NEA Brief

Create the cover for a lifestyle, art, fashion, sports, music or intellectual magazine.

Write a statement of intent no more than 500 words explaining the brand, the target audience, the industrial context and the representational issues of your product.

In my statement of intent, I decided to portray these inspired photographs on my magazine cover. The name I have given my magazine is the „Devoted”.The reason is that my magazine aims to empower those “devoted” people in unusual circumstances, opposing/challenging these stereotypes and gender norms/things that are normalized through the media(target audience).

My magazine genre will be based on fashion and lifestyle. I will be using these specific genres because as I mentioned before in terms of opposing gender norms, I wanted to show these uncommon forms of style, in terms of stereotypes e.g male characters/figures in the media commonly wearing suits, not women (contrast to what women/are portrayed as Kim especially, a packet of crisps contrasts to diet culture/ controversial topic in the 21st century/rise of ED?).

I aimed to tackle topics such as increased discrimination towards stereotypical attitudes with the rise of TikTok and Twitter throughout recent years. I want to bring out the interest and concern for these differences of representation in my magazine.

On the masthead of my magazine cover in the top left corner, I have the lettering “DEVOTED” placed in white and bold text to emphasize the word and make it seen by the reader as one of the most important things to be presented there. As well as the barcode is also presented in a position below the “The Devoted Fashion Awards” box showing that it is a real magazine and its price.

In the middle section placed primarily on the left side, I have written the names of specifically a range of different male figures throughout the pop of media as well as the occasional name of another woman presenting that the fashion and lifestyle magazine is a general focus on males as well as females. The range of names varies from what platform the figure is known from presenting that these “stereotypes” can be presented in many ways with many individuals from different backgrounds showing these specific ideas.

I experimented with the writing of the main individual as well as the names of the following other individuals’ well-known names with a bolder/smaller font. The colour of the font stands out from the image itself as the image plays around with darker tonalities so the contrast appears attractive and appealing to the eye of the viewer.

The top right corner of my magazine cover has the writing “2024 MEN OF THE YEAR ISSUE”. This similarity to my media product model shows that both figures in my media products present this challenge of stereotypes as they both perform similar positions, intense eye contact at the lens presenting unease in the viewer as the character cannot be looked at/objectified (Laura Mulvey’s The Male Gaze) and instead the subject in mine appears confident and open to interpretation of viewers.

In terms of VALS, the type of readers interested in my magazine cover are Innovators (highly self-esteemed people, the image is important to them as an expression of taste, independence, and character. Their consumer choice is directed towards the “finer things in life”) as well as Thinkers (people who are motivated by ideals and they are mature, responsible, well-educated professionals. They are well-informed about what goes on in the world and they are open to new ideas as well as social change).