Statement of intent:

I intend to create a magazine cover, contents page and double page spread all focussing on the world of gaming. My target audience are all people with a keen interest in gaming around the working class demographic. This audience will not be required to have a high level of english to decode this magazine however this magazine will be primarily aimed at gamers over the age of 14 as some of the featured articles may not interest a young gamer. From research I have concluded that the age group with the largest amount of video game enthusiasts and spenders is 18-24 with 16% of the worlds gamers. This group will be my primary audience.

Since my audience are in the working class demographic they would not stereotypically look at buying an expensive magazine. The pricing of the magazine is targeted to be in the range of £2-£3. To create my magazine to be tailored to a specific audience I found out that gaming psychographics conclude that women make up 48% of the gaming population however only 5.5% of these are willing to spend money on gaming (games, equipment, books, magazines…) as oppose to 17.5% of men. So, when creating a gaming magazine it is kept in mind that the largest consumers of the product statistically should be men.

On the cover of my magazine I will use direct address to tell the audience they need a certain type of equipment or advice and plant the idea in their heads that they must read the articles inside. This directly relating to a theory by Albert Bandura ‘effects debate’ (the idea that the media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly). Many would argue that this refers mostly to media influencing actions and planting ideologies in society however I feel it can be used as a selling technique through persuading the audience they need something. (self actualisation- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)

The USP of my magazine will be its graphology. The magazine will be called ‘Glitch’ which is the basis for all design elements. The images will be edited in a computed glitch style with a constant broken purple computer screen style throughout. Another theme within my magazine will be the theme of madness and disorganisation. I feel this will attract an audience from a far as its combination of purple and green is not common and will play on a humans natural curiosity.

Statement of Intent 

My magazine is labeled by the title of ‘World of Gaming’, this is mainly targeted towards males between the ages of 15-19. It is targeting mainly males because the specific types of genre that are featured within the magazine are more appealing towards males. However, females may enjoy these genres so could be intrigued into reading this. I wanted to create a gaming magazine that is gives useful insight on the game and to lure the audience into feeling like they’re in the game giving them an idea of what it’s like. This allows the reader to become involved within the game. Between the genres in the game, hybridisation is involved as it’s a combination of more than one genre. The genres that consist in my game ‘The Revenant’ are horror, action and adventure. All these different elements are different aspects of the game. Common ideology when the genre of horror is featured is associated with a dark and gloomy setting adding to the effects, hence why my game is set in an unattractive forest. I’ve used darker colours to emphasise the fact it’s a horror game as a connotation to the forest. Predominantly I wanted to use darker colours as well as red:red is a very deep colour that refers to blood or the devil which is perfect in this aspect to use consistently throughout my magazine. 

I redesigned my old gaming magazine to improve it so it was more appealing to my target demographic which are young kids ages around 3-6 and used Little player as my style model. Firstly I redesigned my Masthead to replicate my style model by making it is multicoloured and basic white with Broadway Font, I did it this way so it is more appealing to my target demographic which are kids so by me putting bold font and various colours will catch their eye. For my main image, I enlarged the image that I had created in Photoshop to scale it to be more similar to the model, to make it stand out more, and in order to do this, I had to remove the unnecessary Pieces to create negative space which was then filled when the image was made larger, I also had done this to the barcode which I made in Photoshop which I scaled to be similar to how the model is in the left third of the page. I then added a strapline saying the same thing as my model “video game magazine for kids” which was placed behind the main image just like the model so it makes the main image stand out even more as it needs to be the main attraction when you look at it to bring in potential consumers. The alignment of text was also replicated to be on the right third of the page and I used BrodWay Font with bright colours to make it stand out like how it does on the style model but yet doesn’t distract the consumer from the main image. For my Background colour, I used the gradient tool of blue and green which are the main colour themes that I used and gives the dominant signifier of “boys” as my magazine is mainly targeted and explores more “boyish” games.

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For my contents page I

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For my double page spread

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Contents Statement of Intent:

For my contents page, I have chosen to use black and white as I feel it makes the page look simple yet effective. I have chosen this photo of the girl with the blindfold as it represents the secret behind the art of gaming, as gamers don’t see how gaming characters are made. For the title of the content, I have taken inspiration from a magazine while I was researching magazine layouts and house designs. I have used this effective title as it gives interest to the page, as it isn’t just set out in a straight line. I have designed a box to display page numbers and titles. I have used the colors pink and green to give the page some color.

Front cover statement of intent

I have redesigned my front cover to look more colorful and appealing. Furthermore, I created it to satisfy the personal needs of my target market; teenagers with an interest in art, by showing drawings in the plugs, and words such as ‘creations’, ‘imaginative’ and ‘transform’. My target is for my audience to satisfy their needs and escape into their enjoyment of art. The main colors I used to create this front cover was orange, green, white and black. Linking to C.S Pierce, who looked into semiotics, which is the study of signs, I have used a symbolic sign by using a vibrant orange to give the magazine a more gaming style, as a feel that bright luminous colors are used in games. Also, I have used an lexical sign within one of my plugs, which is a mask, held by a girl. This mask links to disguise, which can link to gaming characters such as Assassin’s Creed. So audiences who like Assassin Creed will be intrigued to buy this magazine. I have used different fonts to give bolder, sharper texts and light, clean texts. I have made some words within the texts a larger size, and bolder to make the words stand out. The words I have chosen to stand out are key words that represent the magazine as a whole; ‘imaginative’, ‘transform’, ‘secret’. For the main picture in the center, I used color red and blue color sheets to create this orange light effect. I like this as it gives the magazine more of a gaming effect as it looks more creative and robotic.

Statement of Intent

I decided to make my magazine within the retro gaming genre. I decided to make my colour theme red and blue as they’re complementary colours and the contrast makes my magazine stand out. This links to semiotics theory because the indexical colour red indicates danger which makes the game seem dangerous and exciting.

I will create this type of magazine for my target audience because the dominant ideology indicates that they’re more likely to like adventure games as that’s what most children their age like to play. Since 8-10 year old’s are in their key social and emotional developmental stages of growing up they’re more prone to follow trends as they want to fit in and build friendships.

I’ll make my title bold and use a block-like font which is easy to read because I want my magazine to be understandable without the trouble of reading fancy fonts; however I’ll add texture to my title so that it draws some attention. I’ll a short title ‘ how to game’ because I want the magazine title to be straight to the point as my consumers are young and they won’t want to read loads of words. The style of language I will use is informal, colloquial language because it’s more appealing to my target audience as that’s how they speak in their everyday life. Since they’re able to relate to the magazine it will bring them joy and they can use it as a form of escapism.

I ‘ll make the majority of my images cartoon-like and friendly looking because of cultivation theory. Since these are the types of games and characters that are popular they’re constantly seen on screens , this makes the audience begin to like and agree with the dominant ideology (which states that cartoon games and characters are good) because if they’re constantly being shown these games and told they’re good they’ll start to believe it therefore my magazine fits within a popular gaming genre.

For my contents page and double page spread I’ll make columns of three to separate and make the structure of my pages appear more organised. I’ll use boarders, titles, gutters, numbers, dates and images with text wrapped around them. I’ll placed the most interesting and important information on the top left corner of my page as it’s been proven that, that is where we first look on a page. I’ll add images on my page too because younger children are more interested in pictures as opposed to text therefore I have added images to maintain my target audiences attention.

Style Models

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My Produced Work

Before I began creating my coursework, I closely studied gaming magazines that are currently on the market and noticed that games characters are predominately male and there are not many gaming magazines aimed at females. Therefore, I have decided to create a front page, contents page and double-page spread aimed at getting teenage girls (11-18 years) into gaming, an industry that is currently more male dominated.

The language I have used is predominately colloquial because of my target audience’s age and understanding of more formal language that adults may use. I have also used colloquial language in order to attract my target audience as my magazine will serve as a source of escapism from school and life. This is also reflected in the cheap price of my magazine, which will allow my target audience to buy my magazine with their weekly pocket money. I have thought carefully about the sizing of my magazine and decided a size that is smaller then A4 is most suitable for my target audience as it will easily fit into their school bag.

I have followed a very simplistic style model for my magazine and its contents and followed a colour scheme of stereotypical female colours (pinks and purples) as these colours are the reactionary colours that occur on girls magazines aimed at older children/teens. However, the contents of my magazine will appear radical, such as the cover image of my magazine and images included in my magazine going against the dominant ideology of females having an hourglass shaped body and define feminine features. I have purposely created the women in my magazine to appear radical in order to create a message that women and men are equal, which is shown by me purposely not including makeup on any of the females within my magazine. The no make-up wearing females produce a truthful message and will bring more confidence to women, who may wear make-up in order to hide themselves, whereas my magazine is showing that the beauty is who you are, not what you look like. I have also included drop caps, columns and page numbers for every page within my magazine, as I am following the style model of a professional gaming magazine already out there on the market and I want my magazine to appear similar quality to those that are already sold in supermarkets and bookshops.

The cultivation theory says that by creating more media challenging the dominant ideology, you will be able to change people’s theories. Within my magazine cover, double-page spread and contents page, I am cultivating the idea of equality for both males and females which is shown by the common occurrence of females doing more male orientated activities, such as Marian (a female) on my front cover being a rally driver and the woman appearing on both my contents page and front cover is an Army Veteran. I am also cultivating the idea of equality towards males and females by strategically making the female games characters included within my magazine wear clothes which are strategically covering their bottom, as a majority of the famous games covers out on the market that involves a women character has them wearing clothing which is ‘revealing’ in order to emphasise their feminine features.

I have also included the magazine’s social media usernames, as around 94% of teenagers have social media and 71% of that percentage used more than one social media site. While designing my magazine, I have thought carefully and from my own experiences as a teenager, I have included things that would appeal to my target audience, such as interviews with professional streamers, as it has been reported that 75% of children aged 6-17 had said they would like to become a “YouTuber” or Games Streamer. I have also included pages that are based around games of every genre, in order to widen my audience and attract more consumers to buy the magazine due to its coverage of games of their preferred genre.