History of Vibe Magazine

Vibe is a magazine that contains the genres of Hip Hop and R and B. Vibe magazine was first founded by Quincy Jones in 1993, the magazine was also in partnership with the Times Inc. Before Scott-Poylson-Bryant who is the co-founding editor of Vibe gave the magazine its name it was originally called Volume. However during 1996 Miller Publishing purchased vibe, after changing many things about who worked for the magazine and how it worked in 2009 vide shut its doors in order to start publication. After Vibe had shut their doors they then had private funding from 'InterMedia Partners, LP' who has purchased Vibe magazine. Then once again Vibe was being brought by another company, during 2013 Vibe magazine, Vibe.com and VibeVixen.com had all be sold to Spin Media. Spin Magazine were going to shut down Vibe however in order to save money they they only printed the magazine quarterly. 

Vibe magazine was known most for the creative direction that the covers had, with the covers showing the biggest people in R and B and Hip Hop music. The covers of Vibe have features many different artists including Rihanna, Trey Songz, T.I, Lil Wayne, Keyshia Cole and many more. With Mary J Blige being features of the cover a countless amount of times. 

Vibe magazine contains many different columns including the 'Boomshots' which was about Reggae and Caribbean music which was written by Rob Kenner. There was also the 'Revolutions' which was music reviews, 'Vibe Confidential' a column all about celebrity gossip and a 'Next' column which was all about profiled and up coming artists. Although Vibe was a music magazine it also included pages on high-end designer clothing including urban labels like 'Rocawear' and 'Fubu' which were known for their sports wear. 

The last issue of Vibe was in September 2003, it was a commemorating issue of 10 years of the magazines publication. The last issue had many different covers on it using black and white portraits of all of the most popular issues. The last issue also included 'The Vibe 100: The Juiciest People, Places and Things of the year'. Lots of successful writers and editors all helped towards the last issue of Vibe including Alan Light, Jeff Chang, Dream Hampton and Mark Shaw who was Vibes art director. 

Research Methods

In order to find all of the information I am going to need for my magazine I am going to use 4 different research methods. These are as follows: 

• Primary:

This type of research is the research that is first hand. In order to find out the information for my blog u am going to be finding it all for myself, meaning that all of my research will be primary. There are many different places in which you can source primary data, like interviews and questionnaires. The reason primary I am going to be using the Primary research method is due to the fact I am starting from scratch, I don't have currently have any information so I am going to find it all out for myself. 

• Secondary:

Unlike Primary research this is research that I have no found myself but got from else where. I will also be using primary data in order to help me as information that I get will be from the internet, book and magazines. This research method has advantages over primary research as it makes finding out information a lot faster. However as you are getting information from other places this may lead to some of the information that is collected being incorrect. While using other information you have to ensure that you are not plagiarising, so do not find a load of necessary information and copy and past it, or if using a book just coping it word for word. 

• Quantitative research: 

This is a research method in order to collect numerical data, it also includes analysing the data that you have collected. This is used in order to find information out for example the age range of readers, or the amount of magazines that are being sold over a certain amount of time. Quantitative research is used in order to tell you what costumers are reading the magazine and the content that is include will be aimed at that audience. It is also reliable, with asking large amounts of people being the best way of getting the information as it means you are getting a better range of peoples opinions. 

• Qualitative research: 

This research method is more in dept than Quantitative research. This is more about what people think of the magazine rather than the statics about how many people are reading it etc. It asks what people think and why they think that way, this allows us to get a full image about how they feel about the magazine. It is like primary research as you will get the information from the person face to face meaning that the research is going to be reliable. This is the best way of testing peoples reactions to the magazine and refine the approach to the ways in which we do things. 

David Carson

David Carson is the "grunge typographer" whose magazine Ray Gun helped explode the possibilities of text on a page.

Ray Gun has many different options has it has a very specific audience. I personally do not like the design of the magazine, if I saw this on a magazine shelf there would be nothing that would appeal in order to purchase it. The cover has gone against everything that is normal in magazine design David Carson as not used any of the usual magazine conventions. Due to not having an cover lines there is nothing to show what the magazine is going to include, meaning there is no indication of what the magazine is going to include. However this may have the opposite effect on people as they may be draw people into buying the magazine in order to see what is inside. Due to the cover not following the classic magazine conventions, the page looks slightly over crowed as there is so much going on at once with now set order.

However many people do have positive opinions towards the magazine cover, due to the creativity of what David is achieving. He has gone against what is typical of a magazine cover leading it to then stand out on a shelf as it is so different as all other magazines follow the typical magazine conventions. The alternative use of letters and numbers further adds to the abstract look of the magazine.

Although David Carson tried to do something different it failed as only 70 magazines were purchased from the years 1992-2000. This shows that although people like different things and try to be different it doesn't always work. 

Overall as interesting as the magazine may look not using the typical magazine conventions did not work for carson, that was then portrayed by the little sales of the magazine there were. 



Contents page

Evaluation:

Our cover has the same colour scheme through out which is white and red. This has been shown by the writing and the colours shown throughout the picture, we used these two colours as they are our school colours.

We have chosen this picture as it shows the school in a positive way, with the students representing how they feel during school times. This is an action shot as they have been caught doing an everyday activity. The contents page is a contrast from the main cover image as we have shown younger students in the daily school life here and sixth form students on the cover.

School Magazine Analysis

In our magazine cover we used a range of techniques to entice our target audience, which is the students.

We decided to use a female model as it is a typical feature on magazine covers. The model relates to a lot of the readers as it is someone who they should aspire to be like when they are older, especially as we've capture them doing work and learning in school. This helps to promote the school as well, because it gives off a good first impression. This picture also reflects the students as we have used modern technology to enhance the image.

Are master head is called "Southfield News," this is so straight away the audience know what the magazine is about, school. It makes the magazine predictable and they expect new information and up to date news on the school. We used the colour white as it depicts the school colours well.

The cover lines are in red as that is again another school colour. They are short and bold so that the audience can quickly read them and see if they are interested in the news. We decided to pick these specific stories like "Winner of Eco School" and put it in the left third, as we thought that it was the most significant story to this issue of the magazine. It makes the school look eco friendly and shows that we care about the environment, that we are trying to make a difference. This sort of promotion is important to put in our magazine as it is something that parents and students will care about.

The smaller pictures at the bottom are used so that we can include other students and make sure that we are interacting with all the years. One picture is showing a basket ball team. This shows as well that the school have sports team that might encourage other pupils.

The Four Fs of magazine design

1.Format:
This is all about how the magazine is going to look. It includes the design of the cover and ensuring that everything looks how is it supposed to, having all of the correct dimensions. The format includes:

• Logo
• Cover lines
• Size of magazine
• Department headers
• And all other things that include how the magazine is going to look and the dimentions that go along with everything that is on the cover.

2.Formula:
This is all about the content that the magazine is going to include, which is known as the editorial content. Unlike the format which is about how the magazine is going to look the formula is about the articles that the magazine is going to include, the length they will be and all of the different sections the magazine will have. 

3.Frame:
As well as thinking about what articles are going to be included in the magazines, how the magazine is going to look is thought about even further. The frame is all about the different dimensions that are going to be used, this includes things like outer page margins and gutters. How these things are done vary from magazine to magazine, with some keeping the same size demotions throughout and some changing them throughout. When a magazine is going to vary the margins they will change the width, which can mean they will use tall margins for features this will also separate feature articles from everything else on the page. 


4.Function:
This is just the type of message that the magazine is trying to send out to its readers, its also what the magazine is trying  to achieve as a whole. 

School Magazine Cover

School Magazine

From my last post you would have read that I explained all of the different Conventions that we use in media and how they work. On the front cover of the school magazine above I have shown how all of the conventions have been used. 

The Conventions

Every piece of media that you see will have many different conventions, these are the 'ingredients' that all go together in order to make the finial product e.g a magazine. When looking at a magazine all of the conventions wont stand out at you straight away however as you look in a much closer detail you will see just how long the thought process of what was going to be on the front page was, and how all of the conventions work and complement each other.

Some of these conventions are as follows:

• Masthead:  This is one of the first things that you see when looking at a magazine, it is the thing that draws you into buying it. For example on a magazine it will be the name of the brand, so when people buy the same brand of magazine every month this is the first thing they will look for. Typically it is in the same font so it is easily recognised. The same label will then be used on the contents page and inside the magazine for advertising and branding purposes.
• Main cover line: This would be the second largest wording on the cover after the masthead, it can take up almost a quarter of the magazine as this will tell the reader what the main headline or topic of the magazine is going to be. 
• Model credit: This is not very common however on some magazines the model and photographer are credited on the front cover. This is typically true for fashion magazines, however if they have not ben credited on the front page then they are usually on the contents page. 
• Selling line: This is a short and sharp line that is used it order to sell as many magazines as possible, it will be a few words describing the magazine to be the best magazine available. Many popular magazines now use the same selling line constantly for example OK magazine use 'celebrity news', so for people that are wanting a magazine all about celebrities they will knows that OK is going to tell them all they need to know.
• Main image: This is the main thing that the reader is going to look at on a magazine, if they like the person that is on the magazine they are more likely to purchase it. Also this shows what the main feature of the magazine is going to be along with all of the cover lines. The image will be a single image of the model or celebrities that are the main features of the magazine. They will have an outfit that fits into the colour scheme of the text on the magazine, also the outfit they are wearing will stand out in order to attract the attention of the public as they see them magazine on the shelfs, the model or models on the cover will also be making full eye contact. 
• Left third: When the magazine is not being shown in full-frontage the left third is the most important as this is all the public that walk past the magazine stand will see. So if the magazine brand is easily recognised by the left third there will be a larger amount of sales as the public will see that the store is selling that particular magazine. The title must also be easily read and stand out as there will also be many competitors on the same magazine stand. 

Music Genres

Music means so much to many different people. Whether you are composing the music or just a listener, music is a massive part of everyday life.

There are many different genres including things like classic which is very different from something like punk, however it is all still music and has a meaning to the people whether they are composing it or just listening to it. 

I use Spotify in order to listen to music, the app has all of the different music genres listed so it is easy to be able to find your favourite music type. 

My favourite playlist to listen to is Fresh R and B as my favourite genre of music is R and B. I listen to music quite a lot of the time, when do different things like getting ready to go out or on long car journeys. However when doing school work and revising I like to listen to music that is slightly more calm like Soul, it is not as calm as something like classical music would be however that is what my personal preference to listen to while doing school work. 

So I have spoken about R and B, Soul and classical music however there are many more different genres which include: 

Rock 

Blues 

Classical 

Country 

Electric 

Jazz 

Pop

Rock 

Although all of the above are just some of the many different genres of music  there is then different genres in them, for example: 

Rock is a music genre however is also includes things like, 

• American Trad Rock
• Arena Rock
• Blues-Rock
• Glam Rock 
• Hard Rock 
• Rock and Roll