statement of intent

Part 1 Magazines

For my magazine, I shall create a product that is an alternative/underground music magazine called ’voyage’. The meaning behind the name of the magazine is going to be marketed to 16-25 year olds because that age group are still developing as sense of identity they seek a greater need to find identity and hence they search for different more unique music could be seen as a metaphorical ‘voyage’ since people are going on an adventure to find something. I shall specifically market this magazine for a “fun loving” audience by marketing the magazine as a place where they can find exciting, fresh, energetic and fun music that they don’t know about yet meaning that the audience will keep reading the magazine because they will always want to hear about the different types new music to hear.

The magazine will fit into Hearst UKs brand by using a similar style to that of Esquire. Esquire instead of aiming to be a Magazine that has a minimalist aesthetic. By making the image surrounded by a white border to make it more distinctive and bold as well as removing many of the cover lines from the side of the page as they take away from the main image.

The main demographic I will represent are individuals who are in some way different or quirky since those are the sort of people who are more attracted to less conventional music. On my magazine I will make sure to represent people who are unique and individual. One of my covers will feature a person who is dressed in an eccentric but stylish outfit (beanie, John Lennon Glasses, bright shirt, jeans and pumps), I will do this because this type of outfit will connote that the cover star doesn’t fit to mainstream conventions of fashion and hence is more unique. My other cover will feature a woman on the cover, this is important part of representation as women in certain underground scenes can be dismissed or receive sexist abuse from men and in the music industry as a whole female artists are generally treated very badly, hence we shall represent these issues in music but also connote that she is empowered and proud to be a women through making the cover widely pink and giving her link lights which is a colour which is linked with female empowerment.

The magazines design will be generally be unconventional to most house style magazines. This will be firstly to fit within the Hearst Brand which prides itself on being innovative and fresh (such as Esquire). This will be secondly because of my audience enjoying unconventional music so my magazine should cater to their desire to consume unconventional media products.

One of the main things I will do in my cover lines for my male artist is label is story "learning from my hometown" I will choose this Cover line as the main theme of the magazine cover is creativity and since the main shoot was in Bristol which is a very creative and artful city and artists such as Banksy have created their own unique identity as a result from taking inspiration from their home city and growing through that to mirror this the magazine cover will be very vibrant and colourful with a wide range of colours to reflect the creativity of the artist which will additionally appeal to our core demographic because they will be interested in creative and colourful media products.

The other cover line will be “the harder I come the harder you'll fall” which is a play on words and shows how the female artist is empowered and confident within herself since the saying "the harder they come they harder they fall" connotes confidence will be met with failure but the female artist is confident and she isn't afraid to be confident the magazine design will mirror this by being primarily pink which is a colour that symbolises female empowerment and this will also appeal to our core demographic as many 16-25 year olds will likely have progressive ideals and will agree with the message of the cover.

Part 2 Website

My website which will go along with my magazine will follow most conventions of an entertainment news/ feature article website. For example my website will include the magazines name, the logo of the magazine and feature articles on the front page. Also, on the front page there shall be different links to different types of articles, there will be links to sections with articles on ‘reviews’, ‘feature articles’, 'music news', ‘music tips and tricks’’ ‘live music’ and ‘new artists’. On the front page the articles will be a selection of the current most popular articles on the website which I will name the “hot right now” section with a large subheading so audience members can clearly see what it is about.

Another device I will use specifically to market to a fun-loving audience is using a function where we show google maps links and a “location of the month” which shows a music venue location which readers should visit in the UK. This would drive up audience participation on the website and have a reason for readers to actually come back to the website. This would be because a fun-loving audience would likely be interested in finding places to see fun artists and shows, meaning this feature would appeal to them.

The visual elements of the page will be bright and primary colours in the writing on a black background. This way it will be a very visually interesting page that will immediately draw the attention of the reader as it will be contrasting colours on each other.

The website will also contain both audio and visual elements which includes a video of a person playing music, this is because music websites typically make use of video and audio content because music fans will typically want to be more actively engaged with the content and by using videos with audio this will appeal more to audiences

Part 3 convergence

My publication must keep a consistent image across media platforms so that we become instantly recognisable to our audience. This way the audience will instantly know what the publication is about before they even click on the link or turn over the page. One of the things I will do to keep a consistent brand identity is to have the same logo for all my products I will use the same Sans Serif font called Komoda for my logo, this font is very unique and will be very recognisable so the audience member will be able to identify our magazine very quickly.

Added onto this both the website and magazine will both have a bright colourful aesthetic which will reflect both products of being vibrant and creative which will mean both products aesthetics will appeal to our core audience. Additionally both our products are music focussed so they will advertise music focussed content with the added theme of self growth throughout our main feature articles and magazine covers which will mean our core audience will like both the articles we put onto our magazine and website since the content will not be much different between the two.

I will also have a call to action so that both my magazine and website readers will be pointed into reading the other product. On my magazine’s contents page and on my websites homepage, I will display an offer to direct people to my website using the offer that if my readers subscribe to the magazine using the website then they can get a free vinyl album. This serves as a way for my readers to go to my website to be incentivised to buy the magazine and for people who have bought the magazine to go to the website both so that they can get the offer that is exclusive to ordering from the website.

Additionally both of my products will feature other incentives to go to the other product. My website will have featured articles about the artists on my magazine covers and readers will be told that they must go to buy the magazine if they want to see more of the interview and if they liked the interview they will likely go and buy the magazine. And in my magazines contents page I will tell my audience that they can "check out the location of the month, exclusive content, special content special offers and more at voyage.co.uk" this way they are incentivised to go and see the website for additional content such as the location of the month which is a place for our readers to see live music which will directly appeal to our fun loving audience as they will likely want to seek locations for active enjoyment and additionally since there will be exclusive content they haven't seen they will also be intrigued to see this and go to the website.

I will also make social media pages so that they can be advertised in my magazine contents page and on the foot of my website pages and then readers can be directed from the magazine to the social media pages and then to the website from the social media pages and vice versa.

The overall aim of all these different elements will be to create synergy between my website and magazine. By making my magazine a place where readers can access exclusive content and features and my magazine a place where my readers will be able to access full interviews it will mean they can only have the best experience by using both of the products meaning that the combined experience is greater than the sum of the parts magazine and website on their own.