SPH Publishing asked me to produce a new local events magazine with all original content that appeals to the Sheffield area. This brief allowed me to create a product that not only included my passions but could target a teen and young adult audience; which is a large element of the Sheffield community so they have access to a free, niche print magazine that they can physically engage with and will help promote local events and groups come together and thrive.
My magazine is called Seven Peaks, the name connotes to a the city of Sheffield being build on seven hills. For my magazine I produced 4 pages. The content consisted of a front cover, contents page and a double page spread. My audience is for both male and female readers, however I think it will appeal to 70% male and 30% female. The age range will be aimed for 16-24+ due to the lifestyle and content it promotes within the street wear scene.
The first thing I needed to do was make a masthead/ name for my magazine. Seven peaks was decided on since it connotes to the city of Sheffield being built on seven hills and has a correlation to the genre ‘local’ events. With this name I could take the magazine in any direction due to the broad meaning.
For my front cover I have featured a young creative who has started a clothing brand inspired by the Peak District. This was a perfect main feature since it applied to the 'local' aspect of my content. I wanted to feature a male in the fashion scene to attract more of a male audience, this is because most magazines that feature fashion are heavily female based magazines. The subject is to wear the branded 'District' T-shirt so it represents a brand image, the casual approach to the dress code was to connote the relaxed content of my magazine as well as appeal to my audience. These clothes would relate to the audience because Denis McQuail's theory(1972) states the audience form a personal identity based on the artist is wearing. This would denote the street wear inspiration and pull the audience in.
I took my image against the blank canvas of the sky. This was to connote the summer look within my months magazine however it also made my model stand out and could not be confused with any distractions. To compose the photograph I shot at a medium close up, low angle to connote importance and shows a clear representation of him to the audience.
This page is my favourite because I feel like it represents the ethos of my magazine the most as well as keeping a strong house style with strong graphic design. The key colour is white however I chose to add the accents of yellow to connote summer as well as it adding a pop of colour that leads the readers eyes to important information. I used the greys with reduced opacity to create a soft boarder to create my coulombs. The blacks were used for the main text because it made a clear contrast to the surrounding theme. Also denoting to the black and white imagery.
The housestyle colours are the same as the front cover, and throughout the magazine I will be keeping the same fonts and colours as shown on my contents page, because this reaches out to the young professional male target audience but also creates a brand throughout my magazine with the monochrome visual style that adds clarity to the reader. I included 3 main photographs to highlight my 3 main components of the magazine, music, fashion and events. The images represent my main articles these photographs were taken outside in natural lighting.
Article 09 my model/ artist is looking directly into the camera, this was taken at a medium close up, this is to create emotion with the audience which makes the audience want to read more. Alongside the headline of each article included a small description of it on the right hand side of the page, this again draws the reader in as they see a variety of artists, events and fashion featured. Also by the small description of the articles I included page numbers, this is because this provides easy navigation around the magazine for the audience.
Originally I was supposed to interview Joe Winstaley as well as Alex Dobbs, However it did not work out on the day and seemed fitting just to have Joe since he is the creative process behind the brand. This allowed me to talk about his inspirations behind the designs. This lead to the photo shoot being shot at Stanage.
I felt the if I added hints of yellow within the graphic of the strap line in my dps it would contrast too much with the images housestyle, since it is a soft orange. However, the yellow complements the natural yellow glow of the photograph. Keeping the same house style throughout all pages creates a clear brand image. The subtle use of colour within the text boxes and graphic do not distract from the main purpose of the image; this being the brand, subject and location.
My DPS is on a young male creative, this is to open the market and have a focus on fashion within males as it commonly attracts more of a female audience. My male subject is called “Joe Winstanley”. There is the main image of him spread across both pages, he is stood in the middle of the second page , posed facing away from the camera, this is so the graphic of the teeshirt is recognisable to the audience, and also this connotes to the location and helps them connect. He is dressed in the same clothes as on the front cover, this is so he is recognisable to the audience. My pull quote for this article is "Find a space. Take pride in it." I feel this represented a strong connection between the branding and the environment that gives the inspiration for the clothing line.I felt this was a positive message to tie it all together.
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