Prodution Techniques

When the magazine has been designed on Adobe InDesign and ready for distribution, I need to take the following production techniques into consideration for the final product.

Technical codes in print products

Paper weight

Paper is classified in 'grams per square metre' or 'gsm'. The standard photocopying paper is 80 gsm and glossy brochures may use 120 gsm.  Above 150 gsm the paper becomes thin card.
At a practical level, the weight of paper is important if it is going to be mailed out.  If the product is heavy, the postal costs will be higher.  However, heavier paper can feel more luxurious. Thinner paper can suffer from 'see through' or 'bleed'.

Half of the double page spreads in my magazine will be a full-page advertisement, so a bleed is necessary to avoid a white border around the advertisement when printed.

Coated and uncoated paper

The cheaper paper e.g. newsprint is 'uncoated' and porous; the ink will tend to spread because it is absorbed by the fibres. Ink is less likely to spread on coated paper.  You also have the option between 'glossy' or 'shiny' or 'velvet'.

Size and shape 

Paper sizes in the UK are now standardised into the 'A' and 'B' series. The 'B' series is slightly larger than the A4 standard which is used for most academic purposes.  Books and magazines may use older sizes such as quarto or royal.  A4 is typical for magazine paper production but tend to signify an educational or 'amateur' product.

Chafford Hundred Magazine and Wolverhampton West Magazine are printed on A5. I also plan to print on A5 to make the magazine more portable as it will be small enough to fit in the readers bag without taking up too much space.

Analysis of Regional Magazine's Winter Editions

Winter edition from annnnnika

Magazine Name and Logo

To decide the name of the magazine was difficult because I couldn't choose which of the possible names I preferred the most.  So, I decided to distribute a survey with the three options.  The majority preferred 'Unwind Wolverhampton' with 'Company Wolverhampton' as the second most liked.  Due to the consumer feedback, the name of my magazine will be called 'Unwind Wolverhampton'.

The initial choice of this name was because the magazine is supposed to read during leisure time and 'Unwind Wolverhampton' suggests the magazine is telling the reader to get comfortable and take time out of their busy schedule to read the magazine.

Logo

The first logo design would be the general logo for the magazine. However, because the seasonality of my magazine is winter, I have changed the colour to white to signify, wintery conditions such as snow.  The original blue is a soothing colour to encourage the consumer to relax whilst reading the magazine.  From the logo the brand identity will be established.  I will use these fonts throughout the magazine for headings etc. keeping with the white black and shades of blue.  

My chosen font style for 'Unwind' is 'Snell Roundhand' because the curling letters suggest 'unwinding' and relaxation.  The font for 'Wolverhampton' is 'Baskerville'. I think this font is makes the magazine more sophisticated and is also clear to read.  This font will also be used for sub-headings and the main text.  

Layout for the Contents Page

I will only feature one article in my final product for the brief however this will make the contents page very bare.  To avoid this, I will find other stories in the West Midlands and feature them in the contents list to improve the magazine's legitimacy and make it seem less of an 'amateur' production.

Wolverhampton West Magazine Contents Page Analysis

The Bristol Magazine Contents Page Analysis

Sussex Style Contents Page Analysis

My Chosen Double Page Spread Article

The brief requires me to create the first four pages of a regional magazine.  My magazine will include the front cover and a contents page, meaning I only need to produce one out of the two double pages I have planned for. I have chosen to include the soup kitchen article in the magazine and not The Clothes Show article.

This is because it's not about a mainstream topic and is for local cause that needs more recognition.  Also because the soup kitchen is an on going event people can join the cause when it's most convenient to them, which I will advertise on the right page.  Furthermore, the Clothes Show story was primarily targeted at teenage females, whereas this story will appeal to all ages due to the charitable nature.

Layout for the Soup Kitchen Double Page Spread

Interview for the Soup Kitchen Article

To improve the legitimacy of the article and allow readers to engage from different perspectives, I interviewed the woman in charge of the soup kitchen about her reason for joining and taking part. This article would be to fall the demand for a cooking article from the audience research questionnaire.  As I am a teenager hopefully this article from my point of view will appeal to younger consumers and encourage them to help their local soup kitchen and better the community. Also due to the maturity of the content and charity work being a broad topic of interest this will too encourage my older demographic to get involved.   

Visiting the Soup Kitchen

The second idea for the double page spread was an article about a christmas special at the local soup kitchen organised by a church. My plan initially is for my magazine to have a winter seasonal theme and this story would be a perfect fit.

With this article, I visited the soup kitchen and took part in serving the less fortunate people who attended.  After expressing to the workers and the attendees about doing a magazine article about the soup kitchen they allowed me to take pictures to establish the setting and these images will contribute to the magazine.

In Wolverhampton West Magazine, Wolverhampton Magazine and Time Out London magazine their double page spreads featured; on the left page a main article and on the right page a full paged advertisement and I think this would be the best format for this article.

Example from Wolverhampton West Magazine:

Emailing Wolverhampton Magazine and Finding a Production Tutorial

To find out more about the production process of  magazine and advice as to how I should produce the magazine we called and emailed the editors of Wolverhampton Magazine for professional advice.

Theses were the following questions:

Question 1:

How do you find out information for your stories?

Question 2:

How long does it take for a magazine to be produced?

Question 3:

What software do you use to create your magazine?

Question 4: 

How long do you allocate to complete a double page spread?

Question 5:

How many people do you usually have working on an article?

Unfortunately, they were unable to reply but I appreciate they are very busy. Instead, I found a tutorial on YouTube to clarify how Adobe InDesign operated as this is the software I will use to produce the magazine.

The Planned Layout for the Fashion Double Page Spread

Interview for the Article

For the demanded fashion article about The Clothes Show I interviewed my friend who is studies and interested in pursuing a career in the performing arts for her opinion on the event and how it inspired her.  I thought this would make the article more interactive with the younger readers who may relate to the answers and gain information to then visit themselves.  This article primarily targets female consumers as from the audience research questionnaire they were the ones who demanded this feature.

Also looking through Wolverhampton West Magazine, the feature they had on fashion only featured women's clothing suggesting we will gain female consumers by this article and the will be most read  by this demographic.

Visiting The Clothes Show

The main fashion article is about The Clothes Show that was held at the NEC in Birmingham. I attended the exhibition with my friend, Hannah who studies the performing arts and saw this as an opportunity to gain knowledge and inspiration for her own ideas to pursue a career in this field.  I thought interviewing her on what she experienced and learned would be make the ideal story that would encourage teenagers to read our magazine and in return be influenced to actively research and experiment with fashion themselves.  

At the event I was able to photograph what was occurring around me that would be relevant in my magazine. This also gave me the idea to have the 3 equivalent high street outfits modelled as they were on the catwalk on the following right hand page. 

Time Out London Case Study

Out of the group of people who answered our audience research questionnaire nobody under 40 have read their regional magazine.  I would like to attract a younger audience but also keep the interest of our older consumers.  From the OCR email they advised us to do research into Time Out London magazine, which typically features popular culture articles.

Front cover analysis

Features:

•   Nightlife

•   Music, Arts and Culture

•   Food and Drink

•   Film

•   City Guide

These topics target the party lifestyle of youth culture in particular with offers and advertisements to exclusive events.  This is what I have planned to incorporate in the magazine with the right page of the double page. However these stories will not be prominent in our magazine so we don't alienate our older consumers. 


Distribution

·      Subscription packages- more affordable and creates a buying process that is easier for consumers as they don’t have to go out to stores every week to buy but the magazine can be delivered to their doorstep.  This is useful for younger audience in full-time education.

·      Print based and digital copies- more ways to access to suit the preference of the consumer

·      Blog- able to follow continuous updates on the go

·      Time Out has a circulation of 308,579 copies per week.

·      Time Out London is London’s most popular magazine with over 1m people per month reading a copy.                            

Advertising

·      Merchandising- the popularity of the magazine has turned into an iconic brand with t-shirts and posters available on an online store.

·      Circulation of adverts online- having connections to larger conglomerates such as Amazon may attract consumers to the magazine so they can gain insight into exclusive offers, which is ideal for students living on a budget.

·      Social media

·      Comments section- Emphasizes the idea of democracy where consumers can comment of the content of the magazines website.  Some of these comments may be critical and inform the company to change certain aspects to make it more accessible.

Content Ideas

I was confused about what stories I could include in our regional magazine and had to email OCR  for clarification.  The feedback I got from the email as regards of what to include was that the content must be recent and that the 'definition of a regional magazine is reasonably broad- in other words it doesn't just have to be geographical/regional  but could be young women in Birmingham- musicians in Liverpool- for instance.'

I think it's best to keep to my regional area of the West Midlands and Wolverhampton, where I am able to go and research possible articles.

Similarly to the layout in Wolverhampton Magazine, I want each double page of the magazine to be split with the main article on one page and on the other page, a full-page advertisement.  The reason behind this is because not only will our magazine document and praise the efforts of the public, but also will promote local businesses and charities.  Before designing the layout of the double page spread I think it’s most important to have the content of the articles sorted.

First double page spread idea 

Fashion and shopping were most demanded to feature in our magazine, according to the feedback I gained from our audience research questionnaire.  The content for the fashion article will be about The Clothes Show.  Including these particular events is an attempt to attract a younger demographic and make youths excited about their local area.  Also the marketing of this event is mostly through social media and their website which helps promotes the business and having an address at the bottom page encourages consumers to investigate into the story.

The Clothes Show will be the main article on the left side of the page and there will be stylised outfits on the right page.  I think this chronologically makes sense, so the reader will see a fashion vent where they can gain inspiration.

Second double page spread idea 

To find information about cooking and food events in the West Midlands I visited the local community centre and spoke to a couple of the workers and found leaflets about local events.

I found a small soup kitchen who operate on Saturday evenings. This is an ideal story to fill the demand of a cooking feature and encourage consumers to join because there are more upcoming events.  Also it has a website and social media accounts, so the consumers can interact and gain more information.  This story will be featured on the left page as the main article and on the right page will be an advertisement for the soup kitchen itself like the layout in Wolverhampton Magazine.  These articles will appeal to the new younger demographic we are trying to attract, as well as involve the main older consumers to be charitable.