Learning Outcome 1 (U21): Be able to generate ideas for an original media product based on a client brief (P1, M1)
I have been asked to create a double page spread and a front cover for The London Magazine.
There are many requirements from the brief and the majority of them are very explicit. We can clearly see from the image above that our client, 'The London Magazine' have told me that I have to produce a new online and digital print based magazine for North London only. Another explicit requirement is that I need to create a double page spread and a front cover of a music magazine.
The implicit ideas that are in the brief is that I need to create it for a younger generation. This would mean that the target audience would be for around the ages of 16-22.
The ideas that are open to interpretation is that it is for a vibrant music scene. The word 'vibrant' seems to suggest that it is based on a younger demographic.
Initial ideas:
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Three key ideas
Idea 1:
One idea I had about what my magazine should be based on is to do it around a singular venue in North London. The strengths of doing a magazine based around a particular venue, is that there would be large amount of people who live near the area that are interested in that particular magazine.
The venue that I could do my magazine based on would be the KOKO club. I have chosen this venue as it is the most popular in North London and I want my magazine to spread to a large amount of people. As well as this, it looks as if it has the most amount of livelihood within the actual club. The price of this magazine would be £4.99 and they would be released monthly. The primary target audience for my magazine would be males between the ages of around 18 and 25. This is because this is age where most people want to go to clubs and party all of the time. My secondary target audience is females between the ages of 18 and 25. The one reason that females are secondary target audience as opposed to primary is because some females prefer less energetic clubs where as more males tend to enjoy louder, more aggressive music. My tertiary target audience is males and females ages 16 and 17. This is because they try and go clubbing even though they aren't legally allowed to so they might be interested in the upcoming events. The contents of my double page spread is going to include upcoming events, the latest news and recent interviews and Q&A with the workers there. As well as this, I will include a review written by people who have been there about how the service is and how the overall atmosphere of the club is.
I would call this magazine WorldWideEMD. I've chosen this title because I feel as if it is the most suitable for the genre of music. The mix of uppercase and lowercase letters make the title more visually pleasing and satisfying to look at. The alliteration of WorldWide makes it nicer to say and smoother to say as oppose to NorthLondonEMD which doesn't sound nice to say. This magazine will be sold in most North London newsagents, card shops and supermarkets. The main colour scheme for this magazine will be lime green and black. Lime green is a very loud colour and stands out from every other colour as its extremely bright. Furthermore, lime green is the colour that a lot of the strobe lights are at the main clubs as it has connotations partying.
Strengths and weaknesses
The strengths of doing a magazine based on a specific venue is that it is clear to see what genre the magazine is about. As well as this, having an informative magazine would bring in lots of new, interested people who want to know about the genre. People who go and visit the venue would pick up the magazine and then read when the net events were at the venue. The news of other events could be spread around by word of mouth to friends and family. A USP of this magazine would be that this magazine is the only magazine in the whole of North London based on the KOKO club. This is important because this makes it stand out from the supposed competition.
The weaknesses of this idea is that it is only released once a month, meaning that more events could be organised by the time the magazine publishes. Also, if there are no upcoming events then that section of the magazine would be very bland and boring as there would be nothing to write in there. Finally, the magazine price would be decently expensive as its being sold all around North London and prices are very high.
Idea 2:
A second idea I had about what my magazine can be based on, is an individual artist. This would be could because it would appeal to a certain genre of music as well as the area that the artist was brought in.
The artist that I would make the magazine about, would be a young artist by the name of M.B Amba. This is because she is a very talented artist that deserves a lot more recognition (this is an artist that I have found from a North London open mic night). Therefore, the young artist has potential to become something special and they can highly influence the genre of rap
.The venue that I could do my magazine based on would be the KOKO club. I have chosen this venue as it is the most popular in North London and I want my magazine to spread to a large amount of people. As well as this, it looks as if it has the most amount of livelihood within the actual club. The price of this magazine would be £4.99 and they would be released monthly. The primary target audience for my magazine would be males between the ages of around 18 and 25. This is because this is age where most people want to go to clubs and party all of the time. My secondary target audience is females between the ages of 18 and 25. The one reason that females are secondary target audience as opposed to primary is because some females prefer less energetic clubs where as more males tend to enjoy louder, more aggressive music. My tertiary target audience is males and females ages 16 and 17. This is because they try and go clubbing even though they aren't legally allowed to so they might be interested in the upcoming events. The contents of my double page spread is going to include upcoming events, the latest news and recent interviews and Q&A with the workers there. As well as this, I will include a review written by people who have been there about how the service is and how the overall atmosphere of the club is.
I would call this magazine WorldWideEMD. I've chosen this title because I feel as if it is the most suitable for the genre of music. The mix of uppercase and lowercase letters make the title more visually pleasing and satisfying to look at. The alliteration of WorldWide makes it nicer to say and smoother to say as oppose to NorthLondonEMD which doesn't sound nice to say. This magazine will be sold in most North London newsagents, card shops and supermarkets. The main colour scheme for this magazine will be lime green and black. Lime green is a very loud colour and stands out from every other colour as its extremely bright. Furthermore, lime green is the colour that a lot of the strobe lights are at the main clubs as it has connotations partying.
Strengths and weaknesses
The strengths of doing a magazine based on a specific venue is that it is clear to see what genre the magazine is about. As well as this, having an informative magazine would bring in lots of new, interested people who want to know about the genre. People who go and visit the venue would pick up the magazine and then read when the net events were at the venue. The news of other events could be spread around by word of mouth to friends and family. A USP of this magazine would be that this magazine is the only magazine in the whole of North London based on the KOKO club. This is important because this makes it stand out from the supposed competition.
The weaknesses of this idea is that it is only released once a month, meaning that more events could be organised by the time the magazine publishes. Also, if there are no upcoming events then that section of the magazine would be very bland and boring as there would be nothing to write in there. Finally, the magazine price would be decently expensive as its being sold all around North London and prices are very high.
Idea 2:
The artist that I would make the magazine about, would be a young artist by the name of M.B Amba. This is because she is a very talented artist that deserves a lot more recognition (this is an artist that I have found from a North London open mic night). Therefore, the young artist has potential to become something special and they can highly influence the genre of rap
I would set the price of this magazine to be £3.99 and there would be an issue published once a fortnight. The primary target audience of this magazine would be males between the ages of 16-21. This is because they tend to be most interested in this genre of music. In this case, it is the genre of rap. The secondary target audience would be females between the ages of 14-18. This would be because they would find the artist visually attractive and only buy the magazine because of the artist. The tertiary target audience would possibly be older people who are against this sort of music. This would effect them as they would be very opposed to the magazine. Within my double page spread, I will include an update on the artists week and if they have released any music. I will also include an interview and a Q&A with the artist about a random topic each fortnight.
I would call this magazine NLGM. I've chosen this to be the title of my magazine as the main genre of this magazine is rap and the artist in which I have based it on is a rap artist. NLGM stands for North London Grime Magazine. The name is appealing as it is short and snappy. This magazine will be sold all around North London in all newsagents and supermarkets. The main colour scheme will be black and white as they are extremely contrasting colours. They will stand out in the stands when on sale.
Strengths and weaknesses
Some of the strengths of doing a magazine about an artist is that people who really enjoy the artist or even similar artists would want to buy the magazine to find out more information about them and their lifestyle. As well as this, people who didn't know the artist before could be interested and want to learn about a new type of music and a new style of living. The last major strength of doing a magazine based on an artist is that this style of rap is a new and upcoming genre so people of the younger generation would be interested in buying the magazine just based on the style of music they create.
The weaknesses of doing a magazine based on a solo artist is that not everyone will know who the artist is, therefore lowing the overall interest rate altogether. If the artist hasn't done anything during the week, then that issue of the magazine would be very boring and empty. A final reason for which it's a bad idea is that as it is a newer style of music, there is quite a niche audience so this magazine won't be interesting to most people.
Idea 3:
My final idea for a magazine theme, is a certain genre of music. I have chosen the genre of rap. I chose Rap because it is an upcoming genre for the future generation and very popular within North London. Several current artists are from North London and could feature within the magazine.
Doing an individual genre for a magazine can be very appealing for a large range of people all around North London. This is because music is so multicultural and spreads almost everywhere in the world. Rap is a very recent genre of music and it isn't going to stop anytime soon, so creating a magazine based rap is a good idea.
The price of the magazine would be £1.99 and there would be an issue published once a week. The primary target audience for this magazine would be males between the ages of 18-21. This is because they tend to enjoy this type of music and they area also able to attend a lot of the concerts put on by grime artists. The older age range would be appropriate for the lyrics and themes of the music. The secondary target audience for my grime magazine would be males between the ages of 15-17. This would be because it is between these ages where people tend to change their music sense due to an increased popularity in modern music. Therefore, creating a magazine which is somewhat aimed at 15-17 year olds would be a good idea to try and get them into rap music. Within my magazine I would include, an update with the latest artists about their new songs, an interview with some upcoming artists and an insight to some concerts that are coming up soon.
I would call this magazine NorthLondonRap (NLR) because it is extremely clear with what the magazine is about. It is a long name, but this is a good thing because it gives the readers a catchy title to read. This is a positive because all the three words within the title string along well together. This magazine will be sold all around North London in all supermarkets every Saturday. The main colour scheme for this magazine would be black and red as once again, they are vert contrasting colours and stand out from one another.
Doing an individual genre for a magazine can be very appealing for a large range of people all around North London. This is because music is so multicultural and spreads almost everywhere in the world. Rap is a very recent genre of music and it isn't going to stop anytime soon, so creating a magazine based rap is a good idea.
The price of the magazine would be £1.99 and there would be an issue published once a week. The primary target audience for this magazine would be males between the ages of 18-21. This is because they tend to enjoy this type of music and they area also able to attend a lot of the concerts put on by grime artists. The older age range would be appropriate for the lyrics and themes of the music. The secondary target audience for my grime magazine would be males between the ages of 15-17. This would be because it is between these ages where people tend to change their music sense due to an increased popularity in modern music. Therefore, creating a magazine which is somewhat aimed at 15-17 year olds would be a good idea to try and get them into rap music. Within my magazine I would include, an update with the latest artists about their new songs, an interview with some upcoming artists and an insight to some concerts that are coming up soon.
Strengths and weaknesses
Doing a magazine based purely off of a genre has a lot of strengths. For example, the genre of rap stands out for a lot of teenagers and early twenty year olds, which would mean that they would be specifically interested in buying the magazine. Another reason for which this is a good idea, is that there is always a lot to write about when it comes to genre as there is always new news and new artists coming into the music scene. A third reason for doing it on genre is that this specific genre isn't going to die out anytime soon so it is a good idea to create a magazine based on it. Additionally, from my research there isn't a current magazine that solely bases itself on the rap genre, instead rap artists are celebrated within other magazines so this would create a USP.
The weaknesses of doing a magazine on a genre, is that some people may be very against the genre as it may be bad for some parts of society and artists have a bag stigma about them. Another weakness about doing a magazine on the genre of rap, is that it originated in America so there could a lower target audience than a different magazine.
Conclusion
I have chosen to do a magazine based around a certain genre, and I have chosen Rap. I think this is the best idea as in the brief it says that there is a 'vibrant music scene' in North London, so by choosing to do a popular genre it gives my target audience a chance to get involved with the music and buy the magazine. Also, I can represent rap artists in a positive way, so that the stigma surrounding rap which is quite negative hopefully changes.
Overall, I thought that by doing my magazine purely based on a venue left me very limited with what I can write about. I had the same opinion about doing my magazine about an artist because there is only so much that you can write about a solo artist.
