For my A2 coursework I am taking my main magazine inspirations from two regional magazines. I feel like national magazines I have looked at don't really inspire me as much as my regional culture magazines have. These magazines will tend to have a more niche enthusiastic audience who have a passion for that subject. Rather than a national magazine which set large amounts of copies and people may just buy the magazine because it has a well known celebrity, local people will but the regional magazine because they are a community and want to see what is happening locally.
Spark is a magazine based in Sunderland and created by students at the University of Sunderland. Spark brings a range of contents by working alongside other regional organizations such as Fashion North, Northern Lights, SR news and Sportsbyte. By working alongside these brands, Spark is able to appeal to a range of different audiences and keeps the community unto date with what is happening in and around Sunderland. This magazine is distributed to 88 schools across the region, across university campuses and around Sunderland. This allows many different people to get their copy. The magazine is produced every two month and focuses on a topic that is trending around that time. This includes events such as the Sunderland Air Show, proms, freshers etc. This makes it easy to appeal to a variety of ages. It features local news, local music, interviews with local artists, reviews and events that are going on in and around Sunderland. As well as having a magazine, it also has a website and radio show. This makes it easier to access as it has different platforms, so if your not into reading you might listen to the radio show, or if you like to see images etc, you might go on the website or get the magazine.
Here I have taken a front cover, double page spread and contents page from the latest edition of Spark magazine. I really like the design and style of this particular issue as it looks very simplistic and easy to read. I really like the layout because it looks organized and in place. It isn't overpowered with text or images, it has got an easy simple design. I am going to use this source as part of my main inspiration when I start to make my conventions. I feel like it will really help me get an idea on what layout I use and also the information included as I am also creating a magazine based on Sunderland.
My other inspiration is also a regional magazine in the North East. North East Life is a regional magazine that celebrates the finer things in life. Published by Archant Life, Britain's biggest publisher of regional magazines, North East Life champions all that is best about the region. People, places, heritage, landscape and quality of life all feature prominently, along with platform sections covering Property, Food and Wine, Interiors, Fashion and a comprehensive What's On guide. Beautiful design and fabulous photography make North East Life essential reading each month. Its competitive cover price has assisted North East Life to become the fastest-growing and biggest-selling magazine in the region. LIFE magazines appeal to people with a passion for their region and who have high disposable incomes. In the North of England Archant Life also publishes the prestigious and market-leading titles Yorkshire Life, Cheshire Life, Lancashire Life and Derbyshire Life, all established for more than 60 years. So there are obvious differences between my two main inspirations but I want to use them both in order to make my own magazine a mix of both. The North East Life is a more old fashioned classic magazine with more established heritage contents. The main attraction to me from this magazine are the images.
This researched has helped me develop more ideas as it has opened up two different styles. One which is an established look, and another which is more modern created by University students. I am going to take my photographic inspiration from the North East Life magazine, but then use Spark magazine as my inspiration for contents, but also use their images as my inspiration. I want a mix of both. Looking back at my AS work, I didn't have a set of inspirations, I just took ideas from lots o different areas but didn't really note them down, where as now, I can say that I have my main inspirations which I will use when I do my construction work.
In addition, I had a magazine from a supermarket near me. The style of the content page really inspired me and would fit with my genre and target audience. By including this as an inspiration, I can look back on it when I make my constructions so that I can use some ideas from it. I took this photo, and I feel like it will be really useful to me and the magazine also matched with my genre which is culture. However, this magazine has a halloween theme so I won't be using the sorts of inspiration.
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