue - analyse the mise en scene, costumes / make up pose - how does it fit the genre of the magazine, how does it appeal to the audience. Ideal self / ideal partner (Carl Rogers 1980).

(Ideal partner in the context of my magazine would cover "ideal best friend" due to being themed around dogs, based on the concept of dogs being "man's best friend")

Main Cover Line - biggest text on the page barring the masthead. Meant to stand out as it's supposed to give an insight as to what the main article of the issue is. What does it say, how does it represent the main cover image model / musician / object in question.

(If the main cover line has speech marks around it, it is a pull quote that has been pulled from the double page spread or main article.)

LO1: Proposal: Distribution and marketing

 Starter questions;

1. Distribution is the movement and supply of products to customers. In the terms of a magazine, it's the act of physically distributing the product to an audience so they receive it. A local magazine created by an independent group wouldn't have a fee for it. The adverts in the magazine would fund the costs.

2. Marketing is advertising a product, good or service to an audience in order to gain sales. Promoting the product to an audience. This stage is done before the distribution stage so that customers will know what they're getting.

Content & distribution & marketing headings: merit

Cultural hub: Places where people gather together e.g creative spaces, where your target audience goes to socialise.

1. Think about genre. Which local pet shops would a dog magazine be in? At least 3 examples linked to genre/life style of audience.

Distribution:

An effective shop to sell a dog magazine in would be a location such as Gleadless Pet Store; it's a highly-rated local store that stands in a busy area along a tram route, meaning that an array of potential customers in Sheffield would be able to access it. It's likely to be recommended by other dog walkers, who are usually friendly and willing to recommend helpful places to others. This means that a local magazine being sold in a well-respected local shop would increase it's chances of being bought.

Another method to distribute the magazine would be in vets. These places are designed for animals, so the intended audience would definitely come into contact with the magazine. Using another popular location would give the magazine a better reputation; a vets like Peak Vets in Sheffield would be a good example thanks for their 5*  ratings and long opening hours - while waiting for their dogs to be taken care of, customers can pick up the magazine and read it for free in the waiting rooms, making this method incredibly effective in attracting new customers.

A third location to distribute the magazine would be in local parks. These can be considered cultural hubs; places where the target audience would socialise and gather together in. If the magazine is made available through "pick up & take for free" methods, such as how Sheffield train station and Stagecoach buses have free newspapers from the Metro that can be taken. These newspaper boxes usually have little messages that become visible as the box is emptied - rather than messages, these could be replaced with cute dog cartoons. This way, it fits to the theme of the magazine, and may become more well-known in the area. Though this links with marketing itself - parks would be a suitable location to distribute in because of the amount of dog-walkers that may come by, alongside families with children that would take one for the sake of entertaining themselves as they walk or because it's available.

Focusing on better-known local areas will help with the magazine's reputation and distribution; getting the word out is an important task if later releases wanted to be successful.

Marketing:

Marketing through traditional methods is vital, because the magazine itself is free, and would rely on either crowdfunding or advertisement slots for marketing funds. Posters could be one traditional method that could easily be used; once designed and printed, they could be placed in areas which would let them be spread to a wider audience. Possible locations include family-friendly restaurants or bars (which are scattered around Sheffield City Centre), nearby local schools (where passerby children would see them) and in local residential areas. This would help word be spread around. Another below the line idea (advertising to a niche audience) would be to create a radio advertisement that could be shown on Sheffield Live. It's a smaller radios station that allows you to advertise anything you'd like - a specific local audience may use this type of radio, so it's possible they would hear the ad and remember it.

Online advertising & digital methods are also an important step in marketing the product. These adverts can vary in different ways - using web banners and pop ups through websites would be effective if the right sites were targeted. These sites could be family-orientated such as Mumsnet, or they could be pet-based such as Pets at Home. This could be expensive. Social media itself is also an option; using promoted posts & tweet functions on Instagram and Twitter could help audiences see the advertisements on their feed, when they usually wouldn't. Social media channels would be created alongside these to show videos, upcoming potential articles, and etc. in order to make a connection with the technology-oriented audience. Using online polls would create further engagement in order to advertise the brand. It suits the genre since families would use digital technology on a daily basis, and would need to access pet-related websites in order to buy supplies for their animals.

Cross-promotion would be an excellent way in promoting the product. If we were to promote the magazine on different platforms, it would make our voice louder and increase the effectiveness of our advertising campaign; for example, if we were to work alongside another pet-based magazine, they could use their advertising space to promote us. This would expand our reach to bigger audiences. Working with an entirely different platform such as working with a large online store (theoretically like Pets at Home) would show another audience our brand - using a specific house style through the promotions can make the magazine recognisable and easy to spot.