I have designed my double page spread to be a tutorial on how to use Adobe Fuse because I feel the more creative side will interest my target audience. I also chose a tutorial because I want to differentiate from other magazines and challenge the dominant conventions of a standard gaming magazine. I also feel a more creative element will attract my target audience as teenagers are usually interested in the craftier side of things where they can escape from the daily grind rather than being  bombarded with information that could make them lose interest due to the stress of exams and school. I have ensured to follow the style model I have used on both my contents page and front page in order to create consistency and deliver a clear layout which will engage my target audience.   

I have split my opening paragraph into two columns, in order to create a clear and professional layout, as well as follow the codes and conventions of a double page spread, in order to make mine appear a similar quality to the ones produced by professionals. I have also included a drop cap and page numbers, as they are following the standard style model of a standard double page spread that you would see in a professional magazine out there on the market. I have also used a white background because I wanted my double page spread to be gentle on the eyes, especially as I already have lots of colours on both the pages.

I have used very simplistic language, mainly because my target audience are young teenage girls, as I feel a majority of my target audience won’t know advanced language that adults use. I have also laid it out and colour coded the different sections with the steps and the image in alternate colours to the next step and image in order to make it clear to my target audience. Finally, I have used multiple images as it will appeal to my target audience, especially because from personal experiences, I know at the age of my target audience, they would pick up a magazine and buy it because of all the pictures and the lack of words, as loads of words would bore them and counteract my aim, which is to satisfy their needs of escapism from school and serve as a source of entertainment. 

(My Double Page file is too big for the blog so I will email it)

Statement Of Intent –

For my gaming magazine I am going to prioritize the genre of retro gaming; supporting consoles such as Commodore 64, Nintendo 64 and NES. My magazine is predominantly aimed at a younger male audience around the age of 12 as the dominant ideology suggests they are more likely to be interested in violent games, they are also mainstreamers, this is because due to their age – they’re more likely to follow the ‘trend’ and what they think is ‘cool’.

The style of language that I will use is a mix of informal and colloquial because I want the magazine to be professional and factual in relation to its contents. it should be appealing to my target audience through the informal language; they would use in everyday life so that they can relate to it, using the magazine as a form of escapism, interlinking with the uses and gratification theory.

In addition, I will also use the san-serif font – ‘Acumin Variable Concept’ –I will also use a sans-serif font for the selling line to follow the house style. By using an informal font, the product is more eye-catching to a younger male audience who may want to rebel against more classical, formal fonts. The text can also act as anchorage for plugs.

When creating the actual of the magazine cover, I am going to use the tabloid size, similar to popular 80s magazines. With a width of – 27.94 CM and a height of – 43.18 CM. I will use this size as the majority of gaming magazines released in the 80’s would have been a similar size – just below A4. Therefore, the dimensions of the double-page spread will be double – a width of 55.88 CM and a height of 86.36CM.

Contents – influenced by parts of my style-model by displaying key parts of the magazine, reference to the title and a description of what the magazine is about. However, I will change a few things to compliment my individual style. For example, I used columns and boxes in order to make it more organised and a section on the pages and what they contain. The magazine will also follow common codes and conventions by using similar fonts and the same background, so the magazine can flow.  For the double page spread, I also used a boarder, similar to the previous pages, and a gutter so when the magazine is folded, there would be nothing going across the centre which could distort the image.

I didn’t stick with the style model I showed in my statement of intent and I didn’t do what I said I was going to do in my statement of intent.

I changed the style back to one of my original ideas which was to create my own character using Fuse. Here is my outcome.

I really like how this turned out with the main image really drawing your attention and the color scheme really creates a feeling within the audience and sets a spooky and fear chilling feeling. When you look at the image and the color scheme you really get that feeling as to that this game is a PvP and/or violent game, which is what I was aiming to create.

Statement of intent

I’ve made a front cover, a contents page as well as a double page spread using PC Gamer as inspiration. I similarly wanted my magazine to appeal to young adult gamers. I used darker and sleek imagery on the magazine to appeal to a more mature audience as well as a sleeker house style (red, black, grey white). This colour scheme is also an indicator to the reader that this is in fact a gaming magazine – using black, white, and a bright colour of choice. I chose red accents as the colour this also draws in the eyes and is bold and noticeable. I clearly listed the price on the cover, allowing it to be easily read with black font against a yellow plug. I have allowed the reader’s attention to be caught easily. an example of this is the large stylized game title – BIOLIGHT. The bright green contrasts the black, making it stand out. Furthermore, this advertises a guide for the game, meaning that the magazine capitalizes from the flaws of gamers. This allows more copies to be sold as the reader wants to find out how to improve their skills. This means that one of the social needs, Knowledge about the World, is sated by buying this magazine. I used original images, and edited them to look like game screenshots

Another factor I used for the cover is an image of myself, used to represent the protagonist of the fictional game ‘Biolight’. This may fill the first personal need – as I myself am nonbinary and present uniquely to the norm. This can leave a sense of belonging to many others who feel unrepresented in media. Furthermore, this uses outrage marketing, a marketing tactic used to advertise a minority or behaviour in media, in order to cause outrage on social media. This allows the information or product advertised to spread through word to mouth. In this case, The position of a minority being displayed on the front cover on full view displays this.

This radical idea can be taken through many ways by the audience – using reception theory, the dominant response could be to accept this representation. This audience is likely going to be the ones seeking representation. the negotiated response is mixed. The oppositional response would be a complete dislike of this representation, which could be from anyone, but is most likely to come from those with traditional beliefs.

According to the Internet, children are 27% of the entire population and fall in the DE Social group. My magazine will serve as a source of escapism and will be cheap, so anyone of any social class can afford it. Before planning my front cover, I created multiple magazine covers of different styles, to see which one was the most effective at persuading the consumers to buy it and was suitable for my target audience. I concluded that having 3 little plugs with photos summarizing pages in my magazine was most effective and suitable for my target audience.  

Before planning my magazine cover, I looked at covers of famous gaming magazines and noticed that game characters are predominantly male. The main aim of my magazine is to promote more females into the gaming industry. Elements of my magazine will help to promote female gamers, such as interviews with female gamers. 

I have also included plugs, such as an interview with professional gamers as gaming is very popular with teenagers, so I feel the interview will be relevant to my target audience. The photo of Marian will be an iconic sign and the “Marian Racers” logo will be an iconic sign, so that the consumer automatically knows that a main article within my magazine is the launch of “Marian Racers”. Finally, I have thought very carefully about the sizing of my magazine, and I have decided on an A4 size of magazine because it will be able to fit into the consumer’s bag.  

I have created Marian to appear radical to create the interpretation that women can be like men, in the fact that they can take on the adventure and action as well. I’ve also designed Marian to have masculine features to remove her sexuality and make her like male characters, as usually female game characters have large breasts, and their body is in an hourglass shape. This is also shown by the posing of Marian, usually females are posing sideways, so that their feminine features are defined, however, I have put Marian in a masculine pose, to challenge the dominant ideology and emphasise how women should be equal to men. Marian is also wearing clothes strategically covering her bottom, challenging the dominant ideology of females and the representation of women on games covers. I’ve also included no makeup on Marian to challenge the dominant ideology and emphasise how women and men should be represented truthfully, as not all females are the same as what is represented by the dominant ideology.    

The cultivation theory says that by creating more media challenging the dominant ideology, you will be able to change people’s theories. On my magazine cover, I am cultivating the idea of equality for both males and females. This is shown by the common occurrence of females doing more male orientated activities, such as Marian (a female) is a female rally car driver, challenging the dominant ideology that only men can participate in car racing. 

My gaming magazine will have a main character as the main image and the center piece of the magazine. The colour scheme for the character and background will be more of a dull colour scheme with colours being black and white but the writing being bright colours that attract peoples attention, I will use bright colours on a dark background due to exaggerated look of the character but also the impact the bright colour will draw the attention of people.

My main character for the front cover of the magazine will be a guy looking slightly away from the camera with a chiaroscuro look to make the main character and frame look more threatening to the audience.

I got this inspiration from the following magazine

I really like the look of the black and white character and image as it has that ‘edgy’ and threatening and sinister look which is really effective to create an atmosphere.

I am going to use a real person instead of using fuse because I would be able to get the lighting for the chiaroscuro look a lot easier as I would have to physically do it myself, I can also get my model to have specific facial expressions which I would use to create a specific feeling within the audience.

This is the other front cover of a gaming magazine that I am taking inspiration from, which has a similar look and design of which I was thinking of doing but also the other style model I’ve been looking at. With the main image being a character which is the only picture in frame which you are instantly drawn to, with it being in black and white, but having main and bold colours such as blue and red which really stand out. This front cover uses multiple layers on the cover, with the character covering the title of the magazine and the red target and the name of the game partially covering the games character.

My target audience are going to be young males between 18-24 who are interested and enjoy playing open world and violent games, the reason I have chosen this age group is the magazine will be promoting a game which promotes violence and there is a minimum age where you can play such violent games. But the actual audience would be anyone who picks up this magazine, which could be nay age, gender or race.

I have decided to follow a purple colour scheme as I feel this colour is a stereotypical female colour, thus emphasizing who my target audience is. The colour purple is also a symbol for power, which creates a radical message from my magazine as my aim is to get more females into gaming, an industry predominantly occupied by males. The colour purple is also radical as I am trying to deliver a message that within the gaming industry, both genders are equal. Throughout my magazine, I have followed a suitable style model by using the same fonts that have appeared on my front cover, so that is appears consistent and professional-looking. In the top right-hand corner of my Contents Page, I have included social media links to the magazine’s social media pages, as a majority of my target audience will have social media accounts because it was reported that 9 out of 110 teenagers have a social media account. 

My featured articles are in a large pink box because it sticks with the stereotypical female colours and I want it to stand out, so I feel the bright pink background will attract my target audience’s attention. On the right-hand side of my Contents Page, I have a box that has a majority of all the other articles appearing in my magazine issue. I haven’t included all of them as it might stultify my target audience, so instead I have decided to include the articles that might appeal to my teenager target audience, such as competitions, interviews and tutorials. For my featured articles, I have included many game characters of a different ethnicity to include that minority, presenting my magazine as radical because not a lot of game characters are of a different ethnicity. I also have the featured games characters designed to appear quite masculine and in masculine poses to appear radical and reinforce the idea that both males and females are equal. 

The fonts I have used are the same as the fonts that have appeared on the front cover and double page spread, as I want to keep my style models consistent and clear. I do not want to bombard my target audience with loads of text as I am aiming my magazine as teenage girls, therefore a lot of text will make them lose interest, therefore I have kept to the minimal text possible, but ensured that I have still covered the minimal requirements that have been set.