Teachers Feedback

After receiving feedback from my teach, I have made the alterations requested and added the detail needed to ensure that all posts are completed and are faultless. 

I made alterations to my playlist, ensuring that all songs are by the artists that are categorised under the genre go 'Indie Rock.' I included bands and artists such as Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks, Miles Kane and Oasis.

I added more examples for both David Carson and Jeff Jank.  For example, I added the Jeff Jank and MF Doom, a solo rap artist, who has appeared in collaborative projects such as Danger Doom, with Danger Mouse. He has also illustrated the Madlib's Quasimoto character and designed nearly all of Madlib's works, as well as those of J Dilla, Dam-Funk, and Mayer Hawthorne, for Stones Throw as well as for other labels. 

I added some more relevant detail to the skinhead post, including more relevant photographs and giving some background information about what a 'skinhead' is. I didn't want this post to stick out and it is relevant to my magazine as part of my research into fashion. I have now decided to use the 'modern day mod' look but looking at skinheads steered me in the direction of the mod look as they are around a similar era.

I now hope that all posts are up to date and to the highest standard. 

Receiving Feedback

After receiving positive things about my blog, ideas and blog posts it has helped me in making key decisions about my magazine, for example, when I hadn't quite figured out what to call my magazine, Jack's comment about the word 'Mob' now changed to 'Mod' has now been decided the name of my magazine. Everyone I have received feedback from have said that they enjoy my ideas and think that I have a positive road ahead to finish my magazine to what I hope is an impeccable standard.

Draft acrticle

"I had no idea I’d give up a professional football career for this, but I don’t regret it. I have never been happier."

19 year old Ruban Royal also known as ‘The New Kid’ burst onto the music scene in September last year after he was spotted spending a lot of time with Indie Rock god Miles Kane. Royal says “I’ve known Miles for a few years actually, I used to play football for the academy at Everton where I met Leighton Baines who, as you know, is a very good friend of Mr Kane. I was football mad back then when I was about 16. I had no idea I’d give up a professional football career for this, but I don’t regret it. I’ve never been happier.”  The modern Mod duo, Baines and Kane have taken the young heartthrob under their metaphoric fashion wing to produce, what seems to be, a fresh new look for the new solo artist. I asked Ruban what he thought of his fashion.

“Haha, the modern mod duo, I like that, I’ve always thought that what Miles and Leighton wore was cool but I thought I’d look like a right arse if I tried to copy. They took me out not so long ago to ‘refurbish’ my wardrobe ‘you’re boring Royal’ Miles always said to me ‘you need some life in that wardrobe; you need some Fred under your belt’. They took me to Fred Perry and I tried on so many polo shirts and jackets I lost count but it was so much fun to be styled by those pair. I told them I didn’t like the suede suits that they wore, which didn’t go down well but they reassured me that I could put my own twist on it, so that’s exactly what I’ve done.” ‘So we won’t be seeing you in a suede suit any time soon then?’ “Definitely not, but I have to admit it, I do love my Fred Perry shirts, I guess I’m a mod, but with a twist like Miles said. I’m not into having my hair like those pair; I didn’t want to look like a scruff bag. I guess I look alright in what I wear.”

The Birkenhead born teenager’s debut album ‘I can take the Blame’ has rocketed to success since its release in November of last year. With the help of what looks like his new found friendship, Royal and Kane have worked hard together to produce the album, which seems to have made an impression on those die hard Indie Rock fans as its sold over 100,000 records in just under 3 months. “Yeah, I suppose I've done alright, I don't like to brag, I'm actually so shocked that the album has done as well as it has, and with it only being released like 3 months ago. I suppose I have Miles to thank for that one, he's helped me out so much, he really is a great chap. I’ll be keeping him close by me for a long time I think, I just need to think of how to repay him after all he’s done for me.”

The young Liverpudlian went on to tell me about how Mr Kane was the one to get him into music, when he was back at the Everton Football Academy he used to play music by the likes of the Arctic Monkeys and Oasis and sing along, that's when Miles knew he’d be a great success. Royal and Kane shared a similar taste in music and began to meet up to sing together and share their love for the bands they so admired. “Miles was the one that got me started for sure, I was an ‘alright’ footballer he said, but ‘no one has a voice like you do’. I was so nervous when he introduced me to producer Dan Carey who produced Miles’ ‘Inhaler’ ; I thought he was going to turn round and tell me I was shit, but he didn’t, I think he loved me more than Miles did.”

‘I can take the blame’ was co-written by Miles including the song ‘it’s only a stain’ which is sung by both Royal and Kane. “That was by far my favourite song to write and sing. Miles and I work so well together I didn’t realise how similar our voices were- It’s great!”

Ruban assured me that his next single release will be ‘It’s only a stain’ featuring our beloved Mr Miles Kane.

Survey Results

I have had 10 responses so far for my music survey and through this survey my most important question has been answered. I have been thinking over the past couple of weeks whether my magazine should be a monthly or weekly magazine so I thought I would add a question related to weekly magazines to see what my response would be. As the NME is one of the magazines I am using as a style model, and being as it is a weekly magazine I wanted to see what response I would get towards producing a magazine that is produced weekly. I also wanted to see whether it is worth me cutting down the age that my target audience are. I think that my current intended audience age (16-29) is far too wide and it may be easier to close that gap and to focus more on a particular age group.

Here are my results.

As you can see the predominant age of people that answered my survey are 16-19 which may indicate that i should narrow my targeted audiences age to ensure I get the response I am looking for. i want my magazine to be as successful as it can and may create another survey for people to answer being more specific to the genre of Indie Rock.

The majority of people are in full time education which again may indicate that I should narrow down the type of person I should be aiming my magazine at. I think i will create another survey to develop my research further.

I have a mixed result on this question. I think I may have to be more specific and if I chose to create another survey i will add a question that asks whether people would be interested in buying a new weekly magazine.

This is a very important question to me as it indicates whether people think there is space in the market for a new weekly magazine to be created. Like I said NME is one of my style models and as far as my research goes I haven't found many other magazines like NME that are weekly, so this is a really positive result which I'm very happy about.

As the majority of my target audience are in full time education, and most likely unemployed, they may be on a budget, which could be a reason why they do not buy music magazines. With this in mind I wanted my magazine to be reasonably priced, if it over priced I doubt that anyone would want to buy it. I want my magazine to be successful but good quality for money, like NME is.

This is also an important question for me, as my magazine is a mainstream magazine similar to NME which has features that are orientated around a specific genre, I wanted to see if people would buy a magazine that is only about one music genre or if they go by whether the magazine is well known or not.

I didn't think that this question would be as diverse as it turned out to be but I think that it is interesting to see the different answers. I'm glad that Indie and Indie rock are up there with Hip Hop, I think if it wasn't that popular in the survey I may begin to question my choice of genre.

Giving Feedback

I'm really impressed by all the work that has been produced by the other members of my class and the standard of work is very high throughout. I love how creative everyone is being and how some people are taking the risks and really pushing themselves to achieve. I can't wait to see everyone's finished products, there are some really great ideas floating around! There is a wide range of music genres from Indie to Punk/Rock which shows the diverse music tastes we have, I'm excited to see everyone's ideas and skills develop throughout the course! I tried to make some comments that include ideas of my own to help improve some of the students work and give my advice to ensure everyone reaches their potential.

Way to go 12X! Keep it up!

Mock Double page

Mock Contents

Mock Cover

Flat plans

Mid week target update

So far I have reached the majority of my targets set over the last week or so, I have made the necessary changes to my blog posts that my teacher set for me, I have also set up a survey and I currently have 10 responses, I will upload my research and results when I collect a few more. I have also made a post reflecting on my preliminary work which evaluates social groups and skills I have gained through making them.

Pitch

Album Name

My Album Name 

I Can Take the Blame

Album Cover Ideas

As my artist is called Ruban Royal I thought that I could do a plain simple black and white cover (keeping with the theme) and have a single crown as the central image with either 'Royal' or the album name 'I can take the blame' as the only text' because i want to keep my album cover as simple as possible.

I have based this idea on the AM cover by Arctic Monkeys.

Album Covers

I chose this design because I am using the AM cover as inspiration. I used the down to represent Rubans name and I think that because it is simple and plain black and white it worlds well, just like the AM CD cover. 

Music Survey

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Prelim

How does your prelim represent particular social groups?
My magazine is aimed at those aged 16-18, school years 12-13, because of this my prelim represents all types of people as it includes articles on all sorts, from fashion to football. I tried to include a wide range of articles to cover those interests of the most dominant 'stereotypical' college students.

As the magazine is a student magazine for those in sixth form, the different social groups Who would be the intended audience for your product?
My intended audience for my magazine would be 16-18 years old as they are the age of those in sixth form, to ensure I had a wide audience I would try to include articles and features to satisfy the interests of different social groups from 'sport junkies' to the 'fashion crazy' teens.

How did you attract/ address your audience?
I tried to attract the audience of my magazine by featuring a well known student to give the magazine a renowned name, Zoe is a student interested in fashion and I know that there are many students in sixth form that look to her for style ideas and also share the same interest of creating new looks and being 'stylish'

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have used Photoshop to construct my magazine, I used the Magnetic lasso tool to cut out my image and introduced new layers for each thing I added. I played around with different fonts and moved my text around and adjusted size. I also used the AVS room at college, using the white screen, camera and tripod set up and standing lights to ensure no unwanted shadows were created on the face of my model.

Weekly Target

This week I plan to feedback on the research I've had from my teachers, I plan to make the alterations asked for to make sure all of my posts are in the level 4 category.  I also plan to create a survey and evaluate the preliminary work on the student magazine.

Modern Day Mod - Bradley Wiggins

Bradley Wiggins

BBC Interview

"British Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins has been variously described as "mod-loving cyclist", "king of the mods" and the "fastest mod on two wheels". But just what is that makes Wiggins a mod? If sport replicated life, Bradley Wiggins would have ridden up the Champs Elysees on a shiny Lambretta scooter. Wiggins is a self-proclaimed mod. His thin torso, narrow shoulders and surprising lightness - he reportedly weighs less than 11 stone - makes him an unusual modern athlete. With his previous Paul Weller-style haircuts, carefully pruned sideburns, and collection of scooters, Wiggins could almost have been an extra in Quadrophenia, the classic mod movie of the late 1970s. His Tour de France win prompted admiring tweets not just from cycling fans but from style commentators and Weller, who is known by fans and journalists as the Modfather.

The term "mod" is thought to derive from the modernist jazz fans of the 1950s. In contrast to the earnest chin stroking image of traditional jazz, modernists were young, hip and sleekly dressed, taking their influence from black America. But the mods people think of today - and those Wiggins takes his cue from - hail from the 1960s. There are both musical and style cues. Wiggins has spoken previously of his musical tastes - listing The Who, Small Faces, The Jam, Oasis, and Ocean Colour Scene as his favourite bands. All are mod favourites. Mods of the 1960s wore parkas, tailored suits, loafers, skinny trousers, and Fred Perry polo shirts. Wiggins has designed cyclewear for the Fred Perry label. The parkas of the post-war era were often ex-RAF issue and so displayed the classic target symbol, known as the roundel. Wiggins reportedly has the RAF roundel on some of his training kit.

Mod hair was neat and clean in contrast to greasy-haired rockers and long-haired hippies. Wiggins has said he grew his hair long in 2007 in honour of John Entwistle bassist from The Who. The sideburns were another Entwistle touch. Mods defined themselves as sleek, neat and well turned out. It was a tribe. Convoys of scooters would descend on seaside towns and scuffles - greatly exaggerated by the media - would break out between the mods and rockers. The classic mod movie is Quadrophenia, which came out at the end of the 1970s at the height of the mod revival. The hero Jimmy, played by Phil Daniels, sums up the philosophy. "Look, I don't wanna be the same as everybody else. That's why I'm a mod, see? I mean, you gotta be somebody, ain't ya, or you might as well jump in the sea and drown." "It's about staying clean under pressure," says Robert Elms, author of The Way We Wore. There's always been a cycling crossover, he argues, with "mod designer" Paul Smith having initially aspired to be a professional cyclist.

Wiggins is a classic mod, Elms says. He is a working class Londoner with a certain style, an arrogance. And he looks right. "You can't look good as a podgy mod," Elms says. There's also an anti-establishment attitude. In Quadrophenia Jimmy tells his employer to "stick his job" in the post room. There are vague parallels with Wiggins's dealings with the media. He has attacked journalists for their poor questions and swore repeatedly when asked to comment on tweeters who suggested only drug cheats could win Le Tour. Amphetamines - often called blues - were a central part of the mod existence, whereas Wiggins has made it clear that he has no time for doping in cycling. Reinvention is crucial. After its jazz incarnation, bands like The Who, the Small Faces and The Action took on the mod mantle. It was revived in the late 1970s by The Jam and in the 1990s by Britpop acts like Oasis and Paul Weller as a solo artist. Unlike being a punk or a new romantic it is a look that a middle aged man can carry off, says Elms. But it's more than a look. It's an attitude, Elms argues. A mod is cool and sharp and open to foreign influences - qualities that Bradley Wiggins encapsulates in his life and cycling. "He's slightly sardonic and rock and roll. But it's not about rock and roll excess. It's slightly pared back."

Weekly Reflection

I feel that I have worked very well this week, I have met the targets I set at the beginning of the week and have done some extra research on style models/trends of my chosen era. I have managed to complete all tasks that were asked of me and to, what I feel is a good standard. I was also given Mr Ford's student of the week which has given me a massive confidence boost and motivation to maintain not only the standard of my work but to maintain the level of effort put into everything I produce.

Analysis of Institution

Bauer Media Group

Before deciding who will be publishing my magazine I decided to research a couple of publishers I already knew about, those being Bauer Media and Emap.

Taken from the Websites

"Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group, Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations.
Bauer Media joined the Bauer Media Group in January 2008 following acquisition  digital businesses. Collectively, the Group employs some 6,400 people.
Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group consisting of many companies collected around two main divisions – Magazines and Radio - widely recognised and rewarded as being industry innovators.
Our business is built on influential media brands with millions of personal relationships with engaged readers and listeners. Our strategy is to connect audiences with excellent content through our broad multi-touch point brand platforms, wherever and whenever and however they want. Our wide portfolio of influential brands gives us advantages over pure play magazine or radio competitors."

Emap International Limited

EMAP owns industry-leading brands that sit at the heart of business powerful B2B communities like Retail, Health, Construction, Architecture, and Fashion. Our purpose is to connect professional communities and inspire them to know, to grow, progress and win. Brands such as HSJ and Retail Week create deep relationships and unparallelled reach, to increase value for our customers.  We deliver this through senior networking events; industry leading awards; online data products; social media communities; headline conferences and, of course, critical insight, news and analysis. We hear the market agenda, and create innovative solutions and better ways for our advertisers and sponsors to connect with their audience. We provide highly valued subscription services and are rewarded by a following.  Always independent, relentlessly inquisitive, EMAP embodies quality, market-leading journalism. We act as the ultimate industry insider, and strive to always be the trusted authority. For our customers, EMAP provides the best possible way to connect with their world. We are their competitive advantage.

I have decided to use the well know publisher Bauer Media as they have published magazines which I am using as style models for my own magazines such as Q and MOJO. These magazines are both mainstream and have features of certain music genres which is what I plan my magazine to be like.

Colour Palette and Font Analysis

Font and Colour Analysis

Prep of Pitch

In my 25 word pitch I plan to outline my ideas.

Artist profile 

Name: Ruban Royal

Age: 17-19 (haven't quite decided)

Nationality: either a Liverpudlian or a 'Geordie' (Newcastle)

Style icons: Miles Kane, Bradley Wiggins, Paul Weller, Mods, Alex Turner 

Occupation: part time job at a supermarket or something 

Education: Last year of A levels or something similar 

I will talk about my ideas on my magazine name, and why I have chosen them, also why my artist is called what he is. I will also outline, if possible my ideas of creating a simplistic magazine, that is mainstream but has a feature on my artist and given music genre of indie rock. 

20 songs playlist

My 20 song playlist is full of artists and musicians that are categorized in the genre of "Indie Rock."

Contents and Double Page Spread Analysis

Cover Analysis Powerpoint

Double page spreads

NME Double Spread AM 1

Artist and Magazine Name

I have been brainstorming a lot over the past week or so about what to call my band, or artist.

I first came up with the idea of doing a band very similar to the Arctic Monkeys, but decided that this may be too much of a time consuming task as I had no idea, and still have no idea, on who I would use as my models.

I then thought that I could go the other way with it, maybe create a band that are a little bit rough around the edges going along the looks of Miles Kane and Liam Gallagher. But again came to the conclusion that maybe just doing a single artist would be easier. 

With this is mind I began to think about names for just one artist. Several names came to mind but they didn't seem to work.

I had a brain wave, I've decided to call my artist Ruban Royal.

I'm still working on the name of my magazine but I have a couple of names in mind, I'm trying to stick with the theme of royalty, fashion styles that I plan to base my artist around, props, and iconic people around the era of dress (1960-1980s)

Some ideas are:

Mod
Duke
Fort 
Lord

Final decision on MOD

Graphic Designers

David Carson

"David Carson is a graphic designer and magazine publisher, whose most prominent projects include the music magazine “Ray Gun,” and his first book “The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson.”

David was born in Texas on September 8th, 1955. For much of his early adulthood David was a professional surfer, and attained a standing in the World Surfing Championships while he worked as a high school teacher in California. While his early life had very little if anything to do with graphic design, this changed drastically when he enrolled in a short commercial design class, where his first design influences occurred, stemming from his instructor: a Swiss designer named Hans-Rudolph Lutz (Sacharoq, 1996, p.8). His new found passion for the arts led him to enrol full time in design school, and shortly after he landed his first real job in the design field as a designer for a small magazine called Self and Musician."

"Ray Gun's monumental success over the next three years is most commonly attributed to David's incredible design strategy that was particularly appealing to the youth demographic. In the years between "92 and "95 Ray Gun subscriptions tripled. David's new direction into design targeted at youth brought him into the eyes of corporate America. Large companies such as Nike and Levis saw an opportunity in David's design to increase youth sales, and commissioned him to design print ads and to direct television commercials. David left Ray Gun in 1995 to pursue the establishment of his own company: David Carson Design. The firm became instantly successful and attracted a diverse scene of corporate clientele including Microsoft, Toyota, and Giorgio Armani. David also released his first book in 1995, entitled The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson, which is currently the best selling graphic design book of all time, selling in excess of 200 000 copies. The book was reprinted in 2000 with a slight title change, now reading “The End of Print: The Grafik Design of David Carson.”

Jeff Jank

Jeff Jank is Stones Throw's art & web director and one of the original members of the team, having joined the label along with Madlib and former label manager Egon when Peanut Butter Wolf moved the label from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Over the next ten years Jeff Jank oversaw the label’s online and design presence as it grew from a west coast hip-hop imprint to a globally renowned brand. 

He is the illustrator of Madlib's Quasimoto character and designed nearly all of Madlib's works, as well as those of J Dilla, MF DOOM, Dam-Funk, and Mayer Hawthorne, for Stones Throw as well as for other labels. 

Quasimoto (also known as Lord Quas) is the animated alter ego or side project of hip hop producer Madlib, from Oxnard, California. Quas is known for the raised pitch of his voice as if he was inhaling helium. Another notable characteristic is Quas inter-changing with Madlib's voice. One day in the studio, Madlib decided to rap to his own beats. He didn't like the sound of his voice (his friends in Oxnard call him 'Barry White' in reference to his deep voice) so he decided to slow his recorder down, rap slowly, then speed the recording back up to produce Quasimoto's distinctive high pitched voice.

MF DOOM
Daniel Dumile (born 9 January 1971) is a British-born American underground hip hop artist best known for his "super villain" stage persona and unique lyrics. Daniel Dumile has taken on several stage names in his career, most notably as MF DOOM. He has appeared in several collaborative projects such as Danger Doom (with Danger Mouse), JJ DOOM (with Jneiro Jarel) and Madvillain (with Madlib).

Photographers

Viktor Vauthier

Viktor Vauthier for Urban Outfitters

"We gave East London based photographer Viktor Vauthier a bag full of Urban Outfitters clothes, a hand full of 35mm film and free rein to do what he liked. The result was a road trip to Epping Forest in a classic Volkswagen combi van, some impromptu fishing and a series of photos that reflects Viktor's love of documenting friends and life, and the perfect flaws that come from shooting with old cameras."

I love Viktor Vauthiers work because he always does something different. the pictures below, most from the Lazy Oaf X Looney Tunes clothing range, I think are brilliant. I plan to use some of these pictures as inspiration and style models for my double page spread and maybe my cover.

Terry Richardson

Terrence "Terry" Richardson (born August 14, 1965) is an American fashion and portrait photographer.

Richardson has shot campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Aldo, Supreme, Tom Ford, and Yves Saint Laurent among others. He has done work for magazines such as Rolling Stone, GQ, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, i-D, and Vice.

Richardson has produced several campaigns for Diesel, including the 'Global Warming Ready' which won a Silver Lion for Print at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2007. Throughout the years he has also produced several private portraits for the company's founder, Renzo Rosso. In September 2011, they hosted a mutual book launch together with fashion editor Carine Roitfeld, at Colette in Paris.

In 2012 Richardson embarked on his first solo exhibition at Los Angeles's OHWOW Gallery. The exhibition was titled "TERRYWOOD" and ran from February 24 to March 31, 2012. In December of that year, Lady Gaga announced that Richardson was filming a documentary about her life.